10 Lessons The Gaming Industry Must Learn From 2014

2. You Can Have Too Many Micro-Transactions

The rampancy of micro-transactions in games is largely a result of the industry's growing pains. As games became more advanced, they became more expensive to produce, so studios needed a way to recoup costs. Unfortunately, what started as a harmless source of additional revenue has become the de facto way to gouge consumers. Micro-transactions are not inherently bad. For a game like League of Legends, they allow players to customise their characters. In Blizzard's Hearthstone, they're the quickest way to unlock new cards. Micro-transactions are acceptable in these two scenarios because they don't undermine anything and don't feel necessary. The majority of LoL players haven't spent more than a few bucks on the game, and it's entirely possible to become a top-tier Hearthstone player without spending a dime. But let's look at Assassin's Creed Unity. As Eurogamer points out, Unity players are able to buy powerful equipment early by paying up to £64.99 in exchange for Helix Credits. All purchasable items can be obtained by simply playing the game and buying credits is entirely optional, but the game still suffers from their inclusion. Cramming in-game purchases into predominantly single-player games will invariably cheapen the experience. It adds "Insert money to win" to every challenge, and suggests to the player that their experience is somehow incomplete, that they must pay more to get the full product. This is a greedy, needless way to try to get more money from consumers who, in Unity's case, already paid full price, and represents a system that has no business being in any game.