Microtransactions News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

The video game industry is one that has been built on trends. If a game reaches escape velocity and becomes a big hit, it’s inevitable that others will be lining up to get a slice of that turkey. This has had some unfortunate consequences.

Foamstars is not a free-to-play game. Sure, you can currently nab it at no extra cost on PlayStation Plus, but this deal ends on March 4. After this date, the game will only be available to play if you purchase it outright for $29.99, but that hasn't stopped it from being monetised like it's free-to-play.

It’s a dismal time to be in video game development, as companies continue to announce layoffs. Now, Take-Two Interactive – the parent company of Rockstar – is looking to enact a “significant cost reduction plan,” but it doesn’t necessarily mean redundancies.

We all have a pretty intuitive understanding of the anatomy of a trend in game design. A very successful title is followed by a wave of games which copy key aspects of its design – some taking inspiration while innovating successfully on the formula, others rather more shamelessly seeking to cash in by copying anything that's not nailed down (or protected by intellectual copyright law).

Rocksteady Studios’ Arkham-Verse games are one of the most iconic and influential Batman stories of the 21st century, arguably second only to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. The games are built on the foundations of Batman: The Animated Series and feature many returning voice actors, but even by the second entry had begun to tell a tale quite different to that previously emerged from Gotham City.

Take-Two Interactive has an interesting response to gamers upset with what the company does with the in-game currency they buy. In an ongoing dispute over whether money is essentially stolen when a game’s servers shut down, Take-Two characterized in-game virtual currency as “fictions created by game publishers.”

Take-Two has argued that virtual currencies are "fictions" in its appeal to get a lawsuit dismissed.

Fortnite is coming back to iOS this year, at least in Europe, Epic Games announced today. It will do so by taking advantage of the Digital Markets Act law passed by the European Union, which will let the Epic Games Store on iOS.

China's previously proposed gaming restrictions seem to have been scrapped, potentially avoiding worldwide implications for tools that can encourage spending excessive time and money on games. 

Rocksteady Studios is gearing up to release their latest game, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. The team is well known for their work on the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series, and understandably, some fans are pretty darn excited to jump back into that world – albeit from a different perspective. Heck, in a different genre entirely. 

A new Apex Legends and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth crossover event launched January 9th — a first for EA's free-to-download battle royale — and it’s been a big source of criticism from players due to the high price of its microtransactions.

Amazon has revealed plans to fire 500 more Twitch employees, in a freewheeling spiral for what once seemed to be the monopolist of the live streaming business.

Nexon Korea Corp has been issued with the largest fine ever for violating South Korea’s Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce in games such as MapleStory. The data makes it clear that users were knowingly misled, but the fine seems insignificant in light of the profits.

Netflix is reportedly considering introducing in-app purchases and in-app ads to its games in a bid to better monetise its games service.

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The developer behind Korean MMO MapleStory has been fined just under $9 million for violating South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

Blizzard is reportedly back to working with Netease again to bring their video games to China.

Steam’s Winter Sale has officially begun, and it’s discounting thousands of titles through Jan. 4, 2024. Although Epic Games Store is currently having its own holiday sale through Jan. 10 (one that gives each gamer a 33% off coupon to use on games), this sale is an opportunity to save on a number of excellent titles on Steam, like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Battlebit Remastered, Wasteland 3, and more.

Tarisland reminds me of a distilled version of some of my favorite MMOs, filled with visually striking environments that are largely satisfying to poke around in. Classes are distinct and focused on a small number of abilities that play into a central mechanic or theme, with two specializations for each class to switch between.

With the introduction of three entire new experiences – LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival – Epic’s unstoppable “everything” game Fortnite has taken a huge stride closer to becoming its own platform. But with so much new content available, the developer has to find ways to monetise it – and the latest microtransactions are attracting criticism for their obscene prices.

The outrageously overpriced microtransactions for Fortnite’s new arcade racing game Rocket Racing have dramatically dropped, following robust criticism from the game’s community. Epic Games originally intended to flog a single car for 4,000 V-Bucks, which would cost you around £27.99/$29.99, albeit with leftover in-game currency.

After a period of some uncertainty, Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox Series X/S, which begs the question – could the smash hit RPG ever end up on Xbox Game Pass? Baldur’s Gate 3 is exactly the kind of high-engagement title that could potentially drive long-term Game Pass subscriptions, so I’m sure Microsoft would love it, but according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, it’s not happening.

Swen Vincke, the director of Baldur’s Gate 3 and CEO of Larian Studios, has spoken out about the role-playing game’s lack of Xbox Game Pass release, saying that it was a decision made «from the get-go.»

Midwinter Blight is finally here, and players are traversing the Fractured Peaks to experience the winter wonderland and find new loot. Lucky for us, Blizzard has given us a video highlighting the gameplay in their first ever Diablo 4 holiday event! Blizzard has collaborated with DarthMicrotransaction for a walkthrough guide on the Midwinter Blight Holiday Event.

Don't expect Baldur's Gate 3 to ever come to Xbox Game Pass, as Larian boss Swen Vincke shoots down talk of the game joining a subscription service. Vincke says this was decided before launch, and his mind hasn't changed now that the game has finally been released on Xbox.

Baldur's Gate 3 is now available on Xbox, but don't expect it on Game Pass anytime soon. Speaking with IGN in an interview soon to be published in full, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke explained why the award-winning role-playing game won't be part of Xbox's subscription service.

 The Embers Adrift team is reflecting on 2023 in the newest State of the Game devblog and looking ahead into 2024. 

For some Destiny 2 players, the holidays may have just arrived early. From now until December 20, most of Destiny 2 is free to claim through the Epic Games Store,

As Ulf Andersson famously said, 10 Chambers is “back on that heist shit again”. Their latest project, Den of Wolves, was announced during The Game Awards following the sendoff of GTFO and its final major content patch, Rundown 8.0 Duality. Despite a hundred-year difference between Payday’s infamous heists and Den of Wolves, there’s still a common foundation that 10 Chambers are looking to recreate with their latest cooperative shooter.

The Den of Wolves trailer at The Game Awards first announces that we're looking at a new game from from the creator of Payday: The Heist and Payday 2, but then goes on to show something that has very little resemblance to a bank robbery: a pair of men growling at each other in a sci-fi dungeon that could've appeared in Cyberpunk 2077. So, what the heck is this game? As implied by the Payday connection, Den of Wolves is a four-player co-op game from 10 Chambers, the Stockholm-based studio co-founded by Payday 1 and 2 designer Ulf Andersson. But it's Andersson's vision for, like, Payday 5. Rather than present-day burglaries, Den of Wolves takes place in 2097 in a city run by unregulated corporations who've secured their global stock exchange against AI-powered hackers by somehow using biological encryption—that is, living human brains. It's a heist game inspired by Inception, The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, and Blade Runner—in short, «mindfuck sci-fi,» as Den of Wolves narrative director Simon Viklund (also a Payday alum) put it to me when we met last week. The twist in The Game Awards trailer gives us a glimpse of what he's talking about, as the corpo's interrogation of some punk's subconscious is revealed to actually be the opposite. Clearly we're going to invade some mind palaces in this thing. I didn't get to see any Den of Wolves gameplay beyond the snippets of shooting everyone can see in the trailer, but Viklund spoke at length about the studio's vision during a presentation and interview.

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The glacial backdrop of Arendelle will bring a touch of winter to Gameloft’s free-to-play kart racer Disney Speedstorm starting today, as the game’s latest season gets underway. Let It Go will bundle in a bunch of new racers, including Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Hans. As always, they’ll all have their own set of abilities and moves.

It's the final month of the year, and Sony has officially revealed the PS Plus Essential titles that will conclude 2023's selection. The thing is, though, we've already seen heavily divided opinions on this latest lineup — even more so than usual, if you can believe it!

In a development Bungie could have done without, the Destiny 2 developer has already pulled a contentious $15 starter pack offered in Season of the Wish, which just went live yesterday. The pack provided a pitiful assortment of goods and was marketed towards new players, a combination of things the community vociferously and swiftly pushed back on.

When was the last time you read a news story about Bungie and Destiny 2 that was genuinely positive about the game? If you only get your gaming news here at Push Square, it would be last week: the new armour set themed around The Witcher 3 looked pretty cool. It was then pointed out you could actually buy the RPG's Game of the Year Edition for less than the cost of just one of the three armour sets on offer.

The third set of threads for Street Fighter 6’s launch roster is available in-game now – but unsurprisingly, the Internet’s already up in arms over the pricing. A single outfit will set you back 300 Fighter Coins, but you can only purchase denominations of 250 Fighter Coins (£3.99/$4.99) or 610 Fighter Coins (£9.49/$11.99). This means, whichever approach you take, you’ll always have some currency leftover.

Well we called it. Grand Theft Auto 6 now has a release window, but only for some. In a press release accompanying the first trailer, Rockstar is careful to omit two very important letters. «Grand Theft Auto VI is coming to PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems in 2025,» the studio announces. So what about PC?

Bethesda has quietly updated Skyrim with additional support for paid mods. Again.

Lego Fortnite is finally here, but instead of just being a single collaboration or crossover in the world of Fortnite Battle Royale, it is coming as its own game.

Just one day after the launch of Season of the Wish, Bungie has removed a $15 "starter pack" microtransaction for Destiny 2 that quickly became the subject of criticism and backlash over pay-to-win concerns.

Destiny 2's latest microtransaction is a $15 "Starter Pack" full of junk, and players were quick to hammer it on Steam with product tags like "crime," "capitalism," "villain protagonist," and "psychological horror." Not liking the optics on that, it looks like Bungie has had those tags removed.

The buildup for Diablo IV’s release is arguably one of the most important times in Blizzard’s history. After the fallout from the third entry, especially the mobile entry, gamers wondered if Blizzard still “had it” and whether they could deliver the game that could revive the franchise and make them care about the struggles of these entities. To answer that, Blizzard put out an exceptional game at launch that had fans and critics raving, sending the title into a sales frenzy that made it the biggest Blizzard launch ever. However, since then, fans have noticed some “bad things” that the company has done, and a new survey states that things could get very pricey in the future.

The developer of Silent Hill Ascension has insisted the controversial interactive streaming series was written by real people after a number of observers accused it of being authored by AI.

It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of 2023. Time is flying by, and if you’re looking forward to those holiday breaks on the horizon, there might be some new free time to make use of. We just got through the various Black Friday sale deals going on right now, but beyond that, we have a new deal promo we want to highlight. After all, video games are expensive. We don’t have to tell you that, I’m sure. So, anytime there is a notable sale that we come across, we like to share it. Today, PlayStation kicked off its End of Year Deals promo sale.

Ubisoft has responded to reports that they seem to have added pop-up ads to their games, that work while you are in the middle of playing a game.

Fancy a new MMORPG on your phone? Well, you can do a lot worse than Nine Chronicles M. This anime-themed adventure sees you create your own character, then send them out into battle against various nasties within the world.

This story is hilarious for us to talk about, given the “event” that the story started at. First, a little context. All Elite Wrestling is one of the biggest wrestling promotions in the world, and it is also one of the best wrestling promotions in the world. Their fanbase has a passion to them that can’t be denied, and that passion goes beyond wrestling and into the realm of video games. To that end, many AEW fans have been known to bring in signs with their “controversial” video game hot takes. But on Sunday, a Mortal Kombat 1 used their sign to make a plea to the team at NetherRealm Studios, and specifically, Ed Boon.

Mortal Kombat  has been such a massive franchise over the years, and it’s also known for featuring several different crossovers. Plenty of IPs get represented in the game, and it’s never known what character might pop up next. When NetherRealm Studios unveiled  Mortal Kombat 1 , fans were likely speculating which guest characters could show up in this installment. Today, we’re finding out that the co-creator of  Mortal Kombat , Ed Boon, was at one time an attempt to get a crossover with  The Walking Dead . 

«We are against that,» developer Battlestate says.

The Apple App store has many amazing mobile games available for playing on the iPhone, covering nearly every gaming genre there is. From the action of to the puzzles of, there is something for everyone to enjoy right there on the phone. The industry of video games has come a long way in the past couple of decades, making boredom-busting games much more accessible.

The long-suffering Silent Hill fandom will be getting a slight reprise, as the much-maligned “interactive series” Silent Hill: Ascension is making some changes based on community feedback. 

When it comes to modern gaming, there is nothing more important or as frustrating as updates. These patches are what help keep the games going and can help solve problems that may pop up from time to time. The question is whether the patches will “do something meaningful” or just be there to patch things up and offer some “new things” that gamers might like. In the case of Mortal Kombat 1, they’ve been doing several patches since the game came out in September, but if you were hoping that this update would significantly improve the game, you are sadly out of luck.

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Scott Hartsman has some thoughts on the prevalence of live-service games in a new blog that asks the question — “Should Everything be a Live Game?”.

Mortal Kombat 1's microtransactions are coming under fire once again, this time for a skin that costs a full $10. The much-requested classic skin for Li Mei will set you back 1,000 Dragon Krystals and doesn't come in a bundle with anyone else's older outfits.

Warner Bros. will be heavily veering into a live service model for its future games. During its latest Q3 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav confirmed that the company plans to transform its biggest video game franchises into long-term products, bolstered by regular content drops and heavy monetisation. In recent years, gamers have developed a distaste for such money-hungry practices, which often lock out content behind some form of paywall or a battle pass, instead of providing a complete game at launch. The idea is for players to keep playing WB-published games for months, instead of having AAA developers put out a new game every three to four years — which is the general cycle.

343 Industries has finally released the Halo Combat Evolved Mark V armor for Halo Infinite, but it’s already sparked a vociferous debate about its cost.

The Microsoft era of Blizzard has just begun, and it's not clear yet how the studio will change under the reign of Xbox head Phil Spencer. Maybe it'll mean more StarCraft, maybe not, but from the sounds of it we shouldn't expect a radically different approach from Blizzard: It's gonna keep running on the ol' live service treadmill.

As loyal Halo Infinite multiplayer players have already noticed, there have been some big changes made with Season 5.

Blizzard is a legendary RTS developer, which is easy to forget in 2023. Along with Westwood, it effectively built the genre, establishing its foundations and designing mechanics and features that modern RTS games still stick with today. With that in mind, it's pretty tragic to see how little attention Blizzard is giving the genre these days. 

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has moved to explain a recent microtransactions price hike following a community backlash.

Silent Hill: Ascension — the new interactive Silent Hill story which allows players to vote on different outcomes and influence its plot — has been received very poorly by fans, largely due to its inclusions of microtransactions and a paid season pass.

Silent Hill: Ascension, an interactive streaming series that premiered on Halloween, has Silent Hill fans up in arms after being hit with unexpected microtransactions.

Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft announced earlier today that its popular cozy Disney life sim game will not be going free-to-play in December as planned. And unsurprisingly, its bustling player community has, well, a lot of thoughts about that!

More than a month after the game's launch, Titan Battles have finally been added to Mortal Kombat 1, meaning that the Platinum is finally actually achievable.

Blizzard has just released the official BlizzCon schedule, which will include an hour-long Campfire Chat as well as opportunities for fans to watch Diablo 4 Content Creators stream the game live on official Diablo 4 channels. Diablo 4 Patch 1.2.1 Before BlizzCon BlizzCon — Diablo 4 Campfire Chat

Mortal Kombat 1 will soon receive a Halloween-themed Fatality, but it’ll only be available via purchase in the Premium Store, and fans aren’t happy. 

Last week we got an early peak at Mortal Kombat: Onslaught, a real-time collection RPG autobattler set in the MK universe that is exclusively on mobile. Developed by NetherRealm Studios, the features its own story centered around Shinnok’s quest for destruction. Players must work together to aid Raiden and build a team of classic Mortal Kombat fighters to level up and progress through the story. Those interested in checking out this unique twist on Mortal Kombat can do so today on both iOS and Android.

Indie RPG Inkbound has pledged to remove its battle pass and all microtransactions by the end of October.

Developer Psionix has announced that the rocket-powered Rocket League will be doing away with player-to-player trading from 5th December in order to better «align with Epic's overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies».

DICE's once-ramshackle, apparently much-improved near-future shooter Battlefield 2042 is free to play this weekend, granting access to the game's Season 6 "Dark Creations" content offerings, amongst other things. BUT WAIT. There's an asterisk over the word "free" on the promo art! Everybody drop to cover! See, these are the tiny details you have to watch out for in Battlefield. That asterisk could be the equivalent of the glint on a sniper rifle, aimed squarely at your wallet, purse and/or khaki-coloured bumbag. Let's zoom in on the footnote...

EA Sports has released the first big post-launch patch for FC 24 and it makes some significant changes to gameplay.

It’s been a tough year for fans of Blizzard’s beleaguered hero shooter, Overwatch 2. Released last October as a full-scale replacement for the original Overwatch, many fans have been frustrated by the game’s costly microtransactions (which, at this point, honestly seem more like “macrotransactions”).

Old School Runescape player and streamer BTCs, known as the wealthiest player in the game with more than one trillion gold to his name, has been permanently banned from Runescape over allegations of real-world trading—that is, trading items in the game for anything outside of it, typically real money. It's a stunningly expensive ban: Even though OSRS gold has no official real-world value according to the terms of service (because you're not allowed to trade it for real money), the price of that much gold on grey-market gold selling sites would be in excess of $160,000.

Developer Jagex has announced its controversial Hero Pass will be removed from RuneScape following the end of its first season in December.

The kart racing genre is known for many mediocre franchise tie-in titles. NASCAR, DreamWorks, and even Garfield have entered the party with varying results. Sonic and Crash are arguably the only two that can somewhat rival Mario and his friends. Disney Speedstorm is on the cusp of that.

With a rebrand and the FIFA license out of the picture, EA Sports FC 24 signals a new era for the long-running series, but it's mostly business as usual.

Imagine what it would be like to spend hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours amassing an unparalleled fortune in a game you love, only to have it all taken away.  Heartbreaking is a big word, but I would definitely be fighting back tears (as I uninstalled). 

EA Sports FC 24 players are fuming at an Ultimate Team mode card pack costing around £30.