John Smedley, the head of studio Pixelmage Games and former boss for Sony Online and Daybreak, made it extremely clear in a recent Reddit AMA that he despises microtransactions.
When asked about his stance on selling "power" through microtransactions for the studio's debut title Hero's Song, he responded by saying that "there will be zero selling of any microtransactions." If you want power, you're going to have to "earn it."
While elaborating on the issue when questioned about why he doesn't like microtransactions, he speaks from first-hand experience:
I don't like Microtransactions because I worked on too many games with them. They change the feeling of development to one where you feel like you have to worry about the business instead of the gameplay. That leads to tons of compromises. I hated that. I also hated defending stuff we did to make money to our players… because they're right… they know we spent too much time focusing on that stuff.
Smedley has pledged that Pixelmage Games will never have microtransactions. It's a part of starting fresh, as Smedley is known for spitting fire with hacking group Lizard Squad and has revealed that he had been "swatted" multiple times and had false credit applications and false tax returns submitted in his name.
