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

jawa_ wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:The tl;dr is it doesn't actually change much. The prospect of being able to resell skins or whatever is pretty nice I suppose, a bit like trading in a game when you're done with it, but obviously the publishers jumping on the trend aren't doing so to lose money by creating a pre-owned market for digital content.

Totally spot-on. Publishers are racing to enable a a situation where they can take a cut from re-selling digital items that they've aready sold to customers. This could be a situation which they've wanted for years - a way of getting money from an item/game being sold on to someone else.

Ahhhh thereitis.gif

Ding ding. I get it.

Tomous wrote:...Ding ding. I get it.

Remember, though, that there will be attractive deals. Download a "new" copy for just £69.99, or snap up a "pre-loved" copy for just £67.99! Now that's value!

It's worth pointing out (over and over) that "NFTs" or "blockchains" don't let a game developer do anything a normal database server couldn't.

You can have randomly generated unique in-game items tied to particular user accounts now. You can have a marketplace for selling or trading in-game items now.

The "crypto" aspect only serves to shroud the idea - which isn't new - in a veil of technobabble. The people running the NFT pyramid scheme have come up with effective rhetoric with which to scam people. (Basic but reliable conman stuff like "think of it as an investment!") Games publishers want to incorporate that into how they market selling character costumes or whatever.

Konami is celebrating Castlevania's 35th anniversary by... selling artwork and audio NFTs :toot:

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Nintendo Life wrote:The 'KONAMI MEMORIAL NFT collection' features '14 unique artworks from the Castlevania series' consisting of 'game scenes, background music (BGM), and newly drawn visuals from across the series’ history.'

The collection will be put up for worldwide auction on OpenSea (a popular NFT trading platform)...

So, what does your purchase get you? Well, not a great deal, to be honest. You will "own" the NFT, of course, but they're not particularly unique – they're all scenes and audio taken from the games, rather than totally unique content created especially for this auction.

"You will be entitled to have your desired nickname listed as the first purchaser of the NFT on our website," says Konami. However, the period of time your name will be online runs from mid-February 2022 to December 31st, 2022, so it's not a permanent deal (although Konami does say that the period might be extended).

So... you can pay a stupid amount of money at an auction in order to have your nickname listed on a website for a few months as being the "owner" (but not really the owner) of some Castlevania picture/audio that anyone else can see on YouTube for free. Amazing!

Like other publishers, Konami is looking to do more stuff with NFTs, too:

Konami wrote:KONAMI MEMORIAL NFT is a new initiative to share content that has been loved by players all over the world, for many years. As the company’s first project in this area and with NFTs and blockchain technology in its infancy, KONAMI will continue to explore new developments and listen to player feedback following this initial collection.

It feels like gaming companies are now gonna be falling over themselves to get "in" on NFTs.

Edit: On the auction site, the small text includes this final line: "Konami does not guarantee that the value of the NFT will increase after the purchase." :lol:

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I hate this gooseberry fool so much.

strawberry float you oblivion horse at,our for starting all this!

Damn, how do I screenshot an audio NFT? Guess you won this one cryptobros.

Last edited by JT986M2 on Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Aside from standalone expansion packs, is there a particular point in time - or game - that all this DLC / micro transaction / loot box stuff came from?

JT986M2 wrote:Aside from standalone expansion packs, is there a particular point in time - or game - that all this DLC / micros transaction / loot box stuff came from?

It all started with this shite

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Horse_Armor_Pack

Is there a reason we tend to separate out standalone expansion packs from the advent of DLC? Other than it being something we were happier to buy back in the day?

Cuttooth wrote:Is there a reason we tend to separate out standalone expansion packs from the advent of DLC? Other than it being something we were happier to buy back in the day?

Expansions pack can be done fairly and as a good value proposition to the consumer.

Other DLC, like microtransactions and loot boxes are far more predatory.

I think this was the first expansion I ever bought

Apparently it came out in 2000 :shock:

Cuttooth wrote:Is there a reason we tend to separate out standalone expansion packs from the advent of DLC? Other than it being something we were happier to buy back in the day?

Most games got one, maybe 2 at most (there are probably examples of more but whatever) and it was a linear purchase model of buy thing > get thing in its entirety, play however/whenever you like; instead of either buying spins of the wheel to maybe get something or create artificial scarcity by battlepass duration or whatever which costs you time or money to get the next shiny shiny. I think the Witcher 3 is probably a recent holdout in that regard, in that as I understand Blood & Wine is basically The Witcher 4 that they added in as an expansion in the traditional sense.

There are plenty of games that still get sizeable expansions, not just The Witcher 3.

Octo Expansion in Splatoon 2, Donkey Kong Adventure in Mario x Rabbids and Torna in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are some excellent (fairly) recent expansions.

Nintnedo's pretty good at DLC for the most part, away from its truly egregious mobile stuff and Pokémon.

I agree, although I always felt BOTW's was a bit meh and Smash's content, while good quality, has always felt a bit pricey to me. Basically have to spend the equivalent of another game to get everything.

Victor Mildew wrote:Anyone want to buy my songs as NFTs?

I'll buy your Christmas 2021 song.

Moggy wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:Anyone want to buy my songs as NFTs?

I'll buy your Christmas 2021 song.

I already sold it to CryptoBR045, which is why you didn't hear it.

Victor Mildew wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:Anyone want to buy my songs as NFTs?

I'll buy your Christmas 2021 song.

I already sold it to CryptoBR045, which is why you didn't hear it.

Jokes on you, Shyamalan sold me the NFT of that image and you now owe me £3,000,000.01 for using it.

Moggy wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:Anyone want to buy my songs as NFTs?

I'll buy your Christmas 2021 song.

I already sold it to CryptoBR045, which is why you didn't hear it.

Jokes on you, Shyamalan sold me the NFT of that image and you now owe me £3,000,000.01 for using it.

MNFT

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

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