Monetization Madness - How Games Make Money - Extra Credits

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While we've had episodes on Free to Play games, and on some of the paid elements like lootboxes, we've never really made an episode on monetization models in video games. And that's big because like it or not, how you choose to make money off your video game can have huge effects on how you go about designing your game. So let's pry open the game and take a look at premium games, downloadable content, season passes, and yes, even loot boxes.
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#ExtraCredits #GameDesign #IndieGames

[@extrahistory]

Sign up to Morning Brew for free today bit.ly/mbextracredits2

[@jetcraneboyd4278]

I want to play Mortal Wombat.

[@gursimarsingh5505]

I suggest that you should try to make more videos and episodes and give more knowledge in the art that you used in Vienna bombardment tunnels etc those episodes and the one of Boston massacre. That kind of art, that liked that. That makes the episodes more entertaining.

[@LucenProject]

Is get paid via patreon or like platform throughout game development and maybe put out occasional updates to show progress a type of monetization?

[@whiterabbit47]

Heh, Polybius. I see what you did there

[@tomsko863]

You forgot about "product placement" like in Death Stranding. I don't know why but today's video was very difficult to follow. Listing things for 6 minutes straight does that.

[@plewelly]

You guys mentioned that the choice of monetization methods influences design decisions, but I'd love to hear more about HOW the choice influences design designs. What can you not do if you decide to have lootboxes? What must you do if you plan to have expansions and DLCs?

[@jonnunn4196]

For small content based DLC - such as Civ 5/6 civilizations , wonders, map packs, you'd run into a break wall if the code doesn't have sufficient modularization. Major expansions though even though they are also now typically released as DLC typically involve things that will change the underlying model or in the case of Paradox, the associated free patch update does that while the new content is modularized.

[@Hauntaku]

@@jonnunn4196 But extra maps shouldn't be forced onto players if they are rushed or broken because that code had to be added into the base game for everyone and ended up bugging the early maps.

[@NightHawk8P]

This is what I thought this episode was going to be about.

[@davidaugustofc2574]

What suffers the most is the design when More and More Characters are added every update

[@derrickstorm6976]

Problem is the shareholders who don't care about anything else than improving quarterly reports

[@warmachineuk]

Indeed. They forget video games are a luxury. Please the customer or they walk away and never look back. I say a number of publishers have gained our ire and deserve to have dire sales figures.

[@BrenGamerYT]

Games have become such a large industry that many of them are being made by accountants rather than people who actually like games.

[@ReleeSquirrel]

Huh, you didn't mention good olde Shareware, where the game is free but asks for money with no requirements, or the modern Patron Supported games, where you pay for the game before it's made and then it's free when it's done.

[@kitrana]

this is my preferred way to be honest. and there's a few games i've been patreoning for years now. i am happy to give these games way more then 60 bucks in the end.

[@gregoryarvey2793]

I like the Warframe game. It's Free to Play -almost- all the content (some character cosmetics are only real money purchasable) No "pay to win" only "pay for convenience". No ads (only at a corner of your ship to see only in-game purchases at your leisure). Did I mention trading with other gamers for in game parts and items can give you real life money in the form of platinum? Yes you can spent no penny and get about 95% of the game

[@Adrianatoras]

The best model is pay upfront for the game and then you pay for each dlc separately. Battle pass and all the other types of monetization are generally bad because you pay more money for less material Also its not guaranteed that a studios will release more content after the initial release.

[@rogerproductionz4926]

Anyone else see the duck at 1:16

[@RogueMastermind]

I don't mind any monetization model as long as it's unintrusive and implemented fairly. As a prime example, Mihoyo does excellent gacha games with extremely high production quality but also doesn't push for in-game purchases outside of the usual FOMO marketing - and the battle passes in Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail are excellent. At the same time, I lamented the move from Overwatch 1's earn-or-buy lootbox model to Overwatch 2's painful battle pass (especially in comparison to Mihoyo's) and extremely pricey skins. But my favorite DLC and monetization post-premium purchases are the games where everything is free or earnable in game even if it launches years after release. Sunset Overdrive, Hollow Knight, and Stardew Valley did this perfectly. Another option is where the base game is relatively cheap but the extra DLC is strictly cosmetic, lacks any competitive advantage for the relevant genres, or is fun extras outside of the game like OSTs, concept art, etc. I love how Batman: Arkham City handled this in particular, but there are several Visual Novels and similar casual games I can name that did this well too.

[@Mesozoic_mammal]

The DLC model get abused way to often with, with overprices undersized dlcs for content that was deliberately left out of the main game (yes, I am looking at you paradox). The Witcher is a positive example: a great game and dlc expansions that are worth every penny.

[@sonictimm]

"Thanks Capitalism, ugh" ... "Thanks so much to Morning Brew for helping us monetize this episode!" ... "A huge thanks to our patrons" For real, I'm glad that we can make games (and videos at that) ourselves and sell them as we like.

[@LadyTaraJo]

Product placement should be mentioned too. How much do you think Cup Noodles paid for product placement in Final Fantasy 15, for example?

[@EndlessRecursion8]

Premium with free demos are my favorite.

[@troyjardine5850]

Or game developers and publisher can focus on making and releasing a complete game for a fair price that doesn't nickel & dime them. They can worry about expansions AFTER the game has sold well. You only get one launch.

[@tannisbhee7444]

I love the TES4 reference. Classic.

[@RougeEric]

Ok, serious time... where can I get Mortal Wombat?

[@TinyGiraffes]

505 videos in this playlist O.O

[@sakkra83]

IMHO Loot Boxes are something to be yeeted into a black hole. It is in fact: Gambling. I Like the course of paradox with their games, they continously develop their games and give the new content in a DLC. BUT! The vanilla game profits from it in getting updates, tweaks, and in multiplayer the DLCs of the Game host are counting, not those of the players. So if you want to play a full game, just let the one with all the content host.

[@shawnheatherly]

I'm not against any monetization forms in general but I will always prefer just being able to pay up front for the entire experience.

[@aquamarinerose5405]

I agree for the mostpart, though also greatly prefer my Multiplayer games to be FTP over Premium. Mostly because multiplayer games in general feel a lot more hit or miss for me, and the ability to try out a shooter or a MOBA or a fighting game and only give them money when I decide I like the game enough is nice.

[@thinkinggrin165]

@@aquamarinerose5405 Well there is also play 2 hours etc.

[@snaiper195]

And i like craking them

[@KingSlimjeezy]

oh hohohoh thats not how the game works anymore at any level. Even geopolitical

[@Nerdnumberone]

But how much are you willing to spend for that? There was another Extra Creditz video that suggested that, going by inflation, a AAA game should have a base price significantly higher than the $60 people expect. Also, what do you think about expansion-size DLC? That is ongoing monetization, but you get a complete experience when you buy the base game (or at least you *should*). I suppose if we're talking about an older game, you can get a bundle deal with all of the DLC on Steam or a similar digital distribution platform, but you end up dishing out $80-$100+ or so for your complete game.

[@ryanhancock5837]

Destiny 2's monetization seems to be like everything else in the game, randomly trying new things to see what sticks.

[@Jimera0]

good thing the base gameplay is fun as hell

[@RedEye761]

Well, my good sir, that is how we design games though this process is usually happening behind closed doors, so you don't know about them and the magical perfect game you see before you appear. apparently, Destiny 2 missed the memo to close that door LMAO

[@jeremyrotenberg8426]

@@RedEye761 Ah, but what a rollercoaster! It's playing a triple A game with a perfect gameplay loop, but the content instability and dynamically shifting ideas of early access.

[@awesomedez]

Y’all forgot about sponsored advertising. Sports games are notorious for this.

Isn't that just advertising?

[@Artista_Frustrado]

i mean that's kinda in the "it's free but with ads" category

[@AkaiAzul]

Didn't Street Fighter do this?

[@Hauntaku]

@@AkaiAzul Street Fighter is fine because they don't try to rob you.

[@insaincaldo]

Death Stranding comes to mind.

[@maxgustafsson7802]

Must say I kind of hoped for a deeper dive on this one. Really you only mentioned types of monetization without really mentioning anything about how the experience of players or income for developers/publishers is affected. Extra Credits courts an audience interested in game design, and I think anyone even remotely interested in games already knew of these concepts. If it is a matter of time constraints then I think cutting the time spent explaining what each method is would have been useful, or perhaps the history lesson, as it was too brief to touch on anything particularly revelatory. Just "We used to pay quarters, then we bought games, now there are many methods!" Which I think anyone watching was already aware of.

[@erikschaal4124]

I somewhat disagree. Even though I knew the basics, I didn't know the difference between a battle pass vs season pass, or that an extension was different from a dlc. But sufficient to say, an ongoing game will benefit more from on going monetization. (Almost anything multiplayer that requires servers ) But any single player game with an emphasis on the story mode will benefit most from the premium model. (Maybe adding bonus stories in DLC.)

[@Hauntaku]

@@erikschaal4124 Yeah, the small things are meant to overcomplicate at bash you constantly over the head to confuse you into forgetting how much money things cost when monetization is involved. Pokemon Unite has a ton of in-game currency to confuse players and make them just buy the "best" option and even then it's not enough currency to get a big item. There's an outfit that costs like $15! Absurd.

[@takatamiyagawa5688]

This seems about the standard depth for something produced by Extra Credits, and you can figure out some of the implications of each monetization method on your own anyway. As much as EC attempts to categorize everything, sometimes, the dividing lines are blurred. "Battle pass" seems like a minor variation on "subscription with benefits".

[@bombomos]

As most of these videos. It's never an actual deep time into fixing problems

[@TheFriendlyFoxyChannel]

Sea of Thieves is an interesting one. It's a Premium Game, but had microtransactions added later for cosmetics, then recently added Seasons with it's own Battle Pass (named the "Plunder Pass). Funny thing with their Battle Pass, is you get more from completing the season than from the pass itself, but the pass does offer some very high quality items, which then get added to the store for microtransactions later (though it's cheaper to get the pass than buy all of them individually, but at least you get the option, which is better tbh).

[@retts75]

That and the fact they only sell cosmetics so you never sit there getting your head kicked in because someone paid and you didn't

[@xaviarsly]

you speak of this stuff like these companies actually pay their developers.

[@Hauntaku]

The indie devs usually care about their employees but this is about monetization schemes so it's only talking about the big dogs in the industry and not the cute little puppies you really want to take home with you.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

For premium games, dlc is still the best way to go for me. Keep microtransactions as far away as possible from them. For free-to-play, cosmetic and QoL microtransactions are likely ideal, and maybe occasional ads as long as they aren't excessive. Battle passes can be okay in either one, but I prefer the stuff being directly buyable instead. Also, if you implement battle passes, 1)make progress for them count from *all* game modes, not just specific ones, and 2) make premium progress retroactive for players who get the pass late. As for lootboxes... nope, throw them off a fucking cliff.

[@suicune2001]

I second this.

[@TheProfessi0nal115]

Lootboxes like Overwatch are fine IMO. The problem with them is when you have games like Call of Duty that have pay to win mechanics.

[@SuperFlamethrower]

Season pass and DLC are the same...right? You pay money and access additional game content. Season pass is not to be confused with the similar-sounding battle pass.

[@Hauntaku]

@Dramatic You give an inch and they'll take a mile! Don't dare try to protect the big companies who rob players.

[@P51mus]

@@TheProfessi0nal115 No, they still prey on people with gambling problems/impulse control issues. My friend that had to stop playing genshin because of the gacha also had a history where he spent a ridiculous amount of money on overwatch lootboxes, among other things.

[@digitalhermit8928]

This is why I mostly play retro games. I just hate the constant grasping for my wallet after I paid for a product

[@naufalaushaf4784]

Hi EC, you have talked a lot about making games more accessible, it would be nice if you also make your videos more accessible. Closed captioning is an important accessibility device for people with limited hearing abilities. Even simply releasing your transcripts as an online document would help a lot :)

[@SenshiSunPower]

The automatic captions think this video is in Korean.

[@peckz.]

Fr

[@probablythedm1669]

I say yeet all the predatory ones, meaning all the ones relying on the fear of missing out and manipulating the player by making the game a worse experience without them and so on. They only harm the players, the games, and the medium as a whole, while grossly enriching publishers at the cost of real harm to people. It's awful and I don't buy games like that. Meaning... I buy very few games.

[@TealWolf26]

There's also the time honored "I'm the only employee of my company and can choose what my paycheck is. Everyone else is a contractor that I make sign borderline criminal NDAs and offer no benefits to. Then I just cash out whenever the water gets too hot and pull my golden parachute."

[@blaster915]

Sad to see how lootboxes have been abused... It was shown years ago when you first covered them on this channel a very wholesome way to implement them. But the industry has dived headfirst the opposite way for cruel predatory approach. :(

[@lessonslearned2569]

They were always abusive.

[@Nostripe361]

@@lessonslearned2569 I can be fine with ones for like a gatcha game but the game needs to have a fair chance to get rare characters/items and an at least manageable way to get free in game currency while just playing the game.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

they were never a Good idea that wasn't designed to be "Diet Gambling"

[@piteoswaldo]

I think the only acceptable way to do lootboxes is if the rewards are only cosmetics, or at least completely optional not affecting the fundamentals of the game.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

@@piteoswaldo "just cosmetics" is also part of the experience, so hard pass on that

[@Darasilverdragon]

1:40 You think you're slick with that Polybius reference I see you. Also let's not forget Warframe: Free to play, with the ability to pay for most things, but also the ability to earn any non-cosmetic (and many cosmetics as well) in the game without payment

[@davidhueso]

I knew someone will get that ;D

[@Darasilverdragon]

@@davidhueso You've doomed us all! Now the references will follow us everywhere...

[@Dogbehu]

"KZbin premium allows you to skip ads" Great! "This video was sponsored by MorningBrew" Great...

[@knightlon]

But you can easily skip the MorningBrew part...

[@mafuletrekkie]

I'm tired of seeing games designed around bleeding their players dry... Looking at you Diablo III, Shadows of War, and Star Wars Battlefront.

[@Oxtocoatl13]

Shadow of War was especially bad because they basically locked the game's ending behind an insanely long and repetitive epilogue grind that no one wants to play through without buying assistance. The core game was completely sacrificed for microtransactions.

[@althelor]

@@Oxtocoatl13 especially since they claimed that their micro transactions were "optional" yet had to restructure the game completely when they were removed. Almost as if they knew the game was almost unplayable without them.

[@Oxtocoatl13]

@@althelor Yep. It's a damn shame because I really liked the actual game play but the devs shot themselves in the foot and their nice original ideas went somewhat unnoticed.

[@pyroicarus1203]

Regardless of monetization method, I don't believe games should charge us for content that exist within a games data. Is this almost impossible to do with online games since every user has to have the same codes to play with one another? What is this type of paid content called, and what do ya'll think will happen if it's ban?

[@Freekymoho]

Lawful good: premium game with expansions and meaningful dlc Lawful evil: FTP game with microtransactions Chaotic evil: premium game with microtransactions and/or a subscription

[@JMcMillen]

You do know that the Oasis from Ready Player One is a FTP game world filled with microtransactions? Not sure I'd call them Lawful Evil.

[@Freekymoho]

@@JMcMillen arent the people running the oasis the enemy in that book? In either case; microtansactions are inherently evil, but its lawful because they're atleast following the "rules" by being ftp

[@RainEls]

5:58 I think there's a way to please all players though: make a complete game with fair price, dlc as extension not cut content. But that'd probably mean less money for the publisher.

[@RorikH]

To be fair most big AAA games and a lot of indies still work like this. The system has not completely gone to hell, even though it's definitely racking up some sins.

[@takatamiyagawa5688]

Everyone has different expectations as to what a fair price for extra content is, and whether something belonged in the base game.

[@ConManAU]

I like the model that Nintendo used for a few games like Pokémon Picross - the game was free to download and you used in-game currency to unlock content. You got a smattering of it one time, but your could also buy it for real money, in amounts up to and including the total you’d need for the entire game. And IIRC it scaled as you bought it, so there was always an upper limit to how much you’d have to pay, which was about the amount the game would have costed as a premium title in the first place.

[@iam2ku4u]

The spirit of Sterling screams over the horizon.

[@blake-81]

And he screams "SURPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!! I AM A SURPRISE MECHANIC!!! BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL!!" :P

[@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel]

@@blake-81 And they do so on the slide at 3:11 (Big Chungus)

[@darter9000]

Ah yes-I remember that video-even without hindsight, I knew their views had a core problem-they assumed any sense of ethics or responsibility in the gaming industry.

[@MythrilShotgun]

Yeah, I saw the title of this vid pop up after months of not watching EC (Due in large part to said initial video actually) and wondered if they'd address their previous stance on the matter. One I would simply put was "Dumb as hell."

[@warmachineuk]

When microtransactions were removed from Star Wars Battlefront 2, the game was patched to make earning of in-game content less grindy. That is, the game that you already paid for was originally designed to be less fun. If the game was free, I could accept not having content to play for free, but it's not. Fuck EA.

[@blbernak]

You didn't cover "Collector's Edition" merchandise bundles.

[@TealWolf26]

And the infamous Ubisoft spreadsheets.

[@Merennulli]

Wouldn't that just be a form of premium?

[@blbernak]

@@TealWolf26 Infamous and iconic.

[@MartinPurathur]

You forgot to mention the predatory gacha system. Awareness is power, the less whales the better

[@WolfBoy-om6dw]

What's the gacha system?

[@MartinPurathur]

@@WolfBoy-om6dw It's a lootbox system prevalent mostly in video games that come from the east. It tends to be a live service game where new unique characters are added in, but gated behind a lootbox. People can spend their life savings gambling for a jackpot oftentimes without even getting the anime jpeg they want. Well, this is a pretty surface level explanation, you can find more online or on youtube. Both explaining the kind of design choices in these games, as well as how they affect users and the industry

[@cablefeed3738]

@@WolfBoy-om6dw Loot boxes for the required mechanics of the game.

[@dragonlord21392]

The gacha system would fall under the umbrella of lootboxes, I think.

[@mattbsblogsandtheorys8609]

@@WolfBoy-om6dw it’s like loot boxes, but the main differences being that most of them are from game companies either in China (Genshin Impact) or Japan (fgo) and you can spend real money to buy items AND characters (mostly characters).

[@TheTrueWanderCat]

I remember playin Fire Emblem Heroes loving the game and trying to save orbs for characters. Playing the game to earn orbs or saving my actual money to get spend on the game. Only to be constantly disappointed when I never got the characters I wanted. After a while I was like: what’s the goddamn point. While I can’t bring myself to delete the app I haven’t played the app for a year.

[@GK_GAMES]

2 names Azur Lane Dragalia Lost As a full F2P player on both, i only ever missed on like 4 characters on AL and while DL is more random there hasn't been a point where i can't progres because a lack of a character. There are games that are fun to play but have from bad to horrible gacha (like genshin or fatego) then there are games that are somewhat simple (like azur) but you keep playing them because the gacha is generous/have ways to guarantee gacha drops

[@FedoraKirb]

@@GK_GAMES Despite Dragalia’s ABYSMAL 5-Star Rate, you can get away with not spending a cent thanks to how generous the devs are with Wyrmite (the free currency), and how most endgame can be cleared without the absolute strongest characters. Not to mention CyGames finally implemented sparking last year (which imo should be a LEGAL REQUIREMENT for any game that implements randomized rewards for real world money).

[@kapitan762x54R]

When even EC groans over capitalism you know the system is failing.

[@danielhale1]

Instead of lootboxes, why not just directly harvest the player's organs and leave them in a bathtub only half-full of ice? It's the same intent but with a lot less development time.

[@Hauntaku]

Remember back when games didn't try to rob you at every possible moment? But in all seriousness, there's still some games with integrity out there that won't try to rob you blind. Most of the good games out there are indie titles that are well worth the price tag! Indie games don't usually have DLC but if they do then the DLC is always a bonus instead of content that should've been there day one.

[@jasonreed7522]

Also, surprisingly Minecraft (and Terraria) are examples of premium only for all updates / important content. Now of course Microsoft has since added ingame transactions and a marketplace that can get you alot of interesting premade cosmetic stuff, but none of that has any real impact on the game, like you don't have to pay to get caves and cliffs or redstone. (I don't know if Java has the marketplace but Bedrock has it and it does have free user made content which is the closest to mods console can get)

[@GK_GAMES]

you mean arcade games? the thing that where designed like the claw games? whose design filtered on early console games like early megaman?

[@caseyb1346]

Yeah I remember when I could just pay 50 bucks and get a whole, complete game.

[@CoralCopperHead]

@@GK_GAMES Nail on the head. Games have always been about making money first and foremost -- there was just an extended period where the people making them also loved playing them enough to forgo some easy money. Barely.

[@snerdbrgrSkips]

I wonder if you guys can tackle in game rewards for F2P games. Currently there is a game called Genshin Impact that's getting review bombed negatively due to how they handle their anniversary rewards for players being lackluster. So I wonder how you guys would be, in your perspective, should handle retaining / enticing players to keep playing.

[@trevinbeattie4888]

Personally I prefer the up-front payment, with the option to buy expansions; though my current game addiction is subscription based after a free trial period (WoW). But more important to me is having the ability to play games off-line - no forced updates, no loss of the game if the server is down or my Internet connection is disrupted.

[@wickerbotterthewizard707]

Offline/non multi-player games typically thrive with premium Monetization, It's hard to imagine paying a subscription to a game that doesn't need constant updates or additions. Even with online multi-player games, imagining a subscription to play the game, or play the game as intended, seems a bit sleazy considering you technically lose money for every day you buy into the game but play another game instead. Free to Play games with microtransactions that mostly don't effect direct gameplay and mostly make $ via cosmetics seems like an ideal for MMOs. This however is all on the basis that your game library is curated by the player, and not that you buy a subscription to gain access to a whole library of games like a game pass. A game pass might seem attractive if all the games offered are themselves made for a subscription model, or the game pass unlocks content that would save the player $ if that player only wanted to play that content once but didn't care about owning the game forever. Another reason why subscriptions to individual games seems sleazy, is that some titles will charge a subscription cost comparable to paying for game pass that grants access to multiple games and might be a gateway to playing new games players might not have considered playing before. The primary drawback of a game pass is that customers typically lose access to those games once they stop paying, and some games exit the game pass library never to be seen again. However on the game production side, a game is free to be much more risk taking and different from other games if the creators make the game for a game pass. Since the player doesn't pay a premium price to play these risk taking games, the player is much more likely to try it at least once and come back to play more if the game was fun to play. And yeah loot boxes are straight up gambling, those can choke and fall off a cliff.

[@arminhergl5388]

Premium. Period. I am a simple man. I buy it, I play it. It is either good or bad. I either uninstall for good or replay it in the future.

[@kevind814]

Once upon a time I paid up to $60 for a PC game, but was fine cause I had all I needed to play and win. Games that are pay to win don't deserve a penny from me.

[@DonaldCMarks]

[*Sarcastically*] "Thanks Capitalsm! [Sighs]" :: Cut immediately to payed sponsorship before video brought to you by.... Capitalism. Really though? Love your videos but like... yeeeeesh.

[@andrewhook6092]

I don’t usually comment, but I want to express my contempt for Destiny 2, and I am not certain of the entire story, but this is my experience. I had the original Destiny 2, I had delayed buying the first expansion, and as a result areas I had been readily playing since I purchased the game were locked out by level increases. This move stopped me from playing the game in any meaningful way, and took part of the game away unless I paid. This turned me off to the game entirely, and I don’t know if this has a remedy or not, but when what I had been reliably enjoyed becomes held hostage, it tends to irk my sensibilities.

[@Ryu_D]

I just remembered that the Dans used to be a big thing on this channel. Now it's all about Zoey, and I am absolutely okay with this change. Zoey for the win!

[@DTFauxClassic]

One very interesting attempt at the Free-to-Play/Free-to-Start concept was Rusty's Real Deal Baseball on the 3DS. It was a series of baseball mini games where majority of them were locked behind a paywall. But what made it stand out was that you'd earn items and tickets in-game that would then be used to lower the real world price of those mini games you'd pay real world money for. So, while the impatient could just pay full price for all the mini games, the game's design and narrative was very much built around bargaining and haggling for the lowest prices possible. Of course, it was all designed where Nintendo would still be walking out with *some* money, but it was such an interesting experiment at the time.

[@shadowscribe]

A lot of these can be used in equal parts for good or ill depending on the design (except lootboxes, get those out of gaming asap) They left out the many flavors of premium games with multiple versions, each more premium than the last and/or preorder bonuses akin to Day 1 DLC around a core experience. At their best, the value is consistently increasing, so you can tell neatly what you're getting. At worst is a deliberately random selection of boons that require a spreadsheet to map out what each has, because what they REALLY want is you to buy the biggest bundle that just has everything.

[@l.l1969]

Gacha games: *laughs evilly on top of a mountain of salt*

[@roguenerdlifestyle4293]

Capitalism: YOURE WELCOME

[@DonaldCMarks]

Literally every entrepreneur "Thank you! No Seriously.... Thank you! You get a bad rep Capitalism but like... now I can start my own business!"

[@ElLorenzoMagnifico]

Oh MY GOD! MORTAL WOMBAT! That's gotta be a Dungeons and Daddies Reference!!

[@davidhueso]

Actually no , that was just my brain being stupid while drawing this episode :D

[@DavidXWoolley]

Aw cute, you guys are still defending monetization as if they actively support the devs rather than the higher ups.

[@axelpatrickb.pingol3228]

It's a business, not a charity...

[@ST2008X]

I think free to play is wonderful. I really like Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links, no ads, and you can earn the cards you want by simply playing the game and participating in events. There is no pressure to pay for anything in Duel Links. I grew up with Yu-Gi-Oh, I appreciate this game and all it has to offer. Other than that I like games whose entire cost is essentially 1 Micro-transaction to have a licence to play the game forever. I know you don't own your eShop purchases, but I like the value proposition of Sega 3D Classics and Sega Ages. Pay one small fee, download, and enjoy. No limits, no ads, no other transactions. Pay a little once and enjoy the best Arcade games.

[@Zift_Ylrhavic_Resfear]

These monetizations don't even support the creators, an obvious example being when activision blizzard made record revenue and proceeded to fire hundreds of employees... twice. Iirc, the first time they laid off 10% of their workforce, 800 people, and the second was about 200 people. And even if we look at those that stay in the company, they earn very little compared to the CEO and shareholders.

[@Chris.Cook.]

Just wanted to say to the artist, David Hueso: I see and appreciate that Polybius reference, my dude.

[@davidhueso]

Thanks! It was my pleasure :D Always happy to add extra refs here and there and see how long it takes for the viewers to see em!

[@JMcMillen]

It's funny that there are people that complain about microtransactions that also wish the Oasis from Ready Player One was real. Yet the Oasis was pretty much a F2P game world filled with microtransactions all over the place. Not just cosmetic stuff but plenty of gameplay and quality of life things as well. It's only touched on in the movie, when Parzival had to skim coins for fuel, but is more heavily talked about in the early chapters of the book.

[@ten.seconds]

The rhythm game Cytus has DLC song packs, but every million download they release the oldest one for free so that everyone can play them. I never see any player get upset about it since the seasoned players usually have all 10 packs bought already and their attention would be on the newest pack. I love how this generates hype and good PR while technically just lowkey ripping off DLC players.

[@illegalprime3626]

I generally lean toward premium games, however free to play games with small amounts of microtransactions are usually ok. I play a lot of roblox stuff and the way monetization works there is you can play games, and buy additional content or currency etc. Of course every developer is different but I rarely find any really preditory microtransactions there. One of my favorite games is Train Sim World, where you buy DLC by the content piece, and all of them are independent of each other. Though if you own certain routes and trains, they can add to the experience on other pieces of content. The base game comes with 3 routes which can theoretically be changed anytime. I think this model works well especially in tandem with frequent sales on steam. Some routes have been distributed on season passes as well and individually, which is pretty cool as you can save a large amount of money.

[@CliffCardi]

My first year playing Team Fortress 2, I spent over $100 on keys for Mann co supply crates. All I got were bad stranges.

[@stevenstocker9873]

The only form of monetization which should be acceptable is expansion packs.. everything else is just predatory

[@matthewhager270]

I like games with expansions. Even if the expansions aren't good, they give creators something to hone in their craft for the next game in the series.

[@sebay4654]

What about free games (indie developers) with the option to donate sometimes with extra incentives like beta access to new updates (my favorite) (and loot boxes along with battle passes can die (because time restrictions and random chance mean your not guaranteed to get what you pay for with a battle pass if it was more of a daily reward j would like it but I just don't like the idea of having to pay to grind rewards

[@mosesbrown4126]

Nice Polybius reference.

[@Interesting_Failure]

Another thing that's worth mentioning is games that are free but have either an option to donate to the developer or an option to pay any amount for the game. These are by far the least reliable monetization models, and I believe are mostly seen on small projects where income from the game is not a necessity for whatever reason (hobby game, person or people have sufficient revenue from other games, etc)

[@silentxshadow888]

There's also episodic games, which allow you to purchase chunks of a game at a time, at your own pace.

[@IndiBrony]

Magic the Gathering Arenas has the best system if you ask me. It doesn't choke players into being pay to win because players who don't put a penny into the game can unlock exactly the same cards as those who plunge thousands of dollars into it. The players willing to put money into the game keep the game afloat financially, whilst the players who don't put any money into it ensure a large active player base as they grind their way to unlock the more powerful cards. I think it's balanced nicely.

[@SaberToothPortilla]

The only issue that I do have with Arena is that packs are fundamentally lootboxes, and unlike real cards, which you could probably make a compelling argument that they are gambling too, you can't recover the value of digital cards. Now, Arena does have a wildcard system, which is good, but even though I don't actually like the games much compared to Magic, I do think that Legends of Runeterra and Hearthstone have better monetization.

[@AynenMakino]

"...helps illustrate how many options games have to support their creators". This sentense beautifully illustrates how devs are trying to get their revenue from the game itself, rather than it's player. In this design-focus, the game does a thing by which it gathers money from gamers, and then the game passes that money onto someone else. But if the design focus was devoid of the game needing to do that thing, by any means at all, then they can focus on something else as a source of money, like the player directly. A player either wants to spend money on a game, or they want to spend money on a dev. They aren't the same thing psychologically. And very importantly, a destributor doesn't get a cut from it. This radically changes the relationship between distributor and gamer, dev and gamer, and lastly it changes the relationship between devs and their own games.

[@RorikH]

Isn't that just how all products work? If you sell a hot dog, the man pays for the hot dog, not for the sake of supporting the hot dog merchant. Do you mean everything should be free and developers should just hope players give them money? I'm not saying all gamers wouldn't, but that's not a great business model when you've got 500 employees and a 200 million dollar budget.

[@Readysetheal]

I'd love to see a video about socio-economic reality of videogames. It's clear that everyone would love more and cheaper (free, even) games, but then developers need money and publishers want even more. Then we have consoles, console generations, brand "wars" and so on. Make a best possible scenario for both parties (devs and fans) in an abstract and work from there - like, a universal game engine or a universal console/pc

[@michaels.3709]

Would love to see an analysis on the up-and-coming "play-to-earn" games once some of them drop. Granted, this gets into the sticky topic of crypto currencies, but from what I can tell, this is going to be a whole new way that developers can collect revenue!

[@juckyvortex]

You mean like Csgo?

[@Jestersage]

Let me guess, you make this video because of Genshin.

[@partyjams]

I guess you could add services like Game Pass to this where it’s a subscription fee for access but to multiple games in a changing library. But all of which can be bought for premium if desired (at reduced cost).

[@jeremiasrobinson]

Kind of wish this was 2 channels. One for the educational content, and one for the gaming stuff. I just subscribe and receive notifications for the educational content but I think because I am subscribed to this channel, the KZbin algorithm is always recommending gaming channels to me, which I find annoying.

[@NationalDevin]

First battle pass I saw personally was TF2's "contracts"

[@OniBoiXD]

my favorite is free to play with cosmetic products to buy

[@DragoSonicMile]

I'm getting so many mixed messages from this video.

[@irishjack2046]

5:05 Dan says: Don't prey on children please.

[@IANOYTYK]

Very surprised the Sims franchise wasn't mentioned. Especially since they've recently updated their offerings to include "kits", in addition to the multiple sizes of DLC.

[@darkally1235]

The other important factor that developers (and publishers) must consider are the costs related to the game. The premium model was sufficient for a traditional offline single player games, but for modern multiplayer online games there is a cost which is incurred each time a player plays the game. Ongoing costs means there must be an ongoing revenue stream (which is hopefully sufficient to cover those costs, e.g. Glitch).

[@TheSugarRay]

'We don't often talk about how a game plans to make its money to [redacted], support its creators and development costs.'

[@mochi355]

F2p should really be renamed to free to try

[@showtheshow3397]

You keep going on about this monetisation as if there's some form of benefit. But there never is! Who benefits? We the player have to subject ourself to advertisements, gambling or lacklustre gameplay often in $60 games we have to pay for. We do not benefit! We play games to escape the monotony of life's horseshit, only to have advertisements pushed in our face! Do the game devs benefit from this? No. They are paid little, forced to work endlessly and rarely have social lives thanks to horrible conditions which can't be fixed because unionising will get union busters called. So who benefits? People like bobby cottage. People like ubisoft's owner who allowed abuse of staff for ages until the screams couldn't be contained. People like blizzard, who unchecked allowed rampant sexism, racism and homophobia to run rampant. THESE are the people who benefit from that form of monetisation. True, indie devs may get off the hook considering they're smaller and have less problems in the long run. But this is still you (your writer/whoever chose to upload this video) actively ignoring the harm that these monetisation schemes cause to both people with gambling, restraint or depression issues. To the devs who work weeks off their lives to get paid bare minimum no overtime to get abused. If you talk about these things, you INEVITABLY have to go into the politics of it, this surface feeding of the issue means that you lead people to blindly believe this is an okay system, even if you say "horse armour" or "lootbox bad".

[@JaceGem]

Maybe it's just me, but I much prefer games that let me just spend the $30-60 to get the game and then ask no more. Even games I really like playing like Overwatch, I paid the base price and then like... maybe $20 for skins from the skin vault just because I wanted the Atlantic Mercy and Celestial Dva skins but other than that, I can access every piece of content in the game without having to pay and that's how I like it.

[@ZachariahNelson]

Veteran Guardian here, D2 monetization is fine. $60 yearly major expansion/contraction, 4 season passes each yearly update that has a free and a $10 paid tier, and a premium currency to buy cosmetics. All in all it's at least $100 a year to play all the content, but you can save $20 by buying the Deluxe Edition of the yearly expansion, that includes the 4 seasons. The latest outlier is the 30th anniversary bundle coming out in December for $30 that has it's own content.

[@gniludio]

There are a few things missing: Merch When to pay (Kickstarter, Pre-Order) Paying for Bonus-Features (e.g. Limited Editions, earlier access)

[@DarkBloodbane]

I have to say no to lootboxes (gambling = BAD) and Pay2Win. I agree with pay up front for everything and pay up for basic pack and pay again for expansions. Microtransactions for cosmetics are okay for me but not for anything which affects game balance.

[@InuyashaHanyu]

I dont even mind lootboxes, as long as its just cosmetics. What really grinds my gears if ingame content that makes you be better at the game can be bought by spending real cash. Looking at you Pokemon Unite and people with fully upgraded items obliterating casual gamers who only have 1 somewhat upgraded item. in simpler words: pay to win bad

[@JSeed47]

You should use the example of star wars galaxy of heroes to show how out of control microtransactions can turn into macrotransactions to the scale of $150 to advance one of hundreds of characters up one relic level. Downright gross and predatory by the developers( Capital Games/EA)

[@themore-you-know]

2 OMISSIONS (for tiny indies)! A) Some indies use Patreon to fund their free-to-play game's development through hardcore and niche fans. I've seen a few Monster Collection games operating this way, and many indie sex games (which I didn't play, if you can manage to believe me). B) Some indies use their game's development as a background theme for a KZbin audience, leading to the sell of courses. Mziziziz and Thomas Brush come to mind.

[@olbaze]

I think there's two forms of monetization that are typically a sign of an evil game: Lootboxes, and Pay-to-Win. Lootboxes are predatory by nature, and only exist because they make more money than outright selling the good stuff to the player. Pay-to-Win, which I would say includes Pay-to-Skip-The-Grind, undermines the existence of your game in the first place. I will personally never play a game with a subscription, because I feel that's also kind of predatory. You're incentived to give them 3, 6, or 12 months in one payment. And since you've paid, you're probably going to feel like you HAVE TO play the game now.

[@CalebWillden]

I dislike monetization and game design that can lead to habitual or compulsory spending, especially lootboxes. Limited-time battle passes that use FOMO also rub me the wrong way. I generally avoid free-to-play games because I fear I'd get addicted to them. I prefer premium games, and I'm okay with expansions/DLC and direct microtransactions (ie. pay $6, get new fighter). You can know almost exactly what you're getting. If the game requires servers to keep running, I'm usually okay with a subscription, because servers cost more money to maintain the more they're used. Those are my thoughts!

[@MatheSchmetterling]

Big topic, good overview. But I don't get the difference between "Subscription that give your benefits" and "Freemium"? Also DLC in my eyes still stands for "DownLoadable Content" which menas most Expansions are DLCs, but also small free things and everything inbetween. And then there is the term "Season Pass" which gets used in two ways, both mentioned but so different in nature that it feels wrong to give them the same name: A Bundle of (upcoming) Expansions/DLCs or a boost/additional unlocks for some season events (DBD comes to mind but also I think TFT, Genshin Impact use them). In terms of what I prefer, I think most would agree that buying a full game upfront is the best way to go consumer wise, with Expansions if possible. Then again, Games with ongoing costs and services like MMOs I don't mind paying a subscription fee if that's all there is (maybe some upfront cost, which most of the time already come with a month or so of "game time"). For those type of games and for mobile games I like if there is a demo/trial version like FF14 for example.

[@RyuuTenno]

Unpopular opinion (I'm sure): loot boxes need to stay, but, they seriously need to be fixed. To start, don't lock certain things behind it, that requires you spend $50-60 on loot boxes (EA). But also, make sure that people have an idea of *what* they can get. Even if it's random each time, just let us know what the possible items are. And, imo, kill it for anything below T rating for sure. And, in fact, the ESRB should make that a requirement, that the games using some of these, can't be below a certain rating. If only to avoid bigger issues in the process. Season/Game/Battle passes are a great idea though.

[@ThePianistDragon]

One of my favorite games is Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen. But the game originally released as just Dragon’s Dogma. During its time on PS3 and Xbox 360, the dev released small pieces of DLC with costumes, weapons, and I believe even some quests. Later on however, they released an expansion called Dark Arisen which had its own story, dungeon, etc. And eventually, the game was reworked into Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen; a premium game that included all DLC that had been released up to that point. Monster Hunter World has a similar thing with its Icebourne expansion; where you can get physical copies of the game now that have the expansion already included. Funny enough, both games using this model were published by Capcom.