Microtransactions are good for you and don’t you forget it, as publisher tells us they are “fun”

Oh Ubisoft, I have been dining out for over a year on quoting that throwaway comment from one of their execs that we need to get used to the idea of not owning our games anymore. Of course, we should merely enjoy them as a contract between equal partners that can be whipped away from one side (us, obviously) at any time (for backstory, check out the Stop Killing Games Movement).

I was concerned, though, that it might be getting stale, and I was worried I wouldn’t get any new meme-worthy material anytime soon.

Step forward the most unlikely of sources – the Ubisoft financial report. A PDF destined to be a dry read that nobody cares about, really. That is, until the MP1st website spotted a gem hiding away in all the numbers.

“Our monetization offer within premium games makes the player experience more fun by allowing them to personalize their avatars or progress more quickly, however, this is always optional.”

Oh, so it’s for us? Stupid. Of course. I shouldn’t expect an $80 purchase to be fun enough; I should expect to open my wallet further to make it more “fun”. Maybe I can keep the fun going by constantly paying more?

Do you want to Add Fun to basket?

Oh, come on. It’s fun to pay to change the clothes on my character. Everybody thinks that.

I think we would all have more respect for companies and their microtransaction tactics if they just came out and said, “Look, guys, we need to make more money to continue to make you games that you enjoy.”

I’d be relatively cool with that. Even though I don’t really believe there is a place for paid-for skins and the like in single-player games anyway, I think it’s ridiculous. At least we could stop dressing it up and move forward.

In a world where loot boxes are definitely not gambling, and don’t for one minute think they are – you can check out the fuss Blizzard has caused with Hearthstone’s gambling mechanics of late – companies continue to extract as much extra cash out of players as they can by upselling this nonsense, mainly to those who can afford it, but sometimes to those that can’t, and that is the concern.

While it might be true that the majority of microtransactions are all funded by people with more money than sense, I have had to have enough conversations with my kids to suspect that it’s not just mine that are being targeted with this stuff, and find it attractive.

Mecha Break is another game to fall foul lately of seeing the cash signs ahead of providing a game that could be amazing, and more and more games seem to set out to put things they know players will want behind extra purchases.

Fun is now a premium service

The constant drain on funds is going to become an issue as the asks keep getting bigger. It’s not just buying a game and maybe paying for skins for a little more “fun”; it’s that on top of the Netflix subs, the Prime subs, the Spotify subs, etc. Something has to eventually give.

In the same report, Ubisoft highlights that it believes Star Wars Outlaws failed to meet sales expectations due to a declining interest in the Star Wars franchise.

I somehow doubt it is anywhere close to being that simple. Maybe we are misunderstanding what the word “fun” actually means.