Survey: 90% Of Developers Don’t Think Microtransactions Are Necessary

A survey conducted at the Devcom conference has revealed that 89% of developers don’t think that microtransactions are necessary to sell games. The gaming conference in Cologne featured 300 speakers from around the world and at least 100 were involved in this survey. As per the majority, AAA games can be financially successful by just being buy-to-play and nothing more.

Furthermore, as per the survey, only one dev out of the hundred that participated thought that ads were an essential evolution for the future of gaming. AI was also touched upon in this study with around 31% believing that its use should be as little as possible in development. On the other hand, 21% of the developers thought using AI to help with coding and general production could be a step forward for gaming.

More than 50% of the devs involved in the survey believed that saturation is the leading cause of the issues plaguing the industry while 46% stated that rising development costs are the point of contention. Last but not least, the opinion on layoffs was divided with 43% thinking they will decrease over the next 12 months while the rest said the pace of layoffs is only going to get higher.

Microtransactions: The Bone Of Contention 

Debates around microtransactions have been raging for years with this pay-to-win mechanic facing scrutiny from governments around the globe. The UK’s parliament even stated that microtransactions should be classified as gambling in the country. But, despite such scrutiny and debate, the industry doesn’t let go of this mechanic because of the money it brings in.

In 2021 alone, Activision Blizzard made most of its $8.8 billion revenue through microtransactions. Even GTA 5, one of the best-selling titles of all time, made more money through MTX than via game sales in 2017. Hence, with such monetary rewards, it’s easy to see why the gaming industry doesn’t want to stop utilizing microtransactions even if developers and fans both are against them.