Ubisoft’s Chief Executive Officer, Yves Guillemot, has reassured investors that there are no pay-to-win elements in the studio’s video games.
During a recent earnings call in which Ubisoft revealed Ghost Recon: Breakpoint‘s commercial failure and The Division 2‘s low sales, Guillemot was quizzed by investors who expressed concerns that “gamers are beginning to rebel against more aggressive monetization in games.” In response, Guillemot insisted that microtransactions are optional, and that players are able to enjoy games without spending any money.
Speaking specifically about Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Guillemot told investors that the game’s microtransactions were partly inspired by Ghost Recon: Wildlands‘ in-game store, which players apparently engaged with.
On live games like Ghost Recon: Wildlands, we already had a store and people were buying items on the store. What we did was give more options at the beginning of Breakpoint. We understand it has been seen as too big a store and that it was really not appreciated at all, but it came from the fact that players were spending time in the store and buying things in Wildlands, and our teams thought they could give them the opportunity to have more choice. Which has not been well-interpreted, but that was the goal.
When we are able to create events that bring people to stay longer in our games, they are spending money in our games from time to time. What we consider is that in bringing a high-quality experience, we can increase the revenue per game, knowing that this is because we created more content on a regular basis.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint‘s time-savers have since been removed from the in-game store but the move seems temporary.
[Source: Games Industry]
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