“I've seen people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect...” (Destiny)

by Malagate , Sea of Tranquility, Monday, October 23, 2017, 09:48 (2380 days ago) @ cheapLEY

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-23-manveer-heir-bioware-mass-effect-ea-monetisation

”You need to understand the amount of money that's at play with microtransactions. I'm not allowed to say the number but I can tell you that when Mass Effect 3 multiplayer came out, those card packs we were selling, the amount of money we made just off those card packs was so significant that's the reason Dragon Age has multiplayer, that's the reason other EA products started getting multiplayer that hadn't really had them before, because we nailed it and brought in a ton of money. It's repeatable income versus one-time income.

"I've seen people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer cards."

Yes.

I'm friends with a guy that still works behind the scenes at EA, and worked on the ME:3 project. At launch we were playing some multiplayer and he was very tight-lipped about what he could get into, but in the years since all of this optimism and excitement was more than warranted, in retrospect. PvZ: Garden warfare, RYSE:Son of Rome, and a bunch of others have rolled out economies in the wake of ME3's multiplayer. They remain an RNG-driven style of MT-based economy that never leaves one feeling cheated, or manipulated out of money.

Definitely a watershed moment for EA, if not large chunks of the industry, way I see it.

~M