History BribingYourWayToVictory / VideoGames

* ''TalesOfMajEyal 4'' unlocks unlimited lives mode and twinking for donators.

* Even iPhone games are ''not'' exempt! The TowerDefense game ''TowerMadness'' has the [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]] tower, pretty much an InfinityPlusOneSword and a GameBreaker, as it can do more damage per second than the [[PenultimateWeapon second best weapon]], the [[NukeEm nuke]]. The problem? If you want to unlock the usage of the flamethrower, you gotta buy it with real money first!

* ''VideoGame/ForzaMotorsport'' has an in-game example, the Hired Driver in ''3'' and ''4''. For a mere 50% of your winnings (easily negated by disabling driver aids and increasing the AI's difficulty), he'll almost guarantee a win in any race on any difficulty. The Hired Driver basically drives like [[TopGear The Stig]].

* A trend in online games such as ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' and ''Race War Kingdoms'' is to have some content that is accessible for free, but then to have power upgrades and additional content accessible only for a price. The Trope: AllegedlyFreeGame

** And it just got even worse. They nerfed the TP gains for non-subscribers to is 1-11 TP per game. Meanwhile, premium subscribers get 1,000 TP a month. The official message explaining this said it was for "balance" purposes. The only balancing going on there is in their checkbooks.

** With two exceptions[[note]]The Pyro and Medic's default melee weapons have direct upgrades in the "Third Degree" (a fire axe which also damages any Medics healing your target) and the "Solemn Vow" (a bust of Hippocrates which lets the user see an enemy's name, health, and Ubercharge percentage if they're another Medic)[[/note]], all weapons in the game aren't meant to be better or worse than other weapons, just different so you can play fine with your stock weapons.

** With two exceptions, all weapons in the game aren't meant to be better or worse than other weapons, just different so you can play fine with your stock weapons.

** The prior existing examples of this trope were a group of items with a SetBonus--the problem being that these sets demanded that the player also have a rarely dropped (or more readily purchased) hat included to get the effect. Some of these effects proved quite useful, such as immunity to death by headshot for the Sniper, or the ability to decloak with near perfect silence for the Spy. Other subsequent sets were included, but omitted the need to wear an associated hat as well as reduced the significance of the bonuses granted. Valve saw both the player backlash against the concept and the gameplay imbalances caused by the item sets, which finally resulted in ''all'' item sets having their gameplay bonuses removed in the July 2013 patch, placing less-powerful equivalents of the removed bonuses onto individual items that did not need to be in a set to function.

* ''{{Sryth}}'' has Adventurer Tokens ([=AT=]s for short). There’s a very limited number of [=AT=]s in the game and some of those need to be spent on certain must-have items such as a Quickstone, a grand residence, access to the Battlegrounds, and Varkyn's Ring of Motley Wonder (each of those expenses is absolutely necessary). That leaves you with a limited supply of [=AT=]s and they are the only currency accepted at Tallys' Trading Post. But you can get more by donating. In fact, this is the only way to get the best of Tallys' stuff. Some players are known to have donated over a 1000 US dollars (estimates based on the [=AT=] cost of their gear). But even without the best stuff your character can be like a god early in the game, for example if you buy all the Dragongem armor pieces: The cost is 1324 [=AT=]s and the bonuses are +45 MR and +109 SP (and that’s without taking into account the weapon and shield equipped). For comparison, your character can start with (at most) 32 MR and at most 36 SP. Fortunately you don’t '''need''' to donate – the negative side of not buying any of Tallys’ items is that your character will likely never have stats as high as those of the people who donated large amounts. In other words:

* ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' has Gold, which can be used to get SHIELD Points for leveling heroes or buying weapons (which otherwise you need to have allies to gift them to you), Command Points for recruiting heroes (otherwise obtainable only through boss reward roulettes and 5-starring missions), energy for battles (otherwise a 6 minute wait for each unit of energy), and more powerful weapons, uniforms, gadgets, and consumables than can be bought with the normal currency. You do get Gold for leveling up and 4-starring missions, but its in-game amount is very limited and it's much faster to use real money to get it.

* ''{{Burnout}} Paradise'' has a variety of downloadable content, the majority of which is new vehicles. One pair of cars, sold as the Boost Specials pack, have clear "you bought it, you win" traits. The Carson Extreme Hotrod is one of the fastest, if not THE fastest car in the game, and uses a special Locked Boost where you can boost any time after the gauge is half-full, and you never stop boosting until you slam on the brakes, spin out or crash. The Montgomery Hawker Mech can switch between all three standard boost modes- Aggression (Takedowns extend the gauge, aggressive driving fills it up quicker), Speed (Can only boost at full power, but using it all in one go causes a Burnout which refills it, and you can chain Burnouts to keep boosting), and Stunt (Stunts and tricks fill up the gauge faster).
** There's also the "Legendary Cars" pack, which includes homages to 4 classic movie/TV cars. The homage to KITT (sadly, the modern KITT, not the old one), called the Nighthawk GT, is among the fastest cars in the game, handles very well, and has a maxed strength rating. To top it off, however, when boosting, the car deploys a spoiler, making it handle ''better'' than it did before boosting.

* Beginning in early 2014, Konami has started requiring players to pay more in order to enjoy most of their arcade games' content. Due to various economical issues, the price of a standard credit per game has [[http://polyphonicroom.net/20140417-benama-30.html increased from 100 yen to 120 yen]]. However, a problem remains: Japanese arcades typically use 100-yen coins, and the only way to pay in non-increments of 100 yen is through Konami's PASELI electronic currency system. Solution: You can still use coins to pay 100 yen to play, but you will receive only a subset of features. Want to get the most out of the game? Pay the 20 extra yen. Some consequences of paying only 100 yen from the Franchise/{{BEMANI}} series:

** ''VideoGame/{{Gitadora}} [=OverDrive=]'' and ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX 21 SPADA'' won't let you get an Extra Stage.

* ''VideoGame/GrooveCoaster Zero'' has three expendable assist items: Follow (converts up to 10 Misses to Goods, which add on to score and won't break combo or decrease [[LifeMeter Groove Gauge]]), Flick Change (converts Flick targets to regular tap targets), and Visible (makes the invisible Ad-Lib targets visible). They can be obtained either as level-up gifts, through [[PlayEveryDay daily login]] bonuses, or by buying 10-packs for $1 each.

* The free web-based {{MMORPG}} ''KingdomOfLoathing'' allows one to "donate" for Mr. Accessories, powerful equipment in their own right, which one can trade at "Mr. Store" to get the Item Of The Month. While there is a "Hardcore mode" where one cannot access equipment bought this way, a familiar or a skill purchased can still be used. This has resulted in quite a bit of debate among players (as well as a meme, "X makes hardcore easier!"). These items, however, are fully tradeable, so they can be acquired without donating. Furthermore, "Bad Moon" and certain challenge runs eliminate the familiar or skill advantage to varying degrees.
** You also have to level up your familiar to make them worth using, which takes time and any item that's dropped by the familiar is dropped so often it's easy for people with lower budgets to buy the items from the mall. So purchasable familiars that unlock content are really there for making money and showing off.

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'', if you want to get the best helmet in the game, Queen of Hearts, you have to play through Hard Mode with a level cap (Lvl 1 or Lvl 50 are your initial options). If you want to unlock the ability to set the level cap to 255, you have to play though Hard Mode with level cap set at 1... or you can just buy ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaJudgment'' for the Wii and sync the two games together to get both rewards.

** Even hardware in general can fall under this category. Having a good PC can improve a game's performance by leaps and bounds, allowing for lagless gameplay and better frames per second, which can be a huge advantage in certain kinds of games especially shooters.

* Products such as "gaming mice" and "gaming keyboards" are designed with extra buttons to make games easier. For instance, high end mice have buttons to slow the mouse down, which makes it much easier to get head shots, or customizable hot keys you can set to do certain things. Normally to change weapons or take cover you'd need to take your left hand off the WASD keys, or your right of the mouse, so you can either move or aim while you do it, but not both. But if you've got a $200 mouse, you can do it with the flick of your thumb, saving precious microseconds.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' got into the act as well, though they did things a bit differently. The in-game auction house let you buy an item for either in-game gold or real-world money, depending on what the seller listed it for. Unlike most of the examples however, Blizzard said they wouldn't list items on the AH themselves, so all transactions are strictly run by the players. It was also possible to sell items for "real-world" money and then use the profits to buy stuff for yourself, and never actually spend your own money.

** In the end, both the Auction House and the Real Money Auction House were shut down by Blizzard upon the release of ''Reaper of Souls''. Both auction houses garnered a lot of resentment among players for thoroughly unbalancing the looting aspect of the game and attracting the kind of gold spammers that regularly plague VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft and other {{MMORPG}}s.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' is getting into the act as well, though they're doing things a bit differently. The in-game auction house will let you buy an item for either in-game gold or real-world money, depending on what the seller listed it for. Unlike most of the examples however, Blizzard has said they won't list items on the AH themselves, so all transactions are strictly run by the players. It's also possible to sell items for "real-world" money and then use the profits to buy stuff for yourself, and never actually spend your own money.
** It's worth noting that sales are completely anonymous. Regardless of what they say, Blizzard ''could'' make and sell items themselves for a more classic example and people would never know.
** They do, however, take a cut of every sale (and a further cut if the seller withdraws the profits instead if using it to buy other items), so they are making money even without selling items themselves.
** Eventually, Blizzard removed the auction house from Diablo 3.

* KingsIsle Entertainment's games have second chance chests in most major bosses (though sadly not W101's Hades the Unseen) which cost a small sum of Crowns (Crowns are a currency purchased with real money) for a second chance at the boss' loot and gear purchasable from the Crowns Shop. Specifics:

* The otherwise free online game ''FarmVille'' (a {{Facebook}} application) allows players to spend real cash on game cash, which comes in the form of both coins and bills. Most items, such as certain buildings, trees or decorations, and nearly all of the animals, can only be purchased with the game's bills, which accumulate very slowly unless you pay real money to get them. ''MafiaWars'' and indeed all the Zynga games also work like this.