Eric Monacelli, a former community strategist for Naughty Dog and the current director of communications for Infinity Ward, believes that microtransactions get a bad rap by video game fans in an interview with MCVUK:
Microtransactions tend to get a sort of negative connotation in the games industry… But if it's good enough content and you want to pay for it, why not pay for it? That's what it comes down to.
There are hot debates around this all the time in the office, because everybody's got their own opinion. For me, the more thought that's put into DLC, the more you should be able to charge for it…It's work, and you should pay for good work.
Unlike what some fans believe is merely content cut from a game to be sold later, DLC is more often than not new content:
A lot of times I'll hear people say: 'That's just something they cut from the game so you can pay for it.' No, often it's notA clear-cut example of that is the burst rifle in The Last of Us. A lot of people thought 'Why are they charging for guns?' We did the research and noticed that a lot of players were having trouble jumping into the game for the first time, so we wanted to give people a weapon that was easily accessible and would give them a bit of a leg-up.
Of course, the crux of the issue is that "good work" is in the eye of the beholder. Do you think microtransactions incite too much reaction or do they have a legitimate place in gaming?
