Superdata has shared some interesting stats about the the PC games revenue over the past few years. According to its data, the PC F2P revenue has doubled since 2012. On the other hand, the traditional PC and console retail revenue has only increased by 60%. As such, it’s no wonder that most publishers are focusing on the ‘games as services‘ model.
As showcased in the graph above, the F2P revenue is currently at 22 billion dollars. On the other hand, the traditional PC and console retail revenue is at 8 billion dollars. Yes, the PC F2P revenue is almost three times the combined revenue of PCs and consoles. And that says a lot.
Furthermore, Superdata shared an interesting graph about FIFA 17’s revenue. As we can see, most of the game’s revenue comes from micro-transactions. So while most of us are cursing and criticising them, there is a HUGE audience that is spending money on them. And when there is this huge audience, you can expect EA to really capitalise on it.
As we’ve said countless times, consumers must vote with their wallets. And from these graphs, it’s quite obvious that there is a really big market supporting microtransactions and additional content for existing games.
What this ultimately means is that microtransactions are here to stay. Moreover, this could explain why Take Two wants to add microtransactions to all of its future titles. And to be honest, we expect more publishers to do so. So yeah, while EA is currently drawing all the lights and negativity, it’s pretty obvious from these stats and graphs that microtransactions will be added to pretty much all triple-A games. They may not be as offensive as the loot boxes of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, however they are here to stay!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Blame Valve and blizzard
esp valve, their events are purely sponsered by virutal gambling
How far this hobby has fallen, worst part is that most people are ok with this or have no self control.
Well, “most people.” I doubt if “most people” are really fine with this, rather than it’s just that your average nobody just doesn’t care, since they just ignore this, unlike we who actually want it to end.
My feeling is sadly we are the minority in this 🙁 , who knows though I hope I am wrong. I just want it to stop and everyone to focus on making epic games.
Well, “most people” don’t buy microtransactions, loot boxes, etc. guaranteed, so how can “most people” be fine with this?
I mean, come on, think about it for a second; these things just aren’t made for the “most people,” F2P isn’t dependent on “most people” buying anything, they’re dependent on the select few buying anything 😛
Agreed, though. Bring back epic games 🙁
Hmmm yeah I think your right it is probably just my fear of the gaming Apocalypse taking over again LOL 🙂
Sometimes though it feels like if you ask the generation below me(I am 38) that they really don’t think F2P or loot boxes are a big deal or negative, I think they really like it. That is the part that worries me, then again maybe I just talked to the wrong crowd(Overwatch junkies) so you never know.
Well lets hope things turn around for the better next year, fingers crossed.
The Cult of Blizzard will basically buy into anything Blizzard throws at them. Case in point, Overwatch loot boxes and the Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House.
Hopefully ^^
100% this 🙁
why do you guys insist on blaming companies for this? people want this thats why its successful. if you want to blame anybody blame the people paying / buying for this
it seems innocent at first, but when you’re in the lobby
you got dozens of skins throwen at your face, you got psychological research of how to entice the consumer to spend money and how to trigger his serotonin inhibitors for maximum addiction
this is targeted at young children who are often forced to play $hitty freemium games because their PC is a toaster and are usually from poor economic countries (the main reason why Dota is full of russians and pinoys)
those companies are EVIL as they profit from suffering, addiction and deception that those sales go to a “good cause” (while in reality only 25% of the earnings go to the prize pool valve gets the rest of the 75% to themselves…)
open your eyes, you’ll soon see the design behind these $hitty practices
if you want to talk about EVIL companies, you might want to look at arm dealers, the oil industry, deforestation / crop industries etc etc
not at some companies that sell skins to rich kids. also, if youre a parent then start controlling your kid and educating it. stop blaming companies from trying to sell them sh*t which is more or less their reason to exist..
well it’s true those companies you mentioned are way worse than a $hitty game company selling skins in the form of gambling lootboxes
but that doesn’t absolve them from their sins, lesser, greater.. all evil to me
it would be foolhardy to expect a change if you just continue to ignore what they’re doing
i dont want change. if people want those kind of games well, more power to them. me personally, the only game ive gotten from EA in the past 5 years its mirrors edge catalyst
what does the people know? they buy early access games and spend their money on useless crap they don’t need because the game’s deep psych convinced them to
it’s not like they actually like those crappy practices, but they’ve been socially engineered by years and years of mediocrity, sell out youtubers like lvlcap and the rest of the battlefield/EA shills who continue to push propaganda to this day
and a whole journelism industry who are dedicated to cover up all the mishandling and normalzing scummy practices
these younglings have no sense of awareness left
only those veterans like myself and many others who remember the days of good games, before the EAmpire can have a hope of actually saving AAA gaming
with single player games on focus, creative direction instead of filling publisher Quota’s
passion, love for gaming instead of greedy CEO’s who hate gamers and gaming in general
that’s how you save gaming
you give your money to people who deserve your money and pirate/avoid those who aren’t (which are like the majority at this point)
a lot of people are blind to the current situation we’re facing, hell some of them are ACTUALLY DEFENDING EA and other publishers
either socially engineered, motivated by lies, or just plain fanboys it matters little
all that matters is that people like you and me stick to their principles and don’t feed these massive conglomerates any money.
From which country you my friend? May be from USa, major bandit on our planet?
Exactly. It’s the responsibilities of publishers to make money for their investors but it’s up to consumers to dictate what publishers offer to consumers.
If you support “anti-consumer”(a word that means nothing)practices, then companies will continue as they are. They follow the whims of the consumer. You have price discovery where you put a product on the market and the market eventually decides its value; you also have content discovery where the market determines what people want by weeding out undesirable goods by starving their producing companies of revenue.
When microtransactions explode in consumption, that’s telling pubs/devs “ADD MORE MICROTRANSACTIONS!!!”
1 person in a million buys a skin for $1000. The company who made the game ultimately makes $100,000 on that skin, which cost $120 to make.
Sycophantic cultists say “why blame the company? It’s the people’s fault, they’re the ones who buy this!”
And the circlejerk continues.
Meanwhile, they’re hiring psychologists and patenting methods to literally right the game from the shadows in order to all-but force you into buying microtransactions, but the sycophantic sperging continues.
But no, please, tell me more about how I should be blaming “the people” instead of the companies who have nothing but contempt for ratings and legal age requirements for such activities?
why the hell would i blame the company for releasing a skin (ie something useless) that some people chose to buy?
…..
With all the sh*tstorm coming regarding illegal gambling aggravated by the fact minors were also a target, I think this industry needs to think twice before pushing itself to the crash…
At least there will always be the indie scene.
I don’t want the rest of the industry to die but if it does the indie scene can carry the torch forward with confidence. I just hope it does not come to this. Should be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.
This industry has honestly lost all respect to my eyes. Even many indie devs have joined the SJW insanity. Most “game journalists” and devs have lost all respect for their paying customers and have managed to alienate their audience.
Corruption, collusion, pure greed, poorly optimized and broken products… The list is long. I used to marvel at many amazing titles each year. I rarely do so nowadays.
It’s time to drain the swamp in this industry as well…
You know, I 100% agree with you, your totally right. I think the most important thing you said is -> [ Most “game journalists” and devs have lost all respect for their paying customers and have managed to alienate their audience. ]. I just don’t under stand why they act this way, it makes no sense what so ever.
the “sh*tstorm” was just on social media. just because we make a fuzz on it on reddit or whatever doesnt mean itll change anything.
The sh*tstorm I am talking about is linked to the news regarding government entities and consumer protection organisms treating BF2’s loot boxes as gambling.
Believe me, EA may lose the Star Wars franchise exclusive rights because of that and the damage done to the brand ( as if Disney didn’t manage to do it on its own with its SJW writers ). And investors/shareholders won’t take kindly to have their hopes of heavily monetizing games as they expected.
A sh*tstorm is coming…
I dont understand how Star Wars is so SJW now that its in Disney’s hands. Star Wars has always been for kids and more about making money above all. There has ALWAYS been strong females in the SW universe, is it that they’ve included minorities into (that are not Lando?) Please enlighten me on what I’m missing?
As Mark Hamill said about Rei “she’s not even been to Dagoba for training”…
Strong women and minorities are fine.
But when you have writers from Rogue One say things like “”Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization” or “”Opposed by a multicultural group led by brave women.”, the obvious leftist propaganda behind such movies brings a strong sense of deja-vu.
You may be oblivious to the anti-white or anti-straight male propaganda from the Left for the last couple years but don’t expect other people to turn a blind eye.
You could tell me that I’m reading too much into it or that I could just enjoy the movies for what they are. I would reply that you probably wouldn’t have the same condescendence regarding German movies backed by the National Socialist party ( the Left again ) during WW2.
I guess. people are wayyyyyyyyy to sensitive now. Both the left and right have lost their minds.
Oversimplified. The Left has lost its mindbut it controls academia, Hollywood, TV, most media, Silicon Valley and still has a strong hold over government.
I don’t see how the Right has lost its mind. The Alt-Right is a small minority compared to Antifa/SJW/Communists/Socialists.
Considering how the Right is so underrepresented in the media, I think some people can’t fathom how the Left’s position isn’t a middle-ground but at one end of the political spectrum.
The Left is also a small minority, it’s just that they’re part of the oligarchy, unlike the Alt-Right. Either way, they’re crashing so their little clique won’t matter for much longer.
“But when you have writers from Rogue One say things like “”Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization” or “”Opposed by a multicultural group led by brave women.”, the obvious leftist propaganda behind such movies brings a strong sense of deja-vu.”
Did they actually say that?
Unfortunately they did…
Just Google “rogue one white tweets”…
Can’t post any link or Youtube’s video because it requires approval :/
WOW.
Comparing Star Wars to something the national socialist party would back in Germany during WWII makes it pretty hard to take anything you say seriously. As does throwing around the term SJW (used exclusively by far right-wing nuts) whenever something gets a little too progressive for your tastes.
Leftists only replaced Jews with White males… They’re not that far from WW2 Germany.
I was comparing reactions to propaganda backed movies. If people can’t read through the Left propaganda, they need to read some history to understand where we’re heading…
Leftists aren’t that far from WWII Germany? There you go again, commenting things that call into question the validity of anything you say.
We’ll talk about that ten years from now…
“used exclusively by far right-wing nuts”
Lmao. You’re not being serious, are you?
Well, in America it definitely is used exclusively by far right wingers. I’ve never met one intelligent person in this country that uses that term seriously, so seeing someone use it seriously and expect to be listened to is pretty weird in my experience.
Why, what do you think they call themselves? “The Liberators of the Oppressed”? They’re self-styled “Liberals”, they’re “Democrats” and they’re Social Justice Warriors, SJW’s. Just because they’ve stopped using it doesn’t mean they don’t identify with it.
Keep telling yourself that.
How much of that F2P profit is from games that are actual F2P games, vs premium releases with microtransactions included?
I’d like to know that myself.
there is really nothing wrong with the “games as a service” model and F2P as long as its not pay to win.
League of Legends, DOTA 2 and CSGO (some of the biggest games around) have a fantastic model, free or limited price of entry, frequently update the game and monetize cosmetics that have zero influence on gameplay/balance.
Charging money to get a leg up on other people is the ultimate sin when it comes to gaming, but if you wanna charge money for skins and other crap, so be it.
GaaS is falsely advertised as quality gaming with Netflix pricing. It is often pitched like we are getting something better of value for the extra predatory monetization but in reality each new iteration of the apps have just slightly dolled-up graphics, effortless innovation, and ADHD gameplay funneling users into marketplaces for more dopamine fix. There are some exceptions of course, but most games are trying what EA is pulling. There is hardly any actual “game” in the games. People are paying to engage with a themed marketplace/slot machine platform – not a game.
I dont know anyone buying into these in my wide range of friends. Maybe it’s kids?
Some developers make oodles of money from exploiting people with addictive tendancies so of course others will look to do likewise. Slapping an r18 or M rating on these ‘games’ will deal with them good. The industry had its chance to self regulate and they failed. Time for this industry to be regulated.
You may think regulation will lead to censorship but ultimately government does not want to harm businesses but make them conform to social norms. Gambling games for under 18s is not desirable obviously. Gaming has gone mainstream so the mainstream needs to have its say. We gamers are not an island removed from society. Sad its come to this but I see no other way given developers only need to respect the whales demands (less than 1% of gaming population.)
“but make them conform to social norms.”
More like, “but make them conform to current-standing legislation present all over the globe.” After all, under-age gambling is illegal regardless of if your state or nation has legalised gambling, which makes them guilty of violating the law in basically every nation in the world, give-or-take.
Personally I don’t mind microtransactions as long as it doesn’t affect the gameplay experience.
hahahahhahha what else did i said lol this is where all the pc money is singleplayer is available via your favorite torrent site
Blame Valve and blizzard esp valve, their events are purely sponsered by virutal gambling
I wonder if mobile games got added to this chart some how..
Yeah… from my experience people don’t complain about cash shops in Free to play games unless they offer stuff that gives power that you can’t farm for yourself.
The issue with RMT is pay to play games having stuff that only f2p games should have. We all get why f2p games have cash shops and real money currency. Since they give you the entire game free of charge. There’s no excuse doing it when people pay for the game to access it.
Right here i spent $300 bucks buying stash space and cosmetics in Path of Exile, Also paid to unlock warframes faster in Warframe. Both are Free to play games though.
I said they don’t care, I didn’t say they’re fine with it. Some guy is getting mugged in a back alley you just happen to pass by, but you don’t care enough to intervene =/= you don’t care about him getting mugged or muggings in general, it just means you don’t care enough to want to get involved.