Market games with transparent, player-friendly monetization against industry giants.
Opportunity: Pro-Consumer Stance as a Marketing Differentiator
The Splitgate 2 director's public distancing from past aggressive monetization (and implicitly blaming practices learned at 'Call of Duty') highlights a growing trend: developers acknowledging and reacting to player fatigue with predatory monetization. This reinforces the previous analysis.
Marketing Opportunity: A game developer or publisher can build immense goodwill and a strong market position by:
- Championing Fair Monetization: Taking a clear, vocal stance against exploitative practices, as hinted by the Splitgate director. This could be a core part of their brand identity, moving beyond reactive statements to a proactive policy.
- Transparent Development & Business Models: Clearly communicating how the game will be monetized from an early stage, emphasizing value for players rather than extraction. This should be backed by demonstrable in-game systems.
- "Anti-Established Monetization" Positioning: By contrasting their approach with the perceived aggressive monetization of established franchises (like Call of Duty, as directly referenced), a studio can attract players actively seeking alternatives and ethical gaming experiences.
- Accountability & Rectification: If past mistakes were made, openly acknowledging them (as Proulx attempts) and demonstrating concrete changes can rebuild trust, though proactive fairness is a stronger position.
This strategy can turn negative industry sentiment into a powerful marketing tool, attracting players disillusioned with the status quo and fostering strong brand loyalty by establishing the company as a genuine "player-first" entity.
Origin Reddit Post
r/gamingnews
Splitgate 2 director says it was "news to me" that the FPS launched with $80 bundles, blames former monetization head "who happened to come from Call of Duty"
Posted by u/ControlCAD•06/11/2025
Top Comments
u/lucavigno
What games have suppression? beside Hell let loose, which a semi-realistic shooter so it makes sense to have it, i didn't see it in more arcade shooters.
u/mobxrules
Entirely possible that the director was excluded from any talk of pricing.
u/ComprehensiveArt7725
I like how he keeps blaming cod 😂
u/hockeymisfit
Absolutely. The outrage over $25+ skins in Rivals was bad enough. $40 is insane.
u/GroundbreakingBag164
How the hell does the game director not know about $80 microtransactions?
Lying idiot
u/Affectionate_Ad5540
$40 cosmetic bundles are still egregious. Like WTF
u/Zestyclose_Leg_3626
He wants to associate his game with CoD. Which makes sense since the target demographic all know of CoD and think it is the biggest game on the planet whereas the people playing Fortnite aren
u/GroundbreakingBag164
How the hell does the game director not know about $80 microtransactions?
Lying idiot
u/hockeymisfit
Absolutely. The outrage over $25+ skins in Rivals was bad enough. $40 is insane.
u/hockeymisfit
Read the article. He admits that he should have been more involved with the financial aspects of the game, but was still completely out of the loop. They have a monetization department that h
u/hockeymisfit
Read the article. He admits that he should have been more involved with the financial aspects of the game, but was still completely out of the loop. They have a monetization department that h
u/gamer1what
This is how it starts, “oh my bad guys $80 bundles? That’s ridiculous! Here lemme fix that! There were go nice and affordable $40 bundles, we aren’t like those other developers!”
We are goi
u/hockeymisfit
According to the director, this was most likely what happened. They have an entire department dedicated to pricing and monetization.
u/DetonateDeadInside
This headline doesn’t look as good as the director thinks it does, just makes me wonder what kind of ship they’re running over there.
u/captaindealbreaker
Yet another studio CEO doing active harm to the public image of their employees' work
Fuck this dude
u/Affectionate_Ad5540
$40 cosmetic bundles are still egregious. Like WTF
u/Redisigh
I wouldn’t be surprised tbh
I’ve heard of stupid stuff like that. Like at my old job upper management wanted to remodel the entire work area in a very specific and inefficient way. The peopl
u/TGDNK
Yea 40 and 20 dollar skins arn't much better, incredibly tone deft to the current times, I won't be buying anything extra besides the bp
u/DetonateDeadInside
This headline doesn’t look as good as the director thinks it does, just makes me wonder what kind of ship they’re running over there.
u/ComprehensiveArt7725
I like how he keeps blaming cod 😂
u/sdric
Gacha is a payment model, not a genre. E.g. Genshin Impact is a narrative driven open world RPG, whereas Sword of Convallaria is turn based tactics RPG with optional auto-battler elements and
u/sdric
Battlefield 3 started it in non-simulation games, and it was carried on for a few titles at least, although I haven't played the lastest one, what was 2142?
u/hockeymisfit
According to the director, this was most likely what happened. They have an entire department dedicated to pricing and monetization.
u/Affectionate_Ad5540
$40 cosmetic bundles are still egregious. Like WTF
u/Zestyclose_Leg_3626
He wants to associate his game with CoD. Which makes sense since the target demographic all know of CoD and think it is the biggest game on the planet whereas the people playing Fortnite aren
u/mobxrules
Entirely possible that the director was excluded from any talk of pricing.
u/ControlCAD
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director on Splitgate 2, Ian Proulx, took to the stage of Summer Game Fest 2025 in an unpopular hat to declare he was sick of the s
u/ControlCAD
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director on Splitgate 2, Ian Proulx, took to the stage of Summer Game Fest 2025 in an unpopular hat to declare he was sick of the s
u/GroundbreakingBag164
How the hell does the game director not know about $80 microtransactions?
Lying idiot
u/sdric
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director \[...\] to declare he was sick of the stale state of FPS games. What followed was the announcement of a battle royale
Cou
u/ComprehensiveArt7725
I like how he keeps blaming cod 😂
u/BigoDiko
Directors aren't apart of the financial team in games and unless they are told these things they have no fucking clue what's going on.
u/RazielAshura
Shut the fuck up dude, you tried to grandstand and failed miserably.
Shut the fuck up
u/Ascending_Flame
You don’t have to balance the game or make symmetrical maps or any of that in a battle royale. You just make arenas that look cool and you’re done.
u/Inuma
Entirely possible.
Happened in Tekken where Harada, who's studio head of the Tekken project wasn't involved with a stage being included in a season pass and hilarity ensued.
He had to mak
u/hockeymisfit
Absolutely. The outrage over $25+ skins in Rivals was bad enough. $40 is insane.
u/RazielAshura
Shut the fuck up dude, you tried to grandstand and failed miserably.
Shut the fuck up
u/sdric
Battlefield 3 started it in non-simulation games, and it was carried on for a few titles at least, although I haven't played the lastest one, what was 2142?
u/TGDNK
Yea 40 and 20 dollar skins arn't much better, incredibly tone deft to the current times, I won't be buying anything extra besides the bp
u/Monkey_DDD_Luffy
Bro nobody gives a fuck about call of duty anymore. Hating call of duty is like 10 years out of date, everyone left it and now it's just the players leftover that like it and nobody else care
u/ControlCAD
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director on Splitgate 2, Ian Proulx, took to the stage of Summer Game Fest 2025 in an unpopular hat to declare he was sick of the s
u/Redisigh
I wouldn’t be surprised tbh
I’ve heard of stupid stuff like that. Like at my old job upper management wanted to remodel the entire work area in a very specific and inefficient way. The peopl
u/Redisigh
I wouldn’t be surprised tbh
I’ve heard of stupid stuff like that. Like at my old job upper management wanted to remodel the entire work area in a very specific and inefficient way. The peopl
u/RazielAshura
Shut the fuck up dude, you tried to grandstand and failed miserably.
Shut the fuck up
u/lucavigno
2042, didn't play that one either, so I can't say.
u/hockeymisfit
According to the director, this was most likely what happened. They have an entire department dedicated to pricing and monetization.
u/etriuswimbleton
Wait till you hear about Gacha
u/hockeymisfit
Read the article. He admits that he should have been more involved with the financial aspects of the game, but was still completely out of the loop. They have a monetization department that h
u/lucavigno
What games have suppression? beside Hell let loose, which a semi-realistic shooter so it makes sense to have it, i didn't see it in more arcade shooters.
u/Ascending_Flame
You don’t have to balance the game or make symmetrical maps or any of that in a battle royale. You just make arenas that look cool and you’re done.
u/lucavigno
2042, didn't play that one either, so I can't say.
u/sdric
Gacha is a payment model, not a genre. E.g. Genshin Impact is a narrative driven open world RPG, whereas Sword of Convallaria is turn based tactics RPG with optional auto-battler elements and
u/BigoDiko
Directors aren't apart of the financial team in games and unless they are told these things they have no fucking clue what's going on.
u/NathanCollier14
It was always gonna be $40
u/TGDNK
Yea 40 and 20 dollar skins arn't much better, incredibly tone deft to the current times, I won't be buying anything extra besides the bp
u/mobxrules
Entirely possible that the director was excluded from any talk of pricing.
u/etriuswimbleton
Wait till you hear about Gacha
u/sdric
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director \[...\] to declare he was sick of the stale state of FPS games. What followed was the announcement of a battle royale
Cou
u/lucavigno
What games have suppression? beside Hell let loose, which a semi-realistic shooter so it makes sense to have it, i didn't see it in more arcade shooters.
u/sdric
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director \[...\] to declare he was sick of the stale state of FPS games. What followed was the announcement of a battle royale
Cou
u/ControlCAD
>On Friday, the CEO of developer 1047 Games and creative director on Splitgate 2, Ian Proulx, took to the stage of Summer Game Fest 2025 in an unpopular hat to declare he was sick of the s
u/NathanCollier14
It was always gonna be $40
u/sdric
Battlefield 3 started it in non-simulation games, and it was carried on for a few titles at least, although I haven't played the lastest one, what was 2142?