Nickle and Dimed! , The Demise of AAA Gaming, Part 1
CULPRIT :
- Activision® ----------------------->
MOST POPULAR FRANCHISES:
- Call of Duty Series
- Destiny Series
- Guitar hero Series
SINS:
- Unnecessary Micro-transactions
- Gambling
- False Advertising/Information
CALL OF DUTY
The first introduction of micro-transactions to the Call of Duty franchise was in the 9th game, Black ops 2. At this point in the series Activation had already put the DLC and Season Pass business model into practice but this game introduced paid only gun camos only obtainable through real money. This business practice gradually got worse because, as more games were released the micro-transactions became more of a gamble then just a single purchase, locking guns behind a paywall with a 0.2% chance of getting the thing you wanted for £1.99 a piece in the form of a "supply drop" or "loot box".
DESTINY
2 years into Destiny's life cycle Activision implemented a second currency called "silver", this currency was used to either buy some exclusive emotes or to gamble for exotic items that could only be acquired by paying money, this loot box system was only implemented for the year 2 Halloween event and was removed afterwards. Out comes destiny 2 and the micro-transactions are back. In this new system you can buy emotes, permanent shaders and faster sparrows all behind a paywall and not obtainable in game.
GUITAR HERO
Most every classic Guitar hero game has some kind of DLC song system built into each game and was except able at the time. Along came the hyped reboot of the series Guitar Hero Live with its hilariously pathetic micro-transaction system.
You earn or buy in-game currency so that you can play additional songs that did not come with the game but here is the catch, YOU NEED TO PAY EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO REPLAY THE SONG! So this means that if you want to get 100% full combo but fail, you need to spend currency to replay.
Part 2 and 3 coming soon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), Kyle