Today in "holy cow, someone mentioned microtransactions!", NBA 2K19 producer Rob Jones has offered a somewhat frank take on in-game purchases. Speaking to Trusted Reviews, Jones describes microtransactions as "an unfortunate reality of modern gaming".
Of course, 2K's NBA series is no stranger to controversial microtransactions. NBA 2K18 was littered with the things to the point where many players were put off by how much of a grind the game had become.
Jones adds: "Every game, at some point, in some way has currency and they’re trying to get additional revenue from each player that plays the game. You know, the question has to be when does it feel like it’s a straight money grab versus when does it feel like it’s value added, right?"
We're not entirely sure Jones is on point with that quote, but we get where he's coming from. Companies exist to make money, blah blah blah. He continues: "We know nowadays that most people don’t have the patience to work their way to the top. They just wanna be there right away. So, you know, we look at it as, oh it’s an opportunity for us to allow you to skip the grind, but then if the grind is too long, like some people felt last year [with NBA 2K18], they’re gonna sit there and they’re gonna go ‘well, you knew the grind was too long to begin with.'"
Jones at least seems to acknowledge that microtransactions may have buggered the game last year, but where do you stand on this? Have you ever made use of in-game purchases just so that you can jump ahead? Do they really need to be a "reality"? Feed us some brutally honest opinions in the comments section below.
[source trustedreviews.com]
Comments 22
"Every game, at some point, in some way has currency and they’re trying to get additional revenue from each player that plays the game."
God of War???
$60-to-start.
If they want to treat a full priced game as pay-to-play then it should be free-to-start.
Imagine if video arcades were still around today - and they are to some extent - and you had to pay $60 just to walk in the door and then pay $1 for each game. That's what a lot of gaming looks like to me today. Destiny 2 w/ it's "yearly passes", DBXV2 with it's ongoing paid DLC. FFXV with it's never ending paid DLC even if you bought the "Royal edition".
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to playing DQXI, $60 for the complete game day 1. A supposedly 100 hour game w/ some supposedly interesting after final boss stuff, all for $60.
And what @Octane said, GoW, the only other Day 1 game I'll buy this year b/c $60 for the complete game, even if I did trade it in before New Game+, but once was enough.
"an unfortunate reality of modern gaming".
a blatant lie that he wants us to believe.
god of war,spider man,TLOU,witcher 3 etc all perfect games without any MTX. this proves that games can succeed and bring in ton's of profit for the dev without any MTX.
it only becomes a reality when the dev is so greedy to the point that they are not happy anymore with top selling games alone.
aslong as there are still companies like santa monica,insomniac,cd project etc then it will be far from a reality.
and sure there are players out there that don't have the time to grind or progress without help or in this case MTX but that does not mean that you have to build the game around MTX (ea) since that just result in a bad product.
it only becomes a reality when the devs don't care about gaming and their products anymore. (ea and 2k)
Thing is, some people like that grind, because once you get through it, it feels really satisfying getting to the top through the hardships.
People that skip it and get to the top right away don't get that satisfaction since they just throw cash at the game and it's done.
Companies love the cash throwers since they do just that, throw their cash at stuff to progress, hence why these companies are starting to program their games to get people to throw the cash and not reward the grinders.
I'm just saying stuff that everyone knows, I guess lol.
Of course I can understand that they want money, who doesn't? The problem is that the more they skimp on the game to make money, the more disillusioned the player base is and that will inevitably be the downfall of these sorts of games.
I get what he's saying a bit, especially if he's got pressure from the top. The grind was influenced by the MT though it sounds like, and that he's not willing to admit it to. They're not necessary for a game like that either. Especially with paid DLC as I understand.
As much as making money is their business, the problem is the sheer greed.
Carving off content, splitting user bases through DLC and the pay to win aspect of many microtransactions have finally started to turn alot of gamers off, which is why half the newly released stuff gets discounted after 2/3 months on the store..
I dont generally mind MT's - IF they are done the right way, but the more that comes along, the more it just smells of catering for shareholders and not actually for the customers that buy the product, which this industry had been good at many many years ago..
As sad as it.sounds he does have a point. People tend to forget that these companies main goal is to make money. That's why they exist. And as much as I don't like them micro transactions make them billions of dollars a year. People say they hate them and don't want them yet they are buying them otherwise they wouldn't be so successful. I think don't remember the exact numbers but laster year alone Activision made billions from the sale of micro transactions.
Eh, god of war, horizon, spider-man doesn't have mtx.
Beside, the problem isn't the mtx itself, but greedy mtx practice like the one 2k made.
I've always felt that [most] indie developers make money to make games. [most] Triple A publishers/developers make games to make money.
Generalizing, but you get my point.
If people didn't buy these items, the system wouldn't exist. These publishers are obviously making enough money for it to be worthwhile.
I don't think gamers are being forced into anything. Us gamers have the complete freedom to choose whether to buy something or not, and these publishers/developers have the freedom to do what they want with their product.
A modern game obviously doesn't need microtransactions in order to sell fantastically well, or even 'well enough'. This is evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of our games don't have much, if any microtransactions, … if you look at all games, not just a select few.
The risk is that the games will feel 'hollowed out' when there are too many microtransactions for one game, that it becomes just a shell of a game.
"an unfortunate reality of modern gaming because we are greedy and want to fleece as much money as we can from gamers"
there you go Rob Jones i finished that sentence for you
Notice the use of the word reality and not necessity.
If there's too much of a tedious grind so that the game isn't fun unless I spend further money, then I wouldn't buy that game. I'll get a better game instead.
And if a game is constantly trying to make me think about whether or not to buy microtransactions, then I'm unlikely to be having much fun playing it.
At least for now there's still enough games being released that aren't based around atrocious microtransactions, so I can easily avoid producers like this one.
@dellyrascal
"Carving off content, splitting user bases through DLC and the pay to win aspect of many microtransactions have finally started to turn alot of gamers off, which is why half the newly released stuff gets discounted after 2/3 months on the store.."
Considering that even God of War got several price cuts after a month or two, I don't think you can draw such a conclusion.
So he's been playing Destiny 2...too soon?
As long as microtransactions are not invasive or used to prolong the game [looking at you Shadow of War], I have no problem with them. However, they shouldn't hide the best cosmetics behind pay walls or insane grinding.
It's only "an unfortunate reality" because that's how many major pubishers want it to be. They could just, you know, not do that. I understand that the main goal for a business is to make money, but when it gets to the point where "good enough" is no longer a viable concept, that's when it gets out of hand.
Also, this is coming from the company that wants people to tell their government to let them put gambling back in their game.
I skip any game with microtransactions.
"Microtransactions are an unfortunate reality"
Said no-one prior to about 2014.
I certainly don't recall spending £20 on Sensible World of Soccer on my Amiga back in 1995, and then having to shell out additional money on packs of players after that. And that did pretty well as a game back then.
It's pure greed, that's all it is. I mean, 2K don't NEED to make more money. They already had the best, most critically-lauded sports franchise on the planet. They seem determined to ruin it for themselves. So much so that people are actually resorting back to EA's NBA Live series which was so maligned even a couple of years ago. It's called greed.
I would make 2 games of NBA 2k19. One should be "NBA 2k19 official game" for 60$, where you only have "play a game", "season" and "playoff" (online and offline) modes. Second one should called a "My NBA 2k19" that is free to play, but you can pay all those cards and attribute boosts for My Team and My Player mode...
Problem for me solved...
If I want to pay extra to skip the gameplay aspect of the game I just bought, either the game was designed with a brutal grind or I don't really like the game and should cut my losses and trade it in. Unfortunately it's more often than not the former rather than the latter.
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