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Micro transactions on PS Vita?

Discussion in 'PSM' started by elmar1028, Apr 20, 2014.

  1. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    Hi,

    I don't use PSM much, so I am wondering whether it supports micro transactions along with publishing a game for free?

    Hope you understood what I meant. :)

    Thanks in advance...
     
  2. giyomu

    giyomu

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    I may be wrong , but I don't think this is still implemented in the UnityPSM, while this is in the PSM SDK.
    Also regarding free game , I think that Sony do not accept free game so you have everytime to set a price ( at least that was along those line when they started on PSM SDK.

    I think you can find this specific info on the Sony PSM portal site, and through their forum
     
  3. eriQue

    eriQue

    Unity Technologies

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    Micro transactions, as in in-app purchases, will be supported with the final 'official' release of Unity-for-PSM.
    The current version (Public Preview) doesn't support publishing games, and also no development support for in-app purchases.
     
  4. jesusluvsyooh

    jesusluvsyooh

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    That's a great fancy feature, no extra payment to unlock it or anything? For Unity free too? :)
     
  5. eriQue

    eriQue

    Unity Technologies

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    No plans on making that a Pro-only feature.
     
  6. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    Thanks for the reply! As far as I know an official release of PSM SDK would be in summer, wouldn't it? Also, do I need to be 18+ to get a publisher license?
     
  7. eriQue

    eriQue

    Unity Technologies

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    The official release of Unity-for-PSM is scheduled for this summer, yes. PSM SDK is already released (since ~1.5 years).

    To be honest - not sure about the age restrictions on getting a PSM publisher license..
     
  8. MrDude

    MrDude

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    @Any Sony guys reading this thread:

    More importantly, will you still require that we register as publishers and thus only make PSM publishing available to people in a hand full of countries or will you be taking payment for us and paying us via paypal or wire transfer or whatever method is available to us in whatever country we happen to be?

    The whole country limitation thing really puts a damper on any feature announcements you guys make as it basically turns into:
    "We will support this and that feature. But only for some people, not you"

    Question, if we register as fully fledged Playstation developers and go through the whole approval process, will that registration also fail if we don't live in the hand full of countries you specify for PSM development? If not, if we are registered as fully fledged Playstation developers, can we THEN make use of of this PSM for Unity and it's micro payments system? If I understand it correctly, when you apply to become a Playstation publisher, you get approval on a per-game basis and have people from Sony working with you to make sure THAT game meets whatever requirements so it doesn't offer you the freedom of "Be a publisher, do whatever games you want"...

    As you can see, the whole payment thing really puts a dampen on this whole fantastic thing you are offering us! I too am interested in creating free to play products but so far it seems Sony won't allow me to publish anything at all simply because I was born on the wrong side of the ocean...

    Of course, there is also an alternative option... If we were to implement our own in-game payment solutions like taking payment via PayPal inside a Webpage overlay, for example... or we take payment via Facebook credits or whatever... will you allow that or do you also require that all financial transactions happen via your API?

    And if we will be allowed to publish free to play games and we implement our own payment solutions, can we then publish even if we are not in your short list of preferred countries?
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2014
  9. PeterD

    PeterD

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    @MrDude

    Pretty much every app store works in this way i.e. restricted by country. Apple for instance, will only pay you if you fill in a WBem form for the US tax office reardless of which country you are from. If your country has a tax agreement though, you can pretty much fill in your address and bank details and default the form. So if you're country isn't on the Tax agreements list, then you have to jump through a few hoops.

    Basically it's pretty un-realistic to expect Sony to be able to support all countries at launch. They need to have agreements in place and permission to run the stores in each country. Tax needs to be paid on a per country basis so tax forms and residency proofs need to be obtained for each and every developer they wish to pay!

    Basically it's not as cut and dry as you would like it to be but, that's not some deliberate ploy on Sony's part.
     
  10. jesusluvsyooh

    jesusluvsyooh

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    Well said :)
     
  11. MrDude

    MrDude

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    Granted, I don't think it's some deliberate ploy on Sony's part... but Apple... they pay me... Sony just says "Not interested. Wait until one day we feel like it"

    Apple offers me an option. Sony offers me none. Just sit and wait till one day...

    Apple asks for the residency proofs and what not. Sony couldn't be bothered. Just wait till one day.

    What it boils down to is that I am just real disappointed in the fact that I have waited for this for ages and now that it is finally here they are just saying: "Sorry, not interested in anyone from your side of the world. We only deal with first world countries or countries that we deem worth our while. Yours, not s much... Blame your mother. It's her fault for being in that backwards assed place when she gave birth to you so now you can't have what we offer, no matter how much of a Sony fanboy you have been these past 10 years. Now shut up and go away"

    There doesn't seem to be any hope at all... well, at least not before 2037 at a constant rate of 3 new countries a year, maybe...

    Also, what about PayPal... if i can write my own API for taking payments via PayPal... tough. You still can't sign up as a publisher because you don't live in this or that country. Why? Why must I live in the UK or Australia in order to give away free games (which there is no tax to be paid on) and deal directly with PayPal (and take care of my own tax stuff).

    Heck, I can't even make games to play on my own device because I don't live in the USA... that makes a lot of sense...
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2014
  12. jesusluvsyooh

    jesusluvsyooh

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    I understand your pain, same here, sony fanboy, been waiting for unity vita since vita came out.
    I wouldn't like it if they choose not to do the UK and just america (which is what i thought they were doing to begin with)
    But from Sony's business point of view, it may take £100,000,000 to sort out other countries, but they may only be getting £100,000 back from doing so. Either way, its either business or there still going to involve more countries, just not yet, which i hope it is that one for yours and many others sake.
    In the mean time, you could team up with someone from another country, or just continue making awesome apps and games on your current platforms and show sony what there missing ;)
     
  13. MrDude

    MrDude

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    Yeah, I'll just make the next WoW or COD and ask Sony: "How do you like me, now?" :p lol
     
  14. gie005

    gie005

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    Microtransations? Ugh..
    The folks over at Greenheart Games and many other developers are trying to put a stop to it, here's a link:
    http://www.greenheartgames.com/2014/04/01/gdt-coming-mobiles-plus-announcement-will-shock/

    These games are just made to nickle and dime people out of all their money and I think that is just stupid, how about you actually make a good game so that people will WANT to pay? Because mostely they do it because they are stuck in a level, or want to be waaay to OP.

    Also:
    Games that are massive hits are the ones who redefine that genre. So don't follow blindly :)
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2014
  15. MrDude

    MrDude

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    Granted, some games are just made to rip people off but to say nobody may charge $.50 in-game ever because 6 or 8 companies used to rip people off in 10 or 20 games and 10,000 people were stupid enough to spend $8,000 to get past level 9 is just plain stupid on the part of those who try to ban it.

    Following blindly is a bit of loose term here... after all, doom was first and then came unreal and now we have COD and Halo... all of them take the side scroller shooter and put you inside the eyes of the shooter... all those darn copy cats. Death to Bungie and all the people who ever made a FPS after Doom. Even ID Software. The bastards. Make something new, why don't you!? Don't just add in different kinds of guns or tell the player "You are now sitting inside a mech", do something original.

    Or, "Aggghhh... I just spent $10,000 in Candy Crush. Death to every game that asks me for $0.50"
    It makes sense for every single developer under the sun to pay the price for people who are stupid enough to give their money to people who went out of their way to rip to them off...

    I personally play a bunch of free to play games and have only ever paid money in one. Now that I have 12 characters at level 20 and 4 in the 90s it takes forever to upgrade them just one level and to that end it will cost me a fortune in real money to do so, so instead I simply stopped playing 5 times a day and now only play once a day to get my login bonus and do all the "once every 3 hours" missions that gathered up since the day before then go play the other games that have timers on them...

    The other one I have been playing these past 3 months have hundreds of cards that they give out very freely but you need to sacrifice them at a cost of 20 points per card to upgrade your other cards which cost thousands of points per level... It will cost me a fortune to pay for that so I simply play my 2 hours every 12 hours and do it gradually. Nobody is ripping me of and I am still enjoying the game... even though there are times I WANT to spend money on the odd thing here and there...

    ...but for someone else to decide that this game must be sold for $60 or else it should never be published simply means that I would not have had this game to play these past few months. So who wins out of this deal? The game developers who sell their games for enough money to be able to sit back and judge those who provide free games to people like me. There is no way in hell that I will pay a console game's price for something I play on my phone. To hell with that. I'd rather sell my phone and go back to using a land line...

    So who wins out of this deal? Only the super rich who wants to keep free games out of the hands of the average Joe.

    I honestly think a lot of these Free To Play games are a pure ripoff and there is absolutely no other way to see it, but I love the free to play genre as it gives me something to do when I'm bored or looking to take a quick break from work. I am definitely not going to sit back and play COD for 5 minutes and then get on with my day and I am certainly not going to pay $60 for something that keeps me busy for 5 minutes a day, 22 days a year...

    Long live free to play. Death to all who rip people off with it through frustration tactics. :p

    On a side note, I was playing some bubble pop game recently. Great fun. Hated when it forced me to wait after 5 games (win or loose) but eventually got to level 100. There they introduced a frustration tactic that spoiled the game for me. Up to level 108 I had no choice but to either swear at my device or use a powerup... after level 108 I just deleted the game. It was great fun for a month and then it was deleted. Didn't cost me a dime. So why would I advocate that this game MUST be sold for $20 or $30 or $60 ?

    Micro transactions rule. Free games to the cheap skates like me and money from those who have it. I have read comments posted by people who have spent $hundreds on a game only to create multiple accounts and do it on each and still complain that they want a higher level cap cause they can't do anything any more. Ironically, enough, the developers then shut down those games I played back then and re-leased them in HD afterwards forcing people to start from scratch (with a "thanks for playing the other version, here is a bonus for the new one" incentive, of course). So far the new version of one of those game has over 30 million downloads on the iPhone alone, even with no iPad version available and excluding the people who play on Facebook...

    Take money from those who have too much, take nothing from those who count their pennies but do not blame everyone because some people are just plain common criminals disguised by a Video Game company logo...

    On a side note: I have also played a few games that turned out to be great fun and simply required a once of, in-game payment to stop showing the banner ads and in-between level ads. That was worth the $5 after playing the game for about 2 months and fighting with the wife over when it's my turn... :p
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2014
  16. gie005

    gie005

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    I wasn't trying to offend anyone here, and free-to-play with microtransactions could definitly work, I forgot to mention.
    I was more talking about the games that want to suck money out of people, that's why I find the Greenheart's Games blog so funny. (look at the "Best value indeed!" picture :p)

    Microtransactions would work if done properly, and not in the mindset of "how can we make more money off this.." (or the pay-to-win model, but I like to call that the pay-to-lose model, because in most of those games you only win when you don't play the game *cough*LEGO: LEGENDS OF CHIMA ONLINE*cough*.

    LEGO once made an MMO, LEGO Universe. The game was designed by a wonderful team, was redesigned multiple times to appeal to everyone, but LEGO made them use a subscription model like WoW, which is dumb because kids don't always have say $10 every month, which in turn made the game have ~600K players online (always). They launched F2P in August with reasonable limits. Two free worlds, you could build on your own property, but you couldn't chat or make your property public because the game was ALWAYS being monitored by moderators. (Safest fun game I ever played, btw. Community behind it was awesome.)

    But seeing that F2P brought in 1.2 Million players in just 3 weeks, LEGO was like "THIS IS IT". Two months later or so, they announce that LEGO: Universe will be closing, and laid everyone off the next day without any notice. They made up a story of "it wasn't successful enough".
    Then they announced not one, but two new F2P MMOs, I played both betas. Both are extremely Pay-to-lose and not fun at all. They're kind of like a bad attempt at making a child-friendly, LEGO-themed version of Diablo 3. LEGO was just using the game (LU) as a test, some dev even said that in a video I think. But I think you get the point I'm trying to make here, so I'll stop talking about LU before I type out the full history :p

    On games that redefine the genre being very sucessful, yeah, there have been games before that, otherwise there wouldn't be a genre the REdefine.
    Halo actually has a story written by Bungie (books) that they were telling with their games, so I don't blame them for making the games the same, after all, it's like a sequal to a movie, I guess. But COD on the other hand, just used wars and really, really odd stories to make their games. In MW2, Russia would travel by boat accross the Atlantic Ocean to go to America, instead of just going East of Russia to go to America (forgot the name of that ocean)
    Just look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCtbhjDcTNI.

    I meant that if you are innovative, you will have a higher chance of having your game hit the Top 10 lists.
    If you're just making, say, a Flappy Bird clone, yeah you're not going to get much attention.
     
  17. jesusluvsyooh

    jesusluvsyooh

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    Wow you guys wrote so much i just had to skim-read that haha.