A new report from statistical group SuperData Research suggests that console players are spending less on in-game purchases.
As keen gaming fans will already be aware, additional in-game content has been on the rise in recent times with more purchasable cosmetic items, battle passes, loot boxes and more popping up in our favourite games. There's a reason for that - the report says that "almost half of total console revenue was generated by in-game spending in 2018" - but 2019's a different story.
SuperData says that in-game spending revenue has slowly declined over the past year, with trends suggesting that players are now less likely to spend money on such transactions overall and more likely to focus on one or two favourite games, rather than numerous titles.
As an example, Fortnite - while still being one of the most financially successful games in the world every month - has seen in-game spending "mostly declining since the start of 2019", with combined revenue from PC, console and mobile failing to hit $100 million in September. Speaking about gaming in a general sense, the report suggests that "players are growing more and more wary of monetisation tactics", and that developers will need to think of new and exciting ways to earn revenue in this way going foward.
"In-game spending as we know it has reached a saturation point. Between loot boxes, battle passes, one-time booster packs and individual cosmetic purchases, there is no shortage of in-game monetization tactics. These strategies, however, are not enticing everyone to purchase additional content. Developers must seek out and identify the best approach for converting players to spenders or earning back player trust that was lost due to poorly implemented microtransaction models."
Do you tend to spend money on in-game extras, or are you fed up with the practice and wish we could go back to simpler times where all of a game's content came on the cart? Share your thoughts with us below.
[source superdataresearch.com, via vg247.com]
Comments 71
Oh look, a decline I'm not in the slightest bit sad to see. Funny that?
I wish games like The Sims series have all contents without ridiculous amount of Expansion packs and Add On stuffs.
Not fed up enough sadly.
It's mostly because Fortnite has declined from it's peak last year.
Will be interesting to see if Chapter 2 can boost its revenue back to its heyday.
I'm not against DLC across the board. If Smash characters didn't cost extra, then they likely wouldn't be paying their staff to continue working on more fighters, stages, and features.
But there are few things on this Earth more evil than paying extra money to unlock content that is already in the game disc.
-insert gif of Drake clapping-
@westman98
Things usually peak and then fall back.
Maybe not charge 40 euro for one character or skin?
You mean, they're learning? ... My god!
A part of me believes micro transactions aren't that bad. I mean, I totally learned my lesson about them when I was young and not buying them taught me patience as a wee laddie. I guess young zoomers' parents aren't teaching them bc they don't care shrug
It's probably because of the general change from loot boxes to battle passes. Battle passes exploit players' time causing them to focus on fewer games to unlock everything meanwhile loot boxes are a case of "With $X, you can unlock everything without needing to grind much". Both are bad systems.
No, people just start deciding they don't really need the content of said DLC and microtransactions to enjoy what a game offers and move on to the rest of their likely backlogs.
One of those crazy lifehacks you can sometimes access by jamming the fan in you.
I'm not really sure how to describe this, but the method of DLC that I'm beyond fed up with is when the games remind you of the extras you didn't buy, like the characters on the selection screen in games like Mortal Kombat 11 and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. I know that sounds like nitpicking, but if I can't use something, I don't want it taking up space on the screen. It's gotten to the point where I just don't buy a game if I know there's a ton of premium DLC for it because I suspect it's gonna get rubbed in my face.
I’ll get DLC every time but I will rarely spend on microtransactions. Pretty much just for Pokémon GO
@Anti-Matter That's EA for you.
I was burnt on all the dlc I bought for smash 4 and smash3ds. I spent too much on the game.
Smash ultimate is here and it started with everyone is here but I haven’t bought the fighters pass so everyone is not here on my game.
Good. Really wish Nintendo hadn't jumped on the bandwagon with Mario Kart Tour and just stuck to the Super Mario Run model. But I get that they're not looking for gamers familiar with their games, they're looking for convert phone gamers.
I wonder if Fortnite sales graph curve would look much different if they just sold all the games at a fixed price, like $30-40+.
Slowly isn't fast enough
Ha ha, suck it, microtransactions
For me, it is a simple fact of a budget that has fewer dollars available for entertainment of all types. I have gone from buying a full retail title every 2-3 months to spending maybe $5 a month.
The reality is expenses are increasing while actual buying power has been, for the average US worker, decreasing since the 70's. For example, if I am remembering my facts correctly, our minimum wage isn't even worth what it was in 1968 ($1.60/hr or 11.65/hr in today's dollar).
Maybe people have realised their little extra payments just hooks them into an endless loop that causes them to spend more, only for the game to “replaced” by next year’s iteration only to start again?
Unfortunately I don’t see this improving any better in the long term. Players who’ve known nothing but additional payments, excessive DLC, loot boxes and season passes will see them as the norm and lap it all up in its next iteration in the next big thing.
''failing to hit $100 million''
I don't understand anything of this sentence.
DLC is OK for me as long as it’s reasonable and worth the money. I’ve never really bought MTX unless you count Destiny 2’s Season Pass this season, which was free to play anyway so it’s basically like paying a tenner for what used to be a full price game anyway.
The only thing I am ok with are season passes as long as there is meaningful dlc. Microtransaction are just crazy or even predatory like in feh or pokemon go.
The only genre of (non-mobile) games that still successfully implement loot boxes are sports games (i.e. FIFA, NBA 2K, and Madden).
Virtually everything else has moved on to battle passes, which don't exploit gambling tendencies and are thus inherently less profitable.
Finally. Hopefully the industry sees the decline as a signal to move away from it before it damages companies when this completely dries up and it will.
Things like cosmetics which have no benefit or addition to a gaming experience really bother me. DLC like the fighters pass for smash Bros is something that I will get behind though as the characters themselves implement new ways to play a game. That kind of DLC I'm happy with purchasing.
@Baker1000 they might have if Super Mario Run actually did well. It underperformed a lot and their gacha games have been the most successful. People voted with their wallets.
I just hate that so many companies are creating subscription services for their games. Then as soon as you stop subscribing you have nothing left. Meanwhile the price of actually owning the games seems to just keep going up, forcing people to subscribe. Then the games are full of microtransactions and pay-to-win gimmicks, hell-bent on sucking every last penny from your piggy bank.
@Luigi-number1 More like Smash Ultimatn’t
I mean, how it can't no decline?
The way DLC and Microtransactions are implemented in many games makes the game worse while trying to squeeze as much as possible from the gamer.
A system like that can work for a while and sadly will always find someone to trick (especially with younger audiences), but the more time pass, the more people, even outside gamers, start to be aware of that.
Give it some more years and there may be even a complete decline of the casual market as more and more so called "casual gamers" gets fed up and tired of gaming cause of these predatory systems.
i just miss buying content instead of coins or lives or gas for a virtual car
I'm amazed people spent as much as they did.
this is a joy in my heart, every single word is filled with hope if a game is free to play I have nothing against cosmetic stuffs being sold separately but games like Fifa or so is a slap to our faces.
Never a fan of buying something that I never own. I rarely never try to buy any dlc and never buy micro transactions.
@BakaKnight
One can hope .
Sometimes I feel like there needs to be a complete and utter global video game crash.
So we can pick up the pieces again and excorsize garbage like microtransactions and predatory DLC.
Honestly I am getting ready to give up on gaming, at least when it comes to new games. After Pokemon Sword/Shield I plan on no longer buying any more video games for a long time. I am just fed up with the industry and tired of it trying to take all my money.
"The best way to convert players into spenders" is making a good game and sell it finished. Or else making a good free to play game and monetize it correctly.
People will buy additional content if it's meaningful content. Make full games, then make actual expansions to those full games later.
After every peak, a valley naturally occurs. It's the same when you look at a graph of sales numbers. After the next valley, a new peak will appear, assuming they keep making things that people want to buy. Why is this news?
@JayJ So you're stopping on the laziest installment of Pokemon, yet?
@KitsuneNight
A full crush sounds drastic and unlikely.
Hopefully things will change and calm down for the better once the companies causing all these problems will start to not make enough money to meet their greedy expectations.
I just fear that it will still take a few years or more before the actual decline will get drastic enough to cause such a change...
@BakaKnight
I dunno people wil stil keep buying and as long as they do that, these companies will keep gouging.
Maybe a massive shake up would be good.
@Finlderp Same thing is happening with movies and tv. Hopefully Disney fails...
Idgaf about microtransactions if thr game is FTP. Mainly because those games are trash and I don't care about them.
Let's not ignore how Ninttendo does the same thing with Smash Mii outfits and whatnot.
I love DLC. New missions, new characters, new maps etc. So long as it's reasonably priced for the amount of content. I think the way Nintendo and partners handled BotW, Xenoblade 2 and Fire Emblem Three Houses DLC was great!
I hate microtransactions. RNG based loot boxes/booster packs. Tiny individual cosmetic items, battle passes for online play on a console you already pay for online for etc. I think the loot box system in games line Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront or the booster packs in card games, are dirty and unpleasant ways to obtain more content. Especially in premium games, but even in free to play. At the very least microtransactions should be a direct purchase for a specific item, not a dice roll to see if you get what you want!
@Anti-Matter Couldn't agree more. The fact that basic features like seasons and pets have been normalized to appear as DLC is insane.
@Heavyarms55 This guy gets it. And back in my day we called them expansions! Insert old man yelling at cloud pic, here.
Good.
That's it NL.
If I put my trash on the lawn and somebody leaves me a $5, why would I stop. And you can’t blame me.
People need to stop buying this and the market will change.
@Heavyarms55 I couldn't have said it better. I also enjoyed Breath of the Wild DLC (I bought the DLC that includes both Season Passes for $20), I even have enjoyed buying the Challenger Packs of Smash Ultimate because they come with a new stage.
As long as DLC is done in this way, I am happy to bought them.
@Mr_Muscle Yeah I mean I am not expecting anything special, it's just that the industry has been a mess and I am tired of being stuck in the middle of it. I got a ton of games and a massive backlog so I am just going to play through that for a while.
Meanwhile, a one-time 50€ DLC for Mew is somehow acceptable enough to be the only kind of Mew transferrable in the game.
I'm sorry to have commented on this in three different articles within the span of ten minutes, but it's just the final straw.
@SuperEndriu The only thing I am ok with are season passes as long as there is meaningful dlc. A season pass is pre-ordered DLC so you don't know if you are getting meaningful DLC when you buy the season pass.
Also, pre-ordering DLC is like.....well it's pretty damn messed up.
@Dirty0814 Never a fan of buying something that I never own. I rarely never try to buy any dlc and never buy micro transactions.
Agreed. I have noticed that so many people in this thread are telling us what DLC they like. I can't wait for the day when people say 'Enough! If it's not in the game or a free update, I don't want it'.
I can see the game industry easily exploiting these pro-DLC people by re-branding their MTX's. Like EA now calls loot boxes, 'surprise mechanics'.
They are all the same ones that complain about buying Nintendo games over and over again on every system.
The fact is if I'm going to buy something then I should have the right to resell it if I want hence owning it. If I wanted to rent something then I'd be part of gamefly or Xbox game pass.
Microtransactions are terrible. I am one of those people that remember what real video games were like. I mostly stick to indie and mid tier games. They tend to be less hassle and more pro-consumer.
@Desrever Smash bros ultimate far better than 3ds version with dlc. So much Music and Creative characters/stages.
Though yeah romancing saga 3 and a buncha stuff have sales, or they do it properly with a free game and an upgrade skin/gem doubler.
Well look at that, what's this micro transaction for console doesn't sell well? Hmmm... maybe this is a sign that gamers doesn't like buying contents that should had been unlockables within the game to begin with.
I’m not against DLC, I’d probably buy it for Mario Party or Odyssey. The Smash stuff doesn’t appeal to me though. There are already a ton of characters, don’t feel new ones are worth $5. BOTW DLC was super disappointing as well. Never had any interest in a game with micro transactions or loot boxes, but don’t see myself ever making that kind of purchase.
Yes. Yes we have. I explicitly do not spend money on games withethically questionable business models (hooking kids on gacha).
@Crono1973
True! BUT you can buy the season pass AFTER all dlc has come out (did that with kingdoms battle) or you have it's gonna be good (did that with botw).
Will probably 3h as well but first I wanna see how this new story content turns out.
This is good news, but it could be better.
Microtransactions are evil and should be banned. With DLC (actual DLC and not just skin packs etc) Someone has put actual work into it and therefore they are worth it in my mind.
Yep i dont buy these anymore.
Even a more no go when Ubisofts name is on the package.
As the greed gets bigger so does the cash cow bubble, until it bursts.
@ShadJV that's because 90% of the mobile gaming crowd don't like paying for anything. They're used to the culture of free games supported by microtransactions and letting the other 10% provide the profit. And that's a real shame for gaming imo
I spent a ton of money on Rocket League for stuff and opening Loot Boxes, but then when they started the passes, I didn't need to spend any more because I already was getting so much stuff. And then every other game that has this stuff, I refuse to spend on because I don't want to give the develops more money. I did buy the Expansion to Splatoon 2, but that's because I felt it made an entire new story and was worth it.
@Baker1000 well then don’t expect full gaming exeriences on your phone, haha. The mobile demographic isn’t meant to be the same demographic as the console one, which is why this Mario Kart adopts a mobile model. Super Mario Run was their attempt to ignore mobile models but you can’t change the market. Run was a mistake. If users don’t like mobile game models, then maybe they shouldn’t play mobile games? Companies obviously are going to cater to what makes them money!
@ShadJV that was basically what I said in my first comment. The aim is to entice users from mobile to pick up some joy-cons and buy a Switch
That's great news!
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