EA planning microtransactions for "all of our games"

Here is a statement that an EA executive has made about microtransactions, presumably without winking, smirking or collapsing onto the floor in a fit of hysterics: "Consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business."

Before I ride off on a custom-built jetpack fuelled by the internet's indignation, here are the details. The executive in question was Blake Jorgensen, EA's CFO. He was speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, transcribed by Seeking Alpha , and revealing EA's plan to build microtransactions into all of their games.

"The next and much bigger piece [of the business] is microtransactions within games," Jorgensen said. "And so to the extent that ... we're building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business."

Microtransactions aren't exactly new territory for EA, what with Mass Effect 3's equipment box gamble and Dead Space 3's easily exploitable single-player scrap dealership. What's more, as a thing said by an executive, there's no guarantee this will have any real affect on the reality of EA's future releases.

Still, whatever happens, I can't imagine this commitment to additional real-money purchases is going to prove massively popular. Although logic would dictate that EA wouldn't be so interested if people weren't consistently buying them.

Thanks, Eurogamer .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in Mass Effect
Crysis hero Prophet running down a beach while under fire
Crysis Remastered Trilogy activates maximum value mode as upgraded version of the legendary, hardware-crushing FPS series is currently 60% off
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
Mark Darrah
BioWare veteran calls out the 'cruelty' of fans celebrating layoffs: 'You are crossing a line, and you're probably attacking the wrong person anyway'
Mass Effect 3 didn't have music like Vigil or Suicide Mission because composer Jack Wall had a spat with Casey Hudson: 'Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end'
Mass Effect Legendary Edition best settings
Bioware's exceptional Mass Effect Legendary Edition is going for a song, so bag 3 of the best action-RPGs ever made for a mere 4 dollars
Mass Effect protagonist in N7 armor on a space background
Amazon's Mass Effect TV show now in 'active development' from the writer of F9: The Fast Saga (the one where a car goes to space)
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'