Games console industry tries to adapt to rise of free-to-play titles | Financial Times
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Sony slashes its PlayStation 5 prices in attempt to grapple with changing player tastes

Games console industry tries to adapt to rise of free-to-play titles

Virtual goods such as Fortnite weapons and subscription services such as Microsoft’s Game Pass have become as important to the console industry as its traditional money spinner of high-priced standalone games, marking a turning point for the $60bn business.

Console players are set to splash out $21bn on in-game items and subscription services this year — about the same as they will spend on game downloads and discs, according to research group Ampere Analysis.

Such expenditure has risen sharply since the popular free title Fortnite debuted in 2017. Gamers that year spent three times more on console software than on subscriptions and virtual items.

…

“If players continue to gravitate to free games, such as Fortnite, that do not require the latest hardware, Sony will find it more difficult to sell its PS5 to all but the most dedicated of players, some analysts have argued.”

Archived version of the article: https://archive.vn/032BW#selection-2369.103-2373.159

  • @TORFdot0English
    6•1 year ago

    It’s time for people to vote with their wallets and stop purchasing and playing games with predatory monetization models.

    But saying that people complaining about MTX are like old man yelling at cloud is wrong. There will always be room for criticizing MTX like there will always be room for criticizing capitalism.

      • @TORFdot0English
        1•1 year ago

        I definitely agree with you on this. It’s possible to vote with your wallet and still lose the vote. But I simply mean to suggest that those of us who won’t stand for MTX filled games ought to embrace the games that don’t have them (or at least don’t compromise the experience for them) like god of war, or red dead 2 etc. and that we should reach back into our backlogs and find games that we missed and look to purchase and play those rather than get the latest full price games that are still filled with MTX

    • Neato
      2•1 year ago

      Yes. But if they’re predatory then they are abusing mental quirks. Similar to gambling there needs to be regulation. Especially on loot boxes and gatcha which are gambling.