“It’s Very Hard to Find This Golden Path That’s Liked by Everyone”
Just about every conversation on microtransactions is accompanied by salt, but it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere. According to the Need for Speed Payback developer, they’re needed. but it’s becoming harder to please everyone.
In an interview with Glixel, Marcus Nilsson, the Executive Producer for Ghost Games talked about why Microtransactions have virtually taken over triple-A gaming. According to him, they’re the result of increased development costs. He said the following:
“It’s clear prices haven’t really gone up. That’s clear. I also know that producing games is more expensive than it has ever been. The game universe is changing in front of us now. We see more people playing fewer games for longer. Engagement is important. But how do we deliver longer experiences?
“The bottom line is that it’s very hard to find this golden path that’s liked by everyone. We make games that are $60 and some might think that it’s worth $40. What’s the value in the package delivered? Something like GTA 5 and GTA Online versus The Last of Us, which you can play through in 10 hours. How do we value that? That’s probably a long discussion.”
Obviously, companies are looking for other avenues to finance their games. It may simply be that players need their transparency with microtransactions, as they do all game implementations. Some developers implement those microtransactions better than others. Which begs the question: How will ghost Games implement microtransactions in Need for Speed Payback? Nilsson describes them below:
“When you finish a race you get a card drop. There are three cards and you pick one of them and that’s randomized and you can equip that to the car, send it to garage, sell it for cash or recycle it.
“There are also shipments in the game that the core of the economy. In a shipment, you can have in-game cash, vanity items and part tokens, (which are a way to go for a specific part you want.) There are also premium shipments you can buy. The only difference are the vanity items. They are mostly time savers.”
And so, the microtransaction discussion continues. Do you agree with Nilsson’s comments? Are you looking forward to Need for Speed: Payback? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.