Another question that comes to mind when thinking about micro transactions is “how much do we spend on them?”. As you always hear these stories that kids manage to spend his parent’s money on micro transactions for a game. Which gets you thinking how much a player would really spend on a game’s Micro transactions.
An online Article I found was about micro transactions in general on all platforms to give you an idea on how much people spend on in game micro transactions. Looking at this article I found that this article is sort of useful however I am going to take this information with a pinch of salt. As most online articles can be misleading, to solve this I will look into these articles in more depth. Taking in the main factors of the authors views on the subject and the information they are using and where they got it from.
So, for the article it mainly highlights important events involving micro transactions and where they have got this information from which is from a company called lendedu. Lendedu is a marketplace for loans, credit cards, personal loans and other financial products. Which is sort of alright as marketplaces gives you figures on financials of different industries but again got to take it with a pinch of salt. Although they got their information from a survey company called pollfish. Pollfish are a company that research into the market, by doing surveys and collecting that data to give to companies. Whilst looking into this company I found it rather interesting in how they do their surveys and their investors such as The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, etc. Which this research does look good, but I am still wary of these facts they have produced. As they can easily manipulate these figures for their own profits or companies that want to hear what they want. So, I am going to take these results in mind and compare them to any others that I find when researching into this topic
But let’s get back to the topic, with the authors article it looks like they have no side of weather they are for or against this topic. Making it an open debate for readers to make their own mind up about this topic. With the survey it covers a wide range of areas on micro transactions in particular the amount of money a player would spend and if they feel pressured to buy micro transactions. with these figures they do seem reasonable although this survey is about games in general meaning all different platforms from consoles, PC and mobile.
How much do you spend overall per year on video games?
- 29.2% of video gamers spent “between $1 and $100”
- 31.8% of video gamers spent “between $100 and $250”
- 27.0% of video gamers spent “between $250 and $500”
- 5.40% of video gamers spent “between $500 and $750”
- 2.60% of video gamers spent “between $750 and $1,000”
- 3.80% of video gamers spent “more than $1,000”
Have you ever felt pressured to purchase downloadable content in order to compete in online multiplayer games?
- 53.8% of video gamers said “Yes”
- 46.2% of video gamers said “No”
Questions
- what do players/consumers think of micro transactions?
- How can micro transactions affect the consumer in certain ways?
- What is the point of having micro transactions?
Thomas Morphew Games art 