Battle passes are replacing loot boxes, but they're not necessarily a better deal

James Davenport writes, "After a year of awful loot box practices, a new wave cosmetic-focused season passes are taking over, and chances are we'll see some big games adopt this model this fall."

[joab777]

I have no problem with battle passes on f2p games. I’d have to see all the rewards and how difficult they are to achieve. Maybe $40/yr is too much. Maybe $20 would be better, but it’s a move in the right direction. F2p allows lots of players to always be able to play. Selling cosmetics is fine, and while I would prefer free tiers, possibly the first 25-50 are free and everything above it costs money. Or maybe you can roll over some of what wasn’t earned in some way.

But it works to get ppl invested. If you spend $10, you are more likely to play this game. I hated season passes b/c you’d often buy them b4 knowing if you even liked the game or were gonna want to play the dlc at all.

[Skull521]

Here is a radical idea: make a complete game for $60. If you want more of my money, make another one.

[MeteorPanda]

gaming has changed. The demographic is changing. The 60 dollar idea for a game is not ideal for some types of models. Some games actually need more than 60 to cut even due to costs getting ridiculous and/or the game is intended to be updated frequently over a long life cycle. I support different but fair approaches.

[Liqu1d]

"Some games actually need more than 60 to cut even due to costs getting ridiculous and/or the game is intended to be updated frequently over a long life cycle."

These "ridiculous costs" are caused by dumbass executives overspending on marketing and wasting money on useless crap like hiring celebrities that add nothing to the game. We don't need Conor McGregor or Kevin Spacey in CoD. EA killed Dead Space by setting their expectations for the franchise way too high and pouring too much money into it. If executives were a little smarter with how they make games then they wouldn't need to whine about the cost of games.

[Mr_Wilson]

That is some acute business acumen. I'm certain Fortnite and Rocket League would be 5x as successful with a $60 price tag, and you at the helm.

[rainslacker]

@Meteor

The demographics changed, because the publishers are making them different. Otherwise, the demographics are pretty much what they were before. Player in a certain age range, usually a particular gender, and plays certain kinds of games. There are just more players today. I'd imagine if MT weren't a thing, that they'd be fine without them.

[Mr_Writer85]

Free to play is fine..

The time limit thing seems harsh, maybe if its only available to buy for a short time, but you have unlimited time to play them?

Then every so often you can buy it again for those who miss it the first time?

I'm not a fan of any of this, but I get that F2P games need to make money. Skins and other none gameplay effecting things are fine.

I'm not a fan of pay to win, or microtranactions in games with a price of entrance.

Having again cheap cosmetic items and skins for sale as DLC is fine.

Maps, weapons and perks dlc are a big no no for me and puts me off a game.

[rainslacker]

It's just getting kind of dumb all the different ways that publishers are coming up with to get money from users. MT in F2P games have never really been a problem for most people. They either brought them or they didn't. The game still had to be good.

The more these publishers push to get more money out of the player, the more annoying they become. Then you get things like the Loot Box backlash the EA eventually got, because they flew too close to the sun.

[Mr_Writer85]

Agreed.

Like I said I don't mind full priced games having DLC, I think the season pass irked people as it was showing how the DLC process works, and it's usually at the same time as the actual game, unlike a traditional expansion pack which was usually post development.

[Kokyu]

Loot boxes, season passes, annual passess and other various "monitazation methods" arent necessary at all. Warframe proves that, what Warframe also proves is the industry is in the grips of ever increasingly greedy corporations and publishers that dont want to actually listen to or communicate with their communities they claim to want to build around "live service" games. Warframes Fortunate reveal, the new war and railjack updates should be a hard wake up call to the rest of gaming consumers and the industry.

[Z501]

Fortnite has loot boxes and battle pass.