> I have never seen IAP in any computer game until the rise of micro-transactions.
IAP is, arguably, no different than "expansion pack" + "purchase online". But for the online purchase part, computer games have been doing that before most people had even heard of the internet. Even the "free-2-play (but play for full experience)" model goes back to at least the 1980s (in the form of shareware).
Sure, the reduction in transaction processing costs and latency of the modern online world have facilitated adapting those models to ones with more, smaller, and more frequent purchases, but the essential characteristics of the models are, in computing terms, ancient.
Maybe we have to agree to disagree on this point, but where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP.
Only until recently was it possible to spend money on a game and, at some point later, have game content and state be identical to before you spent that money.
"Paying for the full version of Doom" vs "buying some gems in Dungeon Keeper" may be conceptually the same, but the long term result is vastly different.
I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
> where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP.
Sure, consumable IAP is a different thing than mini-expansion style IAP. I think that its at least as old as the MMO world an may have earlier precedents, but its certainly taken off.
> I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
Consumable IAP is, in a sense, a highly efficient rental scheme that takes from each user according to their willingness to pay.
IAP is, arguably, no different than "expansion pack" + "purchase online". But for the online purchase part, computer games have been doing that before most people had even heard of the internet. Even the "free-2-play (but play for full experience)" model goes back to at least the 1980s (in the form of shareware).
Sure, the reduction in transaction processing costs and latency of the modern online world have facilitated adapting those models to ones with more, smaller, and more frequent purchases, but the essential characteristics of the models are, in computing terms, ancient.