Hardcore Gamer: “Microtransactions” has become one of the most hated terms in today’s gaming ecosystem, even trumping that buzz term “Day 1 DLC” that was running riot in 2012. The idea of being able to spend extra real-world money to earn a special item or skill has earned its share of detractors, yet it’s still a hugely popular concept for developers. Companies like EA, Activision and even PC juggernauts Valve have made microtransactions a big part of their games. You can buy new weapons, skills and enhancements instead of spending countless hours playing the game to unlock them. It may sound like sheer convenience at first glance, but the way this idea is entering the mainstream gaming market is anything but subtle. The developers are saying that you aren’t required to use them, but unless you’ve played the game in the ecosystem we live in today, that claim is all the more unsubstantiated. The point is this: developers are slowly making microtransactions mandatory for gamers.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
All available May 5.
Its like the final episode of the Sapranos. You gonna go to make a comment and when you click add th-
I think the only game here for me is Nine Sols. Was always interested in that game.
Good month for me, I wanted that particular footy game and thought it might be due. Anyway who cares, shame about the site I'll miss the comment sections. All the best everyone.
Microtransactions need to go
Subscriptions, micro-transactions and excessive DLC at the expense of releasing a full featured game right out of the box are going to collapse the industry. I don't know anyone who likes any of these things, and it's only a matter of time before people get tired of it.
Personally, I've already decided that I won't purchase many new games unless they really catch my eye, otherwise I'll wait for a really good sale before making a purchase. If I buy an old game on sale, I also expect most of the DLC to be included in with the game as a Game of the Year Edition or something similar.
I personally decided that the PS3 would be my last console because of the fact that you need to buy a subscription, and since backwards compatibility hasn't really carried over from each generation with the exception of PS One games being fully compatible with PS2 and PS3(all models), I don't have any faith that any investment I make in the PS4 will carry over to the PS5.
Moving to the PC fixes all of these problems with the only penalty being that I won't be playing Sony exclusive games, but really, there are so many multi-platform games that get released each year, that I barely have enough time for most multi-platform games anyways. I realize that the PC isn't for everyone, and some people just prefer consoles, but this was the route that I decided to take for myself.
Microtransactions are fine for free to play games. But when I pay $60 I don't want to see any in-game shops or microtransactions, it just pisses me off and turns me off from playing the game.
He gave no specific examples that mts are destroying competitive gaming?????
I myself don't care for mts and more then likely will never use them. But what game are people using them that's giving them an advantage??
Actually I just thought of one game..nba2k14..if you have the money you could buy some vc (virtual currency) and level up your my player.
In that regard it's bad. But if someone wants to spend money versus someone else spending there time. So be it. How would I know otherwise???
Say a game just comes out....and you start facing opponents that are leveled up etc....because they spent real money. It would give me great pleasure to still beat them with a lower level character etc
People that pay for content that is available to you within the game just by putting in a little time and unlocking it deserve to get charged for their laziness. I don't care what the article says, those type of charges are optional and lazy gamers are the reason they are there.
However, I think that dlc that isn't unlockable by playing the game needs to go. Really hate paying for the game twice just to get the full game and all the maps that should have been there to begin with or at least been free.