PopCap killing off Baking Life, not offering refunds or exchanges for customers’ money
Are you one of the 100,000 daily users who enjoy creating recipes, baking goods, hiring your friends, and serving customers each day?
Probably not, but that’s not the point. PopCap are closing down Baking Life at the end of January, and any “Zip Cash” bought with real-life money will be erased from existence.
I’ve never baked a virtual cake via the Baking Life app, but that PopCap aren’t offering any exchange or refund option sets an ugly precedent for the value of microtransactions and gamer’s rights. As pointed out in the screenshot below, PopCap seem keen to redirect players to alternative Facebook titles, but don’t seem so keen on converting player’s funds.
Eve Online now selling $70 monocles
Eve Online’s Incarna update launched yesterday. In addition to the ability to walk around outside your ship, you can also buy micro-transacted items to spruce up your avatar. The problem? The cost of these items is far, far beyond most DLC prices, and it’s affecting the delicate Eve economy.
17 percent of Battlefield Heroes players want to buy advantages
At today’s GDC talk, Senior Producer of Battlefield Heroes Ben Cousins revealed that 17% of the game’s players want to buy items that would provide them an edge.
In attempts to make Battlefield Heroes more profitable, Cousins and his team conducted a survey of the players to find out just what kind of offers would convince them to pay for items. The response was a demand for items that gave players an advantage in-game. “What really surprised us was how far up this one was: ”If I could by items that give me an advantage” Stuff like health boost, speed boost, etc. This wasn’t even on our list of things to do, but 17% of responders wanted it,” explained Cousins.
Would you be willing to pay money for an in-game stat boost? Let us know in the comments.
Guild Wars 2 post-release content plans – Updated
Lead Game Designer Eric Flannum, while discussing the upcoming dungeon system in a recent interview with PC Gamer, revealed that Guild Wars 2 may be supported, in part, by microtransaction sales.
Updated with clarification from ArenaNet
Torchlight MMO details in the new PC Gamer
The team behind the fantastic action-RPG Torchlight are making an MMO, an MMO that will be free-to-play, but supported by microtransactions. Although little’s known about the MMO, the Torchlight team talk about their plans in the new issue of PC Gamer, on-sale in the UK on Thursday. In the mag, they reveal that they’re aiming for an MMO that feels like a single player game, and it’ll retain the same fast action. Their president Travis Baldree also shows he has a traditional PC gamer attitude towards microtransactions.
