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]

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.

And the infernal circle is complete. Microtransactions will finally be making their way to the Nintendo Wii, largely by way of the upcoming WiiWare service. The Wii was the last of the three major consoles to not support microtransactions, and now no consumer is safe from the incessant nickel-and-diming for minor content.

IGN reports that WiiWare developer Genki will be selling an add-on pack for its puzzle game LONPOS. The expansion will cost 500 Wii points, half of the launch title's entire cost. Meanwhile, Siliconera is reporting that another puzzle game, Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Wii, will be selling additional puzzle stages for an as-yet unknown price.

As if that weren't enough to grind your gears, Madden creator Scott Orr spoke with Develop Magazine about his WiiWare title, Spogs Racing. According to Orr, the title will feature purchasable "racer packs," including cars parts and new tracks. Orr doesn't come right out and define these as microtransactions, however, instead masquerading the upgrades as "episodic downloadable content" (which it ain't). Looks like we're off to a great start already.

Read - WiiWare microtransactions priced [IGN]
Read - Go online with WiiWare and Mojipittan Wii [Siliconera]
Read - Madden creator on WiiWare episodic and user-driven content plans [Develop]

2K Sports released the 2K Reelmaker add-on for NHL 2K8 yesterday at 400 MS Points ($5 USD); the program allows a variety of video recording and playback options for the game. According to 1UP, the download for this feature is a puny 108K, which means consumers are paying to unlock a feature that is already on the game's disc. We are not amused.

If a feature is already on a disc, it should be accessible. Essentially 2K Sports is charging consumers more money for something they already bought, selling them a key to a door they already own. At least the ridiculous COG tag videos were something you actually downloaded from the marketplace, it may have been wasteful, but it was content not already on the Gears of War disc. We hope 2K doesn't become the new EA of the Xbox marketplace, nobody likes that.

If you haven't heard of Minho Kim, I'll forgive you -- I hadn't heard of him either until the name showed up in the list of keynote presentations at the Austin Game Developers Conference. Kim is Nexon America's director of game operations, and while Nexon hasn't made a big impact in North American markets, their free-to-play, micro-transaction driven online games (the best known of which is probably MapleStory) are a hit in Asia and Europe. Kim's keynote launches the final day of the conference with a discussion of micro-transactions. Joystiq is on-site waiting for festivities to begin, so keep reading for a play-by-play.

Aside from being an inexhaustible source of adorable cat pictures, the internet is responsible for allowing gamers to reach across their geographical borders, embrace a foreign culture... and then shoot it in the face. It's a noble use of technology, one that has until now been somewhat restricted in Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man. A new downloadable update meant to demolish regional restrictions and implement global multiplayer was initially due by the end of May, but was shifted to this Thursday.

Greg Philips of SCEA told CVG last week, "The reason for the delay is we (SCEA) needed a little extra time to get the global servers locked in and ready for thousands of players to come knocking. We would rather have a short delay and continue to deliver on our over the top, online experience." Apart from enabling men from all countries to fall, the update will introduce new multiplayer maps for purchase and "other enhancements" to the PS3's Chimera-blasting launch title. You'll be sure to see us online -- unless we're hiding around a corner with that lovely Bullseye gun.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Despite the rise of micro-transactions and pay-per-download content in the PC and console worlds, Valve recently announce it has no intention of charging for downloadables in games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. Designer Robin Walker explains their logic that gives Valve a big gold star in our book: "You buy the product, you get the content ... We make more money because more people buy it, not because we try and nickel-and-dime the same customers."

Micro-transactions were innocent at first, but when we had to pay for horse armor in Oblivion and tutorials in Madden, the line had to be drawn. Kudos to Valve for a step in the "don't make the customers angry" (i.e. "right") direction.

Poor Aegis Wing totally got lost in the crowd. Seriously, if it had released during any other week it would have actually made a little splash. The free game (for North America at least) was the creation of a few Microsoft interns with the help of Carbonated Games (UNO, Hexic) and is actually a fairly enjoyable side-scrolling space shooter. Just make sure to play it with friends.

Even if you aren't going to play it right now, go download it! It's free! Even if you have no intentions of playing it, go download it ... it's free! Heaven forbid that we actually get something free on Xbox Live and Microsoft ends up seeing that people will pay and download COG tag videos more than they'll download free stuff. If you don't download it for yourself, at least download it for your fellow gamers.

Flash gaming community Kongregate recently announced a few Xbox Live-ish upgrades to be rolled out over the next few months. Starting today, time-limited achievements will be available for select games. The current challenge for The Fancy Pants Adventure requires you to collect five trophies within the game and rewards you with a collectible Rumiko card. Gather cards to participate in the site-wide multiplayer game Kongregate will unveil in a few weeks.

And coming this summer: microtransactions! Developers are working with Kongregate to weave this into their titles to allow in-game purchases. One use for this system will be unlocking extended versions of games for just a few pennies per level. Most of the microtransaction earnings are paid to the game's programmer, adding incentive for developers to hop on the unlockable-content bandwagon.

Kongregate is setting itself up to be the most developer-friendly Flash community on the web. It's an easy hook for developers, but will the casual gamer get pulled in by microtransactions and collecting achievements?

When Lumines Live! emerged in October of last year, it ran headlong into a pack of outraged gamers who felt that the game's fragmented content and costs introduced an unwelcome element to the Xbox Live Marketplace -- a roving pickpocket you bump into between fruit stalls. New downloadable content is a touchy subject then, but it appears that next week's Live! offerings are a bit less backward and a bit less, well ... Evil!

Three new packs will be available this coming Wednesday, the first of which contains the Heavenly Star skin. Perhaps the fact that it will be free to Gold subscribers until February 21 is to be interpreted as a sign of atonement. The other two, namely the VS CPU pack and the Puzzle/Mission pack fill up the gaping holes in the base download, each costing a not entirely outrageous 100 points ($1.25) each. That lasts until February 21, after which the price goes up to a thoroughly questionable 300 points ($3.75).

Why raise the price after a month? The Gamerscore Blog labels these as "special promotional prices," which really just comes across as a temporary and thinly-veiled apology cringed out by the marketing department. So, why retract the apology then? The quest for more money seems tied to the obvious answer, but that's only if you felt that Lumines Live! got microtransactions completely wrong in the first place. All things considered, the game makes for a balanced example of what's wrong and what's right in the world of pint-sized payments:

Microtransactions or: Death by a thousand paper cuts. Sure, it all seemed so innocent at first, but then we started having Oblivion horse armor, Kameo Uno decks and now EA's Need for Speed: Carbon shows up exploiting the system to its full and most disgusting potential -- oh wait, EA already did that charging for Madden tutorials. And how many are willing to pay and feed this exploitation?

A group of writers at GamerFeast created a microtransaction tracker and started keeping tabs. Guess who's the top offender? (The list after the break) They've also broken everything down in spreadsheet form to review with a fine tooth comb, if you wish. It's a great resource and know we'll be checking back in again soon.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson announced on Wednesday that the newest Gears of War trailer was available online ... to Gold subscribers only. This marks the first time that exclusive XBL content has been delayed (not denied) for the free Silver members, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. Nelson commented on his blog entry after mixed reaction from readers, "So here is the deal ... Silver members WILL get access to this ... probably in about a week. This is going to happen more and more (Gold getting things before Silver) so you may want to think about upgrading if you want all the latest and greatest trailers, demos etc."

It's not really a big deal at this point, because the trailer was available online within seconds of appearing on the XBLM. The real problem starts when Gold members start getting demos and downloadable game content before Silver members do; perhaps, eventually, the Silver members won't get them at all. Microsoft will find themselves treading a fine line between how much a Silver member will put up with not having, and how much a Gold member needs to feel justified in paying the cost for their features. It's important to note that this trailer is most likely a trial run by Microsoft (through Major Nelson) to see how things go, since it's not even true "exclusive" content. Nelson (can we just call him Larry, already?) admits that this is the same commercial played last week at X06 Canada. So where's the real super exclusive platinum fanboy stuff, eh?

The point is that Microsoft is finally treating the Gold level like what it is supposed to be, a step above the Silver membership. Silver members don't pay for anything; it's a free service meant to provide an "introduction" to XBL. Gold members pay for additional features and, with it, they expect some perks to be delivered. While it's limited to trailers right now, expect to see it expand to demos, downloadable content, and anything else Microsoft can think about leveraging for more subscribers to make the jump up to the next tier while their model for microtransactions seems to be falling apart with the inmates running the asylum.

And just because we love you, check out that Gears trailer after the jump in SD, or click here for the HD version.

[Thanks, E.J.]

Last night on G4's Attack of the Show, host Kevin Pereira held a debate between Major Nelson and 1UP's Andrew Pfister on the much-discussed topic of microtransactions. During the segment, entitled The Loop, Major Nelson pressed that it is "about choice," while Pfister spoke for the gaming community when he said that "it doesn't appear that anybody is in control of the situation." With the recent Godfather and Lumines debacles, we're inclined to agree.

Unfortunately, the segment's lead-in was awkward and the debate was way too short for either side to make an argument, but what we heard was engaging. Please, G4, give The Loop its own half-hour time slot; we'd watch it.

Continue reading for the video.