5 Ways Games Get You To Spend Money

The game industry, as passionate as it may seem, is still another commercial enterprise. Needless to say, the industry now ranks the highest for making the most money compared to other entertainment mediums. And while the cost of games has significantly increased over the years, the price tag of $40-60 remains the same even after 15 years.

#1 Expansions

Not too long ago, gaming consoles and videogames offered an experience that was complete. And unless a sequel was released, that’s all you would hear from the developers. However, in recent times, downloadable content has made its way to the game industry. While these expansions offer considerable additional content, they come for a price. Many developers have begun to divide the main story content of games as well, but that is not how expansions work.

Taking The Witcher 3 for an example, the game offers an impeccable core game and story. But, for the fans of the game, CD Project Red released two notable expansions: Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine. Both expansions provided gameplay and a distinct storyline worth more than the price paid for it.

#2 Season Passes

Similar to the expansions discussed above, season passes have been making their way into the game industry as well. The purchase of a season pass is no different from pre-ordering the entirety of the game’s downloadable content. The pricing for each season pass is likely to vary, with a median value of $20. Seasons passes are often good, but depending on the game, you will not know what you’re paying for till you actually get the content.

Moreover, pre-ordering a season pass before the game’s release will undoubtedly have a chance that you may not like the game to begin with. Therefore, why even spend the money on additional content? And though PC platforms like Steam allow players to demand a refund, the gaming consoles do not offer such luxuries to the player base.

#3 Cosmetics

So, you’re playing a certain game, preferably an online title and you come across a few players with better looks and costumes. What do you do? The average player will begin to focus on getting more outfits to show off, right? Game developers have found a great way of pushing players to spend more money, simply for making their characters seem more aesthetically pleasing.

But, hold on. Before we villainize the game industry, understanding the idea is imperative. The cosmetics of a game are often seen in free-to-play games. Thus, the developers are possibly providing an amazing game for the free price tag, but aiming to earn by having players spend the unspent money on cosmetically improving their characters. Even better, it is completely up to the player whether they want to make the purchase or not.

#4 In-game Purchases

With the popularity of mobile games, the concept of in-game purchases has completely changed the trend of making money off games. The same aspects can now be seen in console and PC games. Players are now able to sink insurmountable amounts of cash into free-to-play games such as CS:GO. However, the trend has extended over to $60 games like Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront II.

These games, particularly Overwatch, push players to spend amounts from $2 per loot box to $40 worth of loot boxes with supposedly higher chances of scoring valuable items. The items gained from loot boxes are often new outfits, dance animations, graffiti tags, and new spoken lines for each character. Nevertheless, despite how impressive the items may seem, the money spent on such content is unneeded.

#5 Pay to Progress Faster

Since we are on the topic of in-game purchases, it needs to be mentioned how some games try to make money in a different way. While a new outfit may improve your character’s look, it does not affect the gameplay by any means. Therefore, the game remains safe and balanced for all players, focusing entirely on the skills of each player. But with the modernization of in-app purchases, game developers have begun to exploit players by hindering their progress and offering a solution in the form of more purchases. Needless to say, this just makes the said game industries seem extremely cheap and greedy.