History Main / RevenueEnhancingDevices

[[caption-width-right:350:[[FunetikAccent Zhey]], [[GogglesDoNothing of course, do nothing.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[GogglesDoNothing They, of course, do nothing.]]]]

* In general, online multiplayer features on gaming consoles require a monthly/yearly fee for that gaming ecosystem. Microsoft was the first to put this in place with [[Platform/XboxLive Xbox Live Gold]] during the [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames seventh generation]], followed by Sony with [[Platform/PlaystationNetwork PlayStation Plus]] and Nintendo with [[Platform/NintendoSwitch Nintendo Switch Online]] during the [[UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames eighth generation]]. All three companies have some additional incentive for purchasing a subscription. Xbox and [=PlayStation=]'s services give players two "free" games a month, with these games being ones that have released within the past few years, while Nintendo's service is a successor to the Platform/VirtualConsole, giving players access to a library of older titles. In all these cases, players lose access to the games they downloaded should they cancel their subscription, but regain access upon renewal.

* Alert gamers have noticed that some purchasable UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Live DLC is nothing more than a code which unlocks content ''that is already on the disc you paid for''; Namco and EA are particularly known for this, as is the PSN DLC (any DLC with a stated size of 100kb is just an unlock key), and Square-Enix's UsefulNotes/WiiWare releases have begun to follow suit.

* A special mention should go out to how Creator/SquareEnix has been releasing DLC for their UsefulNotes/WiiWare releases. Oftentimes, they will release the base game at a nominal fee (around $10, give or take), and then additional content will be $2-$3 each. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'' is $37 in its complete form, while ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesMyLifeAsADarklord'' takes the proverbial cake at $67 if you purchase all of its DLC!

* The most blatant example of this is the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 version of ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game''... several already-present in-game merchants won't deal with you until you've 'unlocked' them with real-life moolah. This includes all of the most powerful weapon-upgrades and the strongest henchman. You could also just buy packets of in-game cash. There's certainly an irony to a game about the mafia demanding extra money for special favors.

* The UsefulNotes/Xbox360 avatar system is a surprisingly effective cash cow. For various amounts of Microsoft Points (with a real cost equivalent of 50 cents to 5 dollars) you can purchase clothing items or props for your avatar. These items have no gameplay purpose at all, and only make your avatar look slightly different in the few games that use your avatar, or when you appear in other people's friend lists.

* In general, online multiplayer features on gaming consoles require a monthly/yearly fee for that gaming ecosystem. Microsoft was the first to put this in place with [[UsefulNotes/XboxLive Xbox Live Gold]] during the [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames seventh generation]], followed by Sony with [[UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork PlayStation Plus]] and Nintendo with [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Nintendo Switch Online]] during the [[UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames eighth generation]]. All three companies have some additional incentive for purchasing a subscription. Xbox and [=PlayStation=]'s services give players two "free" games a month, with these games being ones that have released within the past few years, while Nintendo's service is a successor to the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, giving players access to a library of older titles. In all these cases, players lose access to the games they downloaded should they cancel their subscription, but regain access upon renewal.
** [[AllegedlyFreeGame Free-to-play games]], media streaming apps like Creator/{{Netflix}}, and general internet use are exempt from these and can be accessed freely on Sony and Nintendo platforms. Xbox Live Gold wouldn't make media streaming apps and free-to-play titles exempt from the service [[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-removes-xbox-one-and-xbox-360-gold-paywall-for-netflix-hulu-and-more/1100-6419590/ until a few years into]] the UsefulNotes/XboxOne's life and [[https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/22/update-on-xbox-live-gold-pricing/ early into the life of]] the UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS, respectively.
* The original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} required you to buy an IR dongle (plugged into a controller port) and remote to watch a UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} on the system; if you didn't have it, putting a DVD in would result in an error message. (This stood in contrast to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, whose DVD capability was baked right in, and the remote was purely optional.)
** Unlike its predecessor the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 came with built-in DVD playback, but during the systems' early years, Microsoft sold an external HD-DVD drive, though they discontinued the drive after HD-DVD lost the format war against UsefulNotes/BluRay.

* ''Railworks'' turns this trope up to eleven with its DLC on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. The price for all of the DLC combined was over four hundred dollars, with single train addons usually costing twenty dollars each and route addons going forty. Add to that the fact that new DLC becomes available about every week, [[CrackIsCheaper crack may indeed, be cheaper]]. The cost for all the DLC jumped from over $700 to over $2000 in six months, and it shows no signs of slowing down. There is some free DLC... at least one of which requires another, not-free DLC train to play. This is presumably counterbalanced by the idea that nobody will buy ''all'' the DLC, and people will only buy the particular trains and routes they're interested in.

* ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries SoulCalibur 4]]'' and ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' are clearly making money via [=DLC=]s. The former lets you buy additional tracks, characters and character equipment (including weapons ''which can be unlocked in-game without the DLC'', but it's specified in its description before you buy it, both on UsefulNotes/{{XBox Live|Arcade}} or UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork) while the latter offers special planes and custom paintjobs for them (including several [[VideoGame/TheIdolMaster Idolmaster]]-themed and {{Call Back}}s to earlier games).

* The ''Famicom Disk Recorder'' add-on for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem's Japanese counterpart is this trope. It's a tape recorder with Nintendo branding, aside from there's nothing special about it. The real circuit that enables the loading and saving to tape is in the keyboard supplied with the Famicom BASIC kit, and there's nothing stopping you from using a different brand tape recorder with the keyboard.

* A lot of cynical adventure gamers surmised that the genre's tendency toward {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s in the '90s was so that studios like Creator/{{Sierra}} could market hint books to exasperated players.

* ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' magazine offered all the [[GuideDangIt top secret]] hints that one would be unlikely to solve on their own without knowing the solution beforehand, like finding the first warp whistle in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''. However, the magazine has also sometimes given you an overview and maps of the first couple areas of their then-new first party game, then told you to buy their Official Strategy Guide for the rest of the game.

* Creator/CoryDoctorow coined the term "enshittification" to refer to online services taking this approach, often by boosting sponsored content, increasing ads, or doing things like blocking ad blockers.

* VideoGame/TheSims franchise (both the original and The Sims 2) and its countless expansions. Sims 3 takes it to a truly ridiculous level with the Sims 3 Store. We're talking 2,000 Sim Points- that's ''$20''- for a set of 47 items! And a lot of Store stuff was available on release day, raising suspicions that they held it out of the retail game on purpose.
-->'''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''''': ''Remember all that texture customization from ''Sims 3''? 'That's out! It's chintz and pastels, or fuck off back to ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''!' What about an intervening stage between infancy and childhood, so that babies don't instantly switch from one to the other, and parents don't suddenly find themselves breastfeeding a twelve-year-old in mixed company? 'Out the balloon with you, toddlers! Whoops, they didn't fly so well.' ...Of course, none of the above features couldn't be ''returned'' to the game later on with content patches, but if you seriously think that the thought of charging for them hasn't slithered its way across [[Creator/ElectronicArts EA's]] mind like a fat slug made of rancid Spam...''

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfConan'', an AllegedlyFreeGame, includes a lot of optional game-enhancing and cosmetic gear. Some of the former can be considered [[GameBreaker game breaking]], at least at lower levels; while the latter includes an item that does nothing but increases an [[WorldOfBuxom already well-endowed female character's]] bustline to GagBoobs size.

* Alert gamers have noticed that some purchasable UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Live DLC is nothing more than a code which unlocks content ''that is already on the disc you paid for''; Namco and EA are particularly known for this, as is the PSN DLC (any DLC with a stated size of 100kb is just an unlock key), and Square-Enix's UsefulNotes/WiiWare releases have begun to follow suit

*** "Mercurial Vocalist", which requires the purchase of at least 3 DLC songs by Music/{{Queen}}.

* The "TropeCodifier" probably would be the "Horse Armor" DLC from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. This was an armor that you could equip on your horse. It was nearly useless (doubled the low health a horse had) and more or less just for looks. If anyone refers to excessive DLC, especially if it's just skins that don't have any effects, as horse armor, they are referring to this.
** Bethesda is credited as the first third-party publisher [[https://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-history-of-gaming-microtransactions-from-horse-armor-to-loot-boxes to implement]] DLC microtransactions.
** Creator/{{Bethesda}} took this one in stride. One year for April Fool's Day they announced a 50% sale on their ''Oblivion'' expansion pack ''Shivering Isles'' - but noted that due to the money lost from this sale they would have to double the price of horse armor.
* Bethesda pulled this off once again with VideoGame/Fallout4 and [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]] in the form of their Creation Club system. During its announcement, Bethesda insisted that the Creation Club's content was not going to be "paid mods", but [[InsistentTerminology "Mini DLC's"]]. When the Creation Club beta was released, it indeed turned out that its content was composed of items and skins very similar to those that could easily be obtained as free mods, which in many cases, proved to be superior in quality to the "official" paid content that the Creation Club provided. To add insult to the injury, one of the items featured in the Creation Club was a JokeItem poking fun of Bethesda's earlier marketing mistakes with the Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC, that ''[[AesopAmnesia you had to pay real money for to obtain]]''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is an odd example. The DLC actually adds a fair bit of content into the game, but the only way to carry on playing after the storyline finishes is to buy the ''Broken Steel'' DLC. In most games, "playing after the story finishes" would be seen as a bonus, but ''Fallout 3'' is ostensibly an open-world sandbox game (like ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'') and the original ending is ''incredibly'' contrived; at least one of your companions in ''Broken Steel'' actively lampshades how stupid the original ending was. ''Fallout 3'' and ''Oblivion'' are also particularly odd as they were made with the expectation that they would gather a large mod community, meaning that any DLC released has to include a relatively significant amount of content in order to be worthwhile. After all, why buy horse armour DLC when the mod community can do an even better job for free?

* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'' has revenue enhancers primarily in the form of cosmetics - camouflages (ranging from reasonable camos to [[HighlyConspicuousUniform silly chrome]] or ''[[HighlyVisibleNinja iridescent neon]]'' camos), helmets and [[NiceHat hats]], and vehicle gear (cosmetic armor plating, [[RiceBurner underbody lighting]], TronLines, etc). Many camos and helmets are now designed by the players, who make a profit off of them (similar to the Mannconomy in ''Videogame/TeamFortress2''). Weapons can also be unlocked with real money - though the often absurd prices ($7 for the majority of guns) means that they are generally only bought during sales unless they're Nanite Systems (cross-faction) weapons.