Microtransactions are making their way into next-gen games, is this a bad thing for the industry?
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds
With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?
Not clicking on your article otherwise.
Meh, they aren't that bad. no one is forcing you to buy stuff so as long as it's not stupidly hard to earn stuff without them, I don't see why people are hating on them.
Other than spite because some rich kids can skip out on a bit of grind.
Much like with arcade games, if you put in extra money you can buy your way to 'success' but it is only to your own detriment, the fun of winning is lost.
The ugly in the industry is not sourcing. Can you see my gamertag in the bottom right hand corner of the image? That is because this website lifted it off of my YouTube channel.
In F2P gaming, it is a fair business move, but if I start seeing stuff like "Refill ammo - $0.10" on my new 60 dollar shooter, even if I still have an option to hunt dead bodies for more, I really question the purpose of this game or why it even exists. Is EA really trying to sell me an actual video game, or are they trying to sell me some platform for services?
If idiots didn't pay for them, they wouldn't be there.
It's only going to get worse as people get lazier, they don't want to "work" (i.e. play the game), so they'll just pony up and pay the developers to play the game for them.
They are here to stay, all you can do is vote with your wallet and not pay for them.