Fear of missing out

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a psychological phenomenon where a person feels like they are missing out on something that could improve or make life more enjoyable.

As it relates to negative business practices, FOMO refers to the use of time-limited availability to instill a (sometimes false) sense of urgency in users, causing them to devote more time or money in order to acquire a product, service, or digital item.

By exploiting this feeling in consumers, companies can:

1. profit off of users believing they won't be able to get the goods or service at a later date.
2. pad usage metrics (in the case of digital goods) by forcing users to spend more time using a product to unlock a certain item or feature.
3. profit by preying on users' impatience, should they elect not to devote the time needed to unlock the item or feature without spending money.

Notable examples

Battle passes

The implementation of battle-pass and seasonal mechanics have become an increasingly common occurrence in video games, particularly in those focused on multiplayer. The concept gained popularity as a more attractive alternative to loot boxes, games as a service, and traditional paid DLC. Battle passes gained widespread industry use after the wildly successful implementation of the concept in Fortnite Battle Royale by Epic Games in 2018. Since then, games such as Call of Duty, Diablo IV, and Fallout 76 have implemented battle passes and seasons with some variations.

Battle passes are usually either free with limitations, or paid for through microtransactions. Typically, the free pass may have a very limited number of tiers or offer fewer or less-desirable rewards, but will track a user's progression through the paid-for battle pass, allowing the user to buy that battle pass at any time within the season to collect the rewards. A battle pass is typically structured into multiple tiers. By earning enough experience to complete a tier, the user gains the rewards offered at that tier and can then start on the next tier. More desirable rewards are provided at higher tiers, which offers a way for users to show off these unique customization options to other users as a status symbol. Experience is gained through normal gameplay and often through in-game challenges, while some games offer a way to accelerate progression through a battle pass by using additional microtransactions. At the end of the season, which can typically last for a month or more, a battle pass is replaced by a new one, and the previous rewards become unobtainable. This is true for both free and paid-for battle passes.

While battle passes are more transparent about their rewards than loot boxes, they force users to invest a substantial amount of time into a game in order reach rewards they might want within the allotted timeframe of a season. This can play into a user's impatience and fear of missing out, and might cause them to spend additional money on microtransactions to advance the battle pass without grinding.

It is worth noting that not all games have battle passes that expire at the end of a season. For example, both free and paid-for battle passes in Halo Infinite are always available to users even after their respective seasons have ended, though it is still necessary to grind through tiers in order to unlock all the rewards.

Timed releases

While their historical use is rooted more into the costly endeavor to show films in theaters, timed releases in the modern day exist in a far more harmful capacity for consumers as distribution is capable of being offered digitally. A significant example of this usage was with Super Mario 3D All Stars, which had a roughly six-month window between mid-September 2020 and late March 2021 to purchase the game before it was permanently delisted and physical copies stopped being manufactured. This cessation cornered consumers, as purchasing in this window was the only way to purchase these three games that had been out of print for several years.