Free Games On PSN and the great Micro Transactions

I have been monitoring the games released on PSN for many years now and a lot of the hyped up games are generally free but come at a heavy price if you want the ultimate,lets take the latest couple Hawken a Mech based game [no thanks] and today we have Kill Strain another average looking rpg with Mechs .

And then when you scroll through the store guess what they have Gold Bar Packs you can buy and if you want the top one 7.500 its £39.99,if you want the top Hawken Pack [don't fall of your chair here] its a whopping £79.99.

In 3 weeks time hopefully No mans Sky the triple AAA title lives up to the hype from Hello Games drops and it cost me £37 from Shopto.

I really think its about time both Sony and Microsoft stopped taking the [censored] giving you free average type games in my opinion with massive expense if you want to have the upgrades for the games in question ?

I might not be bothered so much if the games in question were literally mind blowing and addictive in a way they are hard to switch of,but come on,£80 for a add on for a free game you can download.............

I have bought a few seasons passes in my time and that gets my Goat up,but if i love the game then its not that taxing,but these games are just exploiting Gamers everywhere.

I still can not get my head around the prices of digital content when the retail version in most cases are £20 cheaper............

Edited by time2die (Tue 12-Jul-16 18:17:16)

In reply to a post by time2die:

I still can not get my head around the prices of digital content when the retail version in most cases are £20 cheaper............

Little Johnny is an impatient little [censored] and can't wait for a trip to the shops tomorrow or a delivery in a few days so he gets mummy to pay for it.
He doesn't give a [censored] how much she's just been ripped off

I cancelled my auto renewing psn+ a couple of months ago, still got about 10 months left as its the payment notification what reminded me to cancel it.

It was good at the start but a classic "bait and switch" happened.

it seems for digital content to become cheap you need the android and pc model. Where most content is digital only. The consoles are paying the price for the backing down of microsoft from their digital model. With physical copies the console manufacturers I believe have had to make a deal so that they wont undercut retail prices online.

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 12-Jul-16 19:45:18)

Unfortunately £79.99 is usually the top price "package" in free to play games on the mobile so I guess they are following that through to console now. They usually have £1.49, £2.99, £6.99, £18.99, £37 - £40 then £79.99. I completely agree with you, it's ludicrous. How can they put a value of £79.99 on a game when I can buy a brand new Xbox One / PS4 game for £35 to £40.

The problem with the mobile free to play games is that they are addictive and they all follow the same format. In the first day or two of playing you are given loads of exp and lvl ups, loads of items etc. then usually after about 2 days of playing it really slows down and if you want to continue at any pace you have to pay.

If you stick to the free model then it's usually a MUCH longer grind. It then creates a big divide between the players who are happy to throw £100+ per month at it and those who just play for free or who just put the odd £3 to £5 on.

These developers have done very well to monetise it to be honest. Back when smartphones first came out people used to think "Oooh I don't know if I want to pay £1.99 for an app that I may not enjoy!" so they changed the model to be free up front, get you hooked and then rip you off. People find it much easier to spend money once they have played a game for a few days and enjoyed it.

A fool and his money are easily parted

I grabbed a square enix game on my mobile a couple of years back, as you said at the start it seemed ok, was gaining team members exp etc. at reasonable rate, then after about an hour of playing suddenly everything I was coming up against enemies way more powerful, so I thought I would try the multiplayer online as that was also offered as a way to train, same, everyone up against way more powerful, the latter I found odd as I was playing the game first day of release, have these players really been grinding long on a new game? or was it perhaps past beta testers or bots I was up against.

The game offered me 2 choices, grind for hundreds of hours to progress, or pay to win. Abandoned it.