You may be playing at Fortnite, League of Legends, or Pokémon Go that have the distinction of being free. In fact, we classify these games in the F2P category, for “free to play” because, unlike traditional video games, you do not have to buy them to play, just download them legally.
Yet these games are expensive to produce. Publishers must, therefore, devise ways to make money to cover production costs and make a profit. These means are more numerous than we think, but two are particularly widespread.
The advert
The first way is advertising. Advertisers are very interested in F2P games because, because they are free, they are played by many players. Sometimes the advertisement is directly visible to the player. This is the case for banner ads that appear on the screen, product placement inside the game, or promotional videos. As the publisher will make money with each new click on an advertisement, it will make you do it by promising you a reward against your click. Sometimes advertising is less visible to players.
These can be sponsored places(Pokémon Go, for example, could direct you to certain stores to catch rare Pokémon and do some shopping by the way), indirect advertising via video gaming platforms dedicated to live gaming (like Twitch), or even resale personal data of players to third parties, such as Facebook for example, for direct marketing purposes.
Small purchases make great fortunes
The second model is that of micro-transaction. Very popular, it invites players to spend real money to acquire a virtual currency that will be used to buy game items. Some of these elements are purely cosmetic, but others will have the purpose of reserving access to certain modes or worlds (such as Fortnite’s “Save the World” mode) or to make the player stronger.
In the latter case, we often talk about the model “pay to win” because it is very difficult to be competitive if you do not have the best equipment, even if you are an excellent player!
Loot boxes:
Finally, there is the model of “loot boxes”. We pay to access a random reward. The problem with loot boxes is that they look a lot like games of chance as they are in casinos since the win is random and some sneaky players will spend a lot of money trying to get the object they are looking for. This is why some governments want to ban loot boxes because it requires special authorization to market games of chance.
Be that as it may, these models, which are often combined, are very effective. They allow their publishers to make a lot of money.
By 2018, Fortnite reportedly reported $ 2.4 billion to Epic Games, its publisher. It must be said that the game has 250 million players and that nearly 70% of them have already resorted to micro-transactions.
This makes Fortnite both an economic phenomenon and a social phenomenon that has inspired Antoine Griezmann’s famous celebration of goal-making, “take the L”. This is to say if F2P video games are now stronger, and permanently, inscribed in the cultural landscape!
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