Microtransactions are coming for your TV shows

As part of Polygon’s The Next 10 special issue, where we’re looking at the future of the things we cover, we reached out to some of our favorite artists and asked them to envision what games and entertainment will look like in 10 years. Here, illustrator Marie Bergeron imagines a microtransaction-infused future where watching TV will feel like an overbearing free-to-play game in a piece called Pay here, pay now.

“My idea of the future of television is more or less a hybrid of YouTube and the game industry, but way more exaggerated,” she says. “Where we would be bombarded with images, text, ads, microtransactions… and sadly where the industry could keep our curiosity on a high, and when the opportunity is there, make us pay for watching more. Technically, nothing really new, but only better TVs and perhaps holograms that would make the ads even more in our face.”