During a recent investor call, NetEase made an interesting statement about gamers’ spending habits that I wanted to pluck out and discuss. The question went to whether macroeconomic conditions influence whether and what customers will pay for games.
“From our observation, actually, gamers, they spend pretty prudently how much they spend in different games to get the fun they are pursuing. From our experience, it’s not very related to macroeconomic conditions. It’s actually more related to the quality of the game itself. Now, as we said, the gamers, not only in China but globally, become more and more picky regarding the quality, which puts all the developers included to spend more and more effort to making high-quality content.”
In other words, NetEase was arguing to its investors that players spend money on games based on how good the game is, and the crush of external economic pressures in their region (like inflation) don’t really impact it all. Do you agree? When you’re deciding what to buy or whether to spend more in an MMO, do you take into account the pressures of your real-world economic situation and budget? Or does the quality of the game override your more sensible nature?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
