Monetisation is vaguely the term of turning a product into money. More specifically this article is referring to the monetization of video games. Online games need a way to keep their servers up, and for a long time the standard way of doing it was to make the game cost money. A very simple and straightforward method, then maybe they’d offer some camo and weapon packs as DLC (Downloadable Content).
However, now companies are over-monetizing their games. The big one people used to point out wa,s Fortnite because they had a battle pass and a lot of cosmetics for sale. However they are nowhere near the biggest offender when it comes to monetization.
The big offenders of these god awful monetization systems are companies like Activision Blizzard. Overwatch 2 has so many skins which retail anywhere from 5 to 20 dollars. Don’t forget about the battle pass in the game. Also the game charges you for PvE (Player vs. Environment), the whole reason that they said they were making a second game! But hey they’re a small indie company(totally not a multi-billion dollar company). You can’t expect too much from them.
Maybe Call of Duty, I mean look at this game it’s sixty dollars. It shouldn’t have a battle pa—, oh wait it has one. Don’t forget about the absurd number of skins and weapons you can buy. For some unknown reason companies are obsessed with putting battle passes into games that absolutely do not need it. A battle pass for those uninformed is a progression system many games are using now where each level in the battle pass unlocks more items. Usually in order to access it you need to pay on average ten dollars. One of the best examples of an unnecessary battle pass is Destiny 2. Destiny 2 already charges their player 60 dollars for an incomplete DLC because they couldn’t meet the deadline, so they really don’t need a battle pass.
This is getting out of hand, these games absolutely do not need a battle pass. But just you wait, because battle passes aren’t the only things these games have. You may have noticed that all these games at one point cost money. Generally speaking these games are the most heinous ones. You already had to spend a lot of money on the game, the player should just be able to unlock everything with hard work rather than with their wallet. But a large number of game devs are just in it for the money and nothing else in this modern age.
Even games that at first don’t seem like they’re in it for the money surprise you. Now free to play games do need a way to pay for their servers. But possibly the worst approach, which a large number do, is lock equipment behind absurd unlock requirements. Don’t worry though as you can just spit out $60 dollars and not have to worry about getting each individual drop and farming for their materials (Warframe). These anti-consumer models are so bad, especially when they’re in a game that has great general mechanics and feel.
Game companies have become so obsessed with the constant monetization of their games that they forget to actually attract people to their game and give them a reason to play it. But what can you do, it’s not like we could just stop playing the games until they actually stop being so predatory over our money right? Oh wait we can.
