Ubisoft predicts opportunities to pair microtransactions with $60 games

Future Ubisoft games could offer in-game purchases after taking an initial $60 chomp of your wallet. GamesBeat says during an investor call, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez and Worldwide Online Director Stéphanie Perotti acknowledged the “flexibility” of free-to-play business models and the “opportunity” for full-priced games offering microtransactional items.
“Free-to-play is a very flexible business model,” Perotti said. “The player has the capability to spend more than in a traditional model. We can control everything from the pricing to marketing as if we were an online store.”
“With games like Watch Dogs, we could see more opportunity for $60 games to learn from the free-to-play model,” Martinez added. “The next generation will offer more and more item-based content. This will benefit our games’ profitability.”
Ubisoft has a less-than-stellar reputation on the PC, but its outlook on harnessing the free-to-play model — especially the rising go-to strategy of implementing item shops — isn’t untested (see: Mass Effect 3). I just hope I won’t see a single polka-dotted bandana mask in Watch Dogs.