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Why microtransactions, IAPs and LootBoxes are here to stay thread

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    That's staggering money considering there's no real need to spend anything on the game, I've tried repeatedly to get into it myself but it's a very dull experience.

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      Absolutely. Obviously Epic are making money from Unreal Engine royalties too.

      PUBG and League of Legends also doing insane numbers as well.

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        Fast forward three years and every single game will be a F2P version of battle royale as every publisher wants a piece of the pie.

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          COD:BO4 Latest update has added loot boxes back in under the radar. This is a game that already has special editions, microtransations and season passes.
          It's very clever, because you can say your game doesn't have loot boxes, wait until after launch, then add them in with no media backlash.

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            The BLOPS4 reddit is a wall of anger atm. And bloody marvelous it is too.

            Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's loot box controversy highlights the tension between developer and publisher "Things change along the way... and not all of them are design decisions."

            In the post, Vonderhaar points out that his comment in the interview was correct at the time. "Things change along the way... and not all of them are design decisions," he said, before pointing out other examples of things that changed in the game since the interview was conducted include allowing specialists to be unlocked to anyone without having to quest, and adding new characters for season pass holders.

            "Those two things were not exactly in the design plans at the time," Vonderhaar continued.

            "It's a chicken and egg problem. I can tell you what we have done and what we plan on doing, but things change that I can not predict or I didn't know about. Doubly true with the business side of things which have little insight into and even less control over.

            "The alternative (which I've considered a lot lately) is just never give interviews, nor answer question. Which is it?

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              Operation Grand Heist indeed.

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                Originally posted by MartyG View Post
                Operation Grand Heist indeed.
                I thought that was a joke title Reddit came up with for a rant thread.

                It’s actually the name of the expansion

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                  The trust of players is being deeply eroded. Activision seem to believe that there is an infinite number of players out there with infinite cash. The only thing about this that will last forever is the judgment of Activision.

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                    Originally posted by Cassius_Smoke View Post
                    The trust of players is being deeply eroded. Activision seem to believe that there is an infinite number of players out there with infinite cash. The only thing about this that will last forever is the judgment of Activision.

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                      Originally posted by Asura View Post
                      ... Good point. But surely there has to be a point were people stop falling for the BS. Or not. Maybe its going to be like X-Factor were its the same **** year after year and yet millions of people still watch it.

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                        One difference between now and 2009 (MW2) is social media. We've seen companies are much more reactive to criticism now. Sure it doesn't always work but in the example of SW:BattleFront 2 we saw the power of consumers pushing back. Ironically it's very likely the reason that these lootboxes have been introduced is because BLOPS4 sales didn't do as well as expected.

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                          Originally posted by Cassius_Smoke View Post
                          The trust of players is being deeply eroded. Activision seem to believe that there is an infinite number of players out there with infinite cash. The only thing about this that will last forever is the judgment of Activision.
                          It seems like there are enough, otherwise publishers like Activision and EA wouldn't keeping pulling the same stunts over and over and getting away with it.

                          There are more casuals out there than those dedicated gamers who frequent forums such as these ones - let us say, less informed consumers, and it's these folks being targeted. If you only buy CoD and FIFA each year, it doesn't make buying the odd FUT pack that expensive as you're not having to juggle it across the game collections some folks here have.

                          As the audience shrinks though (and that growth can't be infinite), consumers will see less product for the same money as publishers try to shake more money out of the dying tree.

                          The result of this for me is that I buy less games (certainly way less at launch) and wait longer for discounts and GotY editions for a fuller experience without having to shell out extra for it.
                          Last edited by MartyG; 22-02-2019, 08:13.

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                            To be honest, in this case, it's hard to see anyone who is offended by this as being more offensive than the inclusion of lootboxes they're offended by. It'd take a bit of a prized idiot to not have seen Lootboxes as being inevitable for the game... I mean, it's CoD. They were always coming.

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                              I simply don’t buy games on launch anymore. The trust is completely shot to bits with big publishers, and for very good reason.
                              Last edited by fishbowlhead; 22-02-2019, 11:43.

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                                Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
                                To be honest, in this case, it's hard to see anyone who is offended by this as being more offensive than the inclusion of lootboxes they're offended by. It'd take a bit of a prized idiot to not have seen Lootboxes as being inevitable for the game... I mean, it's CoD. They were always coming.
                                I don't know I think Activision were very vocal about a change with this COD and it not being based around supply drops as per the last few yearly releases. They were openingly selling the fact that content was earnable, they had a new battle pass and virtual currency but defending their continual use of season pass. And of course Treyarch were openingly touting this as per their pre-release hype interviews.

                                Of course what this does do is (again) make a mockery of all these pre-release interviews and once again shows up how little teeth the videogame press have in either calling this out or really holding dev/pubs to account. And in that sense I agree with you as it's not the first time. I still remember Ubisoft speaking about The Division and saying there wouldn't have microtransactions but by the end of year one a stack load of content was rammed into lootboxes.

                                Certain Youtubers have made a huge point of removing BLOPS4 reviews from their channel and I think you have to take that approach moving forward, simply stop covering or giving press to video games that are overly exploitative. It's why Ybarra, who got into trouble this week for being a prat, loves streamers of course. Because they are 'for sale'.

                                For me I can't think of any publisher I personally trust on this stuff. All of them will adapt and change business models to suit their profits. Even the so called indies like Grinding Gear Games and Digital Extremes still do naughty things too and if you understand it you can see the business model a mile off.

                                Similar to [MENTION=42]MartyG[/MENTION] there's a lot of stuff that's a pretty automatic no-go now, where as in the past I sometimes did purchase (i.e. Madden, FIFA, COD etc.) but now don't go anywhere near. I think you just have to take your risks as a consumer on a case by case basis. And [MENTION=2561]fishbowlhead[/MENTION] is right too, waiting makes a lot of sense now.

                                Again we need better consumer protection on ALL videogames and legislation against things like lootboxes. Particularly when minors are involved or being exploited.
                                Last edited by Digfox; 22-02-2019, 11:58.

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