Microtransactions and DLC has become so expensive that a new buy now, pay later payment scheme has been announced.
After decades of always costing more or less the same, video games are suddenly getting a lot more expensive. Combine that with the inability to recoup the cost by reselling them and many people can no longer afford all the games they want, or anything close to it.
Even once you buy a game that’s not the end of it, with even single-player titles tempting you into paying for extra DLC and other microtransactions.
It’s a problem but one solution that’s being offered is the disturbing prospect of paying for microtransactions in instalments. The buy now, pay later scheme from firms Xsolla and Affirm is currently only available in the US but is coming to the UK and Canada shortly.
The scheme will allow you to pay off in-game purchases of $50 (£37) or more, with four bi-weekly payment plans or longer-term, and therefore more expensive, monthly instalments.
In the US, the availability of the option depends on Xsolla making agreements with individual publishers, so it won’t necessarily be available for all games.
Fortnite maker Epic Games is definitely on board though, which raises the prospect of people buying in-game cosmetics in instalments, something which could easily be abused by younger fans in particular.
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If it becomes popular it will also do nothing to discourage publishers from increasing the price of microtransactions, knowing that players do have an alterative way of paying for them.
A report on website Payments Dive also mentions in-game purchases in Mortal Kombat, but its unclear if Warner Bros. is already on board with the scheme or if that’s just being used as an example.
No mention is made of specific formats in the report, so it’s unclear how Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft feel about this, but curiously the system is set-up specifically for in-game purchases, rather than allowing you to buy the games themselves in instalments.
Of course, the fact that there are $50 microtransactions is bad enough in itself, although that is above average and implies that gamers are being encouraged to buy multiple in-game items at once, in order to make the minimum spend.
As worrying as the implications are for ordinary gamers the system could end up being a nightmare for parents, who already have trouble monitoring the amount of money their kids spend on games and trying to prevent them from buying any cosmetic that takes their fancy.
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