Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... -our-games

EA will be putting micro transactions into every game they make going forward. Joy.

Great, I don't play many EA games. I don't think.

It seams to be squeezing every last penny out of the gamers!

It was inevitable wasn't it? Remember all the moaning we did about DLC when that came out yet we all bought it in droves (apart from Avatar clothes. That's just silly)

They must be making their money of these micro transactions somewhere so from a business point of view, you can't blame them can you? I just hope that they're unobtrusive and don't spoil the flow of the game. The last thing I want is something like The Simpsons Tapped Out on the Xbox.

The main problem I have is that I expect the games to still cost £40 to buy in the first place. Freemium is all well and good, and it can be done quite well, but paying for the game, then having microtransactions on top, plus DLC packages? Fuck that.

I totally agree but with the old "who-haa" over preowned games spoiling the industry, I guess EA are just trying a new way to make money off people.

It'll be interesting to see what the backlash is like. I can already see the press and people like us moaning about it, but on the other hand, I can see people like one of my friends who has spent about £30 on the iPad version of Jurassic Park.

yes, this. Although back in the past I would pay for "expansion discs"* so maybe it isn't all that different. I don't know how much DLC for games I own is in real money as i don't use XBOX points.

*syndicate - the american revolt crieky, that was hard.

Yeah, but in that case you were getting more game rather than what is essentially paying to use cheat codes.

I dont think such a thing is healthy.

I think that in single player, then as long as you don't need to chuck money at it to complete the game, that's fine. There cannot be a "you need gun X at £2.99 to progress as your gun is not powerful enough, nor are any others here". I am unsure about paying to open up a new area/racetrack/car that you need to be a certain level to progress to, although I think these should be all open from teh get go, all you need is ingame money to buy a car for example.Paying cash for these off the bat would be wrong.

Multiplayer it should only be silly gfx skins which don't offer any advantage to those that have not got them.

I don't think that's a fair comparison; DLC when done right is just an expansion pack to a stand-alone game you've already bought. So you can either get some new levels for something you enjoy or completely ignore it and just play the core game. Fucking micro transactions though speak directly to the core game design with, at one end of the scale of worry, the possibility of being annoyed throughout the game to spend real money on extra stuff. And the far end of that scale being the much more worrying proposition of games being completely unbalanced by design for those who don't allow themselves to be nickel and dimed to death.

Pocketgamer have a nice feature where they've got a box-out in reviews specifically detailing what effect IAP has on mobile games; the idea of this becoming a necessity on sites like Eurogamer depresses the shit out of me. Christ we'll need a dual ratings system next. "Manpuncher IV: 8/10 if you spend £40 on in-game MP-bux; 2/10 if you try and play it having paid only the price of the actual fucking game itself."

All you fucking mobile gamers who embraced this bullshit: I hold you personally responsible for any ill that comes of this.

Heh, coincidentally EG have just posted a review of mobile racing sim Real Racing 3 in which EAs greedy implementation of IAPs has totally fucked the game.