Anyone who has played a video game in the past couple years would have probably run into a microtransaction— small payments for in-game content. Microtransactions have been coined by the video game industries to tempt players into spending money.
With so many games and so many temptations, it’s hard to refuse at least spending 10 to 15 dollars. According to “European Gaming,” one company alone named EA made $2.835 Billion dollars in one year.
Several U.S. states have proposed legislation to restrict the marketing and sales of games that contain the Loot Box mechanics. Loot Boxes are very similar to gambling in the sense that nobody knows if they will receive what they want. Some countries have taken several steps to permanently ban Loot Boxes.
These payments aren’t controversial as such, but gamers often take offense when purchases can grant a competitive edge. In the eyes of many, this is viewed as “Paying to Win” and violates fair competition. In addition to the fairness issue, the ability to use real world currency to pay for randomized content has some serious damage to the players mental health similar to the damage that gambling can cause.
There was one case in particular where a 19-Year-Old spent over $17,000 on in-game purchases. His online nickname, “Kensgold”, sent a letter to the EA publisher and to other developers in the video game industry. He first started spending money when he was 13 but as time progressed, so did his addiction. There was a point in his life where he had two jobs just to sustain his addiction.
“It never feels like you’re making a good decision when you spend that hundred dollars,” Kensgold said. “But at the time I was like, ‘What else am I going to spend it on?’ There weren’t really any repercussions to enforce like, ‘Yo, idiot, stop.’”
“The majority of the reason that I made my post was not really to slam EA or any of the companies that do this, but to share my story and to show that these transactions are not as innocent as they really appear to be,” stated Kensgold.
Microtransactions and loot boxes are potential solutions. The reason they are “potential” is because they’re just that: solutions that are still being tested in the market. Entrepreneurs experiment with different ways of doing business to see which ones do the best job of serving consumers.
The market is already doing a good job of “punishing” the poor judgments of companies like EA and Ubisoft that rely excessively on these revenue models. In fact, in November 2017 when this controversy had just bloomed, EA removed loot boxes from “Star Wars: Battlefront 2”.
As terrible as these microtransactions may seem, there are economic reasons for companies to rely on revenue from DLC, skins, and so on, furthermore, there is evidence that games are making an effort to get rid of the loot boxes. One thing is certain: if consumers and regulators continue their joint venture against the industry, and if the industry fails to replace them, the gaming industry won’t remain independent for long.
