Paid content in videogames (DLC, loot boxes, passes, currencies, "surprise mechanics" and - new! - pay more or wait!)

Moggy wrote:Jawa goes dogging with an actual dog?

I'm offended. I don't take a dog with me when I go dogging.

BID0 wrote:(Jim Sterling's Jimquisition on CoD WWII loot boxes)

I can't wait for an update now that we know there is an actual daily mission to watch other people open loot boxes :lol:

.

Gemini73

Watching other people open loot boxes... :fp:

It's probably going to be really popular and make me feel even more disconnected from reality

Gemini73 wrote:Watching other people open loot boxes...

*golf clap*

GTA V is now the best-selling game of all time.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick wrote:"We've said we aim to have recurrent consumer spending opportunities for every title we put out at this company"

"recurrent consumer spending opportunities"

...

Ubisoft now makes more money from in-game payments than from sales of downloadable games.

Reuters, talking about Ubisoft financial performance, wrote:...the publisher also noted an 83% jump in its "player recurring investment" (PRI) category, which includes post-purchase revenues drawn from digital items, DLC, season passes, subscriptions and the like. For the first half, PRI made up 37% of all revenues, or €174.5 million, and had overtaken revenues from digital full game sales, which contributed €168 million.

"player recurring investment"

...

Videogames... they are a-changing.

Gemini73 wrote:Watching other people open loot boxes...

We will open them on the beaches
We will open them on the fields
And when we look back, we will say THIS, was our rarest drop

jawafour wrote:GTA V is now the best-selling game of all time.

*in the US.

Last edited by jawafour on Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Preezy wrote:
jawafour wrote:GTA V is now the best-selling game of all time.

*in the US.

I wondered about that, Preezy... although Push Square is reporting it as the best seller overall (GTA V on 85m, Wii Sports on 83m).

Oh, and the pace of money-hatting by the industry is moving on at speed... Jim Sterling has found that, for a mobile game that is currently in development, $3.5m has been made from pre-selling the in-game currency

.

Surely Tetris is the best selling game ever, hasn’t that done like 150-450m units?

BID0 wrote:

I find he sooo whinge.

Preezy wrote:Surely Tetris is the best selling game ever, hasn’t that done like 150-450m units?

Maybe that doesn't count because they're "technically" different games. You could maybe argue that 'Super Tetris' on SNES, 'Splash Tetris' on 360 and 'Tetris DS' are actually different games. Whereas all the versions of GTA V are still just GTA V.

Aren't a large number of GTAV sales from people who have been banned re-buying the game though? I'm sure I've seen various reports that this is the case at least.

Minecraft has sold more than GTAV too

OrangeRakoon wrote:Minecraft has sold more than GTAV too

Imagine being able to buy diamond picks or armour with real money. Mojang missed a trick by letting people run their own servers and decide things for themselves.

"You've placed the maximum amount of blocks for today. Wait until tomorrow to place more blocks, or buy 200 more block placements for £1.99!"

I think loot crates that have non-cosmetic items in are a hard line for me. I will not buy a game with them in.

Is this too extreme a POV? I've not decided if this applies to single player games where you can buy in game items to get ahead, like Assassin's Creed Origins.

Winckle wrote:I think loot crates that have non-cosmetic items in are a hard line for me. I will not buy a game with them in.

Is this too extreme a POV? I've not decided if this applies to single player games where you can buy in game items to get ahead, like Assassin's Creed Origins.

Not really - buying the game, certainly on pc, is still supporting the business model. I have less of a problem with lootboxes in f2p games as thats the Faustian pact you make going in, stuff like warframe, battlerite and Star Trek Online are less egregious to me because of that.

However annoying jim sterling is, he makes a valid comparison to both rock band/guitar hero and WCW; both were riding high until they suddenly weren't - the rot can set in but take a long time to grow before everything collapses. As such the lootbox gravy train may carry on for a while until it suddenly doesn't, either through a monumental fuck-up or it gets so voracious that regulation or legislation has to come in.

Trelliz wrote:
Winckle wrote:I think loot crates that have non-cosmetic items in are a hard line for me. I will not buy a game with them in.

Is this too extreme a POV? I've not decided if this applies to single player games where you can buy in game items to get ahead, like Assassin's Creed Origins.

Not really - buying the game, certainly on pc, is still supporting the business model. I have less of a problem with lootboxes in f2p games as thats the Faustian pact you make going in, stuff like warframe, battlerite and Star Trek Online are less egregious to me because of that.

However annoying jim sterling is, he makes a valid comparison to both rock band/guitar hero and WCW; both were riding high until they suddenly weren't - the rot can set in but take a long time to grow before everything collapses. As such the lootbox gravy train may carry on for a while until it suddenly doesn't, either through a monumental fuck-up or it gets so voracious that regulation or legislation has to come in.

Yeah Jim Sterling is good at calling this gooseberry fool out. I don't find his skits amusing but he does a good bit of consumer advocacy.

What's WCW?

The rival to wwf wrestling in the 80s/90s - there's a book about how it collapsed due to a variety of reasons which seem prescient to lootboxes which he's mentioned several times and seems like an interesting read.

twitter.com/llamasoft_ox/status/928272617399656448

Paid content in videogames (DLC, loot boxes, passes, currencies, "surprise mechanics" and - new! - pay more or wait!)

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