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☆ Why the $183 billion video game industry can't quit microtransactions
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Christian Nunley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The video game industry cannot quit microtransactions. In fact, two of the largest video game companies in the United States — Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive — now make the overwhelming majority of their money from live-service games, subscriptions and in-game purchases, according to their recent earnings reports. Game publishers must provide updates throughout certain game life cycles to retain player attention, which is where the term "live service" comes from. Gamer backlash from the early attempts at in-game purchases caused the video game industry to shift its approach to these subscriptions and bundling purchasable content. Watch the video above to learn more about microtransactions, the backlash involved, and where the industry goes from here.

Persons: Mat Piscatella Organizations: Electronic, Gamers, Electronic Arts, Epic, Apple Locations: United States, Europe

☆ OnlyFans creators make money selling intimacy to their subscribers. But in a lonely and hostile world, the relationships can start to feel real.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

OnlyFans creators who spoke with BI said that losing friends and even family members was something adult-content creators often had to come to terms with. AdvertisementEven beyond adult content, creators face an intrinsic element of loneliness. Like other influencers and freelancers, OnlyFans creators often shoot, edit, and post their content alone at home. AdvertisementLike with other types of sex work, navigating OnlyFans can be difficult in a traditional monogamous relationship. Courtesy of LiensueThe money is what makes OnlyFans 'just so worth it'Many creators said money was the key factor that kept them on OnlyFans despite the stigma.

Persons: —, Rae Richmond, she'd, Richmond, Pani Farvid, Keily Blair, Kaitlyn Siragusa, You'd, she's, Elaina St James, I've, St James, Isla Moon, Cherie DeVille, Elaina, James, Amber, doesn't, Farvid, Sweetheart, Marie Lippmann, Liensue, I'm, Emme Witt, OnlyFans, That's, Witt, Siragusa Organizations: Service, The New School, Workers, BI, OnlyFans, California State University, Chico Locations: Richmond, New York, OnlyFans

☆ Baldur's Gate 3 made more than $650 million last year, proving video games don't need microtransactions to succeed
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Baldur's Gate 3 made more than $650 million on Steam last year. Games that don't rely on microtransactions, in fact, dominated the bestsellers list for 2023. AdvertisementBaldur's Gate 3 smashed expectations, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars last year, proving that not all top-selling games have to have a battle pass. AdvertisementBaldur's Gate 3 was the top-selling game on the platform, outselling its closest competitor — Hogwarts Legacy — by $316 million, according to the report. One of the top trends last year among the top-selling games on Steam was a "lack of microtransactions."

Persons: —, Fortnite Organizations: Steam, Service, Larian, Book, North Carolina Better Business, Epic Games Locations: Baldur's, North Carolina

☆ Men are turning to OnlyFans for emotional connection amid a loneliness epidemic
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Marta Biino | Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

"They can go to Pornhub and get naked people and sexual videos," Rae Richmond, another content creator, said. And when he chats with Farrah, an OnlyFans creator, things rarely get sexual. Some think the OnlyFans relationships help, while others think they can make people lonelier. LiensueGenuine connection can be an unintended consequence for creators, tooDespite the transactional nature of OnlyFans relationships, a real sense of companionship can develop on both ends. Sweetheart said she hadn't been on any dates since she began creating OnlyFans content over three years ago.

Persons: Cherie DeVille, Simon, DeVille, he'd, I'd, who's, they'd, Rae Richmond, Walter's, Farrah, Walter, OnlyFans, Robert Weiss, Albert L, Ortega, Amber, Aston Martin, Keily Blair, sexting, she'd, Amber Sweetheart OnlyFans, Jade Nicole, Jade, she's, Jade Nicole Jade Nicole Mark, Liensue, Sue, Elaina St James, Tom, St James, haven't, Weiss, Ronald Levant —, Katherine Frank, Levant, Marie Lippmann, you've, I've, hadn't, She's, Candice Organizations: Google, Business, NFL, Gallup, Pew, Getty, University of Akron, Strip Club, California State University, Chico Locations: Italy, OnlyFans, New York

☆ Neopets is under new management and planning a comeback in a vastly different era of gaming
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Lim Hui Jie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Since buying Neopets, Law said his team is in the process of restoring those minigames and modernizing them to enhance the experience. Competing in the current metaWhile Law is optimistic, he is aware that Neopets was born in a different era of video gaming. For Neopets, Law said the merch business would include both physical, like plushies and clothing, and digital, such as in-game purchases. In 2024, Law's team is planning to launch World of Neopets, a 3D simulator game that will utilize the existing Neopets world, but in a modern gaming environment. Does this mean that new Neopets games will replace the 24-year old Neopets.com?

Persons: Dominic Law, Neopets, Neopets …, Jakub Porzycki, NetDragon Websoft, Law, we've, John Legend, Kass Basher, Mickey Mouse Organizations: Neopets, Koelnmesse, CNBC, Gamescom, Law, Getty, Nurphoto, Adobe, Activision, Monopoly Locations: Asia, Singapore, asia, Canada, Hong Kong, Gamescom Asia, that's, Krakow, Poland, Neopets, U.S

☆ Children addicted to video games ran away from home in the middle of the night to find WiFi when parents turned their internet connection off, says expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Children addicted to video games run away from home in search of WiFi and turn violence, per a doctor. Many games involve loot boxes, typically unknown items unlocked through additional gameplay or paid for with real-world or in-game money. Video game companies EA and Respawn have faced criticism for expensive loot boxes in Apex Legends, with one axe totaling $178 in microtransactions when it was released. "To spend money, these children need to borrow money from parents or use monetary gifts received for birthdays and Christmas. Last year, then-Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries opted not to regulate loot boxes as gambling.

Persons: Henrietta Bowden, Jones, Bowden, Nadine Dorries Organizations: for Gaming Disorders, National Centre for Gaming Disorders, Guardian, EA, Apex, Gambling Locations: microtransactions, Austrian, Belgium, Australia

☆ Dogecoin has been revived with a $10 billion surge since Elon Musk purchased Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Dogecoin has added $10 billion in market value since Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter. Musk tweeted a picture of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a Twitter T-shirt early Tuesday morning. Dogecoin, which counts a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, has soared more than 100% since Friday. After accounting for the recent surge, dogecoin's fully diluted market value is now $18.5 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, making it the eighth most valuable cryptocurrency. There has also been speculation that Musk could use dogecoin as a way to add support for microtransactions on Twitter.

☆ A 19-year-old Roblox creator who's designed hundreds of games for the platform shares how much he makes in a month
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Jp Mangalindan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

One of his more recent games, "Obby Creator," earns him up to $20,000 a month. Two years later, at the age of 11, Girdler constructed one of his first Roblox games, called "Two Player Secret Hideout Tycoon." "Obby Creator" has been played nearly 250 million times, according to Roblox, and currently brings in Girdler between $15,000 and $20,000 a month. The Roblox creator also employs his mother and pays her between $1,000 and $1,500 a month to moderate content that users generate and put in "Obby Creator." Girdler said he's eager to work on something new after spending the last three years working on creative updates for "Obby Creator."

☆ I went from designing Xbox video games at a Microsoft-backed studio to a software job at Citadel Securities. I was surprised at how many of my skills transferred over.
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-24 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

William Archbell works in engineering at the market maker Citadel Securities. Archbell had previously designed video games for a Microsoft-backed gaming studio. I joined the market maker Citadel Securities as a senior software engineer last September, and moved from Santa Monica, California, to Chicago, Illinois. It's similar to Citadel Securities, where we take market data, we do research, and we run experiments to build tech that meets users' needs. But the difference is that at Citadel Securities, the key performance indicators are profit and loss.

☆ There's a debate raging in video games over whether loot boxes should be classified as gambling
▼ + stars: | 2020-07-05 | by ( Isobel Asher Hamilton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

There's a debate raging over whether in-game loot boxes encourage kids to gamble. In the UK, the House of Lords this week recommended the legal reclassification of loot boxes in video games as gambling. Experts are divided over whether paying for loot boxes has a causal link to gambling and one told Business Insider it could be "apocalyptically stupid" to regulate loot boxes like gambling without doing more research. In some games, players are able to trade the rewards they get from loot boxes with each other for real money. The 71% figure referred to the share of players in the sample who had played games with loot boxes, not the share of games containing loot boxes.

Persons: —, David Zendle, Zendle, Pete Etchells, Andrew Przybylski, Przybylski Organizations: Service, FIFA, Steam, Juniper Research, University of York, Bath Spa University, Oxford Internet Institute, Business

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