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Paymium

The rise of Xbox One’s paymium games
10 years ago

The rise of Xbox One’s paymium games

xbox-one

In years past, it was relatively easy to produce a quality video game on a modest budget. In more recent years, however, the cost has risen astronomically, due in no small part to the advancement of technologies and the larger teams required to produce AAA-quality games. As a result, it’s easy to get caught up in sales numbers and “units shipped” and not realize that many games struggle to break even. As the cost of production goes up, so does the cost of the games.

The most expensive game of all time, in terms of production costs, is Star Wars: The Old Republic, with a budget of $200 million. The title is PC-only, which makes it even harder for publisher EA to recoup that expense.

The recently released Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV) comes in second place with a budget of $137 million. GTA V was released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but even with multiple platforms, making back that budget could be a tall order if there wasn’t so much excitement and hype for the game.

Where are we going with this?

The methods used to pass on that cost to gamers have been particularly annoying to gamers at the start of this latest video game generation. “Micro-transaction” has become a four-letter word.

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