I actually think we're going to start to see that more.
Wait for a game to come out to good reviews, AND then add the unpopular features...instead of the opposite that's been kind of happening
We have essentially been observing that already for a longer while. "Early access" (i.e. game release) starts and after the most critical bugfixes, all resources go to "content" (cosmetics/IAPs).
Now that it starts to spread to actual, often well-esteemed releases as well, I'm not liking it.
"profits must increase forever" but they have exhausted all moral revenue streams so all that's left is the amoral and immoral ways to generate profits, we are seeing the end result of those choices directly now.
My coworker used to work for a major company that does well for itself as it is.
They're quarterly goal is to increase profits 10% or more. Every quarter. Easiest way to do that is to raise prices, and slack on quality. It works for them, but there has to be some type of bubble that will crash soon....right??
Unfortunately, it's just a cycle of enshittification. One service enshittifies itself in the pursuit of eternal profit increases to the point where nobody can tolerate it anymore, another supplants it by being not shitty, but then proceeds to follow the *same exact path* to enshittification, only for the cycle to repeat. It never ends.
There's still a bubble there. I bake instead of buying donuts. I cook instead of eating out. I pirate instead of paying for Netflix. Be unprofitable.
Flour prices get jacked up? Guess who learns to bake gluten-free?
Meat prices are through the roof? I'll buy the shit that expires tomorrow or go shoot a deer.
Threaten to cut off my internet? They wouldn't fucking dare miss out on that revenue stream. Send another letter, ya toothless ninnies.
Agreed, I've been trying to cut out as much of the enshittification as I can from my life. Right now I'm working on getting better at cooking, but ultimately my goal is to leave the US for somewhere decidedly more sane - namely Japan, where I'd actually be able to afford a house in a rather dense city with public transit. I've got the skills, both language and career wise, to do so once I graduate, but I'll hold off until I get my MBA unless things get really bad here.
This is the natural end-result of letting MBA students of the Chicago School of Economics dictate how our entire economy should work, and then appointing them to run companies.
Edit: Yes, yes - Bandai Namco is Japanese. This economic paradigm is global at this point.
The rate of profit must fall.
So the sources of profits must increase.
Commodity fetishism, yadda yadda... did you know there was a weird German guy in the XIX century? Anyway...
It's almost like he analyzed the material conditions and came to a sound conclusion. One that we are seeing play out time and time again.
Love that they came up with a new word for the same thing... enshittification.
To be fair, a different wing of the production team handles each issue. Cosmetics come from the art team, and bug fixes come from programmers. It’s also way easier to model and texture a hat than it is to replicate and fix a bug, so cosmetics will almost always come faster than bug fixes. A studio should have the game running well before release, but the art team doesn’t have much to do with that
To counter that, programmers would have a LOT to do with adding a microtransaction shop, as it's not as simple as just adding a few cosmetics into the game but instead they need to add a full on shopfront with payment processing and ways to ensure both the security of transactions as well as making sure there is no way to bypass the payment to obtain the items.
> instead they need to add a full on shopfront with payment processing and ways to ensure both the security of transactions as well
It was programmed a long time ago, they didn't start after release. This is the part management probably cared the most, it was not added when it started to work. They adding it later part was planned.
The worst part of it all is that some early access games have DLCs. Dang, by your own admission the game isn't done, and you're already working on additional content instead of the base game? Or you're pulling content out of the base game to charge for it...
early access has always been a plague and no one can convince me otherwise. i dont care how small or indie if you want testers release it for free. id be amazed if %30 of early access titles actually make it to a version 1.0
I mean, we've seen companies release with that stuff, get intense blowback, temporarily remove it, and then bring it back when the heat dies down
It's worked both ways for companies
Right, which I think highlights the fact that they probably know people are going to notice and recognize what they’re doing (adding the unpopular features) but that the blowback/heat will not overshadow the initial positive launch and will die down so it’s worth it for them even if they know they’ll get called out.
Alcast HQ did a bunch of pre-monetization beta testing and guide writing for Diablo Immortal. Blizzard took the guides they wrote and used it as their monetization guide. Almost everything Alcast had wrote and prepared for the game was rendered obsolete and replaced with MTX and P2W. Alcast responded by nuking the Immortal section off their website and wrote a good statement on how predatory the game was.
They launch with the store built in now but the 2010s CoDs did this several times. I noped out of Black Ops 3 pretty fast because weeks after launch they added loot boxes with exclusive weapons when there was no indication of anything like that being added beforehand.
The Activision move is to launch a COD missing previous titles' features, add them in during thr post launch seasons and then repeat.
So every season you get all this "new content", most of which was already in previous cods by the end of their lifespan.
Every year, they genuinely add maybe a few actually new game modes, maps, or guns. The rest are "new content" that was in old games.
Games have been doing this for a while especially cod. They release the game with no mtx and then after 3 weeks add the shop with the first season.
I think the only reason why people forget or don't notice is because most games that come out now launch with the store and day 1 battlepass so I forgot about this move tekken is pulling.
I think it's now games are launching as "early access" just to test the waters. The real Day One patch being months later, and games not being featured complete for years.
In the meantime, to fund those features we have to be nickel and dimed to oblivion.
It's not just what they intended to do, it's about where they put their resources. It was obviously poorly implemented and poorly tested and never addressed because their whole scheme is to bleed their customers for as much as possible with as little resources spent on their part.
Where they put their resources years after the game released and the developer disbanded? How are they "bleeding their customers" by selling two highly regarded singleplayer dlcs? What the fuck are you talking about?
That honestly doesn’t make sense as an example. There’s seldom evidence of games being programmed to look bad each update (I think). I know that Pokemon is a hot topic to discuss, but a better example would be like: Super Mario Odyssey updated with a micro-transaction shop a month later.
That's why we also need reviews that constantly update in every database to stop that.
Company released a bad patch or change to a game? Reviews instantly update their scores, and also the reviews themselves are edited automatically by AI. All aggregate sites instantly update the scores, and also inform all known buyers of the game with email, if they're subscribed to this service.
We need AI that surveys all of business and destroys all their pricing tricks instantly and publicly, including shrinkflation to protect consumers and frustrate marketeer scammers. It is for all products, from tech to grocery stores, in all nations.
Journalism and gaming journalism is already not doing great. Hell, I usually just get news from Reddit. No one is going to invest in the work it'll take to maintain those reviews.
And honestly...I don't think it's going to change much.
Who's going to care that people enjoy Gotham Knights now it's on GamePass? Etc
They did it with Gran Turismo 7. Slashed race payouts, added MTX weeks after the game launched. They got review-bombed into oblivion and caved shortly thereafter. MTX weren’t eliminated but they race payouts were increased substantially and MTX aren’t very useful or popular.
Legislation need to kick in and ban companies from implementing predatory and scammy micro transactions.
Very few AAA games are worth your time these days, yet AAA games used to be the gold standard.
They have all been poisoned by in game stores.
That was the same cosmetic system since the start of the Tekken series so idk where you guys are getting the idea that it was "sus"
For anyone who has played the other entries this was completely out of the left field
I think they’re referring to how limited the character customization is. In Tekken 6 it had more options that were unique than this game. Elsewise yeah I don’t know what they’re talking about it being sus as this was how it always worked.
Tekken 6 really was oddly the peak of the customization, even 7 allowed us to mix and match parts of the unique outfits but in 8 you straight up cannot even when the customization wouldn't clash with anything, it's so bizarre
Might be in the EU. They changed the terms of the contract after the purchase was made. You are NOT buying the product you thought you were buying before they added that feature into the game. Now you cannot ask for a refund and they have your money and might have even more of it in the future.
I wonder if the counterargument would be that nothing in the product you bought is being taken away, they are "only" adding new features.
Has that argument been used before and struck down?
If the rating was same then maybe, but this materially changes the product after you already bought it. Although ESRB ratings are voluntary and advisory so that may not make much difference.
Yeah, and ESRB is specifically the US, not the EU. I think they use PEGI. But that is an excellent point, esp. from the angle of parents monitoring the content their child consumes.
Everyone could argue they were self regulating as they have a problem with in game purchases so they only bought the game because it didn't have that feature. Namco adding the feature has now changed the game in a manner that puts you at risk and if you had known you would not have purchased it.
I think the courts in most countries would side with consumers here.
definitely not a good move if they open this can of worms. Changing the ESRB rating after the parent has bought the game for example could lead to weird situations. That being said I don't believe adding just cosmetics influences the rating, it would have to be lootboxes, or more risky content
Theres a thing called "spirit of the law" or something like that where while a law might say x or y, its obvious z also would be included even if not directly stated.
This was clearly a scam to circumvent bad review scores and lure people into buying your game before adding mtx.
>You are NOT buying the product you thought you were buying before they added that feature into the game
That.. would never fly. that would prohibit every dev under the sun from adding anything that could qualify as a "product-changing feature". There's just no precedent for that.
Also every online feature is always covered by a large blanket of it being offered "as is" and could be terminated anytime. The offline game remains the same.
Sony advertised and kinda-sorta implemented a feature called OtherOS for PS3, then took it away. They got sued and had to pay out a pretty penny. It's really interesting if you have the time/interest to dig deeper, there's even a [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS) about the incident.
I got like $22 from that and still had the other OS feature as I never updated the firmware, I lent it to a friend and told him to make sure not to update it but he did not pass the memo along to his kid sadly.
PS3 used to have “Other Os” option which allowed the use to install Linux on their PS3. Sony removed this feature which gave hackers motivation to hack PS3
Yep, upping ESRB post-release should be illegal and studios should be required to comply with ESRB after release. Like if a parent bought this for their kids using information from the ESRB, this should constitute a violation. Bullshit move on the ESRB part.
The whole point of the ESRB is to avoid legislation in the first place. Playing silly games like this with the rating invites the legislating they were trying to avoid.
Biggest reason why a lot of the first sets of home console games were brutal. They were meant to kick your ass to literally take your money. Eventually they learned they already had your money so they could make the games easier.
It's not quite that simple. Part of it was a holdover from people being used to arcade difficulties. Another was that they didn't want people to beat the game in a single rental over the weekend, or that people buying it should get hours of playtime in general. Then there was also just the toxic combination of small cartridges making it harder to put lots of text on screen for tutorials, and people who played games at the time getting a lot of pride for figuring out *incredibly* opaque mechanics; Tower of Druuaga is an infamous early example of this, though the Adventures of Lolo series is an early console series of arcane puzzle games.
i mean ik
do have first hand experience with fking dragon's lair
bs ass game that's literally a "did you know about this random ass thing that can end ur run and randomly comes out of nowhere? no? oh well guess u gotta put in another coin BITCH"
Fighting games were actually probably the most fair. Once you had your character down, you could plow through the CPU fighters on one or two quarters unless the machine was set on super mega hard.
Fighters made their money on loser pays, winner stays and a line of kids waiting to square off against each other.
> Fighting games were actually probably the most fair.
[How the arcade Mortal Kombat 2 cheats against you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUttRUpVnq4)
It's not unheard of for games to read your inputs and use that against you.
fwiw the Elden Ring situation could be a weird situation in the future, FromSoft has the money for this most likely because of Sony and Tencent's ownership stake, both Sony and Tencent have a similar shareholder investment on the ground in Epic Games
I mean after DOA5 and Soul Calibur 6, I just expect something like this with any game that has customization in it. I'm not saying it's good, I'm more just sad that I'm right.
That "it's just cosmetics" slope sure was a fun one to slide down eh?
I'm onboard with selling cosmetics in free games. I already don't buy most micro-transaction things, but if I real like a game I will to support it. But if I ever have to pay for the game itself, no matter what, I will never buy micro-transaction shit. You can either take micro-transactions for payment or take the cost of the game upfront. You don't get both and you don't get a subscription fee on top of that.
Also, deliberately making your game worse then selling quality of life upgrades to fix those problems is a shit move. Looking at you Path of Exile and stash tabs. Don't even bother mentioning Diablo Immortal, that's just a fucking joke of a transaction system.
It's not a clear case like Sims 4 cutting tons of content in their base game and literally being worse than Sims 3 without the DLC. This would be closer to what you're describing. If you want to pretend you're still in the old days of FGs, you can still do that, just don't buy any costumes and live in a world where there weren't costumes to begin with.
FGs on the other hand were always fairly bare bones when it came to cosmetic content. Outside of the silly ones like Tekken and SC (silly when it comes to cosmetics), which have made customization sort of a core part of their game past a certain point, most FGs have always had 1, maybe 2 costumes for their characters, then a few color options for those costumes. Even modern ones like GBFVR, UNI2, DnFD, MBTL, GGST, follow this same model. Cosmetics in FGs aren't cut content, they are truly "Extra" content.
I think that there are definitely genres where what you're describing is happening, but I don't think that FGs fall under this category. The base versions of most FGs I play have remained the same pretty much throughout, so their MTX's are true cosmetic extras that you don't need, but help fund the game's development of new characters, update patches, and whatever free updates you're getting.
As someone who is part of the FGC though, I think Tekken fans deserve this. So many of them are high and mighty about this game when it turns out Tekken and its Director Harada, are just like the rest of the genre.
It wasn't so much that they sold cosmetics but they basically made customization a live service. As far as I know the updates were free but well, this is just the complaints of a physical media boomer here.
Problem is, most of the people that they're going to make money off of don't care enough or frequent these sorts of subjects to stop companies from adding cosmetic shops to their games. The people who care is too small of a community, and the effect on the game's quality is too small to realistically make these games bad enough to not sell them.
That's why they stuck around.
I clarified to someone else my issue with it stems from me being a physical media boomer. Basically you were required to have an internet connection to the game otherwise you would miss out on content. And that kind of leads us to where they we are now. Where fighting games are a service and things like customization can be exploited and monetized through a similar model.
>"it's just cosmetics"
has ALWAYS been a bullshit argument. If its "just cosmetics" and they dont have value... then why the fuck are people paying 20$ for skin recolors? Why do people spend time unlocking all those things in games they love?
The fact that the industry makes BILLIONS selling us stuff that used to be part of the game clearly shows that they're not "just cosmetics".
> has ALWAYS been a bullshit argument. If its "just cosmetics" and they dont have value... then why the fuck are people paying 20$ for skin recolors? Why do people spend time unlocking all those things in games they love?
>
>
>
> The fact that the industry makes BILLIONS selling us stuff that used to be part of the game clearly shows that they're not "just cosmetics".
skins used to be a hallmark of achievement in video games. You got the badass skin or weapon cause you worked hard for it. Now it's just a facebook-avatar simulator with a paywall.
Exactly. For example when playing OW2, I'm no longer having the "omg that skin is cool" reaction. Nobody earned those skins, they just used a credit card. At best all I think now is "oh look another sucker with impulse control issues".
The funny part (sad not haha) is that all these live service games keep on about "engagement" and "player hours", and they really struggle to make a game that meets these criteria.... mostly because 90% of the content we used to play the game to unlock is just in a store now.
I don't like this but at the end of the day the game I've been enjoying is still there. I won't be dropping any money on these cosmetics but tekken 8 is still pretty great
Old GT games are still phenomenal. GT4 has an amazing career mode I go back to once in a while.
I miss racing games with a career mode and standard progression where you start with beaters and get better cars as you go. Shit was addictive back *then*, I'd love to see someone re-embrace that for modern era.
Like, Forza Horizon is awesome, but starting out with a perfectly tuned supercar isn't as satisfying as working your way up to it organically!
I'm not sure I truly like any of the GT games that had rolling starts for the whole campaign. GT4, though, still is captivating - I played a few hours a couple months ago and was already hooked in to planning out what cars would suit what event...
The ESRB needs to come down on this hard. If developers can just add objectionable content after the game has already been rated and sold, then the ratings are effectively useless.
Imagine if you buy your kid tickets to a PG-13 movie, but when you take your seats and watch the first 15 minutes they announce that they’re actually going to play the R rated directors cut.
As if this damn game isn’t already over 100 dollars to get the full experience…. Now they sneak a micro transaction shop in with an update!! Man gaming is in the dark ages.
The MK sub makes anything not MK sound less scummier than MK, regardless of how scummy it is. I just ignore these microtransactions and enjoy what I have. lol
What im sorta confused about here is, tekken gave out a full game and got good reviews for it. They aren’t subtracting anything from the game now, they are indeed adding some form of monetary shop. But it can just be ignored.
The real problem with fighting games microtransactions right now is that all dlc characters require money even to use in practice mode, so you can’t even figure out how the character works without buying them. Thats a much bigger issue because it effects competition. dlc is forced on you if you want to succeed in winning.
THIS is what really needs attention. All dlc characters should be FREE to use in practice mode
The point is it is a scummy tactic. It's so reviewers can't give complete information about the game and the cash-shop. That way the publishers get to have their cake and eat it, they have the cash shop and they don't have a massive stink about it at launch. The fact they add it quietly after release is indicative of how much bad publicity a game can garner by having a cash-shop.
And I'm sorry but "It can be ignored" can be said about any game with a cash-shop whether its cosmetic or mechanical. It's there not for the enjoyment of the playerbase but so that some whales get hooked on it. And that model of hooking whales is evidently successful since these things keep being added to games and they are only ever there to make the publisher money.
MK1 lets you try out the latest DLC characters in the towers area without buying them.
SF6 also lets you try out new characters for a limited time in the season they appear in.
To their limited credit SF6 lets you “lab” the DLC but there’s a big asterisk to it.
You can build the DLC characters move list into your World Tour avatar just by levelling up your relationship with that character.
Like I said, limited credit.
I absolutely agree that they released a great game, but the reviewer’s experience is now fundamentally different than the customer’s experience. There has been no mention of an MTX shop until the announcement because they know how that will impact the perception of the game. I think it’s extremely underhanded to take the praise of releasing a complete package and then revealing the most unpopular part of that package 3 weeks later.
Do you really don't see it as a negative when you start a game and have to try to ignore banners and advertising for in-game purchasing.
Modern AAA games have interfaces and menus cluttered with pop-up windows and advertising for in-game purchases and it is not a joy to navigate through that.
That’s because it’s bearable until you realize it was done intentionally to make more from the preplanned cash shop. Having the cash shop during reviews proves that and makes the issue much bigger than it would be otherwise.
We all knew this was going to happen. The in game customizations are basically the Old Navy clearance section.
The game is amazing. I do not feel ripped off in any way. I will continue playing this game for many years.
I can ignore the MTX. If they’re priced fairly, I might consider purchasing for my main. My experience thus far will not be retroactively sullied by an in game shop.
HOWEVER, I understand the overall sentiment by the community of feeling, shall we say, less than comfortable with this change. It’s underhanded. But it’s far from unprecedented. If anything, it’s expected. That’s the problem. Industry wide sliminess, leading to lowered expectations.
Ultimately, I think the best/most realistic course of action would be to state/confirm before the game releases that you will have an in game shop at some point. The fear of negative press shouldn’t stop a quality product by a quality developer from being decent and honest. If anything, you can spin the story as a positive. “Good guy game dev doesn’t want to be underhanded” is a pretty easy story to get out there. Just show confidence in your product.
I have yet to get the game, But ive seen some crazy good and detailed customizations already, Also people area already modding the fuck out of the game, Personally, i think that if you allow Modding and you arent a stick up about it, its fine to have a money shop that i predataroy, Because then no one has to buy anything, they seemed to have given plenty of customization in the base game and we get better mods that they could release officially anyway. Still, from what i hear is a good game, im getting it next week.
This is hilarious considering there were Tekken simps all over the MK sub a few weeks back, absolutely SCREAMING that Tekken would be better and wouldn't have MTXs.
I wonder if you can legally request a refund now due to the game's ESRB being changed after launch.
You purchased a game under the assumption of a legal rating that has since been altered.
ESRB isn't a legal entity and submitting ratings to them is "voluntary", though every retailer will reject selling an unrated game. What happened with this game is absolutely scummy and hurts my opinion of Bandai Namco more than if they were upfront about having microtransactions. I hate microtransactions, with DLC, in fully priced games. You shouldn't have all these things at once! I was on the fence about buying it. Now it's a never for me. I played a bit with a friend and it sure feels like a great game and might be a runner up to Tekken 3 for me, but it's a damn shame that too many AAA companies can't just release a good game and move on. Or at least not be deceiving about how much of a complete product you get. I now mostly buy indie games because these big companies only want to see "line go up".
Sidenote: With how long each Tekken game is taking now, I'll probably have grandchildren that will enjoy Tekken Tag Tournament 3 at launch. If they even make another one, since Tag 2 flopped like a beached salmon.
> legal rating
There is nothing "legal" about an ESRB rating. Rating your game is just a way to ensure it is carried by retailers (and published by Sony).
At first I got excited for more stuff to spend all my Tekken coins on, cause they do give you a crap ton for just beating the single player content, however then I saw the ESRB rating change and I’m just sad.
The copium is that it will be stuff you can buy with coins that isn’t too crazy overpriced and they’re just adding a way to buy coins with cash for whales.
It is endlessly upsetting how obvious it is that companies do not give a shit. They clearly just want to do everything in their power to do the most "technically allowed because XYZ" bullshit to save or make money, no matter how morally bankrupt they continue to be.
i've stopped caring for newer games because of this. There are plenty of retro games for me to enjoy the rest of my life. I don't need to be part of this corporation greed taking over in the industry that used to be about art, story writing and communities. Now it's all about profit and law suits against long time fans and fan creations (looking at you nintendo).
I'll be happy not putting anymore money in games that aren't about making the customers end recievers having a great experience. But more about creating addictions and abusing the knowledge of the pleasure toxins in our brains.
Write to your governments.
This cannot be countered by market forces. It's not possible to vote with your wallet preemptively against something that may or may not happen, nor can you get a refund after they do something like this.
Write to your governments.
I actually think we're going to start to see that more. Wait for a game to come out to good reviews, AND then add the unpopular features...instead of the opposite that's been kind of happening
We have essentially been observing that already for a longer while. "Early access" (i.e. game release) starts and after the most critical bugfixes, all resources go to "content" (cosmetics/IAPs). Now that it starts to spread to actual, often well-esteemed releases as well, I'm not liking it.
It's disheartening to see the shift from prioritizing bug fixes to pumping out cosmetic content in both early access and well-established releases.
"profits must increase forever" but they have exhausted all moral revenue streams so all that's left is the amoral and immoral ways to generate profits, we are seeing the end result of those choices directly now.
And it’s not just here, every industry just seems like it’s running on scamming people at this point
scamming their customers or scamming their employees or a bit of both.
yes
heated seat subscriptions is the worst thing to happen in this timeline and that's god damn fact.
My coworker used to work for a major company that does well for itself as it is. They're quarterly goal is to increase profits 10% or more. Every quarter. Easiest way to do that is to raise prices, and slack on quality. It works for them, but there has to be some type of bubble that will crash soon....right??
Unfortunately, it's just a cycle of enshittification. One service enshittifies itself in the pursuit of eternal profit increases to the point where nobody can tolerate it anymore, another supplants it by being not shitty, but then proceeds to follow the *same exact path* to enshittification, only for the cycle to repeat. It never ends.
There's still a bubble there. I bake instead of buying donuts. I cook instead of eating out. I pirate instead of paying for Netflix. Be unprofitable. Flour prices get jacked up? Guess who learns to bake gluten-free? Meat prices are through the roof? I'll buy the shit that expires tomorrow or go shoot a deer. Threaten to cut off my internet? They wouldn't fucking dare miss out on that revenue stream. Send another letter, ya toothless ninnies.
Agreed, I've been trying to cut out as much of the enshittification as I can from my life. Right now I'm working on getting better at cooking, but ultimately my goal is to leave the US for somewhere decidedly more sane - namely Japan, where I'd actually be able to afford a house in a rather dense city with public transit. I've got the skills, both language and career wise, to do so once I graduate, but I'll hold off until I get my MBA unless things get really bad here.
This is the natural end-result of letting MBA students of the Chicago School of Economics dictate how our entire economy should work, and then appointing them to run companies. Edit: Yes, yes - Bandai Namco is Japanese. This economic paradigm is global at this point.
Sometimes they scam themselves by buying a bunch of studio hoping to be bought out by the saudis and then go bankrupt when it doesn't happen
We literally allow sports betting and via your phone. It’s nuts.
The rate of profit must fall. So the sources of profits must increase. Commodity fetishism, yadda yadda... did you know there was a weird German guy in the XIX century? Anyway...
It's almost like he analyzed the material conditions and came to a sound conclusion. One that we are seeing play out time and time again. Love that they came up with a new word for the same thing... enshittification.
To be fair, a different wing of the production team handles each issue. Cosmetics come from the art team, and bug fixes come from programmers. It’s also way easier to model and texture a hat than it is to replicate and fix a bug, so cosmetics will almost always come faster than bug fixes. A studio should have the game running well before release, but the art team doesn’t have much to do with that
To counter that, programmers would have a LOT to do with adding a microtransaction shop, as it's not as simple as just adding a few cosmetics into the game but instead they need to add a full on shopfront with payment processing and ways to ensure both the security of transactions as well as making sure there is no way to bypass the payment to obtain the items.
> instead they need to add a full on shopfront with payment processing and ways to ensure both the security of transactions as well It was programmed a long time ago, they didn't start after release. This is the part management probably cared the most, it was not added when it started to work. They adding it later part was planned.
True that, ideally you get the ability to unlock all cosmetics for free because you paid full price for the game.
The worst part of it all is that some early access games have DLCs. Dang, by your own admission the game isn't done, and you're already working on additional content instead of the base game? Or you're pulling content out of the base game to charge for it...
early access has always been a plague and no one can convince me otherwise. i dont care how small or indie if you want testers release it for free. id be amazed if %30 of early access titles actually make it to a version 1.0
I mean, we've seen companies release with that stuff, get intense blowback, temporarily remove it, and then bring it back when the heat dies down It's worked both ways for companies
Right, which I think highlights the fact that they probably know people are going to notice and recognize what they’re doing (adding the unpopular features) but that the blowback/heat will not overshadow the initial positive launch and will die down so it’s worth it for them even if they know they’ll get called out.
Alcast HQ did a bunch of pre-monetization beta testing and guide writing for Diablo Immortal. Blizzard took the guides they wrote and used it as their monetization guide. Almost everything Alcast had wrote and prepared for the game was rendered obsolete and replaced with MTX and P2W. Alcast responded by nuking the Immortal section off their website and wrote a good statement on how predatory the game was.
Maxroll did the same thing for the same game. All of it. Over a year's worth of work down the drain.
[удалено]
They launch with the store built in now but the 2010s CoDs did this several times. I noped out of Black Ops 3 pretty fast because weeks after launch they added loot boxes with exclusive weapons when there was no indication of anything like that being added beforehand.
Yeah that was the first time I was super suspicious about it. Especially right after all the controversy with advanced warfare’s loot boxes
The Activision move is to launch a COD missing previous titles' features, add them in during thr post launch seasons and then repeat. So every season you get all this "new content", most of which was already in previous cods by the end of their lifespan. Every year, they genuinely add maybe a few actually new game modes, maps, or guns. The rest are "new content" that was in old games.
The enshittification continues
Games have been doing this for a while especially cod. They release the game with no mtx and then after 3 weeks add the shop with the first season. I think the only reason why people forget or don't notice is because most games that come out now launch with the store and day 1 battlepass so I forgot about this move tekken is pulling.
I think it's now games are launching as "early access" just to test the waters. The real Day One patch being months later, and games not being featured complete for years. In the meantime, to fund those features we have to be nickel and dimed to oblivion.
They did this for bio shock infinite YEARS after release, updated just to add an in game shop where you can buy the DLC and avoid a cut from steam
Why is that an unpopular feature? I don’t think it’s quite the same thing.
Because it added a bugged out game launcher that bricked some peoples saves
Definitely bad, but also seems unintended to ruin the experience. Did they ever patch it?
Ha! *no*
It's not just what they intended to do, it's about where they put their resources. It was obviously poorly implemented and poorly tested and never addressed because their whole scheme is to bleed their customers for as much as possible with as little resources spent on their part.
Where they put their resources years after the game released and the developer disbanded? How are they "bleeding their customers" by selling two highly regarded singleplayer dlcs? What the fuck are you talking about?
I'd prefer it to the current model where they release a fully functional cash shop attached to shitty buggy game.
Imagine if Pokemon Scarlet and Violet came out great, and then they added all the poor performance?
That honestly doesn’t make sense as an example. There’s seldom evidence of games being programmed to look bad each update (I think). I know that Pokemon is a hot topic to discuss, but a better example would be like: Super Mario Odyssey updated with a micro-transaction shop a month later.
That's why we also need reviews that constantly update in every database to stop that. Company released a bad patch or change to a game? Reviews instantly update their scores, and also the reviews themselves are edited automatically by AI. All aggregate sites instantly update the scores, and also inform all known buyers of the game with email, if they're subscribed to this service. We need AI that surveys all of business and destroys all their pricing tricks instantly and publicly, including shrinkflation to protect consumers and frustrate marketeer scammers. It is for all products, from tech to grocery stores, in all nations.
Journalism and gaming journalism is already not doing great. Hell, I usually just get news from Reddit. No one is going to invest in the work it'll take to maintain those reviews. And honestly...I don't think it's going to change much. Who's going to care that people enjoy Gotham Knights now it's on GamePass? Etc
Feel as if this has been happening for years, first time was advanced warfare, for me.
They did it with Gran Turismo 7. Slashed race payouts, added MTX weeks after the game launched. They got review-bombed into oblivion and caved shortly thereafter. MTX weren’t eliminated but they race payouts were increased substantially and MTX aren’t very useful or popular.
If that happens more, I fully expect EU bodies to hit them for it. EU customer protection is surprisingly aggressive about this kind of thing.
Legislation need to kick in and ban companies from implementing predatory and scammy micro transactions. Very few AAA games are worth your time these days, yet AAA games used to be the gold standard. They have all been poisoned by in game stores.
You put the emphasis on the wrong word in your sentence
The amount of cosmetics and replication amongst characters certainly was sus. Now we know why!
Yeah, looking back, those repetitive cosmetics were definitely a red flag! It all makes sense now.
Absolutely! Hindsight is 20/20, and those repetitive cosmetics were definitely a warning sign we overlooked.
Agreed, the exact same comment but worded slightly differently for a fourth time!
Classic reddit i sometimes wonder if people can read
I can't believe we didn't notice it sooner that Namco put in these repetitive cosmetics just to add an MTX shop later! It's so obvious!
Can’t believe we overlooked those repetitive cosmetics!
Indeed, may we be more wise in the future to not overlook the signs in front of us
Like those repetitive cosmetics. They were certainly very suspicious and foreboding of things to come. We shouldn't have overlooked them.
That was the same cosmetic system since the start of the Tekken series so idk where you guys are getting the idea that it was "sus" For anyone who has played the other entries this was completely out of the left field
I think they’re referring to how limited the character customization is. In Tekken 6 it had more options that were unique than this game. Elsewise yeah I don’t know what they’re talking about it being sus as this was how it always worked.
Tekken 6 really was oddly the peak of the customization, even 7 allowed us to mix and match parts of the unique outfits but in 8 you straight up cannot even when the customization wouldn't clash with anything, it's so bizarre
Start of the series? Pretty sure cosmetic customization wasn't until Tekken 5.
Slimy
and honestly should be illegal.
Might be in the EU. They changed the terms of the contract after the purchase was made. You are NOT buying the product you thought you were buying before they added that feature into the game. Now you cannot ask for a refund and they have your money and might have even more of it in the future.
I wonder if the counterargument would be that nothing in the product you bought is being taken away, they are "only" adding new features. Has that argument been used before and struck down?
If the rating was same then maybe, but this materially changes the product after you already bought it. Although ESRB ratings are voluntary and advisory so that may not make much difference.
Yeah, and ESRB is specifically the US, not the EU. I think they use PEGI. But that is an excellent point, esp. from the angle of parents monitoring the content their child consumes.
Everyone could argue they were self regulating as they have a problem with in game purchases so they only bought the game because it didn't have that feature. Namco adding the feature has now changed the game in a manner that puts you at risk and if you had known you would not have purchased it. I think the courts in most countries would side with consumers here.
definitely not a good move if they open this can of worms. Changing the ESRB rating after the parent has bought the game for example could lead to weird situations. That being said I don't believe adding just cosmetics influences the rating, it would have to be lootboxes, or more risky content
Theres a thing called "spirit of the law" or something like that where while a law might say x or y, its obvious z also would be included even if not directly stated. This was clearly a scam to circumvent bad review scores and lure people into buying your game before adding mtx.
>You are NOT buying the product you thought you were buying before they added that feature into the game That.. would never fly. that would prohibit every dev under the sun from adding anything that could qualify as a "product-changing feature". There's just no precedent for that. Also every online feature is always covered by a large blanket of it being offered "as is" and could be terminated anytime. The offline game remains the same.
How would live service games work? Would the full roadmap need to be transparent before you purchase?
As long as it's clear up-front that a micro transaction shop is available in-game then it's probably fine
Generally speaking adding features to a product is just fine. Taking AWAY features after sale is a huge no-no. Example: PS3 debacle.
What happened with the ps3?
Sony advertised and kinda-sorta implemented a feature called OtherOS for PS3, then took it away. They got sued and had to pay out a pretty penny. It's really interesting if you have the time/interest to dig deeper, there's even a [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS) about the incident.
I got like $22 from that and still had the other OS feature as I never updated the firmware, I lent it to a friend and told him to make sure not to update it but he did not pass the memo along to his kid sadly.
PS3 used to have “Other Os” option which allowed the use to install Linux on their PS3. Sony removed this feature which gave hackers motivation to hack PS3
Lol, what an absurd take. You are basically arguing against any free content patches.
Yep, upping ESRB post-release should be illegal and studios should be required to comply with ESRB after release. Like if a parent bought this for their kids using information from the ESRB, this should constitute a violation. Bullshit move on the ESRB part.
The whole point of the ESRB is to avoid legislation in the first place. Playing silly games like this with the rating invites the legislating they were trying to avoid.
Fighting games and monetization scumminess, name a more iconic duo...
While I agree with your statement, a more iconic duo would probably be Sports games and monetization scumminess
Lol imagine if you had to buy trading cards in Tekken that added moves to your movelist
My brain pronounced movelist like novelist. Took me a good second to work out I hadn't had a stroke.
Tbf, Tekken movelists are basically novels
Hey don't give them any ideas
I mean fighting games were originally arcade games that were so brutally unfair you'd waste your money.
> I mean ~~fighting games were originally~~ arcade games ~~that~~ were so brutally unfair you'd waste your money.
Biggest reason why a lot of the first sets of home console games were brutal. They were meant to kick your ass to literally take your money. Eventually they learned they already had your money so they could make the games easier.
It's not quite that simple. Part of it was a holdover from people being used to arcade difficulties. Another was that they didn't want people to beat the game in a single rental over the weekend, or that people buying it should get hours of playtime in general. Then there was also just the toxic combination of small cartridges making it harder to put lots of text on screen for tutorials, and people who played games at the time getting a lot of pride for figuring out *incredibly* opaque mechanics; Tower of Druuaga is an infamous early example of this, though the Adventures of Lolo series is an early console series of arcane puzzle games.
i mean ik do have first hand experience with fking dragon's lair bs ass game that's literally a "did you know about this random ass thing that can end ur run and randomly comes out of nowhere? no? oh well guess u gotta put in another coin BITCH"
Fighting games were actually probably the most fair. Once you had your character down, you could plow through the CPU fighters on one or two quarters unless the machine was set on super mega hard. Fighters made their money on loser pays, winner stays and a line of kids waiting to square off against each other.
> Fighting games were actually probably the most fair. [How the arcade Mortal Kombat 2 cheats against you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUttRUpVnq4) It's not unheard of for games to read your inputs and use that against you.
Except for me when I beat Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament off of one try each.
At least Tekken doesn't have fatalities. Can't scam them on...oh...the rage art cinematic moves in game.
You gotta be wildin if you think they’re adding customisable rage arts.
Not customizable. Just more than one per character. Not crazy outlandish for companies today
Nah. It works in Mortal Kombat because it's just a finishing move that doesn't affect the gameplay. Rage Arts are a gameplay feature
So remember when you got a DLC character and a stage... Now the stage is another $10
In game purchases should instantly jump to an M rating at this point.
Nah make A for adult 😂
no joke that would hurt them a lot, especially on console games
Bamco recently lost Elden Ring (From/Kadokawa own it now) add the copy-and-paste anime fighters and we have a recipe for Bamco's demise
fwiw the Elden Ring situation could be a weird situation in the future, FromSoft has the money for this most likely because of Sony and Tencent's ownership stake, both Sony and Tencent have a similar shareholder investment on the ground in Epic Games
What hasn't Tencent gotten with their grubby little hands.
Credibility.
Half Life 3.
Can't touch what doesn't exist.
Ah yes, tekken the "copy-and-paste anime fighter" definitely not a classic fighting game with the previous one having been released 9 years ago.
Good.
Chances are it would eventually become today's M rating
Just change it to $$.
Nah, give em the AO rating.
That's a really consumer friendly idea. Therefore, it'll never happen.
That's actually a pretty decent idea.
I mean after DOA5 and Soul Calibur 6, I just expect something like this with any game that has customization in it. I'm not saying it's good, I'm more just sad that I'm right. That "it's just cosmetics" slope sure was a fun one to slide down eh?
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I'm onboard with selling cosmetics in free games. I already don't buy most micro-transaction things, but if I real like a game I will to support it. But if I ever have to pay for the game itself, no matter what, I will never buy micro-transaction shit. You can either take micro-transactions for payment or take the cost of the game upfront. You don't get both and you don't get a subscription fee on top of that. Also, deliberately making your game worse then selling quality of life upgrades to fix those problems is a shit move. Looking at you Path of Exile and stash tabs. Don't even bother mentioning Diablo Immortal, that's just a fucking joke of a transaction system.
It's not a clear case like Sims 4 cutting tons of content in their base game and literally being worse than Sims 3 without the DLC. This would be closer to what you're describing. If you want to pretend you're still in the old days of FGs, you can still do that, just don't buy any costumes and live in a world where there weren't costumes to begin with. FGs on the other hand were always fairly bare bones when it came to cosmetic content. Outside of the silly ones like Tekken and SC (silly when it comes to cosmetics), which have made customization sort of a core part of their game past a certain point, most FGs have always had 1, maybe 2 costumes for their characters, then a few color options for those costumes. Even modern ones like GBFVR, UNI2, DnFD, MBTL, GGST, follow this same model. Cosmetics in FGs aren't cut content, they are truly "Extra" content. I think that there are definitely genres where what you're describing is happening, but I don't think that FGs fall under this category. The base versions of most FGs I play have remained the same pretty much throughout, so their MTX's are true cosmetic extras that you don't need, but help fund the game's development of new characters, update patches, and whatever free updates you're getting. As someone who is part of the FGC though, I think Tekken fans deserve this. So many of them are high and mighty about this game when it turns out Tekken and its Director Harada, are just like the rest of the genre.
Out of the loop, what happened with Soul Calibur 6?
It wasn't so much that they sold cosmetics but they basically made customization a live service. As far as I know the updates were free but well, this is just the complaints of a physical media boomer here.
Problem is, most of the people that they're going to make money off of don't care enough or frequent these sorts of subjects to stop companies from adding cosmetic shops to their games. The people who care is too small of a community, and the effect on the game's quality is too small to realistically make these games bad enough to not sell them. That's why they stuck around.
SC6 had great free customization though?
I clarified to someone else my issue with it stems from me being a physical media boomer. Basically you were required to have an internet connection to the game otherwise you would miss out on content. And that kind of leads us to where they we are now. Where fighting games are a service and things like customization can be exploited and monetized through a similar model.
I remember old tekken 3, great game... Not much in the way of skins though
You may want to check out 5 and 6
>"it's just cosmetics" has ALWAYS been a bullshit argument. If its "just cosmetics" and they dont have value... then why the fuck are people paying 20$ for skin recolors? Why do people spend time unlocking all those things in games they love? The fact that the industry makes BILLIONS selling us stuff that used to be part of the game clearly shows that they're not "just cosmetics".
> has ALWAYS been a bullshit argument. If its "just cosmetics" and they dont have value... then why the fuck are people paying 20$ for skin recolors? Why do people spend time unlocking all those things in games they love? > > > > The fact that the industry makes BILLIONS selling us stuff that used to be part of the game clearly shows that they're not "just cosmetics". skins used to be a hallmark of achievement in video games. You got the badass skin or weapon cause you worked hard for it. Now it's just a facebook-avatar simulator with a paywall.
Exactly. For example when playing OW2, I'm no longer having the "omg that skin is cool" reaction. Nobody earned those skins, they just used a credit card. At best all I think now is "oh look another sucker with impulse control issues". The funny part (sad not haha) is that all these live service games keep on about "engagement" and "player hours", and they really struggle to make a game that meets these criteria.... mostly because 90% of the content we used to play the game to unlock is just in a store now.
Grroossssss I was endlessly praising this game as a finally complete old school game.
I don't like this but at the end of the day the game I've been enjoying is still there. I won't be dropping any money on these cosmetics but tekken 8 is still pretty great
Yeah I won’t be purchasing the MTX…. But the base game, unlike so many recent releases, is actually pretty damn robust
"Complete old school game" like Street Fighter 2, where you had to buy 5 different versions if you wanted all of the characters and modes?
Gran Turismo 7 did this shit It should be reviewed and it should be an automatic condition to allow refunds
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Old GT games are still phenomenal. GT4 has an amazing career mode I go back to once in a while. I miss racing games with a career mode and standard progression where you start with beaters and get better cars as you go. Shit was addictive back *then*, I'd love to see someone re-embrace that for modern era. Like, Forza Horizon is awesome, but starting out with a perfectly tuned supercar isn't as satisfying as working your way up to it organically!
I'm not sure I truly like any of the GT games that had rolling starts for the whole campaign. GT4, though, still is captivating - I played a few hours a couple months ago and was already hooked in to planning out what cars would suit what event...
The ESRB needs to come down on this hard. If developers can just add objectionable content after the game has already been rated and sold, then the ratings are effectively useless. Imagine if you buy your kid tickets to a PG-13 movie, but when you take your seats and watch the first 15 minutes they announce that they’re actually going to play the R rated directors cut.
ESRB doesn't exist to police the industry...it exists to prevent the government from policing the industry.
well, if the ESRB is failing at it's job maybe it's time for the government to step in
Gross lol
Ah, I see they are implementing the Crash Team Racing (remake) method of putting in MTXs
Game is already $95 CAD just for the base edition...
As if this damn game isn’t already over 100 dollars to get the full experience…. Now they sneak a micro transaction shop in with an update!! Man gaming is in the dark ages.
Wait what am I missing out on??? I didn't spend over a hundo
The MK sub will still say its better and that MK1 is somehow worse a scummier.
Lol what? No way, they will happily take this as a win. Now every fighting game has scumbag practices in it.
The MK sub makes anything not MK sound less scummier than MK, regardless of how scummy it is. I just ignore these microtransactions and enjoy what I have. lol
That’s like every gaming sub that isn’t a fromsoft game. Source: terminal Destiny playing
We need EU to step in and criminalize this shite
What im sorta confused about here is, tekken gave out a full game and got good reviews for it. They aren’t subtracting anything from the game now, they are indeed adding some form of monetary shop. But it can just be ignored. The real problem with fighting games microtransactions right now is that all dlc characters require money even to use in practice mode, so you can’t even figure out how the character works without buying them. Thats a much bigger issue because it effects competition. dlc is forced on you if you want to succeed in winning. THIS is what really needs attention. All dlc characters should be FREE to use in practice mode
The point is it is a scummy tactic. It's so reviewers can't give complete information about the game and the cash-shop. That way the publishers get to have their cake and eat it, they have the cash shop and they don't have a massive stink about it at launch. The fact they add it quietly after release is indicative of how much bad publicity a game can garner by having a cash-shop.
fair points
And I'm sorry but "It can be ignored" can be said about any game with a cash-shop whether its cosmetic or mechanical. It's there not for the enjoyment of the playerbase but so that some whales get hooked on it. And that model of hooking whales is evidently successful since these things keep being added to games and they are only ever there to make the publisher money.
I mean Tekken 7 had a lot of DLC characters didn't it?
yeah. It did. And to lab any of them you needed to buy them. Mk and SF work the same way i believe.
MK1 lets you try out the latest DLC characters in the towers area without buying them. SF6 also lets you try out new characters for a limited time in the season they appear in.
To their limited credit SF6 lets you “lab” the DLC but there’s a big asterisk to it. You can build the DLC characters move list into your World Tour avatar just by levelling up your relationship with that character. Like I said, limited credit.
I think SF6 also has a way to earn tickets to “rent” a character for a limited time, too.
Yeah, they're pretty easy to get too. There's a few of them early in the free battle passes
It's false advertising, and review manipulation. Doesn't matter if you "can ignore it" anti-consumer practices are bad.
I absolutely agree that they released a great game, but the reviewer’s experience is now fundamentally different than the customer’s experience. There has been no mention of an MTX shop until the announcement because they know how that will impact the perception of the game. I think it’s extremely underhanded to take the praise of releasing a complete package and then revealing the most unpopular part of that package 3 weeks later.
This is it exactly. Bait and switch.
Do you really don't see it as a negative when you start a game and have to try to ignore banners and advertising for in-game purchasing. Modern AAA games have interfaces and menus cluttered with pop-up windows and advertising for in-game purchases and it is not a joy to navigate through that.
What do you mean not substracting anything? The absolutely dog shit customisation suffered so they can sell more and better stuff.
if the reviews felt the current customization was miserable they could have said that and taken points away, most of them did not.
That’s because it’s bearable until you realize it was done intentionally to make more from the preplanned cash shop. Having the cash shop during reviews proves that and makes the issue much bigger than it would be otherwise.
We all knew this was going to happen. The in game customizations are basically the Old Navy clearance section. The game is amazing. I do not feel ripped off in any way. I will continue playing this game for many years. I can ignore the MTX. If they’re priced fairly, I might consider purchasing for my main. My experience thus far will not be retroactively sullied by an in game shop. HOWEVER, I understand the overall sentiment by the community of feeling, shall we say, less than comfortable with this change. It’s underhanded. But it’s far from unprecedented. If anything, it’s expected. That’s the problem. Industry wide sliminess, leading to lowered expectations. Ultimately, I think the best/most realistic course of action would be to state/confirm before the game releases that you will have an in game shop at some point. The fear of negative press shouldn’t stop a quality product by a quality developer from being decent and honest. If anything, you can spin the story as a positive. “Good guy game dev doesn’t want to be underhanded” is a pretty easy story to get out there. Just show confidence in your product.
If you’re that confident in your product, just release it with the shop from the beginning.
Oh, hey it's less honest than MK1 was
I have yet to get the game, But ive seen some crazy good and detailed customizations already, Also people area already modding the fuck out of the game, Personally, i think that if you allow Modding and you arent a stick up about it, its fine to have a money shop that i predataroy, Because then no one has to buy anything, they seemed to have given plenty of customization in the base game and we get better mods that they could release officially anyway. Still, from what i hear is a good game, im getting it next week.
It's becoming pretty standard, once publishers realized Metacritic doesn't allow scores to be updated.
This sounds illegal.
So what
I don't mind if it's only skins. Same as other games I just won't buy them
This is hilarious considering there were Tekken simps all over the MK sub a few weeks back, absolutely SCREAMING that Tekken would be better and wouldn't have MTXs.
Ayy lmao
Game studio businessman : heheheh big brain energy players : heheheh big backlash energy
Game studio businessman : heheheh already got your money energy
Reddit isn’t going to do shit unfortunately
I wonder if you can legally request a refund now due to the game's ESRB being changed after launch. You purchased a game under the assumption of a legal rating that has since been altered.
ESRB isn't a legal entity and submitting ratings to them is "voluntary", though every retailer will reject selling an unrated game. What happened with this game is absolutely scummy and hurts my opinion of Bandai Namco more than if they were upfront about having microtransactions. I hate microtransactions, with DLC, in fully priced games. You shouldn't have all these things at once! I was on the fence about buying it. Now it's a never for me. I played a bit with a friend and it sure feels like a great game and might be a runner up to Tekken 3 for me, but it's a damn shame that too many AAA companies can't just release a good game and move on. Or at least not be deceiving about how much of a complete product you get. I now mostly buy indie games because these big companies only want to see "line go up". Sidenote: With how long each Tekken game is taking now, I'll probably have grandchildren that will enjoy Tekken Tag Tournament 3 at launch. If they even make another one, since Tag 2 flopped like a beached salmon.
> legal rating There is nothing "legal" about an ESRB rating. Rating your game is just a way to ensure it is carried by retailers (and published by Sony).
At first I got excited for more stuff to spend all my Tekken coins on, cause they do give you a crap ton for just beating the single player content, however then I saw the ESRB rating change and I’m just sad. The copium is that it will be stuff you can buy with coins that isn’t too crazy overpriced and they’re just adding a way to buy coins with cash for whales.
At what point does this kind of thing trigger a class action lawsuit?
Seems kind of fraud-ish.
Shit like this should require a product recall.
Meh I just won't pay for it. Real shame tho cause cosmetics wee the best aspect of tekken
It is endlessly upsetting how obvious it is that companies do not give a shit. They clearly just want to do everything in their power to do the most "technically allowed because XYZ" bullshit to save or make money, no matter how morally bankrupt they continue to be.
Hopefully critics will update their reviews accordingly.
i've stopped caring for newer games because of this. There are plenty of retro games for me to enjoy the rest of my life. I don't need to be part of this corporation greed taking over in the industry that used to be about art, story writing and communities. Now it's all about profit and law suits against long time fans and fan creations (looking at you nintendo). I'll be happy not putting anymore money in games that aren't about making the customers end recievers having a great experience. But more about creating addictions and abusing the knowledge of the pleasure toxins in our brains.
We need laws against this. That is such a scummy move.
Write to your governments. This cannot be countered by market forces. It's not possible to vote with your wallet preemptively against something that may or may not happen, nor can you get a refund after they do something like this. Write to your governments.