Halo will make more money without microtransaction

Community General Discussion
1

It isn’t a secret that microtransactions are hated. I was curious as to why game companies continually add them in games, and the main reason seems to be that it is an easy and efficient way to rake in money without putting much effort into the system. It is much easier to make a profitable RNG based microtransaction system than it is to make an engaging campaign that sells games. I looked at the difference between microtransactions sales and game sales for Halo 5, and I found that one week after launch, Halo 5 earned $400,000,000 in total revenue, while only $500,000 of that accounts for microtransaction sales for the first week. I got this information from game media, which isn’t the most accurate source of information, so these dollar amounts are not exact. Microtransaction earnings may be way more than said here, especially since I was only able to find clear information about the first week of sales, and not over time. Still, there does seem to be a big enough gap between the amount of money Microsoft received from copies of the game and microtransactions that it is safe to say that Microsoft is not making most of their money off of microtransactions. So why do we have this in the game? All it does is encourage pay to win play, cause frustration in players, make Microsoft and 343 Industries look bad, and take away valuable developer time from more important aspects of the game, such as bug fixing. Now I am not a game developer or an economist, but I don’t think that the small portion of money microtransactions make is worth all of this. I feel like Halo should just remove this aspect of the game. Just concentrate on making a good game, and that will bring in more money than microtransactions ever could. Plus, it would create a better reputation of 343 Industries and Microsoft, and it would establish brand loyalty, which might in itself bring in more money due to sales than foolish microtransactions could. Having a good armor customization like Halo Reach, make REQ packs for Warzone unlocked only through playtime, and advertise Halo as a microtransaction-free game is all that is needed to hook players.

Links to the best information I could find:

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I’m not a fan of microtransactions either, but I don’t think they are going away. The industry, for better or worse, is going to hedge their bets on these.

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Tbh I think MTs are designed to make money off of lazily built games, though to be fair Halo 5 is NOT lazily built, but it is poorly built, in my eyes due solely to the MTS. As someone who played the Beta with my friend, we altered turns on his xbox, there were actual unlocks in the Beta. No MTs anywhere to be found and the game seemed fun and well built. MT systems will ALWAYS pull focus away from gameplay during development and a AAA title like Halo does not need them to succeed. I feel Halo 5 lost as many players as it did BECAUSE the game was lackluster and feels like everything revolves around MTs, which to an extent, is true. Armor, which is the only arena related thing, is only obtainable through MTs and req packs, and even then certain armors are locked behind a paywall, something 343 promised WOULDN’T happen before the game launched. Now I know -Yoink!- are to blame for the MTs in Halo as 343 seems more focused on trying to get that same “Halo” feel from their own version of it. H4, and H5 didn’t really hit that mark though, because they’re 2 different extremes. MTs are used to justify releasing a $60 game with the content of a $10 used game from the days of Atari, it’s disgraceful and needs to be removed from ALL AAA titles, not just Halo.

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I take H5’s MTs any day over map packs with beautiful maps which I won’t be able to play
aprox. 4-5 months after release because I won’t be able to find players in MM who got 'em too.

I’m not a fan of MTs either, but at least this way I for one don’t have to pay for additional content and more important,
I got every additional content always available and don’t get blocked from using it.

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So the thing about microtransactions that you didn’t mention is that for game companies, they represent a continued source of revenue. If we take your numbers for Halo 5 as examples–even if they are the wrong numbers–then sure, 1 week after release most of Halo 5’s revenue was due to game sales. However, what about 1 month after release? 6 months? 1 year? Eventually, game sale revenue drops off for games, and for Halo 5, microtransactions are now a bigger source of revenue for the game than game sales, and probably have been for some time. The microtransaction model is extremely lucrative, as EA recently revealed with their quarterlies. For Halo, the REQ packs have allowed Microsoft and 343i to continue making money off their game much longer than if they’d done map pack DLCs or no DLC at all. So no, it’s unlikely that Halo would make more money without microtransactions. It may look like that for a time, but when the game reaches its 2 year anniversary, a games with microtransactions will have made way more money than games without. Part of it is because games cost so much to make these days that devs and publishers need a better way to make back their money, but part of it is also greed and because it’s been shown to work very well. People can hate on microtransactions all day long, but at the end of the day, money talks louder than words.

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> 2533274886490718;4:
> I take H5’s MTs any day over map packs with beautiful maps which I won’t be able to play
> aprox. 4-5 months after release because I won’t be able to find players in MM who got 'em too.
>
> I’m not a fan of MTs either, but at least this way I for one don’t have to pay for additional content and more important,
> I got every additional content always available and don’t get blocked from using it.

Or just charge less for those dlc maps so everyone will buy them

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All you did was look at initial sales though. That first week where everyone is buying the game and they have to buy the game to buy/use the microtransactions inside of it.

What happens a month down the line, or 6 months, or a year? Not as many people are buying the game, and the people who already own the game can buy more than one microtransaction item. Or they can make new things to sell through microtransactions and people will buy those.

Basically, if microtransactions wasn’t turning a bigger profit than DLC, all these companies would have jumped ship a long time ago.

8

Why are they in the game? Well, you answered your own question. Certainly those numbers from a gamer’s point of view might convince you that microtransactions aren’t needed in the game. But that’s the thing, “From a Gamer’s Point of View”. They aren’t looking at it from a gamer’s point of view. They’re looking at it from the business perspective. And if I were a business man, I’d find it very hard to convince myself that an extra $500,000 from sales of Req packs ranging from $2-$100 on top of sales of the actual game is the sign that MT’s just aren’t working out. If this were a case study on whether you could profit from an MT system, I’d say it was a success, especially considering you can obtain just about everything this game has to offer without spending a single dollar on MT’s.

I’m indifferent to MT’s solely because there’s nothing a game can do to make me pay real money for them, so them being included in games doesn’t bother me that much. If the game gives me an option to obtain something by earning in-game currency or whatnot (also known as just playing the game), I will go that route every time. MT’s probably make their most impact on people who aren’t willing to do that anymore.

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Im willing to bet that 343i had absolutely nothing to do with microtransactions being in Halo 5. In nearly every case its decided at a corporate level. 343 probably spun it as free dlc and to pay for HCS to account for something they were forced into by Microsoft.

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> 2533274853641752;1:
> 1) All it does is encourage pay to win play
>
> 2) and take away valuable developer time from more important aspects of the game, such as bug fixing.
>
> 3) Just concentrate on making a good game, and that will bring in more money than microtransactions ever could.
>
> 4) Plus, it would create a better reputation of 343 Industries and Microsoft, and it would establish brand loyalty, which might in itself bring in more money due to sales than foolish microtransactions could.
>
> 5) advertise Halo as a microtransaction-free game is all that is needed to hook players.

1) I’ll just say that I think that is debatable, but this isn’t the thread to get into it.

2) How do you know this? I’m not positive, but REQ’s and bug fixes are likely two separate departments so it wouldn’t really take away anything.

3) From their perspective, microtransactions would just be an extra source of income so it wouldn’t really matter if the main game made more money.

4) Halo already has brand loyalty. That’s why people are still buying Halo games even after the disaster of H4 and MCC.

5) That’s not gonna hook new or casual fans because Halo already has a bad reputation. The game needs to be good with or without microtransactions.

On a general note, microtransactions are a way to replace having to pay for DLC which separates the community. I don’t think they’re going anywhere, but as long as they just stick to Warzone and customization, I can tolerate them.

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I seem to have struck a nerve.

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not post inappropriate content.
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

The problem with microtransactions (and as much as they’re a cancer on this industry they’re the least of 5’s problems) is that once they get added to a game, you’ve lost.
They’re minimal effort on the dev’s part for stupid huge profit, and there will always be a handful of idiots who dump truckloads of money into them. The only way you will ever see them disappear from gaming is if big gubbment steps in and tells the industry to knock it off, or if every single player tells devs and publishers who endorse microtransactions to collectively shove it and not spend a single penny on any microtransaction ever.
Good luck with that last one.

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Mt’s are fine. As long as they don’t effect the game. Having a good request doesn’t mean your gonna win. If you want true pay 2 win go on mobile. RNG based loot is the industry standard now. It is how game developers increase the feel of the grind in a lazy way. Obviously it also is another income stream as well.

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> 2535449625725537;12:
> Mt’s are fine. As long as they don’t effect the game. Having a good request doesn’t mean your gonna win. If you want true pay 2 win go on mobile. RNG based loot is the industry standard now. It is how game developers increase the feel of the grind in a lazy way. Obviously it also is another income stream as well.

Actually ALL MTs affect the game, simply by pulling focus to the MTs and the MT system during development rather than gameplay. So no MT’s aren’t “fine” they destroy any chance a games has at showing it’s true potential. MTs cause dulled down gameplay, subpar stories, and paywalls behind cosmetic unlocks. Now, that being said I do understand MTs in Mobile and Indy games, it’s how they are funded in the first place, but AAA titles such as Halo, and Star Wars Battlefront DO NOT NEED MT’s TO BE A SUCCESSFUL AND GOOD GAME!

What truly baffles me is that people think it’s okay to have MT’s in AAA titles thinking it doesn’t affect gameplay, when in reality they end up crippling the gameplay solely due to pulling focus during the games development, and here’s the proof: I played the H5 Beta with my friend, we earned armor as we ranked up and the gameplay was smooth and refined save for a few very op weapons on the maps, the Beta had 0 MT’s AND was a good game, it’s what convinced me to get the full game, but when playing the final product, to quote TFS: “All I feel is robbed.”

I honestly wanted to like Halo 5. Everytime I’d go over to my friends and play it, all I did was get reminded of why MT’s are BAD for AAA titles, because it’s like water, some games are beautifully designed and well tested like ocean water, some aren’t so pretty but flow smoothly like a river, some are dark and murky like pond water, and some are disgusting and full of disease like Swamp water. AAA titles with MT’s are that Swamp Water as they don’t run smoothly, they don’t look pretty, and half the time any function that isn’t directly related to MT’s will malfunction mid-game.

Now I DO understand that -Yoink!- were the ones responsible for MT’s in Halo, not 343, and that doesn’t surprise me at all, -Yoink!- is like the new EA nowadays, just ruining everything they touch. Y’know if the MT’s actually went into the games development post launch I might have a different outlook on them, but in Halo 5’s case all we got were as follows: A literal ton of Remix maps, about 4 OG maps, 3 of which are blank Forge Canvases, Classic gametypes that have been a staple in Halo since H2 even though they should’ve been available at launch, a SEVERE lack of bug fixing: guns still fire blanks this needs to be patched, and then of course there is the “not-so-dedicated” dedicated servers that crap out like every 90 minutes for quite a lot of players, myself included. And before anyone says anything, no it’s not my internet, it’s Halo 5s terrible servers, get used to it, they’re bad, it’s been established, etc. etc.

Honestly I’d be surprised if H6 includes MT’s for the sole reason they turned off most players BACK to MCC. That’s a bad sign right there, when players would rather use a broken game, than a new one with MT’s of the same franchise.

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> 2535465002418082;13:
> A literal ton of Remix maps

That is not how you use the word “literal”

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Ehh, until people stop buying into them, nothing outsells microTs. Halo 5 itself made millions off it that funded the E-sports prize pools, EA itself made 9 billion with all of their games combined and overwatch is the driving force for loot boxes workd wide. We could argue all day how a “good ole quality hale game would make more money” and you’d have quite an argument to make as I don’t see that happening and I completely doubt it. microTs run it all due to consumer ignorance.

the best part is “it’s only cosmetics” is exactly how it’s gotten this bad. It doesn’t need to just be gameplay things to be aggressive or a reliance fir a developer. MicroTs are bad period lol, gameplay or cosmetics.

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> 2533274904158628;14:
> > 2535465002418082;13:
> > A literal ton of Remix maps
>
> That is not how you use the word “literal”

I meant ton as in the weight, not the amount, so literal is accurate in MY context.

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> 2535465002418082;16:
> I meant ton as in the weight, not the amount, so literal is accurate in MY context.

But remix maps don’t weigh anything :thinking:

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> 2533274904158628;17:
> > 2535465002418082;16:
> > I meant ton as in the weight, not the amount, so literal is accurate in MY context.
>
> But remix maps don’t weigh anything :thinking:

Honestly I don’t care. Grammar doesn’t mean much to me on the internet aside from punctuations.

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Greed. High ranking over payed jerks. Black ops 3 treyarch claimed it would not be pay to win. But then added a bunch of insane weapons in the black market! why??? GREED!!!

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Microtransactions will never go away. Ever since Activision first introduced loot crates to console gaming no other company has gone against that trend. From a marketing standpoint micro transactions are genius