Electronic Arts has expressed their interest in Dead Space 3-style microtransactions by implementing them in their upcoming games. Games Industry provided a quote from CFO Blake Jorgensen who spoke at the Morgan Stanley, Media & Telecom Conference:
“We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.”
Online transactions has been a hot button issue for a while now, beginning with EA’s Project Ten Dollar, yet Dead Space 3‘s implementation of an in-game store (allowing players to speed up weapon upgrades via cold, hard cash) seems to have ignited the issue. I can’t speak for the game myself, I’ll let my colleagues do that, but I’m willing to bet those who vehemently disliked its existence are about to make a whole lot of noise. With online connectivity taking on a bigger role within video games these days (and in those yet to come), do you think this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back or is the inclusion of microtransactions in full priced games a necessity to keep the business of making games healthy?
