Electronic Arts Building Microtransactions Into All Future Games

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"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.

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