Since the very first appearance of microtransactions, loot boxes and DLCs have been causing a stir among gamers. Here we show you the biggest scandals in history – from The Elder Scrolls to FIFA to Ubisoft’s NFTs.
The furor around Ubisoft’s NFT offensive is that preliminary culmination of a dysfunctional 15-year relationship between the gaming industry and microtransactions. The publisher started offering limited edition digital in-game content in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint in December 2021 – in the form of a helmet, an assault rifle and a pair of pants engraved with tiny serial numbers. With the move, Ubisoft wrote a new chapter in an ongoing history of gambling, greed and broken promises.
In the video above we give you an overview of the greatest excitement in the history of microtransactions.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Bethesda makes the inglorious beginning
It all started with a horse in 2006: In The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, players were able to compete in a triple-A game for the first time subsequently purchase content for $1.99 – a horse armor that had no impact on the gaming experience apart from the visuals.
So the first mainstream DLC was purely cosmetic, but it wasn’t popular. Players denounced the relatively high price tag for the content, but Bethesda responded with a shrug: DLCs are purely optional offers. No player will be forced to spend real money on in-game items. An argument that publishers continue to repeat like a mantra to this day and that is usually not really true.
Microtransactions: monetization at any cost
Ever since Oblivion’s horse armor, microtransactions have taken hold in the industry – almost always against the will of the players, but always pushed through by publishers with reference to optionality. In fact, like a Pokemon with a runaway gene pool, microtransactions have long since evolved into a variety of different forms.
They are no longer just cosmetic. In addition to outfits and skins, weapons, characters and useful in-game items can also be bought. Season passes tie players to a game for several months, and XP boosters can be used to make grinds that are too hard bearable.
In addition, in countless mobile games, valuable hours of waiting time can be reduced to seconds with the tap of a finger. Thus, many microtransactions de facto as pay-to-win or even as pay-to-play– Classify concepts – from Assassin’s Creed to Candy Crush and Overwatch to Star Wars Battlefront 2.
With loot boxes there are many of these (so) mentioned advantages in the form of mostly obscure gambling mechanics – Players are made to spend money with unsubtle prompts and game design decisions without knowing what they will get in return. A practice that has proved so controversial that it has been declared illegal in several countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium.
FIFA, Evolve and Co.: The biggest excitement in video game history
Microtransactions are of a kind Mixture of jack of all trades for profit-hungry publishers and Cthulhu-like monster for the rest of the industry become. They are the answer to the simple question of how companies like EA, Ubisoft or Activision can get the most out of a game and are therefore almost ubiquitous.
With NFTs, the next major evolutionary stage of the unloved feature is now imminent. Reason enough to look back and to see the biggest excitement of the eventful history of microtransactions in the video linked above. Who knew horse armor could wreak so much havoc?
Ubisoft’s NFT offensive could make a new kind of microtransactions acceptable. In our video we take a look back at the biggest scandals in the history of microtransactions for you. From Activision to EA and Ubisoft – the biggest publishers have so far afforded the biggest excitement.