History Main / Microtransactions

* ''[[VideoGame/ChocoboRacing Chocobo GP]]'' has its own premium currency in the form of mythril, which can be earned at a fairly slow rate in-game (50 units per week) or purchased with real money... and it ''expires'' after five months if not used by then. Mythril is used to buy battle passes, which are in turn used to gain levels to unlock characters and earn gil, [[RuleOfThree which is used]] to pay for ''other'' things. Note that the game itself is already a full-price retail release.

For the infomercial analog, see FourEqualPaymentsOf. See also GachaGames, a genre of games that involve paying to get a desired item after a certain amount of rolls.

For the infomercial analog, see FourEqualPaymentsOf.

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' introduced an in-game store in November 2021, where you buy stars and then use those stars to buy in-game goodies. However, nothing in there is actually required to play the game and nothing gives an advantage; it's just cosmetic options. The previous DLCs were also integrated into the in-game store, but people who'd already purchased said DLCs had them grandfathered in. They were also hilariously transparent about its purpose in the trailer.
-->This is just to make money, isn't it? [[BluntYes YUP]][[note]]We live in a capitalist society[[/note]]

The difference between this trope and RealMoneyTrade is that Microtransactions are sanctioned and sold by the game itself, whereas RealMoneyTrade is done by third parties, without the involvement of and, usually, against the wishes of the game's publisher.

[[folder:Click here to reveal the fifth paragraph. You will be billed US$99.99.]]
For the infomercial analog, see FourEqualPaymentsOf.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' has platinum, which you can use to buy a lot of in-game equipment, especially slots to put your equipment in. However, this is zig-zagged since platinum can be traded between players[[labelnote:*:except for any gifted platinum from the developers and the platinum you start off with]]. This allows for rare, limited, or overly grindy equipment to be bought outright and gives players a way to get platinum without buying some.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CallOfDuty https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cod_mtx_3.png]]]]

Microtransactions, also called Micropayments or MTX, are small transactions found in online games and services where a user pays a one-time fee for access to a piece of exclusive content (VirtualGoods). This could be pretty much anything--a cute new hat for your VirtualPaperDoll, a cool new piece of armor, a temporary power-up, whatever. It could even just be a shortcut to content you could access for free -- for example, you might pay real-world money for a cache of the in-game currency. The Virtual Goods can be bought directly, but it's also common for your real-world money to buy some amount of special in-game currency to spend in a special shop. See also AllegedlyFreeGame and {{Freemium}}.

* ''VideoGame/AliceInTheMirrorsOfAlbion'' can technically be played completely for free, but unlocking locations, collecting keys to explore said locations, and finding relevant items needed for the quests are extremely difficult/time-consuming to accomplish without gold coins, crystals and "cash", which requires real money to pay.

* Uncharted 3 was turned free-to-play about a year after release and added a ton of real money-only items. After the update, every normal unlockable could be bought with money too.
** Uncharted 4 has microtransactions as well, but everything (including DLC!) Can be unlocked by playing. To balance this out, the drops are random (albeit never duplicates) and it can take a while to earn enough "relics" to buy them.

* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled'': a new feature added during the ''Back N. Time'' update is the ability to buy the in-game currency, wumpa coins with real-world money. While completely optional, the pit stop's randomised design and the game's overall low coin distribution heavily encourages purchasing coins to reduce the grind for them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has the option to get Lootbox bundles, as well as credits for Overwatch League skins. In China, the microtransactions instead focus on buying the contents outright, with lootboxes serving as "special rewards" for when you buy something. In both regional variants, you can also earn Lootboxes via gameplay with the introduction of the Arcade back in late 2016, as well as levelling up in quickplay. Getting what you want, however...

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' has microtransactions in the forms of safes for custom weapon skins. Through a RandomDrop, you can earn a safe that contains a random skin for a random gun that may or may not have stat boosts. The safes, drills, and skins can be traded between players as well and drills can also drop as you play too. Initially, you require to buy a specific drill with real money to open it, but after outcry from the fanbase and update 100, all safes can be directly opened for free if not traded (and you still be able to trade any of the contents of the safe).

[[folder:Live Action Series]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''LARP/{{NERO}}'', a [[{{LARP}} live-action role-playing game]], lets you buy ExperiencePoints for money.

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' allows you to buy Fate with real money. Fate is obtainable in-game on very rare occasions and can be used for mundane functions like restoring your opportunities deck to unlocking new and complex story inlets.

!! Examples:

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' is perfectly playable and enjoyable without purchasing additional content, but the majority of the game's [[GameBreaker Game-Breakers]] can only be obtained through the Store, be it from full-fledged DLC or item packs. The latter can be paid for with orichalcum, an extremely rare in-game resource that would require thousands of hours of grinding to unlock everything[[note]]Daily quests reward 10 units, weekly quests 40 units apiece, and you can randomly find single pieces in remote corners of the game world. A single legendary item costs 80-100 units if it's currently on sale, or you can pay 20 units for a quasi-loot box that ''might'' contain a random legendary (the chance seems to be around 20%)[[/note]], or much more conveniently with the aforementioned Helix Credits.

[[folder:Click here to reveal the third paragraph. You will be billed US$0.99.]]

[[folder:Click here to reveal the fourth paragraph. You will be billed US$0.99.]]

[[folder:Click here to reveal the fifth paragraph. You will be billed US$0.99.]]

Microtransactions, also called Micropayments or MTX, are small transactions found in online games and services where a user pays a one-time fee for access to a piece of exclusive content (VirtualGoods). This could be pretty much anything--a cute new hat for your VirtualPaperDoll, a cool new piece of armor, a temporary power-up, whatever. It could even just be a shortcut to content you could access for free--for example, you might pay real-world money for a cache of the in-game currency. The Virtual Goods can be bought directly, but it's also common for your real-world money to buy some amount of special in-game currency to spend in a special shop. See also AllegedlyFreeGame and {{Freemium}}.

This is the most common form of BribingYourWayToVictory because it generally allows you to pay as much as you like (although payments are often framed as "donations"), giving the richest players the ability to outpay everyone else. The most extreme cases can require players to pay to unlock game content that is simply held behind paywalls in the base game, resulting in an AllegedlyFreeGame. However, it's entirely possible to have Micropayments without giving an unfair advantage to those who pay--for example, by making the exclusive content strictly cosmetic. Unfortunately some games can offer exclusive and powerful gear otherwise unobtainable in game, by buying it outright from the MTX shop.

[[folder: Entire Companies ]]

* Creator/ThreeRingsDesign's games have a separate currency is used for all the things players would normally have to buy a subscription for. Naturally, this currency is bought with real money, but can be traded afterwards.
* Creator/VoltageInc's [[RomanceGame reverse harem games]] run on microtransactions. The player downloads the free app, and then can buy as many or as few routes as desired. The versions of the games adapted for the social networking system GREE also use microtransactions to make them {{Allegedly Free Game}}s.

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/AtlanticaOnline'' makes its money by means of an Item Mall, where various items can be bought for real cash, such as the Blessing Potion (which makes the players group much stronger for a limited time), Mounts (faster movement and other boni) or certain valuable items that can also be gotten ingame. All these items can also be traded with other players, allowing customers to make ingame money for real money as well, provided they can find someone rich enough. Some items are also occasionally given away for free or can be found during seasonal events.

* ''VideoGame/BattleStations'' allows the player to buy rare items, which usually require a lot of luck-based exploring or questing to acquire. There are, however, three items for sale which cannot be found via exploration. These items can be traded on the ingame auction, though, so a wealthy character could try and get them there instead. Also in the cash shop are Action Point packages, allowing the player to gain more Ap than the regular Ap regeneration provides.

** ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'' went the extra mile by making it much harder to unlock "Unlimited" characters without paying for them. You can also unlock Mu-12 by either spending several hours playing story mode, or just buying her as well.
** ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' makes it even harder to unlock the "Unlimited" characters without paying. Like Mu-12 before him, Kagura is unlocked by several hours in the VisualNovel story mode, or paying real money.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' started slow with Microtransactions, adding extra Create-A-Class slots and camos in Black Ops 2, as well as the Peacekeeper DLC weapon included with the Season Pass and first Map Pack. However, all the latest games use a system called Supply Drops. Certain content is only accessible by unlocking Random Number Generator loot boxes that yield 3 items each. You can earn in-game currency to open these boxes, but can pay for either an alternate currency (Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare) or a better chance at getting something good out of the boxes (Advanced Warfare). Obviously, currency earned in-game is dwarfed by whatever can be paid for. Initially, items in the supply drops are cosmetic only, but after a while exclusive gear starts getting added in, to the point where after two years Black Ops 3 had more MTX weapons than it had Day One weapons.
** Ghosts had a lot of cosmetic choices available for purchase, from flag based calling cards, to canine reskins, to having Snoop Dogg or R Lee Ermey act as your mission control.

* Possibly the UrExample, the US arcade version of ''[[VideoGame/DoubleDragon Double Dragon III:: The Rosetta Stone]]'' had additional player characters, weapons and moves that had to purchased be with real-world coins or tokens.

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' allows you to buy Fate with real money. Fate is obtainable in game on very rare occasions, and can be used for mundane functions like restoring your opportunities deck to unlocking new and complex story inlets.

* The ''VideoGame/ForzaMotorsport'' series, starting with the fourth game, allows real money to be exchanged for Tokens to purchase cars in-game before you have the requisite amount of in-game credits. Not to mention the downloadable car and track packs; the latter case being a DoubleUnlock, as you pay with real-world money to unlock the cars, then you have still have to buy them with game credits or tokens. ''Forza Horizon'' ''requires'' purchase of tokens to unlock gameplay enhancements such as [[WarpWhistle Fast Travel]] and the Treasure Map; thankfully the second game made microtransactions optional.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has the option to get Lootbox bundles, as well as credits for Overwatch League skins. In China, the microtransactions instead focus on buying the contents outright, with lootboxes serving as "special rewards" for when you buy something. In both regional variants you can also earn Lootboxes via gameplay with the introduction of the Arcade back in late 2016, as well as levelling up in quickplay. Getting what you want however....

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' has microtransactions in the forms of safes for custom weapon skins. Through a RandomDrop, you can earn a safe that contains a random skin for a random gun that may or may not have stat boosts. The safes, drills, and skins can be traded between players as well and drills can also drop as you play too. Initially you require to buy a specific drill with real money to open it, but after outcry from fanbase and update 100, all safes can be directly opened for free if not traded (and you still be able to trade any of the contents of the safe).

** Which is tied to the Steam Community Market system, so players can trade in game items for real life money. Most, although not all of the {{Freemium}} games in the Steam system (like ''VideoGame/SpiralKnights'' and ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'') are also in the Steam trading system and use Microtransactions.

* ''Videogame/RuneScape'' formerly allowed the purchase of "spins" on the "Squeal of Fortune", a Wheel of Fortune parody on which the player was able to win assorted (mostly junk, but some very good) prizes, as well as experience rewards. This has since been removed and replaced by the very similar minigame known as Treasure Hunter, where "keys" can be [[BribingYourWayToVictory purchased]] to unlock treasure chests for random rewards (free experience, bonus experience used when skilling, and an array of useful items). There's also a straight online store called "Solomon's General Store" which allows you to buy costumes, animations and other cosmetic items. Nowadays, not a single week goes by without [[MoneyDearBoy at least one promotion]] active on Treasure Hunter, Solomon's Store, [[UpToEleven or both at once]]. [[note]]Taken to the logical extreme by Youtuber 'A Friend' who maxed out an account (named 'Not p2w') with under four days playtime solely via microtransactions. By comparison, the fastest 'natural' maxed account was in the mid 40 days bracket.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/SecondLife'''s has an in-world currency, "Linden Dollars" (or Lindens, named for the developer Linden Labs), which can be freely converted to and from real world currency. The exchange rate is adjustable, according to a supply-demand index called the "Lindex". Lindens are required to rent parcels of land and to upload textures, sounds, animations, and mesh models which you've created yourself, but mostly Lindens are exchanged among players in order to obtain clothing, hair, vehicles, houses, furnishings...whatever can be created in-world. It's perfectly possible to enjoy Second Life without Lindens, but most players eventually find something to spend money on.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowEra'' is a CCG that allows you to buy crystals that are used to buy starter decks/booster packs. You can buy all the cards with an in game currency, and you slowly gain crystals via play.

* To unlock all the characters and power-ups in ''VideoGame/TempleRun'', you need coins. These coins can be gathered within the game, but for the impatient they are also available for real money.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' has platinum, which you can use to buy a lot of in-game equipment, especially slots to put your equipment in. However this is zig-zagged, since platinum can be traded between players[[labelnote:*:except for any gifted platinum from the developers and the platinum you start off with]]. This allows for rare, limited, or overly grindy equipment to be bought out right and gives players a way to get platinum without buying some.
** A more direct example would be [=TennoGen=], the cosmetic equipment made by players and voted for on the game's Steam Workshop, for [=PC=] players. They have to pay money to get these unique cosmetics. Fortunately the creators get a cut when their [=TennoGen=] sells.

* ''VideoGame/ZhengtuOnline'', a Chinese MMORPG deliberately designed from the ground up for gold buyers. The game physically blocks you from advancing without buying experience and items for real world money.

* Uncharted 3 was turned free-to-play about a year after release, and added a ton of real money-only items. After the update, every normal unlockable could be bought with money too.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' discussed it, mostly about the negative part--namely, how easily it is for game companies to abuse it as a cash grab.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Freemium Isn't Free" has an in universe example. The Canadian government releases a ''[[ShowWithinAShow Terrance and Phillip]]'' [[AllegedlyFreeGame game]], which is essentially a parody of games like ''The Simpsons: Tapped Out'' and ''Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff'', where the object is simply to collect coins and build a town up. Most of the boys get bored of it very quickly, except for Stan, who racks up ''$26000'' of debt on the game. [[spoiler: Turns out that the game is the demonic plot of The Canadian Devil, Beelzaboot.]] This is TruthInTelevision, where a very small percentage of players (known in the industry as 'whales') provide the vast amount of income that Freemium games and Microtransactions earn. The people who have even enough self-control to protest prices are just pocket-change.