Raccoon Logic: “Let people own the game they bought”

Alex Hutchinson and Reid Schneider say microtransactions are ‘not a healthy way’ to keep games alive

Image credit: Revenge of the Savage Planet, by Raccoon Logic

Revenge of the Savage Planet developer Raccoon Logic wants to see fewer games monetising their players after launch via microtransactions, seeking a return to the traditional pay-once premium model as standard.

During our interview at Gamescom, co-founder Alex Hutchinson spoke about how games often have multiple chances at reaching an audience, referring to the team’s previous title – Journey to the Savage Planet, developed as Typhoon Studios – which debuted on Google’s Stadia streaming service, later came to consoles, and received an expanded edition that bundled the DLC.

“In the modern world, to make your money back, often you do need to keep re releasing it,” he explained. “Having a way to get it out there again in six months or a year, maybe updated, maybe on new platforms, all this sort of stuff, means that you keep the game alive and so you give yourself a better chance for success there.”

The consensus among major games firms seems to be that microtransactions and other forms of generating recurrent consumer spending are the way to keep games alive. To this, Hutchinson said: “Yeah, well, I don’t think it’s a healthy way to do it.”

“AI is taking jobs from people and I think it’s soulless, and then microtransactions are nickel and diming people,” he continued. “Why not just sell them something authentically instead of trying to get every last cent out of them? Let people own the game that they bought.”

The reveal trailer for Revenge of the Savage Planet ends with a string of tongue-in-check marketing taglines, including ‘No DRM’, ‘No AI content’, ‘No metaverse’, and ‘No microtransactions.’ We asked if this was just for comedic purposes or if Raccoon Logic is taking a strong stance against these facets of the games industry.

“Like any good joke, it has a little bit of a barb in it,” said Hutchinson. “Those are the things in the industry that we don’t like. We have a crazy plan to release [our game], charge you money for it and then give it to you. I don’t know if it’s gonna work, but that is the hope.

“If you look at the healthiest company in games, it’s Nintendo and they never discount or do weird stuff, they sell you the game. So all this nonsense that all these other companies have done and worked up a fury have not worked, and they’ve put themselves in a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. Selling people a game is not a bad thing.”

Fellow co-founder and studio head Reid Schneider added that there has been something of a shift in the industry, with a number of titles that were originally intended to be – or even launched as – free-to-play games adopting a premium model instead.

He pointed to Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders as an example, but we’ve also seen similar moves for Rogue Snail’s Relic Hunters Legend, Abstraction Games’ Gigantic, Airship Syndicate’s Wayfinder, and Remedy’s upcoming Vanguard – all in the past year.

“[Companies] have to come up with the alternative models because the development cost has gotten so high,” Schneider said. “The reality is a few years ago you couldn’t do anything that wasn’t free to play if you were taking a meeting with an investors and so on. And what we’re seeing right now is this really interesting, almost like backpedaling on that where the games that were going to be free to play now are going to charge.

“Not that we’re the smartest folks in the room, but our goal is to do what we think is right, do we think that we’re gonna be generous to customers, do the right thing and hope it works.”

Hutchinson added: “If you think about it, lots of companies were trying to find like cheap ways to get cash instead of the authentic way. In the old days, lots of people could make money just selling games. In the free-to-play model or the GaaS model, only a couple of people make all the money. It’s winner takes all and I don’t think that’s good. I’d rather a variety of games succeed.”

You can read our interview about Raccoon Logic’s upcoming game here.