Electronic Arts Building Microtransactions Into All Future Games
"We are building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way."
EA is planning to have microtransactions in all of its future games, according to the company's chief financial officer.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference (via Develop), Blake Jorgensen claimed that the decision was made as a result of users "embracing" the controversial model.
"We are building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way; to get to a higher level," he explained.
"And consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business."
Aside from the reaction this may elicit from gamers, there's the added issue of infrastructure that EA has had to consider. Jorgensen went on to explain that the company is now planning to bring all the processes surrounding payments and card-handling in-house to try and increase security.
"If you're doing microtransactions and you're processing credit cards for every one of those microtransactions you'll get eaten alive.
"And so Rajat's team has built an amazing backend to manage that and manage that much more profitably. We've outsourced a lot of that stuff historically; we're bringing that all in-house now."
Given the recent decisions regarding Dead Space 3's weapon crafting system, it's hardly surprising to discover the company is rolling this out into all its products. IGN reached out to EA, but the company declined to comment.
What do you reckon? Are you fine with the addition of microtransactions and accept that it's up to individuals whether they use them or not, or do you object to them in principle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Comments
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SMH @ EA trying to turn into Disney in the sense that they want to buy every damn thing & have us pay a pretty steep price for it!!!
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They've been doing this since 08 when you could spend Microsoft points to buy cars on need for speed prostreet. It's not as bad as it sounds.
The online passes is a different story though -
They better make there games free 2 play then
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Plz let someone else be making an nfl game.
The day I have to pay to play franchise mode then pay for free agents then pay to advance the season is the day I'm goin LA riots at EA offices -
"And consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business."
Show me where these consumers are so I can kick them in the ? . -
dontdiedontkillanyon wrote: »"And consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business."
Show me where these consumers are so I can kick them in the ? .
Exactly
This has been one if the most hated things in gaming for the past 3-4 years
EA does some of the worst press
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Ever since that online pass ? , I stopped ? with EA. All they are doing is sacrificing gamer satisfaction for money. If I wanted a game that I had to pay to win, I would play Farmville or one of those ? Zynga games.
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The user and all related content has been deleted.
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Black_Samson wrote: »They've been doing this since 08 when you could spend Microsoft points to buy cars on need for speed prostreet. It's not as bad as it sounds.
The online passes is a different story though
yes it ? is. I have prostreet, they sent out a patch that locked cheats that could be unlock all the cars via passwords, and then tried to charge for them. Delete you system data for prostreet and test my theory.
Well in that case that's ? up. I would see for myself but I sold that game a few years ago so ill take your word for it