

Rather than every player being on an equal playing field, players who spend money get better equipment and abilities, making some games more about who paid the most money rather than who played the best. Games employing microtransactions that offer a gameplay advantage are often called "pay to win" by gamers. They also sold items that provided in-game advantages for users that bought them. Many in-game items were sold for ridiculously high prices at their Atom store, with Eurogamer noting that a purely cosmetic Santa Claus outfit sold for $20. This game suffered from a lot of technical issues at launch, but one of the most significant issues people had with the game was the prominence of microtransactions. These trading cards are in random packs that cost players a certain amount each.Ī recent example is Bethesda Game Studio's Fallout 76. Both the NBA 2k and the FIFA series have modes that allow players to collect trading cards to unlock in-game content. People who spend enormous amounts of money on microtransactions are called "whales." Many of these games have been compared to slot machines, except they don't pay out money.Īlso common among some gamers is the belief that if you pay $60 for a premium game, having to pay additional money to unlock in-game content that is already programmed into the game is greedy. Since gacha games actively encourage you to purchase more, people can spend thousands of dollars on any particular title. They're based on a Japanese vending machine format where you enter cash or tokens and get a random toy inside a capsule in return. There's an entire subgenre of video games centered around these random loot boxes called "gacha games," which are typically free mobile games.
