Xbox 360
Most of us are suckers for something free. The majority of gamers who use the internet have sought freebies. This can be anything from demo's to download packs. Let's call these people the Freebie Seekers.
Supporting websites costs money but is essential for games developers, especially if you want downloadable content available to extend the games lifespan. Smaller games developers and publishers produce sites to support their game and survival. Over a number of years subscriptions and donations have been used for such sites but recently a growing industry has emerged around microtransactions.
The principle with microtransactions is that these 'pocket money' payments protect the user from internet fraud and pay for additional content. Company's aggregate payments received to avoid charges from the credit card companies and everyone's happy. These payments can take a number of forms like the purchase of 'currency units' in bulk or a minimum payment only to be spent on that specific site. The Playstation Store's minimum payment is a fiver but it offers content beneath that price. The rest of your money stays on your account until you want to use it.
One reason for this minimum payment, whether it be real cash or currency is its size. Microtransactions fly in the face of traditional subscription payments. Research has shown that Freebie Seekers are much more likely to avoid subscriptions and are wary of donations. Microtransactions give them the power to spend as and when they want to.
These payments in games tend to be in the Massive Multiplayer titles from more established houses who can ride the costs if things go wrong. Unfortunately even though the industry told us this would give opportunities to smaller developers this isn't quite the case. The prescriptive cost of running microtransactions sites leaves them dependant on larger distributors who take a cut of any profit leaving them with little. This is not helped by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo being the soul source of any updates for their respective consoles games. Thus for both cost and security the little developers left out again.
Let's step out of the economics lecture and back into games land. Microtransaction and their associated games are looking to hook gamers seeking cheap but high quality thrills. Gamers will tend to spend cash to update the well developed and slicker products or the ones they love. The publisher wants to turn a profit but to do this they have to produce or sell that product. They know Freebie Seekers are a canny bunch. So they need to entice them with something as close to free as possible.
The fact is that customising games for relatively cheap prices is appealing. It allows you to stand out from the crowd. People will recognise your look and on-line friends can find you quickly, especially in the midst of the action. It may give you an advantage in combat or a better car and only costs a fraction of the full game. In the end it comes down to this one thing. It's as you like it. If you're doing up the bathroom this month then the couple of extra potions and the natty belt can wait until next. Although given some games, you may be doing up your bathroom on-line and buying a natty belt and potions in real life.
The industry's pretty certain which way the cookie is crumbling. A recent consumer study of online gamers showed, "social, dormant, and leisure gamers all show significant interest in a free-to-play, microtransaction-based model", while only power gamers are interested in subscribing to an MMO service. This set of power gamers giving Blizzard the strength, with subscription, to ignore the microtransaction model.
Financial companies also see the advantage. Twofish Elements are developing their services to help game companies optimise payments citing microtransactions as the "next great wave on the web". There has to be some profit to be made out there and studies suggest gamers would be interested in a free MMORPG with microtransaction payments. With vast numbers of these games available the microtransactional model appears healthy, supported, strengthening in numbers and most importantly, here to stay.