When Microsoft announced the free-to-play, avatar-based Joy Ride at its press conference yesterday, the company also revealed a fancy new trailer for the microtransaction vehicle. The gameplay looks to be rather simplistic, with a heavy focus on vehicle customization and arcade-style racing, so if that's your kind of thang, have at it! The game's set to go live on ... Xbox Live this winter.

We're a little worried about EA's card-based RTS, BattleForge. Less than a month ago, the game got a significant price drop, and just this morning EA announced the game will be adopting a free play model, allowing for even more old-fashioned microtransactions (a key part of BattleForge's card-based battle system), and, maybe, helping the game to survive a bit longer.

According to the game's website, the "Play4Free" version of BattleForge will replace the demo version and give players access to "all game content" -- it even comes with 32 cards (four times the amount that came with the demo). EA says that the retail box copy of the game will now serve as a "points box," as it comes packed with 3000 points ready for use in EA's store. It remains to be seen whether this move will spurn those who already purchased the game or bring in enough new players to support the continued existence of it. What say you, Joystiq Biomass?

[Via Big Download]

EA announced all of The Sims 3's community and microtransaction features today. TheSims3.com will become the hub site for all community and marketing features when the game births June 2. Players can use "The Exchange," which allows megalomaniacs to search and browse content, plus the site also allows the creation of movies and stories. More importantly for EA, there is also "The Sims 3 Store," an online retail location where users spend real money for SimPoints, which grants access to premium content.

Meanwhile, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey predicts that Sims 3 could sell over 4 million units in 2009, reports Gamasutra. Hickey has no estimate about how much The Sims 3 Store's premium content will add to the EA coffers. Seriously, though, parents: watch that credit card when little Susie or Michael starts begging for plaid furniture for their virtual dollhouse.

Source - The Sims 3 Full Online Feature Set
Source - Analyst: Sims 3 Could Sell 4 Million In '09

While ex-Joystiqer Ross Miller and Engadget Editor-in-Chief Josh Topolsky are busy liveblogging Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 preview event in Cupertino, we're here (well, all over) disseminating various gaming-related information you need to know. For instance, Travis Boatman, Vice President of Worldwide Studios for EA, took the stage this morning to discuss the forthcoming Sims iPhone game.

Though details are scant, the liveblog is telling us that, "They're showing off a character buying some things in-game," and, "They're playing music off of the device in the game." We're wont to believe that second part means you're able to play music that's saved on your phone from within The Sims iPhone world. Apparently, claims that the iPhone is "the new gaming platform" aren't so far off after all, eh?

And the rest of your family, for that matter. In a recent interview with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, program manager for games in Facebook's platform marketing division Gareth Davis had a lot to say about their burgeoning social network/"gaming platform." According to Davis, the network has accrued more than 5,000 games since opening up their platform in 2007 and those games are coming from small fish and enormous whales alike. Davis says the demographics for game players are changing as well, "Our fastest growing demographic now is over 30. Now it's grandparents playing games with grandchildren. You don't see that anywhere else." Hit the jump for more!

Hoping to turn midi-chlorians into monetary maneuvers, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello revealed in today's investor call that BioWare's upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be "a mid-session game, microtransaction-based. You'll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call." According to ShackNews, EA has previously deemed FIFA Online and NBA Street "mid-session" games.

We're not convinced that it means SW:TOR will be offered sans subscription, so we'll wait until February rolls around to see how the publisher plans to Force Pull your money.

Update: Statement from EA via ShackNews: "No statements have been made about the Star Wars business model." The rep also claimed Mr. Riccitiello's comments were misunderstood.

[Via Massively]

Former PlayStation Europe head, Chris Deering, has joined the advisory board for PlaySpan, a company that has nothing to do with PlayStation and everything to do with the wild world of in-game money making. Self-described as the "first publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network," PlaySpan expects to benefit for Deering's ten years behind the desk at SCEE as the company works to position itself in the lucrative virtual goods market.

PlaySpan is better recognized by gamers for its subsidiary brand, PayByCash, which offers payment solutions on a variety of online titles, including Ultima Online, Everquest II and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Even so, we're fuzzy on what exactly Deering will be advising the company on, though we imagine his time will be split between coming up with imaginative ways to reach into gamers' pockets and deciding what horse to bet on in the current hardware race.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Xbox Live chief John Schappert confirmed that Microsoft is looking at the possibility of charging users for accessories that can be used to customize their Avatars. When asked about such plans, Schappert replied, "That may be in the future." But what about the near-term? "We want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall," he said.

Given the precedent set early on with for-pay customization items such as gamer pics, the fact that MS might charge for more "exotic" Avatar extras certainly doesn't surprise us. We also wouldn't be surprised to see free accessories created to promote upcoming games, films, and events, much in the way promotional game pics and themes are currently offered. So, that Spartan armor helmet? It'll be, oh, 100. But that totally radical Mountain Dew Extreme Sports Action Experience billboard hat is on the house.

Market research firm Parks Associate has released a study claiming subscription-based MMOs aren't dropping enough loot for its players. According to the group's Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II study (via Worlds in Motion) only the hardcore gamers were into the subscription model, whereas the casual gamer showed "significant interest" in the free-to-play, microtransaction model.

Another part of the study found that, of the non-MMO players polled, 14% would be interested to play if they could play for free, whereas only 2% of that group was interested in subscription-based MMOs. As we always caution, studies generally aren't worth more than the pixels they're displayed on (unless it's a nice monitor, then they're probably worth less). In a recent polling at Joystiq HQ, games that are "free to play" were also seven times more likely to grab our attention than games that weren't free.

Said Director of Broadband and Gaming Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai: "World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model." Of course, that's kind of a no-brainer even for WoW's competitors.

[Via Eurogamer]

Hagimona pana! Guranda epska tali tari ta. Eska, eska, esti toni wa?

*turns on Simlish to English translator*

Better? Good! EA announced that its Sims 2 Store is now live for US and Canadian shoppers. The online retail location practices the fine art of micro transactions by offering items available in Sims 2 expansion packs and "all-new exclusive" content.

The store works by converting real money into "SimPoints" at an exchange rate of $1 for 100 SimPoints, and most items we saw appear to be between 75 - 100 SimPoints. Sims 2 fans can decide for themselves if it's worth micro-transactioning through the Sims 2 Store or picking up the full expansions at retail. The store seems like the type of thing that's perfect if your Sim just needs to have that new shower head and nothing else.

[Via BigDownload]

Update: Added source -- this press release, which vaguely implies that Live Gamer's RMT service, called Live Gamer Exchange, will allow players to "customize their characters through attire, weaponry, gadgets, vehicles, gear and aliases that tailor their game play." However, Massively's Kyle Horner spoke last night with The Agency lead designer Hal Milton who said that no weapons will be sold. The team is currently discussing the sale of low-level operatives (analogues to low-level equipment), but currently, everything planned to be sold will be purely cosmetic and not gameplay affecting.

Original: Remember all the hoopla over virtual arms dealing in Battlefield: Bad Company? Sony Online Entertainment's not hearing it. In fact, it announced today that its upcoming espionage MMO FPS, The Agency, will feature real money trading (RMT) of everything from clothing and gear to vehicles and weapons.

SOE has yet to declassify its business model for The Agency, so this could go in one of two directions. If it's free-to-play (a la Battlefield: Heroes) the cash-for-guns program would be (slightly) easier to swallow. Since The Agency is a PC and PS3 title, we're laying a bet on a free model given the latter platform's already free online gaming service and today's announcement, which provides a means for SOE to subsidize free play with a cut of player trades. If it's subscription-based? Someone best send some fire-retardant undergarments to SOE brass.

FPS players -- console ones specifically -- are used to earning their way to the top and into better weapons and gear, as seen in Call of Duty 4. The idea of playing a game where they're at an immediate disadvantage based on cash money is unlikely to sit well. At least trade works both ways; those who take the route of being skilled players -- and not payers -- can profit from their homegrown skills by selling stuff to noobs (and people with dead presidents lighting fires in their trousers).

Since revealing intentions to charge money for some measure of online content in February, Nintendo has kept its future plans for our wallets quietly under wraps. However, new box art found on GameStop's online store seems to indicate that Sega's upcoming maraca-deficient revival of office favorite Samba De Amigo may have us praying to the microtransaction gods when the game ships for the Wii this August.

While nothing has been announced by either Sega or Nintendo, the new box art, uncovered by the sleuths at NeoGAF, carries the red "Pay to Play" program logo first shown at GDC by Nintendo to identify games that carry some sort of online fee. As our our friends at Wii Fanboy theorize, it seems likely that the game could finally introduce downloadable songs to Wii, which if true will just make the Wii versions of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band feel that much more feature bankrupt.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

While you already know our stance on Lonpos's downloadable content, you probably didn't realize how much wallet maiming would actually be going on.

In Japan, nine puzzle packs were released this week. While that might seem like good news at first for the puzzle lovers in us all, it's not. Each puzzle pack costs 500 Wii Points (or $5, if you will), meaning that all nine packs come to a total of $45. Let's not forget the $10 to download the starter pack of Lonpos to begin with.

A puzzle pack includes twenty-five puzzles, which means that all nine packs would admittedly be a lot of content, but this still doesn't sit right with us. At the very least, the initial gimped version should be cheaper to download off of WiiWare.

With this much DLC at these prices, we'd have preferred that Genki released a disc-based game instead. Think about it: if you don't think you'd like Lonpos, you won't want to download it in the first place. If Lonpos interests you, though, you're going to want as many puzzle packs as possible, and feel completely deflated by the money Genki is asking for.

It seems that Genki has gotten the concept of nickel-and-diming down to a T.

Don't get us wrong -- we're not against downloadable content by any means. Yet, the way in which microtransactions were presented during the WiiWare launch for games like Lonpos and My Life as a King seems really ... cheap. And by cheap, we mean the DLC is a total cheap shot, because it's actually expensive. Take Square Enix's title, for example, which released $13 worth of downloadable content on its first week. Yes, we're familiar with the "If you don't want it, then don't buy it" argument (and we won't), but all of that just sours us on the game in general.

What do you think, though? Are we being to hard on Lonpos and My Life as a King? Or, is there a wrong and right way to present DLC? Then again, it could also be possible that you don't support any microtransactions. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

After initially seeing EA's explanation about its pay-to-play DLC weaponry in Battlefield: Bad Company on MTV's Multiplayer, it was time for a nice walk around the block to inhale some crisp spring air and exhale some vexation before sitting down to write about it. The publisher states that five of the DLC weapons in its upcoming FPS will be "free," and the other five will be bundled with the game's "Gold Edition." For gamers who don't want to buy the "Gold Edition," the weapons will be available to purchase through PSN and XBM -- no prices are currently attached to the weapons.

EA states that the pay-to-play weaponry in B:BC will not unbalance the game and that "more weapons offer players more choices but do not create an advantage/disadvantage for players who do not opt to buy new item." Wait, what? Paying extra money for weapons other players don't have doesn't change the game experience? We had hoped EA had given up on its dubious microtransactions, but we're sure consumers will vote using their wallets if they agree with EA's tactic.