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Jim Sterling criticizes Microsoft's role in normalizing microtransactions (see staff post)
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
i know, just a cheap joke but the only gaming hw of mine that ever stopped working is the og 360. had pretty much everything since the snes and they all still work.
As another poster already said, none of the horde skills can be bought. Real money can only be used on cosmetics. Stop trying to spread misinformation.
I don't remember KZ: SF having any kind of currency MTX. They had some skins for the drone and there weren't that many. Hardly the same thing.
Sure you can argue that but when it comes to AAA games of their own hmm not so much. But I do believe his wording is wrong though.
As far as I know, it's been there, it was the only game I have for PS4: https://www.polygon.com/2014/12/10/7372459/killzone-shadow-fall-ps4-valor-microtransactions
crimson dragon was just a meh game. the mtx never even became an issue because there was no compelling reason to play.
rise had mtx?
Yeah man, I totally agree! It's not like Sony or Nintendo ever put microtransactions in their games.
Well Sony and Nintendo are not saints but MS was going all in on that crap in early days. And they do still sell lots of mtx in almost every release they have.
But i guess its a price to pay for the cheap GP
But i guess its a price to pay for the cheap GP
That's why I stopped buying MS Games. It bothered me with Forza 5, 6 and Horizon 3. But Horizon 4 was the straw that broke the camels back for me. As a huge fan of the Forza Horizon Series I bought the Ultimate Edition. After maybe 5 hours of playtime I was prompted with a new Classic Sportscar Cup on the map. But when I tried to enter I was told I needed to buy DLC to participate. I uninstalled the game imediately and never looked back. My Xbox is collecting dust ever since and I haven't bought another MS Game. Nor do I plan. No Gears 5 and no Halo Infinite for me, despite beeing a massive Fan of the franchises.
While it`s clearly not on MS alone, I can't disagree with Jims points. Huge parts of the Industry are turning to GAS, MTX and Lootboxes as their new main revenue stream and MS has been pushing the pedal on this issue early on.
While it`s clearly not on MS alone, I can't disagree with Jims points. Huge parts of the Industry are turning to GAS, MTX and Lootboxes as their new main revenue stream and MS has been pushing the pedal on this issue early on.
Personally I think it's toxic personalities who ruin video games by turning the discussion about them into nothing but negative nit picking, deliberate cherry picking and misrepresentation, and platform warring instead of enjoying the golden age of gaming we are in. To each their own I suppose.
I watched your video, Jim, and it's pretty bad. It easily could have been 5 or so minutes, but I'm sure you needed that watch time. Can't blame you for playing the YouTube game. Get your money while you can.
I watched your video, Jim, and it's pretty bad. It easily could have been 5 or so minutes, but I'm sure you needed that watch time. Can't blame you for playing the YouTube game. Get your money while you can.
Yes. "I will not put any MTX in the game you want to buy".
The generously priced subsricption won't be priced as genrously once new subs will slow down. As soon that happens they will start charging more from people who have been invested in the ecosystem for years. Whe've seen this song and dance often enough now.
I can't say I disagree with Jim but they've bought some new studios so hopefully they turn a new leaf next gen. This gen has been a total disaster for them so I can see why they have relied a lot on monetization. Last gen they were also deep into the monetization thing but they had quality games so people didn't notice but this gen it's glaringly obvious because their output this gen has been abysmal with the exception of a few quality games. With that said, MS has been leading the way with a lot of pro-consumer practices lately. I think it's a bit unfair to throw them under the bus even if they laid the groundwork for microtransactions and monetization with their practices last gen.
i feel that, my 360 still breathes but ironically rather than ending up with the RRoD the disc drive on that failed too lol
It's microsoft fault doing things so wrong that nothing is calling out other platform holders and publishers for doing the same. They are the wall behind other make evil things too!
They are talking about the skins that are sold directly on the PS Store for real money, not via a virtual currency intermediary. So they have never been a problem.
Any game that uses paid virtual currency for cosmetic MTX is still a big problem.
360 ushered in a shit load of new stuff and not all of it was good. You get DLC and smaller downloadable games on console, party systems and the like, but the horse armors and paid online and everything came along with it.
I'd argue that Microsoft has never had a big enough game full of microtransactions to have really been "at fault" for them, let alone normalizing them. I'd lay that on the likes of EA, Blizzard, Rockstar, Valve and mobile games in general. The EA card stuff in their sports games, Overwatch loot boxes, GTA Online's grimy paid currency, Valve was doing hats in TF2 nearly 10 years ago. Games like Farmville were normalizing gross microstransactions to a wide audience, again nearly 10 years ago, well before anything to do with fucking Ryse. Now Fortnite has made $20 skins and obscenely priced emotes a totally normal and acceptable thing to millions and millions of kids. They're here forever.
Like, yeah, Microsoft absolutely opened the door by pushing a lot of things forward with Live, especially on 360, but I don't know that they specifically "made videogames bad" because they've never been the ones to push that shit. They are absolutely at fault for whatever future damage game subscription services may cause though.
I'd argue that Microsoft has never had a big enough game full of microtransactions to have really been "at fault" for them, let alone normalizing them. I'd lay that on the likes of EA, Blizzard, Rockstar, Valve and mobile games in general. The EA card stuff in their sports games, Overwatch loot boxes, GTA Online's grimy paid currency, Valve was doing hats in TF2 nearly 10 years ago. Games like Farmville were normalizing gross microstransactions to a wide audience, again nearly 10 years ago, well before anything to do with fucking Ryse. Now Fortnite has made $20 skins and obscenely priced emotes a totally normal and acceptable thing to millions and millions of kids. They're here forever.
Like, yeah, Microsoft absolutely opened the door by pushing a lot of things forward with Live, especially on 360, but I don't know that they specifically "made videogames bad" because they've never been the ones to push that shit. They are absolutely at fault for whatever future damage game subscription services may cause though.
Nintendo games are mtx free. Splatoon and Mario Kart don't have any, Smash only has new chars (but the base roster is huge).
True, but not counter to Jim's argument that Microsoft helped normalize the practice. I'm not saying I agree with Jim, but I really don't know enough about microtransactions to see which company threw more into the fire.
They
With Valor, players can convert points from multiplayer games into the virtual currency and buy multiplayer items that could previously be purchased only by spending real money.
It's no longer a problem, but it was. Even though I think that really wasn't because, I don't think that platform holders enable others for their shitty behavior. And whole thing was really bad premise (I mean the video).
First paragraph.
With Valor, players can convert points from multiplayer games into the virtual currency and buy multiplayer items that could previously be purchased only by spending real money.
It's no longer a problem, but it was. Even though I think that really wasn't because, I don't think that platform holders enable others for their shitty behavior. And whole thing was really bad premise (I mean the video).
This is peak Jim. He just tells the neckbeards what they want to hear.
After a horrible start, Microsoft has been the most pro consumer this generation. Their first party output has been fairly lackluster overall, but you can play so many games in so many different ways for cheap on the Xbox platform.
After a horrible start, Microsoft has been the most pro consumer this generation. Their first party output has been fairly lackluster overall, but you can play so many games in so many different ways for cheap on the Xbox platform.
Gran Turismo Sport has microtransactions and a lot of people on this forum consider it to be the best racing game.
oooh nooo cosmetics MTX...the horror. Let's not act like cosmetic MTX is some crazy shit to really bitch about.
Forza 5, Ryse, and Crimson Dragon are apparently the bellwethers that the entire industry followed. And Dead Space 3 is somehow a Microsoft game I guess while EA, 2K, Take Two, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo have never had microtransactions in their games. This is some next level nonsense.
So Sony is just a helpless company who was influenced by Microsoft and can't make decisions on their own?
Clickbait title. Lol.
Lmao.. Thread is delivering.
xD
Lol.
Yes, the skin packs and announcer VO packs and stuff. These aren't microtransactions. They can only and have only been able to be purchased for real money directly on the PS Store. Microtransactions use virtual currencies and in-game virtual currency storefronts to sell their trash.
Valor was patched in as an in-game earnable currency only (you cannot buy it with money) to earn the paid skins and stuff for free.
I actually would like to see a series of videos researching anticonsumer practices done by every platform holder
Eh he uses too much hyperbole here when suggesting MS is the worst of the bunch but hes generally right.
His argument isn't helped however when the most recent titles have not shipped with this stuff, which have coincided with MS's shift in philosophy to just go after being the consumer friendly console on the market.
His argument isn't helped however when the most recent titles have not shipped with this stuff, which have coincided with MS's shift in philosophy to just go after being the consumer friendly console on the market.
You're really including mobile games and speculation from a linkedin listing as "evidence"? That's not quite a counter when Microsoft has virtually all of their games laden with microtransactions or lootboxes as a general first party strategy.
welp, monetizing mp is not going away at this point.
so pick your poison: pay an extra $20 up front, monthly subscription, or let people play dress up for real monies.
or worse. maybe we'll get advertisements for enimas after a loss in a round or something.
He's right. MS are the ones who started most of the money-grabbing trends that are today standard in the industry. Microsoft are the ones who started charging for online play. They even had the balls to gate any online services that were free elsewhere like YouTube behind the Gold paywall for a good while. They're the first ones who built a console OS that gave publishers easy paid DLC purchase ability. The Xbox 360 was the first console to have paid DLC (hello, Oblivion horse armor). They tried to money-gouge you to dress up your avatar with virtual brand clothing. With the Xbox One's original plans, they even tried to go further by taking away your rights to freely resell/lend physical games.
He's been promising to do this video for ages and while I like what MS is doing right now since they are 3rd place, I can't argue with the fact some of the shittiest things in the industry came from them
I also fear gamepass is the drug that's going to hook people into not wanting to own their games so other pubs can fuck consumers
I also fear gamepass is the drug that's going to hook people into not wanting to own their games so other pubs can fuck consumers
This is an interesting distinction I have never heard before. Using real money directly, is not considered a microtransaction. Interesting indeed.
I think you've got it backwards. If Xbox360 hadn't launched as powerful as it did, and a year earlier than the PS3 to boot, Sony wouldn't have been under such pressure to produce the unwieldy monster of a console that they did. They would have gone with a cheaper graphics solution that could share the Cell's 256MB of RDRAM and probably wouldn't have pushed bluray as a mandatory feature in every console.
MS were at least much smarter than Sony in how they achieved such a high performing console at a much lower cost in 2005.
Virtual currency is usually worse, you want a $6 thing but need to buy the $15 pack.
Yeah if anything I would continue to argue Nintendo's way of doing microtransactions is by far the worst in the industry. It requires you to buy toys whether you want them or not, that they ship in incredibly low amounts of (meaning you have a limited chance of purchasing DLC), attaching DLC to them randomly without anyway of knowing whether you need to buy one or not to be able to get future DLC, and they dont offer said DLC online for a discounted price via digital.
In fact I would say this practice alone undermines Jim's entire thesis in this video.
Same with the Microsoft first party games now... at least with Halo, Gears, and Sea of Thieves. I guess Horizon has paid expansions.
Your best foot forward was phone gaming, one of the biggest cesspools of designs and hardly first party, and a multiplayer mode tacked onto a singleplayer game with a speculation blog post that amounts to little more than nothing. You sure showed us.