Fortnite: Video Games: School for Learning Digital Payments (With Some Risks) | Business

Microsoft hit the nail on the head in 2014. That same year, it bought Mojang, a small Swedish company, which made it easier for it to fully enter the video game market. He paid $2.5 billion (€2.365 million at current exchange rates), but the investment was, by the numbers, quite lucrative. The American tech giant now has a turnover of $800 million in the sector and owes much of this to Minecraft. This game, which allows users to create their own worlds and fight monsters, was launched by Mojang in 2009. In an industry where new developments occur at a breakneck pace, it is very old, but is still one of the most popular products. According to specialized consulting company Newzoo.

Minecraft, like other successful releases, is having a great time thanks to users spending more and more hours, and this leads to an increase in the amount they spend on their digital stores. For many young people who spend hours in front of a screen doing nothing, microtransactions are their first contact with the world of digital payments. A prime example of this trend is Roblox, a free-to-play game released in 2006 whose characters resemble Lego bricks. 90% of the 749 million billed in 2023 is for items that must be purchased to pass inspection. For example, for 100 Robux, the game’s digital currency, a user can purchase a new avatar such as Nick Bass, a blue fish who wears a Hawaiian shirt.

Cards that this digital money can be spent on are strategically placed at supermarket checkouts or in the most popular toy stores. Most video game users are 16 years of age or younger. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Entertainment Software Association, 72% of American children typically ask for video game-related gifts at Christmas, and 70% ask their relatives for gift cards so they can spend money in virtual stores.

Nathan Clemens has been developing digital games for 14 years and has his own studio, Simple Games. “There are many monetization options you can develop, but the most common are microtransactions in the games you create,” he says. Clemens capitalized on a trend called pay to win

(pay to win), whereby games improve the user experience by giving more lives or tools in exchange for money.

Roblox, unlike Minecraft, which launched its market or the market in 2016, rode the wave of digital currencies and small purchases more than a decade ago, even before the cryptocurrency boom. In 2012, the company created its own stock market by launching the game Trade Hangout, a kind of exchange that allowed items to be exchanged for some of the two official currencies: robe and the now-defunct tix.

The risk of widespread use of digital money among such young users is the spread of fraud. The lack of regulation and protection of these virtual markets has led, for example, to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau monitoring possible fraud. “Video game companies have created digital marketplaces that facilitate the buying and selling of assets with limited consumer protections. “This has led to potentially harmful practices for players, including financial losses due to theft or fraud,” the government agency warned in a recent report.

Despite these risks, the truth is that the outlook for the video game industry is quite optimistic. The business is expected to generate $211 billion in global revenue by 2025. Half of managers responding to a recent survey by consulting firm EY say the path to growth involves improving virtual transactions and introducing new digital currencies. In addition to promoting online shopping, video game companies are also betting on the metaverse and the use of artificial intelligence tools.

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