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Microtransactions anticipated by game industry professionals

by Seraphina Brennan on Mar 24th 2009 5:00PM

Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Academic

If you thought microtransactions weren't taking off, think again. In a recently conducted survey by VentureBeat, the microtransaction business model was voted the most impactful area of the games industry by a sample of 160 industry professionals.

The second place choice for the professionals who answered the survey was the appearance of smartphones as a game development platform. The two results came in very close, with 66 percent voting for microtransactions as the most impactful and 61 percent voting for smartphones.

The survey comes as a part of VentureBeat's GamesBeat event, where the main conference is scheduled to take place tomorrow in San Francisco. The GamesBeat conference isn't a part of the main Game Developers Conference, but their wish is to view their conference as complementary to the main GDC instead of competing against it.

Source

Tags: business-models, game-industry, gamesbeat, gamesbeat-2009, iphone, microtransactions, real-money-trade, rmt, smartphones, venturebeat, venturebeat.com

Reader Comments (9)

yeah, they love it because it makes them the most money. jerks.

Yeah real smart. In a time when everyone is afraid of losing their job and cautiously watching every cent they spend, I'm sure Daddy is going to have no problem buying little Timmy a virtual sword for their video game character for $4.99 each.

Once SOE and EA are done using and abusing the microtransaction like a cheap hooker no respectable MMO company's going to want deal with it for quite some time.

lol Try again.

And it's revering to the gaming industry, not just MMOs. This survey probably bunched up downloadable contents (Such as Wiiware and Xbox Live) as microtransaction, which is gaining a huge amount of popularity.

I agree.

I for one don't touch games that work on microtransactions. I was interested in Vanguard till they announced it was starting with micro transactions, just crossed it off my list.

There are a lot of MMOs out there to choose from. The ones that advocate micro-transactions help me narrow down my list of stuff I'll actually try by taking them off it.

Free to play is definitely NOT.

I played a micro-transaction MMORPG for a little and found it was extremely unbalanced, the people who could spend, or those with no control who spent too much had equipment and more-so buffs that put them in another league.

The game was not fair for those who decided (or couldn't) spend real world bucks to match the buffs.

I think I agree, if the game I was now playing brought in buyable items that altered stats then I would leave for another game.

So, the two biggest innovations this year are how to bill you for your crack and how to deliver your crack? RMT and Smartphones...

How about making the games more fun?

This industry needs some new ideas and fresh air.

@Temploiter - so by new ideas and fresh air you mean more elves and subscriptions?

Microtransactions anticipated by game industry professionals

Reader Comments (9)

Posted: Mar 24th 2009 6:03PM AlamoeJones said

Posted: Mar 24th 2009 6:11PM CCon99 said

Posted: Mar 24th 2009 6:34PM wjowski said

Posted: Mar 24th 2009 6:36PM hami83 said

Posted: Mar 25th 2009 12:01AM Lateris said

Posted: Mar 25th 2009 1:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 25th 2009 6:25AM Joystiq Login Bugs SUCK said

Posted: Mar 25th 2009 9:15AM Temploiter said

Posted: Apr 1st 2009 5:11AM (Unverified) said

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