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Microtransactions

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world of warcraft

Sams: No Free WoW

It's currently popular to theorize that nearly all gaming will end up free or nearly free at some point, distributed via browser and monetized through ad support, microtransactions or scalable subscription models. Faith in this business model's been instated by the early success of many free-to-play web-based MMOs (many of them for kids, mind).

But what about the arguable king of all MMOs, World of Warcraft? Will it ever get on the trendwagon and go free, or offer a free option, at least? Not so much, says Blizzard COO Paul Sams, as part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview:

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6:20 PM on Tue Jul 1 2008
By Leigh Alexander
4,014 views, 48 comments

microtransactions

SOE Clarifies The Agency's Real Money Trading

Last month Sony Online Entertainment announced that upcoming titles The Agency and Free Realms would be utilizing the Live Gamer service for real money transactions, which many people took to mean that players would be able to buy weapons and equipment to enchance their gameplay. In an interview published over at Eurogamer, lead designer Hal Milton explains that this isn't the case at all.

"I want to make this very clear," said lead designer Hal Milton. "This is not a microtransaction system within The Agency to allow players to buy weapons, outfits, or operatives to be effective within the game world. That's something that we're absolutely not planning on doing."

Instead, Live Gamer will be implemented as it is in EQII, allowing players to sell their own goods to other players. Milton did add that allowing players to recruit more operatives through a one-time out of game payment was still a possibility.

No microtransactions in The Agency [Eurogamer]

10:20 AM on Fri Jun 13 2008
By Mike Fahey
1,000 views, 13 comments

real money transactions

SOE's Agency, Free Realms To Support Real Money Trading

Sony Online Entertainment announced that its upcoming titles, The Agency and Free Realms, will support real money transactions, through the company's ongoing partnership with e-commerce platform Live Gamer.

Earlier in the year, SOE and LiveGamer built a new platform for microtransactions, incorporating and ultimately replacing EverQuest II's Station Exchange. The result of that collaboration is the Live Gamer Exchange in-game economic platform, and LiveGamer will be providing the RMT service and technology for both new titles as well.

As SOE says character customization will play a significant role in espionage action-shooter The Agency, players will be able to purchase new clothes, weapons, vehicles and other identifying items that "tailor their gameplay."

As for free-to-play, family-friendly adventure title Free Realms, in addition to a range of avatar customization items for purchase, players can make and trade their own on the transaction service as well.

Full release follows the jump.

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2:20 PM on Wed May 14 2008
By Leigh Alexander
2,904 views, 55 comments

doug lombardi

Valve Would "Love" To Micro-Transaction You

Micro-transactions aren't the future, they're the now. While companies like EA are totally on board with nickel and diming players for added content, some companies aren't. Take, Valve for instance. It hasn't gone micro-transactional. But would it? Let's hear what Valve's Dough Lombardi has to say:

If we ever get a game that fits that, we'd love to do that. I'd love to have a game that we gave away saying 'however much you want to invest in this, this is yours'.

If? If?! No, Doug, you must mean when.
Left 4 Dead Interview [Play] [Pic]

6:40 AM on Thu May 1 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
1,728 views, 35 comments

Latest by n/a: It sounds like Valve's philosophy is fundamentally different. Or at least they want us to think of it as fundamentally different. Wheras EA says "Here's a £40 game, now, would you like to pay for all the bells and whistles?" more »

microtransactions

NCsoft Introduces Fake Money For Fake Things

Anyone will tell you that paying for items that don't technically exist always feels better when done through a middle-currency - gPotatoes, linden, and now, NCcoin. NCsoft is getting into the fake money business with the new NCcoin program, that will allow players to purchase fake money using real money to purchase fake in-game items. $1 equals 100 NCcoin, which can then be spent in Exteel - where the program is debuting - and eventually many other existing and upcoming NCsoft titles.
NCsoft's goal is to bring more and more people into the online gaming market, and part of achieving that goal is to continue to diversify how customers can pay and play," said Chris Chung, NCsoft North America's president. "This system will offer our customers much greater flexibility and convenience in paying for content.
NCsoft plans on introducing items that can only be purchased with their fake money, along with items that can also be earned in game, so it isn't just about skill, but cash as well. Awesome. Hit the jump for the press release. More »

4:00 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,161 views, 38 comments

Latest by Comatose Turtle: @SlamDancinMoogle: It seems to me that time-intensive games are just a bad choice for people who have no time to spare. Introducing shortcuts via money is somewhat akin to raising the speed limit only for expensive cars. I'd feel much more more »

microtransactions

EA Charging For Bad Company Weapons?

Word from the Battlefield: Bad Company beta test is that several weapons in the game's arsenal are locked, with "Available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace" notations next to them. In total 10 weapons are listed as for sale, with five of them also available in the Gold Edition of the game. What this basically means is that people willing to drop a little extra cash, be it in the store or on Xbox Live, will have more weapons to choose from than someone who scrapes together just enough to pick up the game itself. This is not the way microtransactions should be used. Cosmetic additions and extra maps are all well and good, but allowing players to pay in order to get a leg up on the competition is just slimy. Multiplayer games suffer from enough balance issues without this sort of thing going on. Where will this lead? Perhaps eventually they'll allow you to purchase a much better surrogate player to represent you in matches, taking the term "professional gaming" to an all new level. Maybe we can pay for ammo next! "Everybody down! He bought extra clips!" *sigh*

EA charging for weapons in Bad Company Beta [Xbox 360 Fanboy]

9:40 AM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By Mike Fahey
10,629 views, 188 comments

Latest by n/a: does this really surprise you???? this from the company that sells you cheats and walkthroughs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more »

wii

Microtransactions Come To The Wii

Don't kid yourselves with the Wii's cute, cuddly exterior. Nintendo, and anyone else publishing on the console, are as thirsty for your cash money as any other company on Earth. So when you read this post and learn that Namco Bandai are bringing microtransactions to the WiiWare service (users can buy additional stages for word-puzzler Mojipittan), do us all a favour and don't act so surprised. You had to know this day was coming.
Go online with WiiWare and Mojipittan Wii [Siliconera]

5:30 AM on Fri Mar 14 2008
By Luke Plunkett
1,299 views, 19 comments

Latest by hrabbit: the square things.... they are in taiko no tatsujin ds.... I hate their theme song or whatever X_X it haunts me.... *shudders* more »

microtransactions

GameSpy Launches Direct2Game

Let the microtransactions commence! IGN Entertainment's GameSpy has just launched their latest bit of gaming middleware, Direct2Game, an in-game commerce system that allows game publishers and developers to easily create and maintain in-game storefronts, giving them the ability to deliver add-on content without taking the player out of the game. Gamers will be able to purchase add-ons, mods, soundtracks, maps, and anything developers want to sell really, without having to go to a separate website to complete the transaction.
"With the launch of our Direct2Game commerce service, GameSpy is now bridging its dual heritage in digital distribution and in-game technology, opening up new revenue streams and business models for publishers and developers," said Jamie Berger, senior vice president of consumer products and technology for IGN Entertainment.
In other words, more, better ways to get your money! Thanks GameSpy! More »

12:40 PM on Tue Feb 19 2008
By Mike Fahey
962 views, 24 comments

Latest by jago.kot: @Tramz: Those are valid points and I do agree that the pricing on things for RB (and GH) are a bit "off." But then again people will ALWAYS find things to complain about when they have no knowledge or understanding more »

austin gdc 07

Are Microtransactions The Future of MMO Games?

What do you get when you put Everquest II producer John Blakely, Matt Firor of ZeniMax Online Studios, Mark Jacobs of EA Mythic, Raph Coster of Areae, and GoPets CEO Erik Bethke into one room to discuss opportunities for increasing revenue and reaching new players in the MMO space? From what I saw this afternoon, you get a debate over microtransactions versus traditional subscription payment systems. I attended a panel called "Where are the Biggest Online Gaming Opportunities?" which was supposed to about experimenting with new MMO design and innovative new revenue models, but it quickly because a debate of old school MMO systems versus the new ones. The subject of microtransactions has popped up a lot this week, most notably in the Dave Perry Q&A from earlier in the day, where Perry sings the praises of the ad-supported, microtransaction funded business model. More »

5:00 PM on Fri Sep 7 2007
By Mike Fahey
2,246 views, 27 comments

Latest by Jaerik: The problem as I see it, is that you guys have universally branded games like WoW as a success. Therefore there is an implied assumption that games which do not conform to the WoW MMO model are failures. Companies with more »

acclaim

DANCE! Online Lets You Dance... Online!

Acclaim, which has been reborn from run of the mill publisher to massively multiplayer online game development house, has released its latest MMO, DANCE! Online for public consumption. More »

9:40 PM on Fri Apr 13 2007
By Michael McWhertor
10,128 views, 19 comments

ps3

New Downloadable PS3 Content Comin'

An e-mail from the PlayStation Underground indicates that new downloads are headed to the PlayStation Store. More »

7:20 PM on Wed Dec 20 2006
By Michael McWhertor
571 views, 8 comments

ea

New EA Cheat Microtransactions For You To Enjoy!

Don't feel like playing your games to get the unlockable content? Then buy your progress, you lazy, horrible business model supporting prick! Major Nelson updated his corporate blog to send us the good news: 1120 points (or $14 USD) worth of cheats for EA's Need For Speed Carbon are available for suckers who like to flush cash down the toilet via the Xbox Live Marketplace. More »

8:20 PM on Thu Dec 7 2006
By Michael McWhertor
523 views, 36 comments

ea

Probst on EA Innovation and Microtransactions

Where part one and part two of N'Gai Croal's interview of Electronic Arts CEo Larry Probst was lecture and brimstone, part three is much more Probst dancing around the harder questions. More »

8:12 AM on Mon Dec 4 2006
By Brian Crecente
320 views, 22 comments

xbox live

An Ode To The Microtransaction

Chris Remo came up with this little ditty for the Played Podcast that neatly summarizes microtransactions, the new darling of game publishers everywhere.
Rumor has it the actual song is going to be much longer, but you'll have to pay $2 per minute to complete it. Michael Fahey More »

11:40 AM on Mon Nov 27 2006
By Mike Fahey
162 views, 6 comments

mtv

Moore Talks Microtransactions

Stephen Totilo managed to corner Peter Moore at the recent Microsoft event in New York and ask him some pointed questions about the increasing cost and exuberant use of microtransactions by third-party publishers. Specifically, he asked him about the recent angst surrounding Electronic Arts $50 worth of add-ons for Need for Speed: Carbon. More »

3:20 PM on Thu Nov 9 2006
By Brian Crecente
91 views, 28 comments

lumines

Lumines Live is Filthy With Microtransactions

Greeting me from the tips inbox today was an email so full of white-hot rage, profound spiritual hurt, and f-bombs that I thought I was getting Florian's fanmails by accident again. More »

6:55 PM on Wed Oct 18 2006
By egauger
280 views, 74 comments

gran turismo

Rumor: PS3's GT To Microtransaction You to Death?

It looks like microtransactions are getting macrofied. More »
1up

Chromehounds Microtransactions Suck Out Loud

Consider me out of the microtransactions business. Okay, I actually do not have an Xbox 360, nor an Xbox Live account, but now I'm really just kind of bummed out by the whole concept. Major Nelson announced on Friday that Sega's Chromehounds was the latest game to get the microtransaction treatment, with new weapons and accessories now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. More »

4:02 PM on Sun Aug 20 2006
By Michael McWhertor
483 views, 34 comments

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