The Microtransaction Investigation

Individual Item Cost

If you could see the graph we tried to make then the first question you'd ask would be: 'What's that big purple spike?' Well, we'd answer, that's a monocle you can buy in EVE: Online. It costs £60 of real-world money.

No, we'd say in response to your second question, we don't know what CCP is thinking either.

Summarising the data quickly, it's worth pointing out that only EVE and Battlefield Play4Free break the £20 barrier for the cost of an individual item, although WoW does come close with two items priced at £17.50 a pop. It's worth noting that Battlefield's paid-for boosts are only rented items too, lasting 180 days before you have to re-buy.

The cheapest items all sit within Lord of The Rings and Realm of the Mad God. At 9p, LoTR has a couple of trivial scrolls, then at around 20p we start seeing some potions with lesser effects. For the same price you can dye your hat in Realms of the Mad God, but this is all fairly boring stuff.

At 29p, TF2 comes in with a bang - offering 15 different items that are fun to use and enable alternative play-styles in the game which is excellent value. All these items are also available through in-game item drops too, making purchases optional.

However, TF2 can also generate unusual items, which are rare versions of normal items and are only available by opening crates with paid-for keys. Rare items don't do anything special, but have a special name and a particle effect that makes them stand out from the crowd. These can then be sold on the 'black market' (read: eBay) for outrageous sums. One item sold for a whopping $1500 USD, for example, but wasn't counted in this investigation as it's not an official microtransaction within the game.

The ABCs of DLC - The most expensive weapons all cost £7.48, and they're all in Battlefield. They're also better than any other weapons in the game and they're not available for free in any way.