5 Ways Microtransactions Can Be Used for Good

Charity

When it comes to microtransactions, many players consider them a means of the developers trying to squeeze that last bit of extra cash for consumers for items that could have easily been included in the base game. Though microtransaction content comes in a variety of different sizes, one way to give them a positive image is to change where the raised money goes.

There are plenty of great charities that money can go to, and whichever one it goes to would definitely make purchasing that sweet new horse armor or weapon skin a worthwhile one. It’d be a great way to give players stuff that perhaps couldn’t be justified enough to go in the base game, or just something a little crazy and help those in need in the world. It’d be great to see some developers get involved with the upcoming Extra Life in such a way.

Competitive Funding

While there’s often a stigma associated with microtransactions, 343 Studios managed to offer players a great incentive for the fan base to buy Halo 5’s Req Packs by adding a chunk of the money straight into the prize pool for the Halo World Championships. The purchase of these Req Packs granted players the chance to pick up rare vehicles, weapons, and other multiplayer items for the Warzone online game mode.

By using the Req Pack sales, 343 managed to add an additional $1.5 million to the prize pool bringing it up to $2.5 million. By channeling the money back into the community, fans will not only be more inclined to pay for the packs, but it also shows that both developers and fans can see some sort of return from the profits. The bigger esports prize pools get, the faster it’ll grow and rise in popularity.

Raffle Microtransactions

There’s a new ship you want in Destiny, or perhaps CD Projekt Red has thrown up some sweet new armor and shiny sword for Geralt to make good use of in his adventures. However, this isn’t just an ordinary item to show off to fellow Guardians or help you slay countless monsters, it’s also a raffle ticket to a much cooler prize.

Whether it’s the chance to meet the development team, win some cool memorabilia, or just have your name feature in the game somewhere, using microtransaction items as raffle tickets to give players the chance to experience something they would never usually be able to makes the purchase feel a lot more worthwhile. Not only does it potentially reward the most loyal fans for supporting the team, but it also helps to build a rapport between the development team and players. It’s yet to be done by a developer yet, but it’s certainly something we’re interested in seeing.

Improving Future Projects

When you’re really invested in a game, you just don’t want the experience to end or to run out of content. For MMO-like games such as Destiny and Final Fantasy XIV, the need to produce compelling and consistent endgame content is one that can be problematic and drain a lot of time and resources from developers. Therefore, as we saw with Destiny following the release of The Taken King last year, Bungie opted to introduce microtransaction purchases for emotes, or Sparrow skins. In return, the additional income from these microtransactions went on to fund and bolster the future content that players would already be getting.

They weren’t necessarily getting brand new content that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, but every so often something a little different or better than what was originally promised was given to players as a way of paying back their support. It’s a neat way to make the microtransctions merely feel like far smaller payments for content that could potentially be priced far higher, as well as giving you a neat cosmetic tweak. Heck, if you wanted to go really far out with the idea, developers could fully fund new map packs, missions, or expansions from microtransaction purchases. As long as there was a way for players to track the progress against milestones then this could be a great means of avoiding high-priced expansions in the future.

Sharing is Caring

While it’s all great having one of the coolest weapon skins in the game, we’ve also been on the other side where everyone manages to have got the one you want except for you. Whether you missed the event or were just unlucky in the RNG-based crate openings, it sucks to be stuck with your tired-looking skin.

Rather than just being able to buy a weapon skin or five crates for yourself, you also get the same skin or one or two crates to give to another player. You can’t access them yourself, but by sharing and giving to your friends and other random players, everyone would benefit and get sweet loot for a smaller, total cost. It’s not going to raise the developers as much additional revenue, but it’s sure going to make the microtransactions feel much more worth it.

Alternatively, you could use microtransaction funding to randomly give back to players every once in a while. Once $250,000 has been reached, every player of Overwatch, Final Fantasy XIV, or whatever other game it may be will receive a random item or crate to unbox. After all, everyone loves surprises.