Ubisoft argues putting microtransactions in single-player games makes them “more fun”

In their latest quarterly report, Ubisoft spoke about their business strategy and how they try to engage players. In a section about the experience of their full-price premium titles, they claimed that putting paid XP boosters and cosmetics in games like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows makes them more fun to play.

Ubisoft was one of the first devs to put microtransactions in their single-player games. It’s something they’ve been doing for years now, offering the luxury of faster progress or unique cosmetics in exchange for real money.

And, while cosmetics are fairly on-brand for games to offer at this point, even if they’ve sold at $70-80, boosts for in-game progress give players the option to skip through the otherwise essential grind.

Ubisoft argues that this practice can improve the experience for players, allowing them to pay to make the game they already paid easier to beat and progress through.

Microtransactions make games more fun according to Ubisoft

For anyone who’s played through a recent Assassin’s Creed like Odyssey, Valhalla, or Shadows, you’d know that these games are long. The process of grinding through levels is essential, as being too low a level will bar you even from assassinating targets in a single hit. Although, to be fair to Ubisoft, they fixed this in Shadows by giving players an option to enable one-shots.

Ubisoft / Dexerto

Regardless, grinding through levels across several areas is a key part of the experience. And, while some players may enjoy going through the landscape, those who just want to get through the main story are in for an almost 100-hour experience, depending on how fast they’re able to progress.

In Ubisoft’s opinion, skipping this grind can be more fun for players, with them making paid XP boosts a solution.

They claim they’ve figured out the “adoption of monetization and engagement policies that respect the player experience and are sustainable in the long term.”

“At Ubisoft, the golden rule when developing premium games is to allow players to enjoy the game in full without having to spend more. Our monetization offer within premium games makes the player experience more fun by allowing them to personalize their avatars or progress more quickly, however this is always optional,” their quarterly report reads.

Fun is a subjective term, but creating a problem by making the game grindy and then selling the player a solution to cut down on the grind sounds like Ubisoft could have skipped a few steps and made the game more fun in the first place.