8 Ways The Video Game Industry Will Completely Change In The Next 10 Years

5. Microtransactions Will Fold Into "Triple A Free-To-Play"

Remember Star Wars Battlefront 2? That was a hoot.

No doubt it'll see a resurrection of sorts when The Last Jedi reignites the fanboy flames for the second half of December, but it exemplified something very interesting about how EA and DICE were treating their consumers.

You can read a full breakdown of the facts over here, but here's a thought: If Battlefront 2 was free at retail, does that solve the issue with its progression?

"Greed", is of course the go-to answer as to why it released with a price tag, but going forward - if the claims of microtransactions being necessary to recoup budgets are true - we'll no doubt see the rise of "triple-A free-to-play" games.

If EA released a standalone edition with separate playlists so all the one-time purchasers can play together, how about then? The F2P edition works as a demo for the "full game", if you want to apply an older generation bent, for example. The only crux is identifying which aspects get split across the versions, to keep both parties happy.

The fact is, microtransactions make far too much money for any business or investor to wipe away because people are disgruntled. They have to find a way to make it work, and segmenting the consumer base so the 35% of identified "whales" with their millions of dollars' worth of disposable income can have their own yard? That works just fine.