The Problem With Video Game Monetization

[@ProjSHiNKiROU]

Unfinished buggy games at launch and DLCs are the reason I wait for Steam sales or “year 1 editions” for most AAA games: The cost will fall, the quality will rise, but the memes will stop

[@Lextorias]

The industry does everything they can to drum up hype and get preorders and first week sales, because they know that waiting a year or more after launch will get you a better deal on a more complete game

[@mr_indie_fan]

I miss the days where dlc were full on new campaigns or new characters to use.

[@sosmooth13]

I actually experienced this for the first time in my independent (no longer living or being financially supported by my parents) living with Star Wars Battlefront 2. I got the game a year or almost half a year after it came out. Certain things like the price, MT loot boxes, buggy were being fixed.

[@zscout1288]

I miss there being special bonuses if you 100% completed the game or for beating a difficult challenge

[@solomani5959]

Same. Been burned too many times. You get better value if you wait.

[@somesaiyanguy41]

the docking bit hit me hard. Funniest deadpan delivery I've heard in a long time

[@DeedgeS]

Yoooo…. SAME. That shit was so flat and subtle you could almost miss it 🤣 perfect

[@JasonMatsoukas]

I missed it. Explain?

[@macgreeze8287]

It comes out of nowhere too.

[@blushslice]

@@JasonMatsoukas google docking

[@JasonMatsoukas]

@@blushslice how can I undo what i saw?

[@masonwagner768]

To echo what everyone else has already said, I’m shocked at the level of quality here from such a small channel. So far your videos are well researched, written and edited, plus your voice and manor of speaking is pleasing to listen to. You’re dry humor is also funny without it coming off as trying too hard, which is super refreshing. I look forward to seeing your channel grow!

[@flyinghoudini4151]

I was going to make a comment until I saw this one; hundred percent agree!

[@NorttVander]

that just resumes what the world is into, not only games... Full pocket ppl are trying less, putting less affort on their productions whatever those may be and mass consumers are mediocre enough to consume and support whatever shit is being offered... the few who are not satisfied end up getting upset or even tend to start getting violent or with traces of mental imbalances, this kind of ppl like Lextorias who actually put some effort to make something really valuable is like fresh air from all the stupidity, mediocrity and these despicable scams

[@Linkman8912]

*manner, but all corrections aside I absolutely agree with you

[@masonwagner768]

@@Linkman8912 ha, good catch. Now I’m wondering how long I’ve been spelling it wrong

[@h445]

lol y'all are easily impressed

[@redgarlicbred6228]

I absolutely abhor the gaming industry's monetization model. Especially gacha. Had a friend in uni that was obsessed with collecting characters. I told him to not spend too much of his cash at wc point he said "nah I only spend 5ish dollars a week on it". BRO WE ARE BOTH BROKE WE GO TO THE SAME PART TIME JOB TOGETHER 5 DOLLARS IS A WEEKS WORTH OF MEALS AHSGSWUNSJD Also love your vids keep them up

[@Lextorias]

Yeah unfortunately the people spending money on games aren't even always the people with enough to spend. Some millionaire spending $5k on gacha can make a headline or a KZbin thumbnail, but these companies prey on people making closer to minimum wage, where even $100 is a way higher percentage of their income.

[@sosmooth13]

2017-18 was probably the worst we’ve had it in a while, but now companies are even trying to justify hiking their prices despite the amount of money they already make. I really hope the customers by some sort of crazy miracle, just stop spending so much money on in game purchases or mediocre titles.

[@MGrey-qb5xz]

@@sosmooth13 yeah it's not some local industry, this is a world wide business. 60 dollars for a good released game should now remain a standard or else subscriptions will take over.

[@makkek69]

So many zingers haha

[@iluvmusicqwe]

Sounds like your friend is an idiot

[@Naterkix]

I still have a soft spot for that time loot boxes were called "surprise mechanics" by some CEO and Steph Sterling reacting with the Surprise Mechanic, who is a mechanic who randomly appears and does mechanic things and/or bashing people's faces in with a hefty wrench.

[@pootispiker2866]

TOOOOOOODDD -Jim, at the time.

[@glanni]

The Sims 4: Hold my beer.

[@magdajanik5817]

THATS WHAT I WAS GONNA COMMENT OMG

[@theuzi8516]

Dude, the comedic timings and deadpan deliveries were AMAZING in this one.

[@alexsalazar7199]

The ad bit made me laugh harder than it should have 😂

[@hatsjer]

I have YT premium. Please tell me he put an ad in that section.

[@ChrisFrand]

@@hatsjerhe did

[@jameslancefield9810]

If I see EA, anywhere on a game, its a huge red flag.

[@xxGreenRoblox]

just because it's EA doesn't mean it's 5190% p2w there's spore which doesn't have p2w stuff and i'm pretty sure they didn't put p2w in plants vs zombies 1

[@jameslancefield9810]

@@xxGreenRoblox oh well. I take it all back. as long as those 2 games are ok. then they are fine. EA are the worst company in the world. why are you defending them?

[@kylesarts7777]

Everything new that's came out is a red flag from EA. Literally can't play Jedi Survivor. It's been a year, and it's still unplayable on pc. Good thing I just only tried it on gamepass.

[@DOGEELLL]

​@@xxGreenRobloxEA was only good during the 2000s when none of this greedy trash existed

[@SgtGudda]

True. Sometimes they make a decent game like the Dead Space Remake

[@AltairYoshi]

Gacha games have got to be the most insidious monetization method by far, as well as virtual currency, because of all the trickery they pull off to obscure how much money you're spending. When I could still play Mario Kart Tour, I legit came close to dropping some cash for rubies (the premium currency) because the prices can seem really enticing, and usually it happened when I was just a bit short of them to pull the pipe which is basically the game's gacha element. I'm pretty sure I spent money on Clash of Clans and Royale back when I played them too, and even though it probably wasn't a lot, I refuse to even touch the games at all now. Even without paying money they're such time sinks that it's insane. Also, I just found you through your fanservice video and I gotta say your style is great, good balance of information and jokes, definitely going to stick around for more!

[@sosmooth13]

I’m not 100% knowledgeable about what a gacha game is. Are those the type of games that have you spend little bits of money here and there? I do this for fortnite every 4 or 5 seasons. Sometimes even drop an extra buck if I realize I’m missing out on in-game currency in games like Destiny 2 for something. Do those examples count?

[@BMoser-bv6kn]

@@sosmooth13 In this context it's a reward system with some randomized reward rate, like say item drops in a Diablo game, but monetized. The prizes can be character units, art skins, weapons, skills, etc. (Unlike the video claims, the rates are displayed for all to see and they all have upper bounds on their cost. And if one can't do math nice people on the internet will tell you what it requires. For most games this is an outrageous $500+ if you buy the scam gems raw like a dum-dum.) For 98.5% of the player base, they spend $0 on these games and treat them like MMO's, to be played over months and years. Most of those who have self control only pay for the worthwhile deals, a $5 monthly sub, an annual ~$30 unit selector ticket. Where it becomes infamous are the whales, who are people to whom money means nothing to them, or addicts who get to a dark place where they only care about the game and ruin themselves financially. True buddhists realize the point is in not having things, as once you have something you can no longer want it. And if there's nothing left that you want, there's nothing left to look forward to or desire. And then, why, you might as well be dead, right? I'm not familiar with Fortnite, but I did hear it used to have lootboxes which are indeed gacha. And things can get really funky sometimes: Azur Lane is a gacha game all but technically: it's barely a speedbump, people will get all the units very quickly. The *true* monetization scheme of that game is selling skins. While the flipside are games that push the power ceiling up constantly like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. And something like ArKnights avoids ever truly raising the power ceiling, but is more ponderous at the rate it gives top units. This kind of system can be implemented in very different ways on the practical level. What is interesting is they all stem from Mobage - old, simple browser games that sold cards of cute/cool characters/monsters or lewd girls. Which in turn is influenced by Magic The Gathering and Baseball Cards. Paper Magic The Gathering is so much worse than gacha games. But hardly anybody ever seems to notice.. $4 for one randomized cardboard rectangle and like 10 pieces of trash....

[@TheOrian34]

Yeah, people are too easy to forget and forgive the existing TCG/CCG models when they're worse gacha models, you can only pay with real money.@@BMoser-bv6kn

[@jan_Eten]

@@BMoser-bv6kn ðe gacha system in pj sekai works similarly to what you described for azur lane

[@viteske]

I live in Belgium and it’s true that they banned loot boxes but worse is that when playing War Thunder I was introduced to a message from Gajin that loot boxes are indeed banned in Belgium BUT if I were to buy them I would only and only get the lowest rarity of an item… I mean…

[@NoVamp3499]

haha lol. that's some awesome malicious compliance from War Thunder

[@CurtTheHero]

Man microtransactions should be illegal. They're so damn predatory and they play on a potential gambling addiction

[@CurtTheHero]

Ope didn't finish the video before I posted this. I see you made the same link

[@Lextorias]

Yeah its sick how they exploit people like that. I was gonna talk about it more than just a mention, but didn’t have the time in the video. Jim Sterling has a great one on it actually: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYSQdXqKd7-IZ5Y

[@CurtTheHero]

@@Lextorias cool, ill have to check it out 👍

[@redseagaming7832]

I refuse to buy the microtransactions in these games cuz I remember being a kid and actually playing games that did not have this monetization garbage

[@CurtTheHero]

@@redseagaming7832 agreed

[@GustavoHenrique-er4bn]

Man, keep making these great videos, I'm big fan of nakeyjakey, and you are one of the few youtubers that make content that make me feel something similar and as cool as his content, thank you!

[@Lextorias]

Thank you! To even be compared to him is an honor.

[@xdouche3608]

There are a lot of videos about this topic, but this is definitely among the best written and most informative I've seen so far. Great content!

[@markkhairullah7475]

This video was really well done, I enjoyed it a lot

[@Lextorias]

Thanks!

[@aadipie]

Hope you don't burn out man, getting a 30 min vid done in just 2 weeks is pretty wild and awesome. But definitely take longer if you ever need to

[@Lextorias]

I appreciate the concern. It's not so much pushing myself to make the video in 2 weeks, but more that I could've always done this, I just procrastinated before. So don't worry, I'm not pushing myself into any burnout. Just working more regularly since my videos are getting some traction :)

[@gobe30]

16:38 I honestly was expecting a cut to an ad right after that. Good for you for resisting the temptation.

[@saycap]

Nope there was an ad right after he said that and looked deadpan at the camera. I thought it was funny though

[@barrett206]

there was it was kinda funny

[@JaySee5]

Calling loot boxes and gatcha games gambling is too generous. They're just theft. In gambling you have a chance to win money. Loot boxes and gatcha give you absolutely *NOTHING!* The "items" are virtual and disappear when the game service ends. They're more like drugs than gambling. You get a thrill/high and awful lows.

[@NoVamp3499]

> In gambling you have a chance to win money. Loot boxes and gatcha give you absolutely NOTHING! iirc that is exactly the reason lootboxes are legal, while gambling isn't. With gambling you have the chance of winning something of value. Because you can win nothing of value with lootboxes, they don´t legally count as gambling.

[@amcname8789]

Halo 5's Warzone mode was literally an entire intricate gamemode designed around a lootbox system. Fun mode that was completely PTW. Since the "req" (short for requisition) packs had armor (which was simplified in its customization, likely for the MTs), weapon skins, and entire variants of the game's basic weapons with different scopes and attachments, alongside more powerful and varied weapons with insane effects of different rarities.There was a full-auto lmg with explosive rounds, over half a dozen variations of a single type of rocket launcher. Different flavors of one-hit-kill melee weapons. And much, *much* more. And this was all for a single mode, not including Forge, where anything can be spawned in, or modes with randomized weapons. It would be a pretty great showcase for some sort of addendum video to this one. And that's not even all! There was pre-existing content removed and drip-fed back for free by the oh-so-generous developers. Longtime fan-favorite modes were included in these free updates. Infection, one of Halo's most beloved multiplayer gametypes, came to Halo 5 half to almost a year after launch. Whoo, anyway, that's enough venting about Halo 5, and now unfortunately Infinite.

[@DOGEELLL]

Halo died with 4 thanks to modern greed crap

[@calebtheholyman545]

Holy shit dude your humor is top notch. Had to actually stifle a laugh a couple of times at work, especially when you very apparently set up for a Raid: Shadow Legends ad, only to move on without the ad. I almost cried it was so beautifully done.

[@alexsmout203]

That ad joke you made at 16:35 a 1000 iq joke right there.

[@matthiaskritzinger5509]

So the ad role here was on purpose - i knew it 😂👌🏼

[@chucheeness7817]

I'm so glad that the games I'm interested in are either indie or just Japanese titles. Indie metroidvanias and roguelikes, and most JRPGs ship out complete and the early access open world survivals I play are worth the low price with the stuff they currently have in-game even before release. I eventually have tuned out the FOMO for the AAA titles, even the ones I once supported. I haven't paid anything after purchasing a game for years now, well, except for buying their OSTs.

[@Iranex1]

i fully expected to see millions of views on this video! was kinda surprised when i didnt. keep up the fantastic work, i couldnt agree with this video more! i wish every senator could see this

[@isaiahwebb3743]

Amazing video. I’ve been binging your content for about a day now, I’ve gone through most of your videos and this one is genuinely one of the best made and most entertaining I’ve ever seen on KZbin. I’ve been hearing about anti-consumer practices in the video game industry for years, but I’ve never really understood the full story and scope of the issue until watching this. I will absolutely be joining your patreon, thank you so much for your hard work.

[@Lextorias]

thank you! I appreciate it

[@GreatRaijin]

This is a great video man, this channel is mini-ActMan, its only a matter of time before you get the recognition you deserve

[@shayoko6]

wonderful video. educational experiences like this are the kind of videos that should have a massive amount of views. people need to not just watch them but share them. so more people can be well informed!

[@sangera]

In one of the Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games (I think it was Mankind Divided), you could literally buy skill points. The kicker was that it was a one time purchase meaning the skill points did not transfer over new saves.

[@DOGEELLL]

Even deus ex got ruined by modern greed its crazy

[@calhowell6798]

Man your content is fantastic. Another great vid. Keep it up man big things are on the horizon.

[@Snoozleberrilichious]

Overwatch 2 just came out this week and I used to hate loot boxes but the battle pass system that’s been added and the other systems of unlocking characters and getting skins is absolutely ridiculous. I spent so many years on OW1 collecting all of the cosmetics without spending any actual money and now that’s impossible to do

[@n00bJesus]

DUUDE that ending is hands down THE BEST promo for a creator’s other vid I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched it already but hell yeah good shit man.

[@thomaslieven680]

One correction on the part about FIFA: You can play online without playing ultimate team, the mode where you have to buy boosters to get players (and afaik, those players can even expire). A few years ago, I was actively playing FIFA online, and there is an entire online league mode where you play with ordinary teams. I never got into FUT because it was convoluted as hell and I never got why one would pay to play in a mode with less balanced teams instead of just playing the normal online mode. Anything else you say about FUT is correct, but you can 100% avoid it and play FIFA online

[@ikec-pw5sb]

Found this channel through the fanservice video. I feel like I've discovered a goldmine of KZbin content

[@Spamster3212]

Just watched this and your video about why horror games get less scary. Then a whole bunch of your other videos showed up in my recommended, and I can already tell I've got the next several hours of KZbin content sorted. Keep it up :)

[@Canalbiruta]

That's it, the docking joke got me subscribed. Many of the well written jokes were fantastic, but this was on another level (alongside the swat coming for cod players looking to buy cp). Amazing job, gonna look forward for each upload no matter how much time they get.

[@metalemon5487]

Loot boxes are like gambling, but you can't get money back

[@keybladebard4089]

Star Wars battlefront 2 2017 actually got rid of loot boxes before launch and ended up spending a lot of it’s post launch time reworking the game to not need them for progression, eventually ending up becoming a great game it’s just a shame that it didn’t start where it ended

[@marcuslai6115]

Great commentary. Wish more people would see this. Are you working for any gaming / journalism outlets? You really should.

[@roberthesser6402]

I spent this morning listening to your videos while doing the dishes. This is my third video and that docking joke got you a subscriber lmao. Very high quality my guy, keep it up!

[@markfreeman4727]

i find it mind boggling that a game can no longer just make money, it has to make ALL the money, and it must continue to do so forever, and the first dip in revenue, support will be pulled, the game will be abandoned and the studio running it will be shut down

[@JuanRecomienda]

Fantastic Work! I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and you are really talented

[@Lextorias]

Thank you!

[@kidlimitless]

The bit at the end... Slowly turns to a pirate.. Hilarious!

[@sam-ky9sj]

The video is amazing! I've been listening to your videos while I work and they're really fun AND interesting, the way you explain things is great. I do want to correct that, in Genshin Impact, you only have a 0.3% chance of getting your 5 star character of choice, the 0.6% is the chance you have to get a 5 star character. It's not super relevant but just shows how these games are just worse gambling with a different name. Keep up the good work, and congratulations on 33.3K subscribers!

[@Gigakoopz]

Loot boxes are microtransaction, specifically heavy microtransaction. Microtransaction isn't nessecarily loot boxes, but loot boxes is microtransaction.

[@iMeta4]

"Who would play ads in the middle of free content just to make a quick buck?" I love your humor sir.

[@chrismuscaroler]

hey, REALLY good video! just discovered your channel and i'm glad i did, your videos all have such great production value and it's always nice to see content from people who are willing to call out bigotry and predatory business practices while still valuing the merits of games as a whole. seems like your channel has really blown up quickly, i hope you're taking breaks from the comments and taking care of yourself! i've heard that content creator burnout can be pretty intense

[@whiskeybuddha1995]

Old video so you may not see this but just found your channel today, and I’m already a fan. Love how well you articulate and lay out the information. Subscribed

[@MorganEdgy]

The CP bit sent me ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

[@RuyVuusen]

I once bought like most of the LEGO® franchise's games for a bit over $100 in a Steam sale, including most of the (gameplay oriented) premium. That's like 20-30 games for the prize of one modern triple-A game with DLCs.

[@Ironclad404]

In defence of Genshin Impact (I play it and love it), the drop rate steadily increases all the way to 100% at 90 rolls. Players who think they will get their 5* in 10 wishes are truly f*cked. But players are reasonable and save ahead, can guarantee themselves whatever character is going to appear in the gacha. I prefer it.

[@animae008]

Yes but there is still a 50/50 aspect so you can spend 180 wishes to get one copy of the character. At Least genshin is mostly single player so you won't spend thousands dollars to become the best player because you can't fight with other players. Spiral abyss is the biggest reason players want to have the strongest characters. Other than that people pull characters so they can look at their hot waifu/husbando

[@DOGEELLL]

That also a trick to make you spend thats what you dont mention idiot Yes you can have a guarrented char at some point but you will have to grind for long times just like every sibgle trash system they do now You really dont understand lol

[@DOGEELLL]

​@@animae008exactly it is pure scam to make you frustated and then you pay and if you dont prepare to grind for hundreds of hours these dev are terrible

[@WORTH-IT-MAN]

Gayshit impotent detected opinion rejected

[@dany_fg]

15:06 also in Pokémon go you can get the coins even without paying (placing Pokémon in gyms). they have now a different kind of microtransaction - events which cost real money (no real to fake currency transaction)

[@ProjektBurn]

I can't believe I never discovered your channel until tonight but I'm glad I did. I've been binging a few vids and so far love it. I would like to add to this particular subject that if you ever come back to it (and haven't done so already), going into detail about how companies will utilize a hidden ELO system behind the scenes to increase a player's association with "spending money = better chances of winning" through Pavlovian tricks they DO NOT TELL THE PLAYER is built into the game, well, that itself and some of the dirtier tactics found, openly bragged about on other YT channels with recorded seminars from the devs who sell these backend products to companies like EA, make everything you mentioned here just the tip of an even darker iceberg. (run on sentence did run on, my bad) Anywho, stay awesome and I'm glad I found your channel. You're doing an awesome service with your video essays. Looking forward to catching up on more of them. :D

[@hannieblck]

just to clarify - you can earn characters through standard gameplay in a lot of gacha games, as, similar to the loot box situation, it provides you in game currency for playing and, unlike loot boxes, it is standard for gacha games to have ‘pity’, ie after a certain amount of pulls, you 100% are guaranteed to get the character you want, and what you COULD get and each percentage chance is clearly shown obviously loot boxes don’t show what you could get, and don’t, as far as i know, apply a pity system where at some point you will 100% get the specific item you want from the loot box

[@krtar4199]

I’m a year late but I’d like to add a few things: First is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), where companies release something that you need to pay for, otherwise it will forever be gone. I’m an avid dead by daylight player and yes I do hate myself, and they released Attack on Titan skins, they were in the game for a year, and each skin costs about $10-$15, and if you didn’t buy them in that one year, you couldn’t do it anymore, which gave the impression to buy them all now, as you can just wait for your next paycheck to spend maybe $10 that month on a skin and wait for the next check. Another thing, more of an example for some points you said, is how some games just do monetization worse than others. With Dead by Daylight, you have 3 currencies: blood points, earned exclusively through playing the game and cannot be bought with real money, used for leveling characters up, iridescent shards, earned by leveling up your account and cannot be bought with in game money, used to buy some cosmetics (some can only be bought with the next currency, Auric Cells) and new survivors and killers (except licensed characters, more on that in a minute), and Auric Cells, only available through micro transactions, used to buy their battle pass, any and all characters, and any and all skins. DBD feels like a subscription with new DLCs every 3 months, all costing $10, and then in the midpoints of these chapters, another $10 for the battle pass if you are into that, meaning $20 every 3 months or roughly $7 a month subscription. Again, you cannot buy licensed characters with free currency, which fair, they are licensed, but even to get all characters that you can with free currency, as well as earn every perk in the game through this weekly shrine (only uses iridescent shards), it takes up to 800 hours, and that’s using data from over a year ago, with all the chapters this could easily be over 1000 hours of playtime just to get everything that isn’t locked behind Auric Cells. For reference to another game, Rainbow Six Siege allows you to get any and all operators with Renown, a free in game currency. I started playing R6 about 3 months ago after dropping it 6 years ago, I had a little less than half the operators already, and I might have bought one of the deluxe editions while it was on sale for about $10, and I now am only missing 3 operators without paying a dime. I’m kind of just ranting but all these games have pros and cons in monetization, R6 has loot boxes that dbd doesn’t, but dbd has a far bigger grind just to be able to play certain characters, some of which have insanely strong perks that define the meta, basically making it pay to win. But again, all of these issues are circumvented by dropping literally x10 the game’s initial cost, and as they are live service games, that number is never dropping, you buy every chapter for $300 in dbd, guess what, 3 weeks from now we got a new killer and another $10 to drop Idk what my original point is but fuck modern gaming, the crippling addictions we all have

[@kanebilly7404]

That's actually what I have been telling people, you got all the points correctly, so you earned yourself a sub from me. And the ending is very WELL done mate.

[@mr.waffles8739]

I loved that ending bit, your "video game piracy is good" video popping up, as you fade in a pirate hat and eye patch is gold Also liked the vid that part was just my favorite

[@kipame]

slightl correction at 24:53, Girls' Frontline isn't about school girls but Civilian Androids who were basically drafted, the game also doesn't use a gacha mechanic to obtain any of them, they're ALL free and easily obtainable within the game without a single money spent, despite being around 600 or them, they don't have gachas to get those characters, the gacha is only for skins to the dolls.

[@Oakshield2]

A lot of this video made me think of how I felt when I got Diablo 3 after growing up playing thousands of hours of Diablo 2 and how it was all going downhill from there. D3 was a terrible game focused on trying to get your money while D2 was a masterpiece that you only had to pay for once, plus the fantastic expansion and they never bothered you again trying to sell you useless stuff in game or forcing things behind paywalls and creating a pay-to-try-to-compete environment.

[@jazzknh1105]

That was such a damn good takedown of these viciously predatory practices. Subscribed.

[@Ash21]

While I overall agree with the video, I really wish people would stop saying battlefront's still P2W, it's not. It really undermines all the hard work and effort the devs at DICE put into making the game better after it's awful launch. They completely removed loot boxes and all elements of P2W, completely redid the progression system, added content the community had been asking for, and overall turned it into a really well liked game by most. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be used as an example of greedy monetization, cause 100% it was, all I'm saying is just that all the hard work DICE put into fixing it should be noticed.

[@Belesprit656]

I generally just get cheap games since I'm usually disappointed with the expensive games and it's a lot less risk. Not to say I play retro games or "bad" games, but I've had a lot of success with it.

[@ag2023en]

For free-to-play games, maybe we could try using a "pay for base credits" system. It's like a lootbox, but instead of getting only one box per payment, the player buys "base credits", and these base credits are reusable everytime the player completes a difficult challenge. For example, if the player buys 5 base credits, the player will get 5 lootbox rolls as a reward everytime they complete a certain challenge. This might help reduce the problem of paid rewards making some players overpowered, since these paid rewards are still dependent on skill. It also means that the player can pay once and still receive lootbox benefits eternally, so their money isn't wasted even if they get a bad roll.

[@HAZARDDEAD]

To be fair, azur lane is one of the fairest gachas that i played. I have 250+ ships and almost all on max lvl. In the 3-4 years that i occasionally played it i have spend in total like 10€ and still have 10+ 2d animated skins and a shit ton of normal skins.

[@troykv96]

I sometimes wonder how much of the Azur Lane's revenue is actually from the gacha, and how much is from skins... I imagine gacha is still high overall, but considering how much hype there is for new skins, it makes me wonder how much % they're

[@kostasdinos8982]

lol

[@Stephen-Fox]

Fun trivia about Dungeon Keeper Mobile - the microtransactions were so bad EA was banned from calling it Free to Play in the UK by the advertisement standards authority, on account that beyond a certain point the game basically becomes unplayable if you don't pay. ...I wonder if that's why the 'free to start' term started to gain use, come to think of it...

[@hadesking2475]

Bad Show🚬

[@dfcx1]

My favorite monetization scheme is the one where I like the game so much I gift it to my friends as well.

[@offlineable]

Surprised not enough people mention Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. Contains pretty much all of the following scummy mechanics mentioned here, uses psychological tactics and addiction to keep you playing, is actually MUCH more expensive to play compared to pretty much every game listed here, they reach a new moral low with almost every update, and the icing on the cake: it's made by (you guessed it) EA.

[@hgrim2773]

I remember og season passes generally u get all dlcs for like $30. He'll gears 3 had a 30 dollar season pass and u got like 4 or 5 map packs, a campaign dlc, I don't recall if u got all the skins or a couple (gears 3 had a lot of weapon skins), and all playable pvp characters, oh and a new fortification and a new fortification upgrade

[@majesticwizardcat]

Stumbled upon your channel a few days ago and just finished watching all your videos. I like your stuff, keep it up and thanks for the videos!

[@pranjaltiwari1663]

Your channel is going to blow up big time. Nice Work.

[@medmoded7767]

Imagine your kids asking you to give them 700$ for a game

[@mb3318]

It's funny but after playing video games my entire life, all I really do now is play gacha games due to my job and lifestyle lol. The gambling aspect of those games are far more exciting to me than regular gameplay now. Those damn companies rewired my brain lol. Edit: I gave it some thought and I realized how much I actually appreciate mobile gacha games. They led to my first real college relationship and friends at my current job. They also provided a ton of entertainment during downtime while watching sports, in between workout sets, or in my other hobbies like golf.

[@jacksfacts20]

So far every video I’ve seen on your channel has been clever and super funny.

[@tylerschenk4043]

I love how you credit smaller channels that have great videos on the topics you talk about. I allows smaller creators to get much-deserved recognition, and more importantly, shows the great amounts of research that go into every episode. Thanks for your diligence, that's what makes the content so entertaining.

[@pixiedust1383]

As someone who once played a Chinese-fantasy based gacha game once, it was the worst, most soul destroying thing I’d ever done. As I kept playing I’d get limited time pop ups of different items and packs and I’d buy them here and there because they helped me progress way faster and it “wasn’t that much” for a pack. Cue me a couple months later using the prestige points you earn for every £ spent to calculate how much money I’ve actually spent and I was sitting at roughly £2000. Playing that game was the biggest mistake of my life and I can’t stress enough how much people need to stay away from anything with a monetisation system anywhere close to gacha and loot boxes

[@medmoded7767]

Man i love your channel

[@petryksachko4102]

This makes me sad. This made sad in the past. This will keep making me sad in the future. So much monetization, so little care . . .

[@francolarich]

Great video!! Thank you for making it!

[@johnnyestrada6993]

Street Fighter II was the first major game that utilized expansion. There was SFII SFII Championship Edition which allowed you to play as the 4 bosses and mirror matches. SFII Turbo which sped the game up Super SFII added 4 new characters, new moves, new stages, updated sound (CPS2 chip) Super SFII Turbo which sped the game up again, added super combos, even more new moves, and added Akuma as a secret boss.

[@pandjalu6]

I played some gacha games and my playable time is very high, but I'm glad that I didn't spend any cent on the games, I can hold myself to not buying in-game content. Also, the one with gun-girls-anime-gacha-game is the most hours I'm into, but thankfully, to have character you want to pull is not from sort of gems or premium shard, but rather from ingredients that are generated from reward when you play. But yeah, you still have that gems and tokens currency to buy costumes, to get character you want and some slot to make the game faster. Because of that, the games is not on top 5 or 10 when they survey the amount of profit money gacha games the having. Don't play gacha games if you can't hold yourself from buying the content, because it's not gonna last forever.

[@whensomethingcriesagain]

One of my favorite things about old-school expansion packs is that some of the really great ones could even overshadow the original games they were attached to in one way or another. My go-to example is Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, an expansion so influential that I've known people who straight up forgot the original game's story and remembered ToB as though it were the whole thing

[@mr_indie_fan]

How to correctly monetize a game: 1: make and sell a full game for a good price 2: make dlc campaigns that are different to the base game and don't take away from the base campaign, price it based on the length, of course this only applies to games with campaigns. (Expansion packs as mentioned in the video work to on games without campaigns, and when I say not take away from the main campaign i mean not cutting parts of the game and then releasing it as dlc) 3: make dlc character packs giving players a new character, weapon, etc for really cheap, this applies to games with campaigns. 4: make a physical ultimate edition of the game with all dlc on disc/cartridge that costs more then the base game once your done making dlc for said game. 5: make *innovative* sequels, spinoffs, etc that repeat the first point. 6: rerelease/remake/remaster the game down the road on new consoles, perhaps with several games for a collection that has a cool game selection screen. (Or something beyond a screen like the sega genesis mega drive collection)

[@mr_indie_fan]

The original Borderlands games and castle crashers pulled this off perfectly, there is no reason other games cant do the same if the developers/publishers really want to monetize it.

[@mr_indie_fan]

How not to monetize a game: Horse armor, cosmetics purchased with real money, real gambling, nfts, pay to win gameplay, lootboxes, xbox gamepass, live service, battlepass, digital currency and any other form of microtransactions that i missed.

[@infernoanonymous]

I've been playing games for well over a decade and not spent much on them, the only place I did spend money in a game was for something permanent and a game I play regularly (a rank on a server in Minecraft), I've also played a good amount of gacha games, including one shown in the video, Destiny child, which has since been shut down about a year ago, but i still never had an issue with gacha games and never spent money on them. I've been f2p for the grand majority and it is pretty easy to do so especially in gacha games if you have self control, but then again that is exactly the aimed demographic of gacha games, people who dont have much self control or just have tons money to spare.

[@lukas_koe]

Wow! Thank you for that comprehensive explanation with the history included. Insightful.

[@tetrabelle]

I love that this is a companion piece to the piracy video. Thanks for always putting out thoughtful and entertaining content.

[@OlOleander]

All of the good points aside, if there's one thing I learned in my brief time in Toronto and a lifetime of listening to BNL, it's that Canuckian authenticity is proven by referring to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese product as 'Kraft Dinner.' Basically Canadian ID.

[@Kougeru]

4:00 basically all DLC is "on disc" now, and tons are Day 1. They take up precious space on our SSDs even if we don't pay for it. Forced on us.

[@music_YT2023]

The only lootboxes I ever thought were fine were for cosmetics (like Overwatch and Path of Exile). However, Blizzard-Activision has shown time and time again they are only in things for the profits and Overwatch 2 will not only make Overwatch 1 unplayable but also introduce battle passes and more skeezy monetization practices (e.g., locking characters ala BattleFront-style). Despite my continued abstinence from any Blizzard games after their Hearthstone Taiwan fiasco and on-going coverage of their sexist business practices, the fact that they are also taking a game I've already payed for and making it impossible to play just really boils me. I don't always comment, but I really love your content. Think I started with the fanservice vid and just kept going. Humor, script and editing are all 🔥

[@LurkingLarper]

Excellent channel with super low subscriber count for some reason. I will join your sub club and wait for more quality content patiently.

[@jessereed82]

Thank you for the Big Mac conversion, I was confused when you gave Canadian prices.

[@kubasniak]

I'm surprised you didn't mention companies like Nexon and their games like Maple Story... absolutely disgusting scammers and predators. I agree with everything you said in the video and those are the reasons I look less and less forward to gaming nowadays.

[@pinkmarkercat]

LOL as soon as you said who would randomly play ads in the middle of a game an ad popped up on the video 🤣

[@Slaquery27]

I honestly dont care if they have micro-transactions if its free, but what bothers me is when they ask you for $70 for the game. Then, constantly ask for more money in the form of overpriced packs *cough* Call of Duty *cough*

[@eneco3965]

Yeah, shit like this is a surefire way of making me pirate the game

[@noonespecial311]

Funnily enough, I've played gacha games not knowing that I played a gacha game. I just thought 'Oh its an anime game! I wonder what it's like.'

[@runethorsen8423]

new member here - the most deserved dollar in youtube history ! You are very welcome Sir.

[@aboomer420]

have a family member who was deep into genshin impact. once watched them after having saved gems or whatever for a year, waiting for a specific character drop. the look on their face, changing from excitement and joy to disappointment, then anger, then ultimately sadness. after that came the cope, "oh well I got this character 5 star and that's an upgrade.." so on and so on. devastating to watch from an outside perspective.

[@DesiNR_M]

Gotta repeat myself but these are Insanely catchy intros.

[@SuperWaistcoat]

The ad bit fell real flat given there was an ad 1 minute prior to the joke

[@cookiemamba2386]

Exactly the problem I got with Persona 3 Remake: Dataminers apparently found out that the DLC "the Answer" was already included in the game, and the file for the DLC is only a few MB big. And only available if you buy the entire season pass.

[@TheFlashHawk]

Did everyone else get an ad after said said who would put an ad in the middle of playing a game?

[@jeffreyaldrich1865]

Decent dive into this topic. Not that much new info or opinions as others I have heard, but I appreciated the honesty of the presentation.

[@slumplxrd934]

Watched this whole video. Good video dude