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Forza 5's Microtransactions Controversy "Couldn't Go Unnoticed" | Horizon 2 Dev

G

Gestault

Member
As someone doing their first serious Forza 5 playthrough since the economy changes made at launch (and loving it), it's even more encouraging to see developers recognizing the concern to the point of excluding those transactions completely [Article by Emanuel Maiberg (@emanuelmaiberg on Twitter & Google+)]

Forza Motorsport 5 launched with an in-game economy that many players complained made it too hard to obtain all the cars in the game without spending real money. Developer Turn 10 Studios has since made "fundamental improvements" to the game, but Playground noted fans' reactions.
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As Playground previously announced, Forza Horizon 2 will not have microtransactions at launch
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[Edit] I think SeanSpeed summed up an important point about this development:
The main problem that can come with microtransactions is if a game's progression is designed to heavily encourage the use of them. But if a game doesn't even have them at launch, its likely it means the game will play just fine without them.
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As long as it's similar to Forza 5 now, I'm fine with it. It is incredibly easy to bank money in the game that I see no reason to use real money in the game.
 
cardsbasebal said:
As long as it's similar to Forza 5 now, I'm fine with it. It is incredibly easy to bank money in the game that I see no reason to use real money in the game.
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Yeah, from just normal races and rivals challenges, I've had enough and (then some) to buy the high-end racing class cars for the final league events with less than three days worth of play-time.

I like the idea of Turn10 giving feedback for Playground Games internally about the progression balance, because as it stands, I really like the balance they hit with the changes in Forza 5. Even just having seen the initial reaction gave them good feedback.
 
neogaffer1 said:
Because then you look silly if you put it in afterwards whether it was planned or not.

Edit: Not saying that it's a good thing, but that this just reminds me of the time Dice flat out said that there would be no paid map packs ever in Battlefield and now look where we are.
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Such comments from studios that are owned by a publisher should always be taken with the world's largest grain of salt as the decision doesn't lie with them. If Papa Company decides it wants to, say, charge for map packs, then that's exactly what will happen.
 
maybe they mean it.. literally.. depending on how the conversation went? Surely, it would be stupid to bait and switch with micro transactions post release?

possibly...stand down...gang?
 
Microtransactions are fine in games just as long as the game isn't gimped to entise the use of them (Like phone games).

As long as they don't include a "Grind for 100 hours to level up once or pay $30" then I don't mind.
 
I honestly feel like it's worth pointing out that the original Horizon had the "token" micro-transaction system, and it didn't seem to cause any problems. We have an interview where they say they're dumping it for the new game.

Also, people seem to misunderstand the difference between DLC and micro-transactions.
 
cardsbasebal said:
As long as it's similar to Forza 5 now, I'm fine with it. It is incredibly easy to bank money in the game that I see no reason to use real money in the game.
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Unfortunately, most people that will complain, like before, will have zero experience with Forza, but will get outraged at any mention of microtransactions anyways.

I think the fact that there wont be any at launch is a good sign. The main problem that can come with microtransactions is if a game's progression is designed to heavily encourage the use of them. But if a game doesn't even have them at launch, its likely it means the game will play just fine without them.
 
Red Chocobo said:
Microtransactions are fine in games just as long as the game isn't gimped to entise the use of them (Like phone games).

As long as they don't include a "Grind for 100 hours to level up once or pay $30" then I don't mind.
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I agree.

Forza 4 was the first introduction of microtransactions in the franchise, and it managed it pretty well. The game threw a TON of money at you, so it didn't really take that long to earn the expensive cars. You'd only spend the money if you had to have it the instant you started the game, basically.
 
There's nothing wrong with microtransactions per se... The issue is when the whole game's economy is balanced around those microtransactions, like Forza 5 at launch.

If they release Horizon 2 with a well balanced economy and then introduce microtransactions then I don't have any problems with that. If anybody want to pay real money to cheat it's their problem. As long as it's still fair for me I don't care.
 
Seanspeed said:
Unfortunately, most people that will complain, like before, will have zero experience with Forza, but will get outraged at any mention of microtransactions anyways.

I think the fact that there wont be any at launch is a good sign. The main problem that can come with microtransactions is if a game's progression is designed to heavily encourage the use of them. But if a game doesn't even have them at launch, its likely it means the game will play just fine without them.
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If I could bold this harder, I would. If people are concerned about the quality of the game, there couldn't be better news about this topic.
 
NumberThree said:
He didn't say that. He said DICE don't want to charge for maps, not that EA wouldn't make them do that :)
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Yea and later they said they got better reactions from paid maps, which is true. The free maps in BC2 were nowhere near as good as some of the BF3 DLC maps. Its just logic really, they need to sell the maps so they'll put more effort into them
 
jeffers said:
at launch = review+backlash dodge?
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Even as a review dodge it's somewhat positive, as that means the economy built into the game will have to work without microtransactions.

Of course, when doing the Forza Horizon 2 equivalent of the 1000 Club (which reviewers almost certainly won't bother to factor in) we may all be screwed. In Horizon 1 getting money for cars was easy during the main game. Once that was completely though, your options for making big cash dry up quite quickly, and trying to get hold of every car in order to complete its challenges becomes a struggle.

And there better not be any of that "6 cars exclusive to the Season Pass" fuckery that happened with the original...

Gestault said:
I honestly feel like it's worth pointing out that the original Horizon had the "token" micro-transaction system, and it didn't seem to cause any problems. We have an interview where they say they're dumping it for the new game.

Also, people seem to misunderstand the difference between DLC and micro-transactions.
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The tokens for "travel anywhere" was some BS though... let's at least admit that.
 
Seanspeed said:
Unfortunately, most people that will complain, like before, will have zero experience with Forza, but will get outraged at any mention of microtransactions anyways.

I think the fact that there wont be any at launch is a good sign. The main problem that can come with microtransactions is if a game's progression is designed to heavily encourage the use of them. But if a game doesn't even have them at launch, its likely it means the game will play just fine without them.
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This. If there are no microstransactions at launch, it's safe to say that the game will play just fine without them. Expect some EA-style "shortcut" microtransactions in the future that are easily ignored.
 
They can add them if they want. I will be pouring days of playtime into this one so even if they adjust the payouts to encourage microtransactions, I will still have all the money and cars I need.
 
I may catch flak for this but "at launch" is pretty important IMO. It means you can't design the game around microtransactions. The game has to function normally without them for this to be possible. Adding them later would only serve as a shortcut.
 
BearPawB said:
I think microtransactions later in the games life is fine.
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No its not. If its a full game at release it does not need silly pointless money grabbing microtransactions down the line to turn it into a pseudo FTP game. No its a old game that you can get for cheap.
 
Synth said:
The tokens for "travel anywhere" was some BS though... let's at least admit that.
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That is bullshit.

Not because it's a microtransaction. But who the hell would buy an open-world racer and use a quick-travel system? It defeats the fun of the franchise.
 
NIN90 said:
This. If there are no microstransactions at launch, it's safe to say that the game will play just fine without them. Expect some EA-style "shortcut" microtransactions in the future that are easily ignored.
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Maybe. But we all also know that after the huge backlash Forza and its progression was retroffited to remove the heavy burdens. It is possible something like that can be added.

But realistically, I am with you, if its conceptualized without, it will not be an easy process to add something as burdensome as Forza had initially. More than likely it will be shortcut type stuff.
 
AkelisRain said:
Didn't garden warfare launch with no microtransaction? Look at it now.
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I haven't played it in a while.. but does not paying the transactions in GW leave you with a noticeably worse game than how it launched? If not (and it was fine at launch) then there's no real problem imo.

I'm cool with games allowing people to shortcut their way through if they have little time, as long as it's not turning the game to crap for anyone that chooses not to. I've played tons of games that lack transactions, where I'd have been happy to have some, because I had less than a tenth of the time to dedicate to it as some of my friends/family, which made playing those games together essentially impossible due to me being massively underleveled/underpowered in comparison. I don't really the answer is simply contracting the time it takes to level in those games, as that would just have had them be done with it in a tenth of the time, before I'd basically played it at all.

I'll put my "part of the problem" hat on and leave now...

Red Chocobo said:
That is bullshit.

Not because it's a microtransaction. But who the hell would buy an open-world racer and use a quick-travel system? It defeats the fun of the franchise.
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The same people who don't walk to every location in an Elder Scrolls game, or don't ride the horse back each time in Assassin's Creed. When you have 1000 challenges to do, the prospect of driving 11 miles to reach a speed camera isn't very appealing for the 25th time.

Most of the time I like to leisurely drive around in Horizon, but certainly not all the time everywhere, in every car to do every challenge. Fuck... that...
 
Seanspeed said:
Unfortunately, most people that will complain, like before, will have zero experience with Forza, but will get outraged at any mention of microtransactions anyways.

I think the fact that there wont be any at launch is a good sign. The main problem that can come with microtransactions is if a game's progression is designed to heavily encourage the use of them. But if a game doesn't even have them at launch, its likely it means the game will play just fine without them.
Click to expand...

Well, didn't Forza 5 play "just fine" without them? I haven't played it, so I do have 0 experience, but it didn't seem like something they designed the game around. It just reduced the (long, afaik) grind with dollars.
 
Doesn't the "at launch" thing just mean that you can buy cars and stuff after? Like most games have MT. It doesn't have to be the worst case scenario.
 
AkelisRain said:
Didn't garden warfare launch with no microtransaction? Look at it now.
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It's still a pretty good game that doesn't require buying coins whatsoever because on average you can earn around 10K coins for every Gardens and Graveyards match? It's a pretty good game because it isn't as grindy as other shooters in regards to buying more unlocks?

Nice to know you haven't played the game at all.

--

On topic, I'm pretty sure he means something along the lines of car packs or post-game DLC. Nothing more. Stop overreacting.
 
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