New video games are being launched and priced at $70, which has become the standard for AAA titles lately. It’s no wonder many gamers voice their frustration over the presence of microtransactions in these games. Interestingly, these concerns are shared by developers, a significant number of whom believe that microtransactions should not be part of AAA games.
A recent survey conducted at Devcom 2024 revealed that 89 percent of developers believe that AAA games can be financially successful with just the buy-to-play revenue model and therefore without adding optional in-game purchases. Sixty-five percent of these respondents also support both physical and digital models for premium games. Only one person was in favor of the ad-supported free-to-play model for the future of the games industry.
Concerns regarding artificial intelligence were also noted in the survey. Among the developer respondents, 31 percent gave preference to minimal AI use in game development, and 21 percent expressed interest in AI as a productivity aid for coding to increase development speed and efficiency.
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The future of the industry was also discussed. Fifty-five percent of developers expressed concerns over market saturation being a major challenge, while 46 percent pointed to increasing development costs. The developers also suggested the possibility of AI replacing human localization and translation roles within the upcoming year or two.
The Devcom 2024, which recently took place in Cologne, Germany from August 18 to 20, is a game developer event that’s part of Gamescom, Europe’s annual trade fair for video games. A hundred developers out of the 300 event speakers participated in the survey.
Source: Wccftech