Infinity Ward Developer on Microtransactions: “You should Pay for Good Work”

Microtransactions are often seen as a way for developers to cash by overcharging gamers for small amounts of content, pay-to-win features, or even to unlock on-disc content.

But for Eric Monacelli, microtransactions are fair game. The ex-Naughty Dog community strategist, now Infinity Ward’s director of communications, spoke about microtransactions in an interview with MCVUK.

While he is aware of the bad reputation of microtransactions in gaming—such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s criticised Horse Armour DLC—he argued that the work put into extra content is deserving of a price tag.

Monacelli’s pragmatic viewpoint on microtransactions is a fair assessment: “if [the content] is good enough, why not pay for it?” he said.

DLC and microtransaction content is often thought to be features cut from the game or even on-disc content that has to be bought to be unlocked. Monacelli denied this, saying that this is most often not the case.

Microtransactions generate debates even amongst the developers themselves, Monacelli admits. The bottom line, he said, is that when DLC adds a substantial amount of content, or is a particularly enjoyable addition, it should be worth the amount of work that was put into it.

His points are certainly understandable. If a developer puts in hard work to create more content it should be paid for, otherwise the developers will go out of business. On the other hand, the companies should be aware of the price tags they attach to small pieces of DLC, otherwise some gamers will surely abstain from purchasing microtransactions altogether.

Related Topics: Eric Monacelli, Infinity Ward

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