Send a message with what you buy
One striking element of the Xbox One's launch line-up so far is that most of the games offer some way to pay real money to buy extra items or get more chances to get cool new stuff. There's been some uproar over this, though the strategies used from game to game vary so muchfrom paying for characters to bolster the "free" Killer Instinct to paying for better cars in Forza 5 to having completely ignorable micropayment options in Rysethat it seems like Microsoft doesn't have a fixed strategy for adding microtransactions to their games. That'd be correct. "We're still learning," Spencer said.
And if fans don't like a micropayment? Don't buy it. Spencer said that he's making sure that all of the Xbox One game include feedback mechanisms that allow Microsoft to closely track what gamers buy. "I want to be able to learn from what we put in," he said. "So let's make sure we are crafting the game and the analytics so we can see what the consumersthe gamerslike and don'tif you assume buying habits are a reflection of what people like. So that we can craft the experience better for the gamer."
Maybe it's not the end of the world if there are microtransactions in a single-player game, just as long as it's easy enough to progress in the game without paying extra. Microstansactions in multiplayer games can tip game balance, if you can buy things that make one player more capable than another.
Spencer is aware of a need to have some limits, but doesn't yet draw many lines. "It's easy to say something like, 'I'll never allow somebody to buy the win of the game, I won't let them buy victory,' but that's kind of a trite answer. I'd say, 'Yeah, I guess I have that line, that [we wouldn't have] "Pay five bucks and get 1000 achievements" or something stupid like that.' I'm always pushing against that. But, in reality, that's not what the gamers are looking for. They're usually looking for customization and their gameplay style opening up."