Some games are paid for with an upfront price tag. This is a very familiar kind of monetization, as it's the same as how you buy almost anything that's not online. You get a price tag, maybe $25, and you get the game. That's the only cost, and you only have to pay it once. The price is set by the developer or publisher. Often, these games are released and only updated for a limited time before the studio moves on to a different game.

This monetization type is very normalised and standard. It's normally good for the consumers, they know how much they have to pay for the game and won't ever have to pay more. There are no hidden fees, recurring purchases, or unmanageable forms of payment. However, for developers, these games have a very fixed revenue stream. A game like this is usually only popular for around a year, so studios have a sustainable revenue stream for a year, until they have to hope they have enough funding to make their next game.

A game that uses this monetization well is Hollow Knight by Team Cherry. It is a $15 game, and is playable for tens to hundreds of hours. A game that uses this monetization poorly is You Want to Watch t he World Burn by Ashroo. This game is $1000, and does not offer $1000 worth of content, as it is a short game about setting some things on fire. This is a silly example, but opinion of whether a game is a good or bad example of pricing is relatively subjective, and ultimately it's the developers decision to decide how much it's worth.

This specific form of pricing has very few bad effects for the consumer, other than the light hit to their wallet. Looking at it from the perspective of Deontology, this allows users to buy what they want without trapping them in addictions or hidden subscriptions, thus respecting a person's own rights.

This is one of the most popular forms of monetization and is primarily a strategy in the mobile game market. Games will employ a free to play or free to download model, in which when a player plays the app, they receive ads. This can be randomly, after completing levels, or user-initiated for some in-game reward. Many games also have a one-time real money purchase to disable ads. This option is very popular, and generally well received when done correctly, though much of the time it is done in a predatory manner that violates the virtues of players. According to a study done by Usercentrics 90% of mobile games fail to comply with regulations of data collection, and or collect data from children.

When done correctly, advertising can be a method for a game to remain free to play for all users, while also managing to make money for the developer. Even though almost no one likes watching ads, it can be relatively unintrusive and allows the experience to remain free. However advertising can be done poorly, in a way that collects data from young users and feeds them targeted advertising, or advertise inappropriate content to all users for example.

A game like My Singing Monsters does advertising fairly well, there are not too many ads, they don't advertise inappropriate content, and they let you choose to watch an ad to gain resources. An example of games that do advertising poorly are games by Lion Studio. They play many, many ads, sometimes inappropriate. It makes the player experience very difficult to play the game that drives most players away.

This system can be harmful some users, especially children, or those who struggle with addiction. Children might be shown inappropriate advertising on some games, which can be harmful for development. In addition, for those who struggle with addiction gambling, they can be shown advertisements for gambling games which may be harmful.

Looking at this from the perspective of utilitarianism, advertising is a good method of monetising a game, while letting it be free for all users, it lets everyone, regardless of wealth or class play their game freely, and enjoy what the developers have made. However this is only if it is not done in a destructive manner.

Skins are a common way to monetize games, and it is the method used by some of the most popular games. Often the way this works is the game is a competitive multiplayer game and is usually free. Each player has a set "default" appearance on their character, but they can buy “skins” to change their in-game appearance. This mostly does nothing to affect the actual gameplay and doesn't give the players an unfair advantage, but it lets them customize the game to themselves.

This lets players play the game for free while also maintaining enough revenue to keep the game running. This is relatively good for most players, although some can get caught up in skins and spend more money than they should. These games often rely on these players that spend more than they should, and they're known as whales.

A good example of using skins as a method of monetization is Fortnite. They let players buy skins and they have several thousand different skins to choose from. This lets most players play for free and those who want to can customize their appearance in whatever way they wish.

A common form of monetization in free-to-play live service games is loot boxes. Loot boxes are a mechanic where you buy a "lootbox" and you get an item from the box. Loot boxes often have different rarities of the items you can get from them. Often it will be a Common up to Legendary rarity for most games. The common rarity items from lootboxes normally aren't very desired, but the legendary items are the most desired.

There are 2 main types of loot boxes in games, skins (see the skins section), and characters. Many games with loot boxes let you unlock skins of different qualities. For example, Overwatch has a skins system, where each lootbox gives you 4 skins of common, rare, epic, or legendary quality. Other games, often known as gacha games, have loot boxes where you unlock characters in the boxes. An example of this is a game like Battle Cats, where you unlock different cats to battle with from the lootboxes.

A good example of lootboxes is Battle Cats. Battle Cats lets you collect an in-game currency (See related section) that you can use to buy the lootboxes. You can also buy the in game currency to speed up and get more lootboxes, which helps you progress through the game. A bad example of this is CSGO. CSGO uses loot boxes for skins of the weapons in game. These loot boxes have led many to develop real harmful gambling additions. Part of why CSGO in particular is so harmful is because you can sell in-game skins for real-world money, and some skins can go for millions of dollars. This means you can gamble on opening these loot crates for the almost nonexistent potential of winning millions of dollars from luck alone, which is very harmful to the players.

Two very similar methods are season passes and subscriptions. Both of these have you pay a certain amount every month or so for some in-game effect. There are several ways to do this, one is a “battle pass” where you have to play the game to unlock new rewards, and you get premium rewards by buying the season pass. Another way is the subscription “unlocks” certain parts of the game. Both ways work through a recurring payment that is cancellable, but it can be easy for players to forget they have the payment every month, and are getting billed for something they don't use.

A game that does Subscriptions well is RuneScape. RuneScape has a free to play version and a paid Membership version of the game. The membership version unlocks a lot more content and things for players to do, and the free version is comparatively lackluster. However, RuneScape lets you buy the subscription with in-game money without needing to spend anything. If a player has enough patience and wants to grind for the membership, they can, all it takes is patience. A game that does this poorly is World of Warcraft which has the same subscription without the ability to obtain it in game. This means it's at least $155 to play the game and all of its content for only 1 year. Keep in mind that it has been out f or 21 years. This can be predatory and expensive for many p layers who want to keep billing players who stop playing but forget to cancel their subscription and spend much more money than they might have.

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Some games let you pay for progression bonuses. Let's say it's a game like Adventure Capitalist, where the goal is to make money. You can pay to buy bonuses that increase the amount of money you make for example. These are often known as “pay-to-win” mechanics, where you have to pay money to win the game, or at least win faster.

Games like Adventure Capitalist let you progress without paying money, and you can get the whole experience for free. However, if you want to progress faster, you may find the option of paying some money to speed up progress a fun and engaging option. This lets these games be free, and accessible for most players while still maintaining revenue for the developer. An example of a game that does this poorly is Clash Royale. Clash Royale is a competitive 1 vs 1 multiplayer game, where you can “level up” your own power by collecting a certain amount of cards per level. However you can pay to buy these cards, and often paying is the only way to get to the highest level, which you need to be competitive in the game. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to be competitive without spending hundreds of dollars buying these cards.

Many games have a kind of paid built in currency native to their game. Often this currency can't be obtained through playing the game, but sometimes it can. Games like Warframe or Battle Cats allow you to obtain the in-game currency through trading with other players or completing levels. This is the kind of monetization we use on this website! Except we don't get money from it, but there is a built-in website currency.

The currency is then used in the same ways listed in the rest of the forms of monetization. The only difference is a level of abstraction you get with an in-game currency over real money. Most games that use an in-game currency actually use several of the monetization methods listed. For example, Warframe uses an in game currency, which can be used to purchase Bonuses and skins. The game also has a battle pass, but it's entirely free. It's very common to combine several types in the final products.

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