Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer for Electronic Arts, has announced that the company has plans to include micro-transactions in all future games. Micro-transactions are in-game currency, weapons, or abilities that you can purchase with real money.
There was some controversy over EA including micro-transactions in its Dead Space 3 game, which recently came out. Some gamers feel like having micro-transactions to unlock in-game perks devalues the experience. Compound this problem with tons of downloadable content (DLC) and gamers feel like they’re getting an incomplete product.
Here’s what Jorgensen had to say:
“We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be. Consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.”
Micro-transactions are nothing new for the company as its game, Mass Effect 3, had the option to purchase more credits in its multiplayer mode. Even EA’s racing series, Need for Speed, has had the ability to use real money to progress faster in the game.
It’s no surprise that EA wants to add micro-transactions to games as it is very profitable for the company. They allow an avenue for the publisher to sell items to users after they’ve already paid for the game. Micro-transactions have been successful for casual mobile games and publishers have taken notice. Whether consumers will actually embrace micro-transactions remains to be seen.
Do you like micro-transactions? Let us know why or why not in the comments.
Source: Euro Gamer
