Bastion dev: real-money purchases make immersion in games 'virtually impossible'
Destroy a title's atmosphere
It would be lovely if PC and Xbox 360 adventure game Bastion landed in the App Store or Google Play at some point. However, if that ever does happen, you can be sure it won't have in-app purchases.
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference last week, and as reported by Eurogamer, Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin said that asking for real-world money destroys the immersion in a game.
According to Kasavin, there is not a single title yet which has managed to blend in-game payments and atmospheric gameplay, and that it was "virtually impossible" to do.
Shattering
"If your business goal is to make many bits of content and have in-games stores and stuff like that, I don't know how compatible that is to having an atmospheric experience. I think it's pretty tough," he suggested.
"I think when the game asks you to pay real money it's hard to make it atmospheric. In fact I've never played a game that has achieved that."
Kasavin singled out Zynga's Mafia Wars 2 as an example of a title that will never be immersive, as the constant pop-ups advertising other Zynga titles "shatter the fourth wall with a baseball bat".
What do you think, readers - have you ever played a game with in-app purchases that really pulled you in?
