Are Hidden Microtransactions In Monopoly GO Worth The Investment?

According to relevant media reports, a 17-year-old has spent $25,000 on the Monopoly GO app to get the props he needs in the game. Although the game itself can be played for free, many users have found that the shocking expenses they have paid in the game have far exceeded their expectations.

Game Expenses Accumulate, The Proportion Of Expenses Has Expanded

And these worrying amounts of money are just used to quickly unlock the rewards in the game, even faster than the expenses of obtaining any other real items offline. According to the parents of a Monopoly GO player, these microtransactions generated based on the game platform will soon be accumulated, and eventually generate a considerable amount of expenses in a subtle way.

Unlike other games, there is no cash for skins, loot or unlockasble related items in Monopoly GO. Instead, microtransactions will win players the resources needed for games such as Monopoly GO Dice.

However, this is not an isolated case, and this teenager is not the first person to spend too much money on game apps. According to the investigation, a user claimed that after spending $1,000 on Monopoly GO to obtain the corresponding Monopoly GO Stickers and other resources, he could not control his huge game expenses and finally had to choose to delete it to stop his continued spending.

For a game that can be played for free, this is already a huge cash expenditure. However, it is scary that some families have quietly discovered that they have unknowingly invested 5% of their family expenses in related games.

Losses Of Microtransactions In Games For Underage Users Are Difficult To Solve

A Reddit user claimed that their 17-year-old stepdaughter spent $25,000 on more than 350 different types of Monopoly GO related resources in the App Store. Although the post has been deleted, the problem it reflects is exactly what many parents are paying close attention to.

The stepparents came to Reddit hoping that the company’s relevant personnel could provide official and authoritative solutions and suggestions for this problem. After all, the girl is a minor and may lack relevant legal awareness and legal responsibilities as the subject of the behavior.

But the results are not optimistic for them. Many users have also commented on some social media platforms and game platforms, and the problem they are targeting is that Monopoly GO’s terms of service require game users to be responsible for all they spent, such as some stars vaults in the game. Even if these expenditures are unintentional, cannot be recovered afterwards.

In fact, this clause is not uncommon for freemium games. One of the reasons why Pokemon TCG Pocket earned more than $200 million in revenue in the first month alone was to encourage further microtransactions on the game platform.

Why Are In-game Microtransactions Constantly Criticized By Players?

It is not the first time that news such as “a teenager spent tens of thousands of dollars on Monopoly GO” has appeared, and it is not the first time that the phenomenon of additional spending in the game has been criticized.

It is worth noting that, in most cases, microtransaction spending on Monopoly GO does not bring long-term benefits. There are few collectibles in the game, and most things are just short-lived and cannot be owned for a long time.

And players can’t even look back at the sticker albums they have successfully collected after long efforts. Once the album is completed or ended, they will disappear. So, all signs indicate that it is really worth it for players to invest so much real money in the game?

Disputes Between Game Users And Companies Are Common

According to the survey, Take-Two Interactive settled a dispute with users in the game-related microtransaction model in 2022. Just one year later, in 2023, an NBA 2K player filed a class action lawsuit against Take-Two Interactive’s microtransaction model. It can be seen that players of different types of games are dissatisfied with the unreasonable microtransaction phenomenon in the game.

Even if this particular Monopoly GO case is unlikely to actually go to court in the end, its typicality does make it one of the cases where a player or a relative of a player is angry about in-app consumption in the game.

Huge Profits Prompt Game Companies To Support The Development Of Microtransactions

Diablo 4 players have spent more than $150 million on the game platform in total. It is not difficult to see why the game industry is so dependent on microtransactions on the platform, because this expense brings too much profit to game companies.

And it is much easier to encourage players to spend a few dollars at a time to get the corresponding currency or gold than to get the equivalent real goods offline at one time.

This feature also makes many gamers less interested in the microtransaction model. Because the microtransaction model may mislead players in a short period, some players think they have taken a slight advantage, but they don’t know that in fact it will cause them to spend more than they originally spent.

Although, unfortunately, this Reddit user may not be able to get back the amount he has invested in the game. However, for other users, this is undoubtedly an excellent lesson. Since it is so easy to invest enormous expenses in Monopoly GO and other similar games and it is irreversible, you can imagine how terrible the price you and your family have to pay for it is.