The Coalition to Games Industry: Gears 5 "ahead of the industry" on monetising without loot boxes

[Cactuar]

The Coalition's Ryan Cleven was asked whether Gears 4 would include microtransactions,

The multiplayer design director reiterated that Gears 5 will have no loot boxes, but does have a store in which players can spend real money on in-game currency Iron, which can be used to purchase cosmetics.

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Cleven feels that the system is "a very player-centric, player-friendly way of doing customisation and monetisation."

"We really think we're ahead of the industry here in getting rid of loot boxes and making sure that we can both service people that are looking to accelerate their progression or earn cosmetics using money but also keeping the integrity of the game experience," he said.

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He was also asked whether this workaround or "new monetisation system" (as Games Industry calls it) was influenced by the backlash surrounding lootboxes.

"We had made that decision before all that happened," Cleven said. "We were sort of reading the tea leaves, I guess, and we were one of the earliest to adopt card packs inside our game. We thought we'd done it quite elegantly in Gears 4 -- some people liked it, some people didn't.

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He continued,

This approach was validated as governments and politicians looked deeper into the impact of loot boxes, so the Gears 5 team doubled down on the new system.

"We just felt that [loot boxes] weren't a good fit for Gears and we wanted to be ahead of the curve looking for possible solutions, even before all the controversy."

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Is Gears setting the industry standard on monetization as companies look to capitalize on microtransations without the lootbox stigma?

 

[Komo]

I mean I don't think an ingame store is innovating. Nor are they the first to do something like it.

 

[TheMoon]

This is literally just the same microtransactions we've had for, what, a decade or more now?!?!

Backwards is forwards, I guess? (it is, fuck a loot box)

 

[Nitori]

If AAA games want micro transactions like cosmetics that I can just buy without gambling is okay. I'd rather have none of them, but that's not gonna happen.

 

[YaBish]

Was this not the norm as recent as 2011-13?

 

[Boiled Goose]

A return from super exploitative to less exploitative.

Instead of a slot machine in your game, there's a store in your game!

Ahead of it's time? What a garbage shill take.

 

[Kiekura]

Just sell people what they want and only sell stuff where people know what they are getting. Easy as hell

 

[Boiled Goose]

If AAA games want micro transactions like cosmetics that I can just buy without gambling is okay. I'd rather have none of them, but that's not gonna happen.

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Plenty of games don't have microtransactions.

 

[Bit_Reactor]

If AAA games want micro transactions like cosmetics that I can just buy without gambling is okay. I'd rather have none of them, but that's not gonna happen.

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This is where I'm at. I hate that there's SO MUCH of it and everything in some of these releases but at least it's buying a specific item for a specific price versus throwing money into a void hoping a magical chest pops up with the shit you want. Of course it means they won't make as much money because of the way lootboxes are designed, but it should still allow fans to pay it forward to the devs if the rest of the game is solid/holds up like people (including me) do for games like Warframe.

But like...I don't see how this is "ahead" of the industry. If anything it's backwards to where it was and never should have gone on from. But then people griped about DLC prices so we'll see if the cycle begins anew.

 

[ThiefofDreams]

Ah it's the ol "ingame cosmetics cost 600 iron and you can buy iron in 500, 1000, 1500 but dont forget the bonus iron when buying those best value amounts" trick. How revolutionary.

 

[Arm Van Dam]

You can't revolutionize microtransactions since it's the same thing we had for nearly a decade now

 

[FFWarrior005]

There is nothing innovative or "ahead" about what Gears 5 is doing with their store. Give me break.

 

[Kiekura]

Warframe still might have best microtransactions in industry.

 

[Nere]

I dont trust them that much, Gears 4 was awful with the monetization. They were releasing new loot boxes, that were insanely priced, all the time. They might start well with Gears 5 and implement worse monetization later on, ala call of duty.

 

[Fizzgig]

Ah it's the ol "ingame cosmetics cost 600 iron and you can buy iron in 500, 1000, 1500 but dont forget the bonus iron when buying those best value amounts" trick. How revolutionary.

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This.

 

[Xater]

This is literally just the same microtransactions we've had for, what, a decade or more now?!?!

Backwards is forwards, I guess? (it is, fuck a loot box)

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That's the thing with this industry, they just continue down the worst part possible until it's no longer feasible. Then going back to the old bad thing looks like an amazing achievement.

 

[FullMetalTech]

I don't see how this is any different than what we had before.

 

[IIFloodyII]

There's literally nothing new or ahead about that set up. It's the same set up as fucking Fortnite BR (which existed before Fortnite), just not rotationing daily maybe? Sounds exactly like Destiny 2's actually.

 

[dancingphlower]

So it's how microtransactions used to work then?

 

[808s & Villainy]

Was this not the norm as recent as 2011-13?

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Yeah lol. Sad how far we've gone that being "ahead" means going back. What's next? Some revolutionary AAA title having in-game chest codes?!

 

[danmaku]

Ah it's the ol "ingame cosmetics cost 600 iron and you can buy iron in 500, 1000, 1500 but dont forget the bonus iron when buying those best value amounts" trick. How revolutionary.

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This. It's better than lootboxes, but these fake currencies are only there to leave some money on your account hoping you'll decide to buy something else.

 

[modiz]

Am I supposed to celebrate a system that makes more money off non f2p games because it is a better system than another system that makes more money off non f2p games?

 

[Mona]

I don't see how this is any different than what we had before.

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[Dalik]

They are so "far ahead of the industry" that the game is priced 69€ in EU while its 59$ in US

 

[Lilalaunebaer]

Ah it's the ol "ingame cosmetics cost 600 iron and you can buy iron in 500, 1000, 1500 but dont forget the bonus iron when buying those best value amounts" trick. How revolutionary.

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Truly ahead of the industry. So incredibly generous. How did they ever come up with that.
Give it up to the coalition and MS.
Much respect.

 

[Niks]

That's the thing with this industry, they just continue down the worst part possible until it's no longer feasible. Then going back to the old bad thing looks like an amazing achievement.

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This.

"We just felt that [loot boxes] weren't a good fit for Gears and we wanted to be ahead of the curve looking for possible solutions, even before all the controversy."

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Surejan.gif

 

[Eumi]

Ahead of the fucking industry, my god.

I can't believe people are now advertising their monetisation schemes as innovative features.

I'm fully expecting a bunch of people to be heaping praise on them for it, too.

 

[DC5remy]

This is such an odd story. As if a store to by skins is new.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

Damn Coalition is out here ahead of the curve with decade-plus old concepts.
Praise

 

[Rosebud]

They would be ahead not having mtx at all.

This looks the same as Ubisoft games.

 

[moeppel]

They are so "far ahead of the industry" that the game is priced 69€ in EU while its 59$ in US

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sales tax ;) not included in the US price. while some states do not have it online though.

but yeah, they chose the lesser from two evils.

 

[DrArchon]

Shit, if an in-game real money store with fun bucks is a revolution what the fuck was The Witcher 3?

 

[Jiraiya]

Praise

 

[Meatwad]

Let's not pat people in the back for putting MTX in games

 

[Gordon's Tulpa]

Forward thinking by going back to horse armor, okay. It's better than those exploitation boxes for sure, but to act like this is a form of innovation is reaaaaaally stretching it.

 

[TheMoon]

They are so "far ahead of the industry" that the game is priced 69€ in EU while its 59$ in US

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nice

 

[Deleted member 13328]

If you only can buy skins, why is there a need to buy iron to buy skins, just sell skins for money without the silly made up currency.

 

[Gordon's Tulpa]

Forward thinking by going back to horse armor, okay. It's better than those exploitation boxes for sure, but to act like this is a form of innovation is reaaaaaally stretching it.

 

[Brown Intruder]

Anything is better than the disgraceful monetized boxes with repeat items that they had in gears 4.

Absolutely disgusting what they did

 

[Deleted member 41638]

but does have a store in which players can spend real money on in-game currency Iron, which can be used to purchase cosmetics.

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This is all games need, League of Legends didn't have loot boxes for like 8 years and they did alright.

 

[Dalik]

sales tax ;) not included in the US price. while some states do not have it online though.

but yeah, they chose the lesser from two evils.

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Literally the only game i have ever seen on PC with such an high price. Every other AAA is 59€, like cyberpunk, doom eternal, bloodlines 2.

 

[Replicant]

Any type of transaction in games should be outlawed. Simple. It's garbage and gamers need to stop paying for them.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

Isn't this just what microtransactions we're before lootboxes

 

[SFLUFAN]

The thread title should be amended to reflect that this nonsense is what The Coalition is saying about themselves in an interview with Games Industry and not something that Games Industry itself is saying about Gears 5.

As it is written, the thread title is somewhat misleading.

 

[Deleted member 18379]

I still find it ironic how one of the most hated and dog piled games of this gen is Evolve, a game that sold all of it's cosmetics upfront but was attacked with reckless abandon anyway. Then Overwatch comes out shortly after with lootboxes, popularized the mechanic, beloved by all. Really makes me question the intelligence of the average person. "Evolve has preorder DLCCCCC!!!!!" Give me a break. Enjoy your loot boxes clowns.

 

[Goodacre0081]

They even had both loot boxes and direct pay cosmetic items in Gears4. Guess what happened there, all the best looking stuff was cash only and couldn't be earned by grinding out credits.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

Microtransactions. IT'S JUST MICROTRANSACTIONS!

 

[Edge]

"Ahead of industry"?

If they use artificial time limited items it's not a single bit better and still a predatory microtransaction technique.

And the prices will probably as bad as anywhere else, which means 10-20 bucks for a single costume = thanks no, I move on.

 

[ThiefofDreams]

The thread title should be amended to reflect that this nonsense is what The Coalition is saying about themselves and not something that Games Industry itself is saying about Gear5.

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100% agree to this.

 

[moeppel]

Literally the only game i have ever seen on PC with such an high price. Every other AAA is 59€, like cyberpunk, doom eternal, bloodlines 2.

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ah you meant the PC version? yep that's very unusual then :/