Gamers talk a big talk about horse armor DLC and pay-to-win and the evils of cash shops, but y’all keep buying anyway.
That’s according to gaming research analysis firm SuperData, which today released an excerpt from its pricey report on digital console revenue for 2017. More than half of all digital console revenue this year, the firm says, will come from “additional content” like DLC and cash-shop microtransactions. That number is half again as high for the top-earning console games from the last few years.
Fully “39% of first-year additional content revenue for all titles is made in the first 3-to-6 months, leaving game publishers with a tight time frame to release new content,” argues SuperData. “Digital console consumers are hungry for more content as soon as they are done with the core gameplay. Most single player games have a gameplay timeframe between 10-to-40 hours within their single-player mode. It is not hard to see why over a third of console players believe that publishers should release content every 3-to-6 months. Over a fourth of them believe additional content should be released at least once a month. Publishers are warned to be wary of releasing content too close to the release date, since consumers see that tactic as profiting off content that should otherwise have been released with the full game.”
Intriguingly, microtransactions in single-player games don’t have this same pull. By way of example, SuperData points to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, whose players balked at money grabs.
“The release of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has earned $5 million in microtransactions, a fraction of what properly-employed microtransaction models can return. Assassin’s Creed’s fans cite frustration at this ‘money grab’ and expect to be able to progress through the core gameplay without paying. The lack of need for social currency when playing single player games makes vanity items and temporary boost items an unattractive proposition.”
