Why The Gaming Industry Needs To SERIOUSLY Change

Micro-Transactions

The lesser evil of in-game purchases, Micro Transaction offer small, often repeatedly purchasable items for any between £1 to upwards of £70. They are seen in almost every triple A game these days, to the point were games are actually praised for not including, instead of condemning the games that do. These are often justified by several excuses, such as "You don't have to buy them" "they are only cosmetic" and "games are expensive to make, we need to make more money".

Let's debunk that last one first. Video game publishers often cite "The $60 Myth" as Jim Sterling would call. He proved this false in his video of the same name. As I mentioned before, $60 these days gets you the bare minimum. Ubisoft, in a move so ballsy I actually respect them for it, charged £699.99 for the ultimate edition of Assassin's Creed: Origins. Sure, it comes with some cool stuff, but you don't need it. At no point in the game is it going to ask if you've got the Bayek Statue before you go do a mission.

Secondly, you have Pre-Order bonuses, Season Passes and Battle Passes which the game wants you to buy. Nowadays, the game expects you to pre-order it to get the full game, often locking away a pointless mission, or an extra character until you buy the game before it's even released (more on this later). Same with Season Passes, asking you to buy all the DLC for a game upfront before it's even announced is not a good move. Lastly, on to Battle Passes. For Honor, for example, features a 4 battle passes a year, with Battle Pass 1 offering a bunch of new weapons and color schemes for the heroes in a timed event, that you in no way need.

Back to Micro-Transactions. Originally found in free-to-play mobile games as a way to make money, they found their way into full price games, and have left a seriously bad taste in the mouths of gamers. They offer completely useless rewards for your money, and in the case of The Culling: Origins, you need to buy a Micro-transaction just for the ability to play the game, after you've spent £5 on the game itself.