In this episode, we venture into the jungle of monetization that is the gaming industry. Starting with the traditional games-as-products model reminiscent of the ’90s, we trace the evolution to expansions, downloadable content (DLC), and the controversial realm of microtransactions and loot boxes.

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Chapters

00:00 Episode Intro
00:30 Episode Starts
01:00 Introducing the Theme for the Episode; Monetization
04:41 Issues With Modern-Day Monetization
17:15 The Legitimate Side of Game Monetization and Its Future
34:28 Loot Boxes
38:37 Parallels to RuneScape — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
46:34 The Ethical Dilemma of Microtransactions
01:01:23 Episode Outro

Your Hosts and Their Games

• Wishlist Sunset Moon on Steam! — https://store.steampowered.com/app/2436180/Sunset_Moon/
• Buy the Red Colony trilogy on Switch! — https://www.play-asia.com/red-colony-trilogy/13/70fmjh
• Buy the Red Colony trilogy on Steam! — https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/24596/Red_Colony_Uncensored_Threesome_Bundle/
• Buy KnifeBoy on Switch! — https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/knifeboy-rebooted-switch/
• Buy KnifeBoy on Steam! — https://store.steampowered.com/app/889130/KnifeBoy_Rebooted/
• Play Midnight Nano on itch.io! — https://sfwstudios.itch.io/midnight-nano
• Read Otto’s blog about game development! — https://ottowretling.medium.com/list/game-development-427e99aefd01
• Join the Discord server for Game Hub Umeå! — https://discord.gg/mYM72SQ9CP

Get all the links and the transcript for this episode right here: https://medium.com/@ottowretling/house-of-games-67-monetization-bd166b5b2099