Uh Oh: Spore Microtransactions Still a Possibility
By Jonathan on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 9:47 PM PST In Computer, Electronic Arts, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, Games Industry
Dang it, EA. Why you always gotta try and shoehorn microtransactions into everything these days? Is it the money, or is it…ah, who am I kidding? It’s definitely the money. Well, in a rather ominous revelation today, EA CEO John Riccitiello mentioned in a conference call that microtransactions could still be a possibility for Spore.
Job one with Spore is to make the launch successful. I would love to imagine that two years from now or a year from now the debate is whether we need a Spore label inside of EA, because the back-end system works so well that we’re able to monetize body parts, plant parts, car parts, planets – as a way to generate incremental revenue off an install base of several million active users…Yes, we’ve got a clear, obvious and very compelling post-launch monetization opportunity. This is a game where basically, the parts are what make the sum of the product work. So selling parts as we do with the Sims Store online right now in The Sims 2 is incredibly obvious, we have all the technology for it, but that’s really not what the overwhelming portion of our focus is on right now. It’s on making that a successful launch and making sure we have the right to ask that question down the road.
To summarize: “We’re focusing on Spore’s launch right now, but we may start adding microtransactions later on, like we did with The Sims 2.” Overall, I don’t think this will change the core game much, but it’s still a pain to know a company is very obviously trying to milk you for more money. And yet, I could still see myself buying a batch of body parts just to make that 100% accurate depiction of the Grimmace I want.
Via GameCyte
Fuck you EA and John Riccitiello.
They day you start this micro-transaction bullshit will be the day I uninstall Spore. You can quote me on that and I’ll even take screenshots of the uninstall to prove it.
I really hope they don’t do that, just give us everything for free and charge the console losers for dlc like they deserve.
FCKIN CON ARTISTS
Sadly, microtransactions will continue because many consumers will buy the game regardless. Besides, expansion packs are basically many microtransactions that come bundled on one CD. There’s not much difference; both expansions and microtransactions are SEPERATE from the full game. Ultimately, it’s the consumer’s choice if they want to buy extra content.
Spore SHOULD be the biggest game of the year. Everyone SHOULD be excited about it. But with the copy protection bullshit, and now the greedy fuckers are doing this, it’s making me, and no doubt a lot of other people, reconsider buying it.
Seriously, pirating Spore is looking more and more appealing, especially when it would appear EA will happily launch half a product so they can charge us for the “new” content that should have been there in the first place.
Are there no depths to which those money grubbing assholes won’t sink?
To be honest, I wonder how long it will take for modders to actually figure out how to add content themselves.
If spore will be as large as expected and coming onto the PC you can expect it won’t take long before people figure out how to add their own parts.
I give it two months tops.
That’s the biggest difference the PC and console markets.
Who cares. The only difference is that those who pay get extra parts that nobody wouldn’t have got if there microblablabla didn’t exist.
I really don’t expect much from EA anymore, I’ve lost all faith in them…what with the SecuROM issue and all.
EA are most certainly evil. I mean they’ve killed off pretty much all their sports franchises on the PC. They’re not doing anything with the NFL license other than sitting on their ass. They force unwarranted copy protection on you, when they know damn well they don’t work. They buy up studios then dismantle them. (I have a friend who works for Bioware and needless to say they’re a little concerned.) It’s just insane!