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From: JAB <noway@nochance.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Old Games For The Win
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2025 08:53:54 +0000
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On 23/03/2025 20:57, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> But 1/3 of PC Playtime is still a LOT of time.  And I seem to recall 
> reading somewhere that the MTX-laden games rely on a small number of 
> "whales" who each individually pump a lot of money into the games they 
> play.  So it doesn't matter if the AAA shit is a niche, the addicts of 
> that niche are extremely easy to milk, *ahem*, that is highly loyal and 
> profitable customers.

Not quite the same but there was a study carried out in the UK looking a 
lootboxes. Something they found was that of those that purchase 
lootboxes the top 5% account for about half of all revenue. Taking into 
account that in my experience* the big spenders on lootboxes are also 
big spenders in general then you can probably assume the total 
expenditure on all MTX isn't that different.

The study has some quite interesting findings and well worth a read even 
if you only skim it.

https://www.gambleaware.org/media/inochmdq/gaming_and_gambling_report_final.pdf 


*That comes from the World of Tank forums when you'd find the posters 
saying they'd dropped £250 on lootboxes where also the ones who had 
countless premium tanks (ones that you buy with real money). A good 
example of this was a player who in six months had spent at least £1,000 
just on premium tanks. The were also a good example of if the game is 
intentionally rigged in favour of big spenders, as it was common for 
people to claim, then it didn't do it very well as they were in the 
bottom 5%.