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Free To Play, Expensive To Love: 'Fortnite' Changes Video Game Business (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: To see the storm that online video game "Fortnite" has unleashed on the world, just visit Jett Sacher in Brooklyn. The 13-year-old spends an hour or two every day on the game with his friends and is not afraid to spend his pocket money on it - bit by bit. "So I bought one dance, two skins and the battle pass," Sacher told Reuters TV about recent gaming sessions. "So that's, I spent $20 on both skins so $40 ... and the dance was another $10 so $50, 60 bucks, something like that."
Sacher's pay-as-you-go expenditure on dressing up his online avatar in the 'free-to-play' game helped "Fortnite" take in an estimated $223 million from in-game purchases in March, according to Joost Van Dreunen at research firm SuperData. "Fortnite," a sort of hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft," drops 100 people onto an island to fight each other for survival. It is a game-changer in the industry, analysts have said, because of the huge revenue it is making from "tween" and teenage boys purchasing outfits and other add-ons. Its publisher, Epic Games, is now worth $4.5 billion, according to an estimate. Further reading: Gamers are the new stars. Esports arenas are the new movie theaters (The New York Times).
Sacher's pay-as-you-go expenditure on dressing up his online avatar in the 'free-to-play' game helped "Fortnite" take in an estimated $223 million from in-game purchases in March, according to Joost Van Dreunen at research firm SuperData. "Fortnite," a sort of hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft," drops 100 people onto an island to fight each other for survival. It is a game-changer in the industry, analysts have said, because of the huge revenue it is making from "tween" and teenage boys purchasing outfits and other add-ons. Its publisher, Epic Games, is now worth $4.5 billion, according to an estimate. Further reading: Gamers are the new stars. Esports arenas are the new movie theaters (The New York Times).
A new age indeed ... "boys purchasing outfits" didn't use to be much of a business model ...
Not sure if I should feel happy or sad that gaming is no longer just a hobby. It's entering the public imagination on the scale that kids used to be interested in playing sports.
I know modern graphics and shaders are a bitch to program, but that does not compute. Especially for a relatively low poly game like Fortnight. Nice work if you can get it. But it sucks for us old timers who want single player games or at least to just buy a game and call it a day.
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I'm so glad I stopped playing video games before this pay to play nonsense. Totally destroys the experience for me. I play video games to get away from things like a real life economy, not to make me a victim of it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Because free-to-play and making money on cosmetics has been around for several years. You speak of it as if it's a new phenomena.
For a couple skins and a dance? Bhahahaha.
Even Trump would know that's a bad deal.
Targeting microtransactions (MT) at minors should be against the law. These games are designed to be as addictive as possible and to frustrate or dupe users into overspending.
Free To Play is "free" in the same way as the first hit of crack cocaine is available for free from your friendly neighborhood crack dealer.
Go outside.
Somehow spending $5 for that shirt, or $10 for that character, or $nn for whatever cosmetic thing just doesn't appeal to me.
I can appreciate that the game isn't pay-to-win and they gotta make money somehow... I just don't get how people can spend so much money on so little real content.
Serious question what is the change here? This model has been in place for years now with DLC. What's the shift away from that model?
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
Black Mirror - Season 1 - Episode 2 - 'Fifteen Million Merits'
Watch it before you buy anything else.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
And how does he pay? With his own credit card? I'm confused.
> I just don't get how people can spend so much money on so little real content.
ePenis bragging rights, aka Vanity.
The same morons (*) who pay thousands of dollars for a Rolex watch or a Gucci bag ($2,000+ WTF?)
(*) Paying $20 - $500 for a watch is fine.
Paying $5,000 for a watch is vanity, aka More money then brains.
Good description of the game industry at present?
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
People make vanity purchases all the time.
That fancy Car costing over $50k will last and work just as well as a $25k car. You may be getting some extra luxuries that will cost the car manufacture a couple of thousands of dollars. But you are really paying for the vanity of saying you have that type of car.
Or people paying extra money on clothing with a logo on it.
Apple caters to the vanity purchase.
Is it the most optimal use of your money? No.
However it may be worth it if it makes you feel better.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
... is why we still haven't seen modders, foss developers and artists get together to build their own games. Big style. Where are the awesome arena shooters from back then? Where are the mech games and foss games with own IP? Wesnoth and Xonotic can't be the end of it, no?
Is overwatch really the last answer to this?
Xonotic should have some foundation organizing events, leagues and prizes or something. It's not like the enthusiasts community can't do their own games today.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
And I am only 30. What the hell.
These games aren't even fun to play once you have the system figured out.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
What forms of payment do these games accept?
PayPal, Credit Cards, Game specific gift cards?
Does he have his own, or does he use mom's?
I encourage my children to buy meaningful or at least things that may last a few years.
Buy a tool set and learn a trade.
Buy a book and learn something new.
Buy a CD or DVD and you have a physical disk that belongs only to you and doesn't dissappear when your digital service goes tits up.
Someone commented about baseball cards or Pokémon cards. At least some of those held some value or went up in value.
"There's a sucker born every minute", 2018 video gaming editon.
since a) there are teams and b) visibility matters. Being able to pick out a character from an outline to shoot in a split second is important in an FPS. It's why Team Fortress characters have such distinct body builds.
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for guys like me. Like, I'm probably never going to see another Sonic themed Cart racer from Sumo Digital. And RTS is a dead genre since most games devolve into twitch fests with Actions per Minute being how you win.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
For free to play games, the tech support is primarily viewed as customer support. They know how much you pay, and the level of attention you get will be scaled to how much you are known to spend. I know this from a previous job where I was implementing the code for our game to use a 3rd party tech support service.
It is not the fault of whoever ended up speaking to your wife, as call center employees are basically doing what they are told. But for the developers and publishers of Freemium games, helping or catering to players that generate zero revenue is not a priority. There is literally no incentive for the publisher to pay a customer support tech to help your wife who is not spending any money, as she is not really a customer.
END COMMUNICATION
Next time your in a 7/11, take a look at the section with prepaid cards for iTunes and Android. You can buy those with cash.
https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/...
END COMMUNICATION
Once upon a time I was visiting New York City with my kid Sister when I saw a gaggle of teenage girls carrying diaper bags. When I pointed them out to my sister and wondered aloud why they all had diaper bags when there wasn't a child in sight, she about lost it. Apparently the latest fashion at the time in purses was these really large bags made with bright floral and polka dot prints. Those bags were high fashion and easily cost more than the entirety of my adult wardrobe. Kids spending large sums of money on fashion items only to come out looking like middle class soccer moms is kind of hilarious.
Tell me, what do AAAAA games usually cost, nowadays? Oh, right, 60 bucks PLUS microtransactions.
Are soon parted.
> I just don't get how people can spend so much money on so little real content.
ePenis bragging rights, aka Vanity.
The same morons (*) who pay thousands of dollars for a Rolex watch or a Gucci bag ($2,000+ WTF?)
(*) Paying $20 - $500 for a watch is fine. Paying $5,000 for a watch is vanity, aka More money then brains.
I know, right?! It's almost as if humans have different preferences so choose to spend their money in different ways!
Welcome to 10 years ago, people who don't give a shit about videogames.
(*) Paying $20 - $500 for a watch is fine.
Paying $5,000 for a watch is vanity, aka More money then brains.
Paying $5K for a watch is a signal about your fitness for mating. Just be aware of the type of mate you are signalling for.
Still doesn't change the fact that someone who spends $34,850 for an Day-Date 40, etc is an idiot, aka, Hipster.
This F2P with microtransactions model has been going on for quite a few years now.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
My 13 year old spends his allowance on a fortnight battlepass.
If that's what it takes to keep him cleaning the bathroom, emptying the catbox, and taking out the trash- so be it.
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Paying $5,000 for a watch is vanity, aka More money then brains.
I spent a little more than that. The watch is worth more now than when I bought it. I've also had the pleasure of owning it.
Why would that qualify as more money than brains? Come to that, what's vain about liking cutting edge precision engineering?
They don't help you in the game in any way. In other words suckers are subsidizing the game for the more clever players who enjoy the game completely free of charge. Sounds good to me.
I play Pubg, counterstrike, rainbow 6 seige, and a few other games that have cosmetic microtransactions, and ill say this. It seems stupid, until youve played like 200 hours, and youve only spent 15 bucks on the game. At that point its like "why not spend another 5 bucks to get something cool that you want?" The game is still practically free in terms of money per hour of gameplay. The only difference with fortnight is that its *literally* free up until that point.
Darkplaces is a good opensource engine.
Fucking noob.
Microtransactions have been a thing for a long time. So has free to play. So has free to play with microtransactions. Exactly how is Fortnite changing anything, except the transactions aren't so micro anymore? That's hardly revolutionary. Price gouging at it's best. (Which incidentally has also been around for ages).