I remember when we had cheat codes for single player games... I miss just cheating my way to the last level to have fun.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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This is something only an out of touch suit with a buying addiction would say.
I don't care about what people buy for themselves, but implying it enhances the game in any way is extremely stupid. This is why suits ought to stay away from videogames.
Don't worry, this isn't something they actually believe. They're just trying to craft a narrative. I worked there for 5 years, and in that whole time nobody on the publishing end of the company said anything that even hinted at them giving a shit about fun.
Been gaming on PC since 1984 - in no way shape or form is it "fun" to be forced to spend money to complete a part of a game. It's a shakedown. This is also why I would never spend a dime on anything Ubisoft.
They left out, "for us" in the end.
Only a non gamer would say something so blatantly false
I go back to history of games. My favorites through time...not 1 of them had micro transactions.
Uncharted...none Eye of the beholder and all early DnD games...none Civilization (up to about civ 4)...none And pretty much all pc games before 1989.
Just create and sell me a finished game on media I can keep. Why is this so fucking hard nowadays
Quite the opposite in fact. Microtransactions offer the promise of fun, but never deliver, because in order to incentivise users to purchase them, the player must feel like the game is 90% of the way to being fun and that tiny additional purchase will get it there.
It's like the cartoon image of the donkey rider holding a carrot on the end of a rod. The donkey keeps moving to try to get the carrot, but never quite reaches it.
Why do we give coverage to stuff like this? It's clearly an attempt to keep their name relevant or manufacture consent. Maybe both.
You know what makes games even more fun? Un-focking-lockables
There's a game I playtested that had microtransactions in it. Every time you went to the a menu that you have to interact with heavily, it would always move to the screen that had the microtransactions on it. Didn't matter where you were before you went to that menu, it always went on that screen. That was my number one feedback to the people listening to me. I'm sure it's too fun to change.
I've felt that the introduction of micro transactions was the beginning of the end of videogames. There is no reason to push boundaries inside of an industry as an artist when it is so heavily commoditized down to your basic attention in seconds.
I think maybe we need a little history to understand how we got here from gaming meaning gambling, to pinball, to "video" gaming, to Electronic Entertainment as a whole to realize where the boundaries are supposed to be.
Deceptive business practices need to be put in check. Consumer protection needs enforcement otherwise there would still be lead in everything you touch.
Who needs artists pushing boundaries when it's legal to sell heroin.
Can we get a single article thats anti-ubisoft that also doesnt vaguely reference the source material out of context? Is there really nothing of substance to write about? Where are the real journalists writing about any of this?
I mean they're not technically wrong, if it wasn't fun for people, people wouldn't be buying them. Considering the context and all, I guess it makes sense. There's too many whales enabling them. We get the games we voted with our wallets. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Headline makes it a bit misleading that Ubi thinks it's referring to all their players, but the actual line does say specify that it's for people who choose to buy them.
if it wasn’t fun for people, people wouldn’t be buying them
I am not a psychology major or anything, but isnt it that microtransactions are designed in such a way that they hook players in not by being fun but by being a literal gambling? Or in case no lootboxes, FOMO? Like LoL once done with many skins stating "It is a one time possible to purchase, never comes back like ever!!!1!11" to later sell them once again.
Back in a day you either customize game yourself by downloading mods and models, or you earn your fancy skins by being good at the game. Today it is just a purchase. There is no fun in cosmetics beside bragging about them. There might be fun in pay to win, but not for those who doesn't pay. Neither it is healthy fun.
I mean I get what you mean and I do agree that it plays a factor but your example here only makes a lot of sense for multiplayer games. CoD is a really good example of this in my opinion. The skins there are ridiculous and the amount of effort they spend to show it off is absurd for a full priced triple A game. On the other hand, most of Ubisoft's games are singleplayer so this FOMO effect doesn't really apply for those games.
I also don't think we can deny the agency of the player too if they do choose to make these purchases. If someone does do their research and justifies the micro transactions after looking at it rationally, is it fair to say that they've been completely manipulated? I've personally given money to EA for Titanfall 2's prime titan skins because I felt that it was a good value and wanted to support it. So I think there are somewhat more ethical micro transactions.
Have you ever watched someone play Candy Crush? It's full-on manipulative. "Oh, soo close! You almost managed to beat this level! Don't let this chance escape! Just pay 5 gems and you can continue!"
There are certainly different kinds of players and some are more or less easily manipulated. But somebody who manages to stay rational wouldn't play Candy Crush eitherway. If you tell them beforehand that they have to pay €200 to play this stupid minigame they'd ask you what you are smoking. But with microtransactions it's quite easy to draw money out of somebody's pockets.
People like that have as much agency over their microtransaction spending as a smoker has over their next cigarette or a gambling addict has over playing the next bet. The mechanics of microtransactions are often close to identical to the mechanics of gambling.
You're using an extreme example which is fine and I agree that what Candy Crush is doing is clearly trying to exploit people. However, I do believe there's a stark difference between that and the examples we were discussing.
Tbh, I don't think that Candy Crush is an extreme example. On mobile this is more the norm than an outlier.
And even on PC, there are far worse examples, like games that allow you to resell lootbox content, which is literal gambling. It's a scratch card with extra steps.
Literally the only point for microtransactions to exist (versus e.g. expansions/DLCs) is to split up the cost into smaller chunks so that players lose track of how much they actually spent.
"I'm not paying €50 for a handful of cosmetic items" becomes "I'm just paying 20 gems for this one cool item, and then I'm going to do it again and again and again."
The very concept of microtransactions is to hide the cost to manipulate and exploit players.
Otherwise they'd just release an expansion or a large DLC with all the content in it for a fair price.
Remember how everyone laughed at the horse armor? Well, that's standard now.
Playing arknights. I spend $5 on the monthly pass for non premium loot box currency as daily rewards. Every month I decide if I'm enjoying the game enough or if I should scale back. When I consider how much I'm spending annually, I always consider cancelling. It's not fun at all.
Sorry, but their strategy is working on you
I'm aware, but I'm enjoying the game mechanic enough to pop in $5. It's just a little depressing to think about how much I'm spending. It's my concession to not spending money on the currency.