By now we’re all familiar with loot boxes. And if you’re like me, the idea of dental work seems more appealing than buying yet another game loaded with them.
And while I understand 343’s attempt to gain funds for free dlc and not split the community with paid dlc, I would prefer to never see another loot box in a halo game again.
But what choice is there? Paid dlc that splits the community or free dlc funded by loot boxes? How’d we even get here? Sound’s like a lose, lose to me. But Microsoft’s latest announcement with Game Pass has me thinking; could there be another way?
With first party titles coming to Game Pass via a paid subscription, could the revenue generated by the service fund dlc for games like Halo? Could we get the dlc without the need to split the community and without the need for loot boxes (I can dream can’t I)? Could this be the best of both worlds? Obviously this doesn’t solve the issue with third-party developers, but surely Microsoft will want it’s own studios healthily pushing out product.
What do you guys think? Could a model like this succeed, would we still see REQ’s, could this be where the gaming industry is headed?
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> By now we’re all familiar with loot boxes. And if you’re like me, the idea of dental work seems more appealing than buying yet another game loaded with them.
> And while I understand 343’s attempt to gain funds for free dlc and not split the community with paid dlc, I would prefer to never see another loot box in a halo game again.
> But what choice is there? Paid dlc that splits the community or free dlc funded by loot boxes? How’d we even get here? Sound’s like a lose, lose to me. But Microsoft’s latest announcement with Game Pass has me thinking; could there be another way?
>
> With first party titles coming to Game Pass via a paid subscription, could the revenue generated by the service fund dlc for games like Halo? Could we get the dlc without the need to split the community and without the need for loot boxes (I can dream can’t I)? Could this be the best of both worlds? Obviously this doesn’t solve the issue with third-party developers, but surely Microsoft will want it’s own studios healthily pushing out product.
>
> What do you guys think? Could a model like this succeed, would we still see REQ’s, could this be where the gaming industry is headed?
I’m probably one of the few who prefers paid dlc.They at least make quality maps and try as opposed to unnecessary reqs
As far as funding DLC for games, no, it wouldn’t solve that. Game Pass would have to be wildly successful for it to fund DLC for every game. And Microtransaction systems are far more convenient. MT systems, the way we see them now, won’t disappear until they’re officially deemed legit gambling.
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> But what choice is there? Paid dlc that splits the community or free dlc funded by loot boxes?
Don’t let them make you think your choices are so limited. You can choose whatever you want to support in games, including no extra money-making schemes at all. Developers will only implement whatever extra money-making scheme they think they can get away with. Lootboxes would never have been a thing if they thought nobody would buy a game with lootboxes in it. It’s not really our job, as gamers and consumers, to worry about how the developers can make more money or fund DLC. We only need to worry about what kind of industry practices we’re ok with, and which ones we aren’t. We’re the ones paying or not paying for the product, so that choice is ours. If developers thought nobody would buy their game if it has an extra money-making scheme in it, but adding extra DLC content would boost that game’s sales, then you can bet your -Yoink- they would find a way to fund that DLC using only the revenue from the original game sales. That’s how capitalism works. We don’t need to sit around worrying about how they can make more money from us. But I digress.
That Game Pass thing is weird. Personally it doesn’t appeal to me at all. It reminds me of when Adobe switched to a licensing scheme where you pay a monthly fee to use (not own) their software, when before, you just purchased it once and owned it forever. Maybe I’m old-fashioned but I like to own my video games forever. I am also the kind of person who plays a very small amount of games, but I play those games a lot. I often purchase entire game consoles just to play a single game on it. So clearly it’s not for me. The Game Pass thing seems like it would appeal more to people who hop from game to game and play as many as they can, rather than more focused people like myself.
So, I hope you aren’t suggesting that switching to a model where you pay a monthly fee to play video games, rather than a one-time fee to own them, would be an acceptable practice. As much as I hate lootboxes, that would be worse. As least currently, people have a choice between owning their games, and playing them with the Game Pass. Let’s keep it that way.
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> As far as funding DLC for games, no, it wouldn’t solve that. Game Pass would have to be wildly successful for it to fund DLC for every game. And Microtransaction systems are far more convenient. MT systems, the way we see them now, won’t disappear until they’re officially deemed legit gambling.
On top of that, the money going to game pass primarily goes to XBOX and not individual developers. So there may be even less money going to developers as they try to widen the range of their paying audience. I may even suggest that it promotes MT to be in future games to make DLC or complete games even possible.
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> > 2533274946317298;1:
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> So, I hope you aren’t suggesting that switching to a model where you pay a monthly fee to play video games, rather than a one-time fee to own them, would be an acceptable practice. As much as I hate lootboxes, that would be worse. As least currently, people have a choice between owning their games, and playing them with the Game Pass. Let’s keep it that way.
Not suggesting anything, just pondering if Game Pass was popular enough if it might negate the apparent “need” for additional funds from MT. I have not jumped on the Game Pass wagon because I would still have to buy DLC, except in cases like H5 where the dlc isn’t kept separate from the base game. You can still buy the games; they’re not taking that away (at least not yet). I dislike MT because I think it destroys the experience of the game. I’d gladly pay for dlc but not everyone will. There are other models out there, TF2 and Warframe for example, but I don’t see MS implementing those for Halo. I do see the potential for a small slice of the GP pie to support the first party studios if it was successful enough. Otherwise, we’re probably stuck with loot boxes for life. I won’t be preordering any games that will include loot boxes, but I don’t know if there are enough gamers that will do the same to shift the current trend of games. I just think GP introduces an interesting opportunity.
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> Not suggesting anything, just pondering if Game Pass was popular enough if it might negate the apparent “need” for additional funds from MT.
I’d be ok with that. Though if that were the case, I don’t think anything would be stopping them from making money from both Game Pass and microtransactions. They’re always going to say there’s a “need” for as much as they can get.
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> > 2533274946317298;6:
> > Not suggesting anything, just pondering if Game Pass was popular enough if it might negate the apparent “need” for additional funds from MT.
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> I’d be ok with that. Though if that were the case, I don’t think anything would be stopping them from making money from both Game Pass and microtransactions. They’re always going to say there’s a “need” for as much as they can get.
Which may very well be the case, but like I said “I can hope”. People seem pretty convinced MT will be in Halo 6, but maybe… just maybe some MS exec will be like “we want Halo to be huge and well liked. Game Pass has really taken off…let’s get rid of the micro-transactions”. I think that GP is the one sliver of hope for that…probably amount to nothing…but I hope.
There’s a microtransaction thread happening in the H5 section you can add to.
Thanks!