• dateNovember 5, 2017
  • userAli F

Dev says why microtransactions exist

Need for Speed dev explained why games have microtransactions

Microtransactions clash of clans

Credit: Clash of Clans, Supercell

Every game now days has microtransactions. With microtransactions in some game, you can buy cosmetic items and in others, you can get things that give you an advantage over players that don’t use microtransactions. Most gamers dislike microtransactions and think they should be removed. Need for Speed developer told Glixel why they add microtransactions to their games.

According to Marcus Nilsson, Ghost Game’s Executive Producer companies don’t add microtransactions to their games because they want some extra money. Nilsson says developing games is getting more expensive, but games still cost $59.99. He says a game like Last of Us costs $59.99 and you can finish the main campaign in 10 hours, while GTA V costs $59.99 but it takes a lot longer than 10 hours to finish the main story.

He has a good point. Since game development price has risen so much, companies have to rise the game’s price or find other ways to make money. According to him, another problem is the fact that games with 30+ hours of main story goes for $59.99 while a game with less than 10 hours of story costs $59.99. Rockstar spent roughly $265 million on GTA V development while BF 4’s development budget was $100 million. Both were released in 2013 and cost $59.99. If Rockstar didn’t want to add microtransactions to GTA Online, they would’ve probably needed to make GTA V cost $20 to $40 more.

Need for Speed Payback

Credit: Need for Speed Payback, Ghost Games

A few weeks ago Activision announced a microtransaction system for COD that encouraged gamers to buy in-game weapons with real money. The matchmaking might match a new player against a highly skilled sniper. When the new player sees the pros gun, they might want to buy it but when they look in the store and see that they don’t have the requirements for the gun they might pay $2 instead of playing until they unlock the weapon. If the new player buys the gun for $2 they will play against a player that is weaker then they are so they will destroy the other player and that makes them think the purchase was worth it. Activision confirmed this system hasn’t been used in any of their games yet.

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Technology, video games, microtransactions, Need for Speed, why microtransactions exist

Ali F
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