New Report Finds Almost Half of US Kids Are After In-Game Currency for Christmas

And this right here is why Sony were trying to push the live service model. some of you may not like those types of games, but the younger generation has spoken, and this is what they like. Obviously their approch was way too heavy handed, which has cost some studios too lose years of work/resources, but even from this report, you can see why they went after the golden goose.

That’s just sad, and it legitimately worries me as the younger generation starts to take over while more and more single-player games fail to succeed because all the time (and money) is being spent on this black hole games.

My kids are banned from this sh*t at Christmas time. Id rather they had nothing than waste family members money on virtual costumes.

@Kidfunkadelic83 Unreleated comment but how have you been getting on with KCD2?

"I had a great childhood. With much vividness I recall our decorated Christmas tree and V-buck gift cards my grandparents put underneath it"
~ 43% of today's kids in year 2090

Unfortunate but on the bright side, 37% wanting a physical game under the tree isn't insignificant at least. It's actually higher than I would expect.

I'd imagine the physical boost is about Pokemon as the last mainline entry prior to Legends Z-A was 3 years ago (Scarlet/Violet).

What a genuine bummer. Those companies have a vice grip on that demographic, that’s for sure.

It's sad, physical toys and tech can be passed down to siblings or those in need. I've been organizing a toy drive for the last couple of years and physical things like Legos go a long way. They don't evaporate into the ether if a server gets taken down or a game goes offline. I don't know about anyone else but I can trace a lot of my gaming back through Christmas photos with each console or game, they were magical times. It would be different if they packaged it with a plush from the game or something. At least that way you are getting something physical. In-game currency feels like teaching a child the price of something, but not the value.

lol, outside is dead to kids.

This would be getting worse and not just in the US. Some people say oh free games, only cosemtic items but young people would spend a lot more than buying AAA games on these costemtics, in game items, emotes. Such a shame.

As a parent of 2 kids 8 and under, I absolutely refuse to let them play games with this ***** in it. By consequence, the 8 year old loves AstroBot, Crash Bandicoot, and Sack Boy. You can blame companies all you want but, at some point, it's on the parents too.

Did they poll a bunch of kids that are already gamers and found that 43% percent wanted in-game currency, and extrapolated that to the entire population of US kids? Or did they actually poll a representative sample? This is coming from a data collector with a clear interest (the Entertainment Software Association), I'd be very wary of these findings.

@Olskeezy bad parents always seem to skirt the ire of people online. roblox didnt bust down their doors and force an ipad into their hands.

My kids are both getting some Roblox in their stockings (£20 each, the most they’ve ever had).

While most of their friends only play Roblox/Minecraft, I’m making sure they also play other games so they are properly cultured in gaming.

@Ainu20 I would be wary of any findings A survey was done on 280 women asking them if they recommended a certain shampoo 89% said they would so 11% said they would not these statistics were shown at the end of the advert....The advert would of cost millions to try to convince the 11% to buy the shampoo seems like a total waste of time effort and money to me.

@IOI don't be too concerned.

Bingo halls didn't cease to exist because all the old people died...

Young gamers are constantly ageing and becoming old gamers. They will grow up and grow out of wasting money on Fortnite skins.

Eventually they will seek deeper and more rewarding narrative experiences.

We didn't have skins and currencies in my day but I was heavily into competitive games and played counterstrike all night every night. I don’t touch titles like that anymore. Happens to everyone.

Imagine raising a kid only for them to turn out like this.

Lol the people in these comments sound like my parents did when I wanted physical video games for Christmas

Damn that's wild.

On a random note, I somehow was eligble for a fortnite creator code lmao if anyone wants to use it.

@Czar_Khastik bit of a stretch calling it a Christmas tree in 2090...

@Korgon but how many of the 37% potentially want a key in a box, not knowing it isnt physical in the way we would look at it? Needs better information.

It does suck that the live service hole of games is just keeping kids away from new experiences, but hopefully if I'm reading this correctly, that the 37% of kids that want a new physical game is part of the overall sample in comparison to the 3/5 kids the specifically want a video game related gift. Because maybe at least then kids are asking for either currency and a new video game. But even if it is a proportion of the proportion then that's at least still pretty good. Hopefully all those kids get the games they want (and that they're picking out some cool titles as well lol)

parenting is about doing what is best for your kids, regardless of the social pressures and normalization of certain, toxic trends. a good parent will stay clear of these predatory money pits and encourage their kids to play real games.

I'll do my part in stemming the tide by not making kids. Hope it helps!

My mom still asks every year what I would like for Christmas. It’s usually a game or two and she’ll put the physical copies under the tree for me. One glorious Christmas in the 90’s I got a Sega Genesis with NHL 94, Pebble Beach Golf Links and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

@Slideaway1983
Even if it's not a physical disc necessarily, it's still more encouraging than just some more V-bucks. At least they want an actual game. Not just microtransaction money for a game.

@Korgon point well made, and i was blatantly looking at a glass half empty perspective - so my bad.

Sort of related but im pretty sure if we had downloads when I was a kid id still have preferred physical as its something on a shelf and I like having collections.

Problem nowadays with everything being "content" and kids either sticking to the same thing, or treating it as disposable when the next "cool" thing comes along with their (undeveloped) attention spans.

I'm one of these up top who say it rests on parents that shove an ipad in their face as a way of babysitting. When I was a kid (granted 30+ years ago), id ask for books, videogames as a big present (snes games were costly!) And toys, so there was intellectual stimulation in varying forms...

Nowadays its like TV in my day but worse with vapid "content" just designed to capture a young mi d with no real benefit to intellectual growth.

But hey, maybe even though my mom weren't great, she raised me to appreciate my brain... or its a different generation... or I'm a weirdo 🤣🤣🤣

Sorry... went off on one there and I think we needed the joke at the end 🤷

Cheap and Xmas for parents etc:
I've credited each of your accounts with 1,500,500 LS-game-bucks!

Total spend = $/£5 each
(These things always seem to come in nonsensical large sounding amounts)

And yet people still defend battlepasses and premium currency :/

@Oram77 love it buddy. Its so good. Some of the management side of things annoys me a little like weapon and clothing degradation but overall I'd put it a top 10 game of mine I think. I love the world and the dense forests etc.

@Slideaway1983
No need to apologize. It's actually just funny that I need to specify whether it's an actual disc or not in the first place. In an ideal world we wouldn't have come up with just sticking a code in a box and calling it a day but well...you know...what can ya do?😄

@Korgon yes you do need to specify as im an idiot, and the world has changed and I dont like it 🤣

Don't get me wrong, im not a big fan of CIAB, but im certainly not as against it as some switch 2 owners with Game Key Carts (I'm a sw2 owner as well), to me its either a case of buying it if you want it or not.

But with the Internet everyone has to air an opinion, even if it doesnt add anything to an actual conversation. Even when I try and make a point someone usually shoots me down when I get a reply - I got a loy of grief regarding mig switch earlier in the year on the sister site - when id rather of they dont like it just move on and agree to disagree.

This is why I find the PS random on here not quite as bad as at least generally we do talk and dont decend into chaos 🤣

My kids always ask for it all the time, but I refuse to buy them. I make them pick out actual games.

This is a commentary on society.

Most of the people in this thread are just the 21st century equivalent of the 80’s parents that wouldn’t let children watch Saturday morning cartoons because it would “rot their brains” or play DnD because it was satanic.

There’s a balance for everything that need to be found, but within that balance the opinions and feelings of children should be accepted and encouraged as much as is reasonable. If their favourite thing in the world is to play Roblox, then it’s not anyone’s job to teach them to play “real games”. That’s how you end up with full grown kids have don’t talk to you because they think you’re a knob, and the thing is, you kinda are.

I remember years ago I had to buy v bucks for my nephew for Christmas because that's all he wanted. He spent them in a matter of seconds on the first things he saw in the store, on Christmas skins he didn't practically like because kids have no concept of waiting and saving money.

That's sick as all hell

Uh, I’m a US adult and want PS credits for Xmas.

I don't really see anything wrong with this. This is what my niece and nephews are asking for this year, and I am happy to oblige them. I mean, all the action figures I wanted as a kid have disappeared, same with all my POGs and art supplies. It's all about making them happy in the moment. If you want to get them a useful gift, get them a kitchen mixer or an iron.

37% of kids have good parents at least, lol.
Playing Fortnite or Roblox ad nauseam is just withering the spirit and imagination. Kids crave new experiences, give them some.

I personally prefer actual games for Christmas (heck, my number 1 item on my Christmas list this year is a physical copy of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Plus on the PS4), but I have no issues with other people wanting different things.

@TechaNinja, this is kind of unrelated to the article, but I love your avatar picture! Ever since I watched the Neptunia anime for the first time earlier this year, the Neptunia series has become one of my most favorites and I've also started playing the games.

I swear you've written the same article now for years.

I'm so glad I grew up in the 80:s...

@Dogbreath I’m in my mid-20s and what I see from people my age or younger is that there’s little to no interest in single-player but specially story driven games, some friends have indeed grown out of playing Fortnite, Warzone, Apex, etc, but the thing is, they didn’t keep playing at all, some sold their console or never got the new generation, others still have it but only play a Fortnite run every few months and that’s it, there’s really no way to get them to buy even a $10 game, let alone at $70 on launch, maybe the only one would be GTA 6.

I hope that the majority of you here don't have kids, you sound like too much fun for a child to handle🧐

@Splash_Woman That's what happened with my nephew. I bought him plenty of offline single player games with amazing world building and storytelling. Then Roblox and Fortnite made the rounds in school and he didn't want to miss out. Also, throwing rocks at trains?

Doing something right in my home I guess.
My six year old wants a bearded dragon for Xmas. He plays Teardown, TABS, and Goat Simulator more than anything else, and Roblox is banned.

That's what you get if you let peers and algorithms be the sole tastemakers for your kids. Yes, it's not good to demonize kids trends. I go half ways and try to interact with Minecraft, among us (both already rather old) and the likes, but I make sure that the kids get in touch with quality media of all kinds, discuss and create an understanding for what they consume and move away from open ended time sinks.
People gotta take media literacy more serious and not just shove a tablet into the pram.

@Nep-Nep-Freak I been a fan since Ps Vita and played all the vita / ps4 games and just waiting for the next mainline game already

I think a kid should get something they can interact with and cherish for years to come. I still have most of my favorite gifts I got as a kid. The right gift can literally create a lifetime of memories for the recipient. Digital bucks for a live service game that’s gonna be shut down in a few years time ain’t that.