"You want to skip convincing educators and parents about this stuff and just go straight for the kids... I'm all for indoctrinating kids into an economy. You gotta love how his [e]xample for 'real world rewards' is 'virtual items in games.'"
These are direct quotes from an email chain between Jeffrey Epstein, self-proclaimed hacker-turned-inventor Pablos Holman, and ex-Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in the newest batch of Epstein Files released over the last week. This batch revealed that Epstein was more deeply intertwined in gaming than I think most of us expected (especially with the Five Nights at Freddy's porn situation and Epstein survivor Sarah Ransome mentioning Leslie Benzies and Sam Houser by name). His reach went further than most of us realized, even giving his input on microtransactions.
The email chain itself was dated May 2013, a little while after the release of Black Ops 2 in November 2012, which did get an update to include minor cosmetic microtransactions that "didn't affect gameplay." They continued this trend in Call of Duty: Ghosts later that year, and now, over ten years later, Activision-Blizzard has switched its current strategies to gaining higher profit margins from in-game purchases and subscription services, something mentioned directly in their 2022 annual report.
And it puts modern microtransactions into perspective, especially when you consider how kids are getting into games at increasingly younger ages. Games like Fortnite and Roblox, especially, market themselves as kid-centric titles, but are flooded with constant, limited-time cosmetics and pay-to-win mechanics, respectively. It can leave kids feeling anxious and impatient, while also preying on their limited understanding. Nine times out of ten, the kids wouldn't be concerned where the money is coming from; all they know is they're getting more to spend and show off to their friends. Not to mention the slippery slope that is CS:GO Cases and lootboxes in general, which copy the same formula by adding the risk of gambling for what you want, and possibly spending more than the in-game item is worth.
The intentions of these developers aside, and even if Epstein didn't solely come up with the idea of microtransactions, he appears to be responsible for getting Kotick in contact with Holman over the idea of implementing them, especially when targeting them toward a younger demographic. It also ended up paving the way for those methods to be used in games to this day. It all paints the same image: major studios and corporations preying on their audiences to turn a profit. After all, Epstein and his associates saw games as "a mechanism for profit, coercion, and control."
In Holman's own words from the email, they were looking for a way to get "the most users for the least money." Hopefully, this information becoming public will mark a change in the system to be less predatory and suffocating in future titles, and we can get back to enjoying games without having our credit card info on standby.