Tag: microtransactions

      Playstation Home reaches 10 million users

      December 19, 2009 /

      Playstation Home logo.Despite the service’s non-priority status, Playstation Home has hit a significant milestone this week. According to a press release this morning, the place “where users and developers meet” has hit 10 million users. The news comes as Home has opened new spaces recently, including one for Uncharted 2.

      “Every new game space enhances the overall experience for consumers, offering more variety, more choice and more enjoyment from a PlayStation Home session,” said Dan Hill, Sony’s European Home business manager. “The more game spaces there are, the better it gets, and the number of spaces keeps on growing. For developers, there’s no better way of driving interest in their titles than giving fans a hands-on, interactive experience based around the game itself.”

      Well, a hands-on, interactive experience with the game itself always seemed sufficient to me. Really, I have very little interest in Home as any sort of serious marketing platform. It might be a nice way for Sony to make a few bucks if they can properly monetize it, but I can’t imagine the value for developers being as high as Hill makes it out to be.

      Development, PS3

      Activision looking to further monetize online gameplay

      November 16, 2009 /

      Activision logo.It looks like Activision likes the idea of monetizing online gameplay for more than just World of Warcraft. Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Conference this week, Activision CFO Thomas Tippl said he liked the idea of spreading the WoW business model to other games in the Activision lineup. From the context, it sounds like that means subscription fees, which would make all sorts of people unhappy.

      “We have great experience also on Call of Duty with the success we had on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. A lot of that knowledge is getting actually built into the Battle.Net platform and the design of that,” Tippl said. “I think it’s been mutually beneficial, and you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty.” So there’s also some potential for microtransactions, possibly for map packs or special equipment.

      Tippl also mentioned the demand from the gaming community to pay for extended support for games. Now I’m not sure why that would be the case, especially for games like Call of Duty. I usually find it worse for FPS games to get tons and tons of maps. That says nothing of the backlash from PC players over paying for something that has traditionally been available for free if Activision goes the subscription route.

      Whatever Activision chooses, it probably won’t be good for anyone. I understand the need to make money for the fast-approaching day people stop buying Rock Band, but maybe this isn’t the best way to do that.

      Activision, News

      Blizzard takes the plunge into not-so-microtransactions

      November 4, 2009 /

      Pandaren Monk in WoW.Propriety be damned, Blizzard’s decided to enter the ugly world of microtransactions. In true Blizzard style, though, the transactions aren’t so micro. World of Warcraft players can now spend a completely ludicrous $10 on an in-game pet from the Blizzard Pet Store. For now there are just two, the Pandaren Monk and Lil K’T, but there are plans to add more in the future.

      As though to curb some of the backlash that no doubt comes with this release, Blizzard announced that the purchases of a Pandaren Monk from now to December 31st will result in a 50% donation to Make-A-Wish, courtesy of Blizzard. Your purchases of Lil K’T, on the other hand, will simply help the Blizzard CEO’s buy larger stakes in football franchises.

      Really I’m surprised it took this long. WoW has held out for nearly five years, leaving the fees to maintenance services like realm and faction changes. As the next generation of MMOs prepare for launch, it’s not at all surprising that Blizzard would look to get its dues from WoWs most dedicated players.

      Activision, MMO

      Playstation Home not a priority

      November 1, 2009 /

      Playstation Home users.Playstation Home doesn’t get a lot of airtime in the states, but it is a little more active in Europe. At the London Games Conference this week, Sony’s director of Playstation Home for Europe, Pete Edwards, said the virtual space has a viable business model but that it’s not a priority for the time being.

      “It’s been a long road,” Edwards said. “We’ve proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there.”

      Edwards said earlier this year that European users average 56 minutes in Home per session. That sounds like enough time to consider investing more heavily in the service, but it says nothing of number of users or just what those users are doing. Idle time is a lot different from time spent exploring and interacting with the locations.

      Home isn’t going the way of Nokia’s N-Gage, but it’s pretty clear the service won’t be getting much more interesting any time soon.

      Source: Edge Online

      MMO, PS3

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