BigbyTheSheriff
Member
Huh, it's the guy that Suda51 made into a villain in Travis Strikes Again.
https://suda51.fandom.com/wiki/Damon_Riccitiello
https://suda51.fandom.com/wiki/Damon_Riccitiello
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Former EA CEO: Devs Who Don't Focus On Microtransactions Are 'the Biggest F****** Idiots'
- Thread starter Lunatic_Gamer
- Start date
- News Drama Business
The Pleasure
Member
To Riccitiello
Dr.Morris79
Member
Just another pox on gaming.
SLB1904
Banned
That lizard is cute tho, can't say the same for him thoLook at this fucking lizard.
If his face sags anymore, his disguise is going to come off.
Imp the Dimp
Member
Gaming is a business like any other (meaning: it prioritizes profit maximization) and this guy seems to respect traditional, less lucrative business models a lot, but from a business POV he thinks these guys are making a mistake. His use of words was harsh but I don't think he said anything disagreeable.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
When asked about the pushback that some developers have given regarding implementing monetization early on in developing a game, Riccitiello did not hold back.
"Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives," Riccitello said. "It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with – they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They’re also some of the biggest fucking idiots.
I’ve been in the gaming industry longer than most anybody – getting to the grey hair and all that. It used to be the case that developers would throw their game over the wall to the publicist and sales force with literally no interaction beforehand. That model is baked into the philosophy of a lot of artforms and medium, and it’s one I am deeply respectful of; I know their dedication and care.
"But this industry divides people between those who still hold to that philosophy and those who massively embrace how to figure out what makes a successful product. And I don’t know a successful artist anywhere that doesn’t care about what their player thinks. This is where this cycle of feedback comes back, and they can choose to ignore it. But to choose to not know it at all is not a great call.
"I’ve seen great games fail because they tuned their compulsion loop to two minutes when it should have been an hour. Sometimes, you wouldn’t even notice the product difference between a massive success and tremendous fail, but for this tuning and what it does to the attrition rate. There isn’t a developer on the planet that wouldn’t want that knowledge."
Former EA CEO: Devs Who Don't Focus On Microtransactions Are 'the Biggest F****** Idiots' - IGN
Former EA CEO John Riccitiello has spoken up about microtransactions in video games, saying what while those who avoid implementing monetization early on in the creative process are some of the "most beautiful and pure, brilliant people," they are also "some of the biggest f****** idiots."www.ign.com
He is the guy who merged Unity with a spyware provider but sure…
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Sure, if your main goal of making a game is to create a slot machine that constantly generates money.
Pretty depressing where we've come to and where we are seemingly going. No wonder I'm loosing more and more my passion for gaming every day.
Pretty depressing where we've come to and where we are seemingly going. No wonder I'm loosing more and more my passion for gaming every day.
Deputy Moonman
Member
A lot of emotional responses in this thread, which I understand. As a gamer of course we don't like microtransactions, but it's no secret that devs make a lot more money implementing them into games. Kick and scream all you want, but with the way inflation and the cost of development is going you can bet more and more game companies will be resorting to microtransactions as an additional source of revenue. They would be stupid not to, sadly.
Shut0wen
Member
Ive never played Valhalla but ive heard people say this alot about obysessey and honestly i finished the game within 50 hours without spending a penny, some side quests were actually decent while others werent so much
mrBarrelNut
Member
I agree with him. If I was making a game I would think really hard how to make players want to purchase stupid nonsensical skins for 20€. Or stupid and pointless season passes every few months. Like my kids want to do when they are playing Fortnite.
Guy has made billions of dollars for EA and understands better than anyone how to monetize games. You can’t hate a shark for being a shark. Personally, I blame the stupid gamers who buy GAAS stuff. The more of this crap they buy, the more companies like EA will take the free money.
Umbasaborne
Banned
Fucking scum piece of shit.
Reminder that they just cancelled Unity's internal team tech demo that was meant to help developers with new features and optimizations.
And also according to some sayings, he's the reason why MS didn't buy Bioware because he was the president of the private fund that owned both it and Pandemic.
And also according to some sayings, he's the reason why MS didn't buy Bioware because he was the president of the private fund that owned both it and Pandemic.
Jinzo Prime
Member
Sounds like something a cigarette company CEO would say.
Lucifers Beard
Member
Says the former CEO. Fucking idiot. EA are in the worst place they’ve been in for years. No hope for these guys anymore.
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Jsisto
Member
I mean…looking at it from a purely short term financial gain standpoint, he’s not wrong.…but it doesn’t work nor is it a good fit for every product. In the future things could flip, and either through regulation or consumer fatigue, micro transactions could start to die out. So he should be a little more self aware and realize that tomorrow, the “fucking idiot” might be him!
Jsisto
Member
Oh wow, I forgot it was him! You‘ve got to be one hell of an asshole for a developer to literally name their villain after you. So much so that Suda even brought him back in a more prominent role for NMH3.
synchronicity
Member
The "money is the only thing of value" sentiment in culture is *beyond* wearisome.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
Yep! Blame the idiots spending money ON these microtransactions.
MatrixReloaded101
Member
Just don’t support the games that do this it’s that simple. Most of the micro transaction filled games are targeted towards the younger audience and it’s usually multiplayer games.
How a CEO of EA sees art
Can’t blame them because year after year people keep buying into the micro transactions crap. It’s easy to say things like this when your not the one making money. These companies will not turn down money “for art” gaming is too big now and unfortunately the “making games for art” ship has sailed years ago.
Which is why I have embraced playing older games now and being very selective with the new games I buy now.
El Pistolero
Banned
I can not blame the guy, there is obviously a market for it, and his role is to generate money for the business he is heading. What is at stake is the willingness of so many people to encourage these practices...
DeltaPolarBear
Member
There is a reason it is illegal to let a child being inside a physical Casino.
What this all boils down to is that society as a whole decided gambling need to be left to legally independent adults. But in the last decade there had been a huge loophole left in Videogames that is now being exploited.
We didn't let children gamble by law. Modern Gaming now allow children to gamble. The start of this thread i simply "here is a huge loophole to let children gamble! why aren't we taking advantage of it while it is still legal!"
MatrixReloaded101
Member
How is buying a new cosmetic for a character in a game gambling? Most of these micro transactions are usually for cosmetic items.
But to your point, this is why parents have to pay attention to what their kids are doing, the internet isn’t a safe place for kids in general and it’s the same with these online based games.
The way I see it, it’s never going to stop because people have completely embraced it like other bad practices that is happening now in the gaming industry. But a lot of these changes are happening because the younger audience’s taste have changed.
For example, my nephew is obsessed with Roblox and he begs for money to get points to buy new gear for his character which is mind blowing for me to see because when I was his age I would have never been interested in that type of game, I played crash bandicoot and Spyro lol. But these kids love the online multiplayer games and especially the availability to buy new gear to look unique these gaming companies are just capitalizing on that, which I don’t agree with but again people are voting for this with their money so it is what it is.
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DeltaPolarBear
Member
So my question is, would you remove the age restriction to enter Casinos? Because you can argue that kids should be free to waste pocket money on anything, why not Slots? That is a game right?
DaGwaphics
Member
MTX are here to stay, you can't ignore that. It's just the way he makes it sound like there are no pitfalls to be found with that approach. Rubs me the wrong way. Many a game has been destroyed by this thinking too, some that may have had a shot otherwise.
Plus, even though it's important for a business to have people onboard that are all about the $, this guy's quotes are some of the most off-putting to consumers I've ever seen. They should keep him out of the public square. LOL
Plus, even though it's important for a business to have people onboard that are all about the $, this guy's quotes are some of the most off-putting to consumers I've ever seen. They should keep him out of the public square. LOL
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
It becomes increasingly hard to avoid games geared towards monetazation in the AAA space as almost all of them seem to be tailored around it in some form. It’s crazy to me just how many games have grinding as part their core gameplay these days. And when I see grinding in a game, I sense purpose behind it.
When I was growing up grinding was a staple of JRPGs only, today it’s almost everywhere and I HATE that shit.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
You it’s not gamers. It’s rich casuals and kids.
My nephew would but skins in Fortnite with any money he got. SKINS
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GermanZepp
Member
EDIT: already posted in last the previous page >>
When Riccitiello said Battlefield players could pay $1 per reload
https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news...d-battlefield-players-could-pay-1-per-reload/
When Riccitiello said Battlefield players could pay $1 per reload
https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news...d-battlefield-players-could-pay-1-per-reload/
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Pagusas
Elden Member
i’m struggling a bit here, as people need jobs and jobs need salaries, and salaries are paid for by things like this. the traditional gaming development model (on a large scale) won’t continue to support single player games like we want without some way of keeping the money flowing. I don’t have to like it to understand that the way forward isn’t all flowers and rainbows for many studios.
winjer
Gold Member
The gamming industry made a ton of money, even before microtransactions.
This is not some necessary evil. This is just pure greed.
And consider that most of these companies, had huge profit increases, but still treat and pay developers like crap.
StateofMajora
Banned
Depends what you mean by kids... I saw an unbelievable amount of adults, yeah some early 20 somethings buying those stupid NBA cards, GTA dollars etc.
chromhound
Member
what a piece of shit
Grumpy Toe Nail
Banned
What an idiot, why should developers care only about money. That's for CEO's to worry about not developers. Management's job is to find the right balance for profits/longevity.
Synless
Member
Real gamers are now considered the suckers who spend $1000’s on random loot. You and I are the past.Real gamers vs John…..
Miyazaki’s Slave
Gold Member
While I am sure everyone who has commented here is an actual developer that has to make monetization decisions for all the games they have released; it would serve everyone to realize this: Monetization is different from a micro-transaction (micro-transaction....you know...like the monthly subscriptions BMW charges car owners to use their heated seats).
An in app purcahse is a form of monetization. Just like packaging a collectors edition of God of War that only comes with the digital copy of the game is a form of monetization.
Making games is an exercise in torture. If you spend 3 years of your life making a game and do not think about how you are going to monetize it you are in for a BFT (bad fucking time).
The amount of consumer research it takes to develop a monetization strategy...it makes my shoulders slump thinking about it. If they CAN add value to developers (I am not talking about Activision "developers" here, I am referring to the teams that DO NOT have a larger marketing budget than development budget) with tools and strategies to understand how to best monetize their game then PLEASE give it to me.
An in app purcahse is a form of monetization. Just like packaging a collectors edition of God of War that only comes with the digital copy of the game is a form of monetization.
Making games is an exercise in torture. If you spend 3 years of your life making a game and do not think about how you are going to monetize it you are in for a BFT (bad fucking time).
The amount of consumer research it takes to develop a monetization strategy...it makes my shoulders slump thinking about it. If they CAN add value to developers (I am not talking about Activision "developers" here, I am referring to the teams that DO NOT have a larger marketing budget than development budget) with tools and strategies to understand how to best monetize their game then PLEASE give it to me.
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DeltaPolarBear
Member
In that case, why not sell each copy of the game by bundling it with complementary Crack-coccane? Illegal drugs have a 900% profit margin. If you want maximum profit, you might as well aim for the most profitable of them all.