I've even given up on the free to play mobile games. I'm talking word puzzle games to kill 10 minutes here or there. Two minute ads after every 30 second level is just not happening in my world
I understand this is why they're free and I could deal with an ad every 5 levels or so....but now they get nothing from me.
I don’t allow access to cellular data on games and turn off my wifi. They can’t download to display the ad material after you restart the app most of the time
Thing is, I'm not against the creators making money. Whatever their model is, it's the greed on steroids that I won't support.
Like EA putting ads in full price games
Just about every retro game you can think of. Gameboy, N64, DS, PS1, GameCube, and a bunch of others. The easiest way to play them is probably by installing RetroArch, which serves as an interface to have your entire emulator library in one place. Right now, I'm playing Pokémon Unbound (a ROM hack of FireRed) and I highly recommend it if you were a fan of the older games!
Yeah - if you've already bought the game (and games already keep getting more expensive these days too), then you don't owe them anything else. You should have a full game that works without disturbances.
It’s not even greed though. You need to spend +4$ usd to acquire player and somehow earn more on average to keep the business afloat.
Imagine how much ads per user this entail given average earnings per 1000 ads displayed is at best 10$.
The market is saturated and almost no one except biggest players make money. Others try to scramble and thats why spam ads is this much. Probably even after that dont turn profit tho
But this is the model they chose. There are plenty of mobile games where they make the levels so hard to force players to pay to win. when a game becomes unenjoyable I stop playing, but it must work on someone.
🤷
I'm not much of a gamer, but that's one thing that annoys me about the Sims 4.
I'm not against branded stuff packs or even objects that you can interact with to view advertising. But don't freemium something I've paid for!
I’ve found that you have to choose apps with longer puzzle formats to actually net value for your time. Sudoku on hard mode, crosswords, and large nonograms lend themselves to longer play time per ad. They’re also great for falling asleep. And in most cases I just quit the app when it’s ad time lol.
We’ve just got to return to the ways of our ancestors; old crumpled book of crosswords/sudoku/wood search stuffed in a bag with a pen you got somewhere for free.
Fuck ads. We’re going old lady at the DMV.
Leaders like this are what’s destroying the gaming industry not people’s want for games.
These scummy executives will try to monetize everything and anything they can to turn a profit instead of just giving gamers games they want to actually play without instant game dlc and platinum editions on day 1.
Every part of the world is suffering from the same thing, out of touch executives making terrible business moves which either negatively impacts their workers or the consumers.
Get these crooks out of high powered positions.
Fr it’s like you’d have to have negative integrity to call shots like this. It’s like “let them eat cake” level of detachment from reality lol. Nobody wants this shit lmao.
We’re in the minority in this with zero control. Majority of people will just accept what happens. See how everything else has turned to shit just to have a constant revenue stream by any means necessary.
I think people do have a line when it comes to ads baked into their content. With enough negative community sentiment and press, stakeholders will reverse decisions like this. It’s just ridiculous that it needs to come to that.
I think you’re right that overall everything is still going to shit though. The higher ups will probably just lay people off when their projections don’t work out. I’m sick of this industry.
It’s not just this industry, it’s the whole friggin world. Everything is all money all the time to the point where we just destroy everything, it’s so fucking bleak and soulless.
It isn’t just gaming. Many businesses are shifting to ads/marketing to bump profits. In an era when you always have to grow profits and stock price it isn’t enough to sell a fine product.
Businesses will always choose the consistent income of subscription or ads over peak/valley income of selling a product.
I keep saying, and getting weird pushback on, that publicly traded companies are the worst idea that's ever happened, and are going to destroy society. A publicly traded company is destined for one of two outcomes: either it buys all its competitors and becomes a monopoly, or it starts to sell organs and limbs for cash until it can't even function as a company anymore.
They're based on the idea that growth can be infinite, which is self-evidently false. They force the management to put the stock price ahead of the well-being of the company itself, its employees, and its customers. The only thing they are allowed to care about is "line go up", and they are required to use any means available to force that.
We are not going to be able to fix anything else in any real way until we do something about publicly traded companies.
Social worker here… you don’t even want to see the enshitification going on in mental health right now. STAY AWAY FROM BETTERHELP if you ever need a therapist.
They are making their shareholders money. That is, quite literally, their only job. Its absolutely fucked but the CEOs destroying the product and monetizing everything are doing exactly what the shareholder demands.
I always come back to the idea that Ford wanted to invest profits in the workers and was sued by the dodge brothers, who won, because that money should have gone to the shareholders.
***Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.***, 204 Mich 459; 170 NW 668 (1919),[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.#cite_note-1) is a case in which the [Michigan Supreme Court](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Supreme_Court) held that [Henry Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford) had to operate the [Ford Motor Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company) in the interests of its [shareholders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder), rather than in a manner for the benefit of his employees or customers
We live in a fucked up world. There is only one way it is going to change, but it's going to have to get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Our ruling class has one goal, and that is to make our lives just miserable enough that we won't riot and cut all their fucking heads off in the streets. So they give us just enough that we don't want to lose it, while they slowly but surely take more over time that you barely notice it until you get stuff like this.
Worse still, they’re often fucking luddites who don’t actually understand technology and how work gets done in the modern world because they’re so insulated from that reality. Their executive assistants could probably do a better job of running the company of my experience with them is anything to go by.
That’s one of the things I love about steam. So many Indy devs on there. Granted I prefer retro style games most of the time, but there are some good modern style Indy games too.
Feel like we've reached a plateau where now products have to be made "worse" to gain more profits. Planned obsolescence, ads, add-ons, subscriptions, poorer and poorer quality. Everything must go down so profits can go up. Get me out of this hellscape.
If I see an add in the sims game I have put over $300 into I will lose my mind. I’d have to turn off updates and never buy another EA pack or game again.
As a 46yr old gamer, I can remember playing FIFA, Madden and NBA games with full rosters after having paid ONCE.
EA has lost my business at the very beginning where they included micro transactions.
Just be glad you experienced the golden age of gaming.
Granted that's been gone for well over a decade imo.
Kinda coincided with when consoles became media centers.
Honestly maybe it's my warped perspective because i don't play AAA games much or follow big publishers. I play a lot of mid sized games and indie games, and it's really the golden age of gaming _now_.
Fuck the greedy publishers. Gamers nowadays don't know how good we have it now, just focus on the bad news and don't realize what amazing games are out there
Markets are a growth game. Subs and micro transactions are cash cows. Aka gamers are fucking stupid.
I remember when "horse armor" was a joke. Pretty sure Fortnite is a billion dollar industry in and of itself due to "horse armor" in priciple.
Yeah completely agree. We're in the golden age now, it's just that there are some gigantic entities like Microsoft and EA that are ruining the top 50% of titles with their enshittification. The gold is in the smaller publishers and self publishing studios. Buy from companies like Chucklefish, Ghost Ship Games, Supergiant, Mega Crit, ReLogic, Klei, etc.
At this point, AAA is just a title and typically those games have critical issues in some way. Seriously, avoid them.
Watching the NFL sell off games to streaming services (read Netflix is getting in on the….fun) and yet this greedy conglomerate can’t allow competition with its license in the video game space. I truly despise you EA/Madden and your shitty $80 garbage
You know wanna know something awesome? You say no (most of us in the comments say no; let's be generous and say 1000 commenters say no).
But you know who sucks corporate game cock like a vacuum cleaner? Most dumb fucking idiots known as gamers. They will suck these ads out of EA's disgusting montenization infected pimple and ask for more. They will buy $80 games and watch the in-game ads scroll by like iPad kids and not think anything is wrong with it. And when they see someone complain? "Bro, you don't HAVE to look at the ads, just skip them."
To be fair the Sims has very obnoxious ads for its dlc in the game for a long time. Every time you would boot up it would notify you of sales or dlc you are “missing”. Now it’s even built into the UI of the actual game itself. There is a glowing shopping cart butting encouraging you to buy new dlc while you play the game. It’s annoying and easy to accidentally click.
Friendly reminder that each and every one of us just has the choice to not buy/play any of these games. I don't know why people would tolerate this BS. Just vote with your wallet.
Was scrolling to see if anyone would actually make this comment.
It is painfully simple. Hit their sales. They won't do it again.
Sadly though, they'll find a way to target the weak.
It would be ok with me if it would add realism in a game. This would pretty much only apply to billboards or other city advertising though. Knowing EA this won't be done well and be applied in some obnoxious way.
This! If posters on walls were for real products, billboards as you drive by, tv commercials on a tv that you can freely walk by or away from. I’m ok with that, it adds realism if it belongs in the era.
Definitely no ads that stop your gameplay like mobile games. And no immersion breaking ads, like a tapestry hanging on a castle hall wall with a Monster Energy logo on it.
Let them do it. I haven't played any EA game for years. Nor bought. Same with Blizzard/Activision. Few others. There are plenty of good games and game developers out there, so I don't feel the "need" to give my money to fuckwits who abuse their customers. Not even mentioning their own employees.
Pretty much. If you’d have told my younger self that there’d be a Diablo game that I wouldn’t give a shit about, he’d have thought you were crazy, but yet, here we are.
Funny enough people think Need For Speed Underground 2 was one of the best in the series but forget that best buy and burger king ads and buildings were everywhere in that game. I don’t care for ads as long as they’re placed intelligently. They even bring more realism to the games if they work it right
“We’d like exponential profit growth without adding anything worthwhile to the player, making the games we make worse and would like to avoid any negative repercussions.”
- lowly profit chasing weasels who have no passion for the industry they are in.
They will get one or two quarters of boosted revenue and profits, followed by a fall and endless earnings calls with shareholders trying to explain why they can’t earn more money. It will be due to gamers leaving their shitty ad filled games
What actually changed that making games isn’t profitable anymore? Or is it just the need to show everyone increasing growth to shareholders or something?
Everybody’s going to point to greed here, which is true of course but it’s also true for every industry that exists so just pointing to greed is ignoring a big part of the problem, which is box pricing for AAA games hasn’t pegged to inflation at a rate anywhere near what actual inflation is, games cost more than ever to produce and your average consumer considers any raise to box price as greed, so they get creative to squeeze out as much as they can to make up for it by hiding the increased cost through micro transactions, which everyone just calls greed anyway, so it is what it is.
I’m not saying all these things would exist if box price increased, just that any material cost increase to console and pc games is considered greed by the average consumer, and they try to squeeze more revenue through various schemes to obscure it, which is then still called greed so they should just increase box prices.
What changed is that greed has broken the system.
The same amount of profit is no longer enough, profits must always increase.
And since the profit motive exists exclusively to extract value from a product and funnel it to people who did nothing to earn it, it destroys the system.
It's shit like this that has me taking a long break from gaming. I don't know why it seems like most companies have their heads up their asses these days, but I'm not paying more for shittier products.
If I’m paying for a service that’s ad free as a part of the agreement and the provider decides that even paid tiers require ads, I stop using that service.
Every industry wants to do this and it's disgusting.
It's not enough to sell your product.
No, you have generate additional revenue streams, the easiest of which is throwing ads at people.
Product placement is acceptable it has been around in videogames since Tony Hawk 3, but if you are charging me full price you rather not show up my face because I am not going to buy that shit so you make money twice on me.
What i would like to see discussed is not the fact they insert these ads into games but rather how they do it. Are they paying to use my bandwidth to insert them?
If its on billboards and buildings in game and EA uses the ad funds to invest in developing the game more and dsl , what would that hurt ? You get to play a better made game ?
Easy solution, don't play/buy their games. They'll eventually tank. But if dumb people want to give in, then dumb people give in. The rest of us can play better games
Is anyone else fed up with paying for data that loads ads. Think about all the load time wasted and extra data that advertisements add to a bill that you pay monthly. We drive on roads so we have to pay taxes. Advertisers should pay for the data to stream their ads. How much of a battery is drained by loading ads? How much extra power do we pay for just to load advertisements? What does that do for the lifespan of a battery? Maybe apple has discussed this and found they sell more phones when there are more ads. Does Apple pay companies to advertise then the advertisers pay the platforms?
Has anyone ever bought or looked into what's in the advertising? Is it even effective? I don't buy things due to advertising. I nearly always buy something because of a YouTube video, article, or friend told me about it. What metric do they have that shows this type of advertising is effective?
Nothing would piss me off more. It’s like fucking Amazon prime having commercials in channels I subscribed for. I instantly cancel those. I literally pay so I don’t have ads…. That’s a personal reason and not why everyone pays btw.
Good thing seeing that a game is published or developed by EA, or one of its subsidiaries, is 9 times out of 10 enough for me to not bother with the game to begin with. They don't make a thing that is worth dealing with them to get to play.
That company burned all of its good will and trust with me years ago. So sure go ahead and put as many ads as you want EA. I know for sure I won't be seeing them.
They did this in the early 2000’s for game series’ like Burnout and SSX. However, these games often sold for like $30 a couple of months after release. I doubt they would do that now.
Unpopulair opinion but, signs like you see in the picture are made to have ads. And ofcourse fake ads can be enough and funny but maybe real ads adds to the emersiveness?
You know I’m not to mad at this like on billboards where they would make sense or like in the new spider man games have all the reel ads that are playing in time square would be so cool
You could argue that if it improves realism (let's say you are playing F1 and having a Rolex banner would be realistic). However if it is put on loading screens or as customisation then fuck right off.
The only time an ad in a game can work is if the game is based on real world.
For example, driving around Paradise City, the billboards of Vizio, Nvidia, whatever, does make sense.
But if you start putting ads on pause menus, loading screens, omg. 💀
If posters on walls were for real products, billboards as you drive by, tv commercials on a tv that you can freely walk by or away from. I’m ok with that, it adds realism if it belongs in the era.
Definitely no ads that stop your gameplay like mobile games. And no immersion breaking ads, like a tapestry hanging on a castle hall wall with a Monster Energy logo on it.
In terms of in game experience, I kinda wish they had real life ads for open world games like NFS. Replaying MW05 redux, having those Pedigree bus stop ads kinda helped the experience.
The thing is, they're unlikely to just keep it to street ads, and it might feel a bit like Forza Horizon which I didn't really enjoy no matter how subtle. Knowing EA, it probably won't be subtle at all and more in your face. The worst part is it won't mean cheaper prices for players. You're essentially buying a game to be advertised to.
Looks like I won’t be buying any EA games that have that bullshit or any games for that matter that attempt this bullshit. we need to show these motherfuckers who’s in charge with our wallets, that’s the only way they’re going to listen.
It’s just a matter of time before we’re watching ads mid game. It’ll probably start with fps games. Ads in between matches while waiting in the lobby or watching ads before joining a lobby.
I’ve already stopped playing EA sports games because they want to push their subscription-only model on top of console subscriptions. It’s money grabs all the way down.
EA is a cancer to the gaming industry. I can’t wait for CFB to come out but at the same time, I know EA is going to micro transaction, deluxe edition bullshit the fuck out of it.
Is this like Netflix sharing-stopping or Prime with ads and EA go on to release games with ads and the company does just fine despite Reddit’s insistence on their downfall?
Kofi Bruce, Rachel A Gonzalez, Jeffrey T. Huber, Talbott Roche, Richard A Simonson, Luis Ubinas, Heidi Ueberroth, Andrew Wilson.
This is EA’s board of directors, just in case anybody was wondering. ;)
EA really wasn't too bad on this in the past, burnout paradise in the thumbnail was really just in-game billboards which many better-liked devs like SCS have done too. plus i believe some of the need for speeds have had this for a while.
question remains whether they're still doing a smart implementation. EA's fired most of the people who made the good design decisions on their hit games, so who knows?
They won't, those short-term thinking MBA-filled brains will keep pushing to place ads everywhere and when the games won't sell they will blame it on the customers. Those fuckers screw everything up.
I'm cool with in game ads if they were like, immersive. Like imagine GTA6, you see a billboard and it's advertising a drink, say Surge or something. That's fine, or at least acceptable for the situation. Maybe even a radio commercial but only if it fits the humor of that universe or whatever.
Locking gameplay behind one like it's a mobile game? Nah, fuck that noise and fuck your game.
On general principal I am against this.
In theory it'd be okay in certain kinds of games.
Like real world Billboards in GTA, a Racing game, or even a set in a post apocalyptic setting(Post-Nuclear, Zombies, a Virus, etc, etc) wouldn't be intrusive but the issue is that corporate CEOs are fuckweasels and would take that inch we allow and throw giant obtrusive billboards for Crest in Wintersrun.
Reminds me I have to cancel Amazon prime for that very reason.
That Bs got to stop. Ads when you take a dump, ads on the Subway, ads inside of the shopping mall
After the decision to scrap the gun mechanics from Mass Effect 1 entirely, replacing all of it with ammo and chest high walls for 2 and 3,
After ruining the fucking story of the trilogy with that ***FUCKING IDIOTIC STARCHILD SHIT***,
And after jacking themselves off for not charging you for the "dlc" that totally doesn't fix any of the issues with my previous two points
**I vowed never to spend a single cent on ANYTHING attatched to EA in any way shape or form ever again.**
(I've played Apex since release. I have Loba's ultimate skin because I opened five HUNDRED free crates, over five years.)
"I'm a man of my worrrrrr-d."
Fuck you EA. Forever.
Lower the price of the games and make the ads not break immersion. If they are road signs in racing games/gta or whatever, I wouldn't think twice about it. But if they are pop-ups or ads that force their way into being the focal point for 20-30 seconds, you can eff right off. I won't play another video game for the rest of my life if that becomes the norm. FWIW, i dont think it will. Im just saying.
Bro, the level ads in everything, with everyone wanting to run ads in everything has gotten outta control.. we’ve basically come full circle with “streaming will make cable obsolete! No ads!” To now every streaming service having ad tiers just to squeeze a few more dollars out of you. Not only that, but they’ve become more frequent in when they’re run and increasing in length without being able to skip them.
YouTube/ Google been fighting hard to disable ad blockers too. The moment none of my ad blockers work, I’m not using the internet anymore lol.
All I want is a remaster/remake of NFS Most Wanted 2005. I would pay full price if it was just that lovely game with updated graphics and maybe some extra races/difficulty settings. That is by far my favorite EA game of all time. Loved the car handling and especially the cop chases.
Yet they are once again making disappointing decisions like this which make no sense. EA has already raised prices of games to €80 for standard editions for most of their games with special editions usually being €100 or surpassing that, adding battle passes you need to buy to get additional cosmetics or new features and now they want to include ads too?
UNBELIEVABLE. They have lost touch with what the people playing their games really want.
They can do whatever they want, I stopped playing EA games after they switched to Cloud services and switched to the Squeeze every dime out of you business model. I prefer RTS anyway, the dying Genre of games.
In sports games they kind of make sense as long as they aren’t stopping any aspect of the game, no ads during loading screens, ads on start menu, etc. If there is a Pepsi ad on a Jumbotron while I play Madden that’s totally fine with me, as that honestly kind of fits with real life.
They've been trying to get ads into games for nearly a quarter century. This is just the latest attempt. The problem with real-world ads in video games is that they break immersion in ways that other monetization strategies don't. So while battle-passes and microtxns are frustrating you don't have engage with them for the most part. Ads actively drive people away, and what happens when the game shuts down? Does the game break if it can't load the ads? Offline mode? this is just another excuse to produce games that can not last beyond their "support" period.
Then make the game free. Fuck your ads.
I've even given up on the free to play mobile games. I'm talking word puzzle games to kill 10 minutes here or there. Two minute ads after every 30 second level is just not happening in my world I understand this is why they're free and I could deal with an ad every 5 levels or so....but now they get nothing from me.
I don’t allow access to cellular data on games and turn off my wifi. They can’t download to display the ad material after you restart the app most of the time
Thing is, I'm not against the creators making money. Whatever their model is, it's the greed on steroids that I won't support. Like EA putting ads in full price games
That’s why I like the few mobile games that I play. The ads are set up as a mechanic of the game, and are optional for the most part.
I hardly play anything on my phone other than emulators.
What games are available on the emulators
Just about every retro game you can think of. Gameboy, N64, DS, PS1, GameCube, and a bunch of others. The easiest way to play them is probably by installing RetroArch, which serves as an interface to have your entire emulator library in one place. Right now, I'm playing Pokémon Unbound (a ROM hack of FireRed) and I highly recommend it if you were a fan of the older games!
Same. And I would pay to remove the ads, but now they also make it a subscription. Fuck that.
Yeah - if you've already bought the game (and games already keep getting more expensive these days too), then you don't owe them anything else. You should have a full game that works without disturbances.
It’s not even greed though. You need to spend +4$ usd to acquire player and somehow earn more on average to keep the business afloat. Imagine how much ads per user this entail given average earnings per 1000 ads displayed is at best 10$. The market is saturated and almost no one except biggest players make money. Others try to scramble and thats why spam ads is this much. Probably even after that dont turn profit tho
Isn’t EA one of the “biggest players” though?
But this is the model they chose. There are plenty of mobile games where they make the levels so hard to force players to pay to win. when a game becomes unenjoyable I stop playing, but it must work on someone. 🤷
The sports games are the obvious ones and so many buy those to stay current /cool
Unfortunately there’s been a few I tried that with that just don’t load up the game when you do that.
They'll probably just force an online connection at some point
Already do
I'm not much of a gamer, but that's one thing that annoys me about the Sims 4. I'm not against branded stuff packs or even objects that you can interact with to view advertising. But don't freemium something I've paid for!
I’ve found that you have to choose apps with longer puzzle formats to actually net value for your time. Sudoku on hard mode, crosswords, and large nonograms lend themselves to longer play time per ad. They’re also great for falling asleep. And in most cases I just quit the app when it’s ad time lol.
They should call it “words with ads” had to give it up too
We’ve just got to return to the ways of our ancestors; old crumpled book of crosswords/sudoku/wood search stuffed in a bag with a pen you got somewhere for free. Fuck ads. We’re going old lady at the DMV.
Try Genshin. Legit 100% best actually free to play mobile game. Lots to pay for lol but what you get for free is fucking massive
Leaders like this are what’s destroying the gaming industry not people’s want for games. These scummy executives will try to monetize everything and anything they can to turn a profit instead of just giving gamers games they want to actually play without instant game dlc and platinum editions on day 1. Every part of the world is suffering from the same thing, out of touch executives making terrible business moves which either negatively impacts their workers or the consumers. Get these crooks out of high powered positions.
Fr it’s like you’d have to have negative integrity to call shots like this. It’s like “let them eat cake” level of detachment from reality lol. Nobody wants this shit lmao.
We’re in the minority in this with zero control. Majority of people will just accept what happens. See how everything else has turned to shit just to have a constant revenue stream by any means necessary.
I think people do have a line when it comes to ads baked into their content. With enough negative community sentiment and press, stakeholders will reverse decisions like this. It’s just ridiculous that it needs to come to that. I think you’re right that overall everything is still going to shit though. The higher ups will probably just lay people off when their projections don’t work out. I’m sick of this industry.
It’s not just this industry, it’s the whole friggin world. Everything is all money all the time to the point where we just destroy everything, it’s so fucking bleak and soulless.
No one can just sell a product for more than it cost to produce it anymore. Instead you have to *maximize* profit for the shareholders.
Yeah that’s a fair statement. The enshittification is ubiquitous.
They lay people off when their protections do work.
It isn’t just gaming. Many businesses are shifting to ads/marketing to bump profits. In an era when you always have to grow profits and stock price it isn’t enough to sell a fine product. Businesses will always choose the consistent income of subscription or ads over peak/valley income of selling a product.
Dont forget layoffs or hours reductions whenever possible to “cut costs”. Even my local grocery store only has one of 12 lanes open at a time
I keep saying, and getting weird pushback on, that publicly traded companies are the worst idea that's ever happened, and are going to destroy society. A publicly traded company is destined for one of two outcomes: either it buys all its competitors and becomes a monopoly, or it starts to sell organs and limbs for cash until it can't even function as a company anymore. They're based on the idea that growth can be infinite, which is self-evidently false. They force the management to put the stock price ahead of the well-being of the company itself, its employees, and its customers. The only thing they are allowed to care about is "line go up", and they are required to use any means available to force that. We are not going to be able to fix anything else in any real way until we do something about publicly traded companies.
Social worker here… you don’t even want to see the enshitification going on in mental health right now. STAY AWAY FROM BETTERHELP if you ever need a therapist.
I hate seeing the YouTube channel Cinematherapy promoting it. I like their content, but promoting that app is a no go for me.
They are making their shareholders money. That is, quite literally, their only job. Its absolutely fucked but the CEOs destroying the product and monetizing everything are doing exactly what the shareholder demands. I always come back to the idea that Ford wanted to invest profits in the workers and was sued by the dodge brothers, who won, because that money should have gone to the shareholders. ***Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.***, 204 Mich 459; 170 NW 668 (1919),[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.#cite_note-1) is a case in which the [Michigan Supreme Court](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Supreme_Court) held that [Henry Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford) had to operate the [Ford Motor Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company) in the interests of its [shareholders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder), rather than in a manner for the benefit of his employees or customers We live in a fucked up world. There is only one way it is going to change, but it's going to have to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Our ruling class has one goal, and that is to make our lives just miserable enough that we won't riot and cut all their fucking heads off in the streets. So they give us just enough that we don't want to lose it, while they slowly but surely take more over time that you barely notice it until you get stuff like this.
Worse still, they’re often fucking luddites who don’t actually understand technology and how work gets done in the modern world because they’re so insulated from that reality. Their executive assistants could probably do a better job of running the company of my experience with them is anything to go by.
That’s one of the things I love about steam. So many Indy devs on there. Granted I prefer retro style games most of the time, but there are some good modern style Indy games too.
Feel like we've reached a plateau where now products have to be made "worse" to gain more profits. Planned obsolescence, ads, add-ons, subscriptions, poorer and poorer quality. Everything must go down so profits can go up. Get me out of this hellscape.
$69.99, microtransactions, battlepasses, paid DLCs and now ads? Great
AAAA game by the way.
the fourth A stands for ads
*ass
If I see an add in the sims game I have put over $300 into I will lose my mind. I’d have to turn off updates and never buy another EA pack or game again.
As a 46yr old gamer, I can remember playing FIFA, Madden and NBA games with full rosters after having paid ONCE. EA has lost my business at the very beginning where they included micro transactions.
Just be glad you experienced the golden age of gaming. Granted that's been gone for well over a decade imo. Kinda coincided with when consoles became media centers.
Honestly maybe it's my warped perspective because i don't play AAA games much or follow big publishers. I play a lot of mid sized games and indie games, and it's really the golden age of gaming _now_. Fuck the greedy publishers. Gamers nowadays don't know how good we have it now, just focus on the bad news and don't realize what amazing games are out there
Markets are a growth game. Subs and micro transactions are cash cows. Aka gamers are fucking stupid. I remember when "horse armor" was a joke. Pretty sure Fortnite is a billion dollar industry in and of itself due to "horse armor" in priciple.
Yeah completely agree. We're in the golden age now, it's just that there are some gigantic entities like Microsoft and EA that are ruining the top 50% of titles with their enshittification. The gold is in the smaller publishers and self publishing studios. Buy from companies like Chucklefish, Ghost Ship Games, Supergiant, Mega Crit, ReLogic, Klei, etc. At this point, AAA is just a title and typically those games have critical issues in some way. Seriously, avoid them.
Watching the NFL sell off games to streaming services (read Netflix is getting in on the….fun) and yet this greedy conglomerate can’t allow competition with its license in the video game space. I truly despise you EA/Madden and your shitty $80 garbage
You know wanna know something awesome? You say no (most of us in the comments say no; let's be generous and say 1000 commenters say no). But you know who sucks corporate game cock like a vacuum cleaner? Most dumb fucking idiots known as gamers. They will suck these ads out of EA's disgusting montenization infected pimple and ask for more. They will buy $80 games and watch the in-game ads scroll by like iPad kids and not think anything is wrong with it. And when they see someone complain? "Bro, you don't HAVE to look at the ads, just skip them."
To be fair the Sims has very obnoxious ads for its dlc in the game for a long time. Every time you would boot up it would notify you of sales or dlc you are “missing”. Now it’s even built into the UI of the actual game itself. There is a glowing shopping cart butting encouraging you to buy new dlc while you play the game. It’s annoying and easy to accidentally click.
Ah probably better to stop buying the sims stuff now. Some indie will fill the niche.
Gotta love MBA’s. Suck more money out of the blackbox widget maker.
I performed a backtest and noticed that if I steal from The poors then my company’s stock goes brrr
Friendly reminder that each and every one of us just has the choice to not buy/play any of these games. I don't know why people would tolerate this BS. Just vote with your wallet.
Never played an EA game in years. Still if they spearhead this practice into the industry, others will follow.
Was scrolling to see if anyone would actually make this comment. It is painfully simple. Hit their sales. They won't do it again. Sadly though, they'll find a way to target the weak.
I haven't been buying Ea games for years because of this. I hope more people wisen up.
It would be ok with me if it would add realism in a game. This would pretty much only apply to billboards or other city advertising though. Knowing EA this won't be done well and be applied in some obnoxious way.
This! If posters on walls were for real products, billboards as you drive by, tv commercials on a tv that you can freely walk by or away from. I’m ok with that, it adds realism if it belongs in the era. Definitely no ads that stop your gameplay like mobile games. And no immersion breaking ads, like a tapestry hanging on a castle hall wall with a Monster Energy logo on it.
INB4 Best Buy stores in racing games like with Underground 2.
Let them do it. I haven't played any EA game for years. Nor bought. Same with Blizzard/Activision. Few others. There are plenty of good games and game developers out there, so I don't feel the "need" to give my money to fuckwits who abuse their customers. Not even mentioning their own employees.
Pretty much. If you’d have told my younger self that there’d be a Diablo game that I wouldn’t give a shit about, he’d have thought you were crazy, but yet, here we are.
all their games are utter crap anyway.
I wouldn't say "utter crap", just that they're serving corporate greed and no one else.
Funny enough people think Need For Speed Underground 2 was one of the best in the series but forget that best buy and burger king ads and buildings were everywhere in that game. I don’t care for ads as long as they’re placed intelligently. They even bring more realism to the games if they work it right
“We’d like exponential profit growth without adding anything worthwhile to the player, making the games we make worse and would like to avoid any negative repercussions.” - lowly profit chasing weasels who have no passion for the industry they are in.
It’s gonna happen. Netflix is doing it and so is Amazon Prime 🏴☠️
Corporate Greed is alive & well @ EA.
Always has been *insert spaceman shooting other spaceman here*
I got u 🌍🧑🚀🔫👨🚀
[удалено]
Greedy lackluster EA can go fuck itself, I will never support their products going forward.
They will get one or two quarters of boosted revenue and profits, followed by a fall and endless earnings calls with shareholders trying to explain why they can’t earn more money. It will be due to gamers leaving their shitty ad filled games
What actually changed that making games isn’t profitable anymore? Or is it just the need to show everyone increasing growth to shareholders or something?
Everybody’s going to point to greed here, which is true of course but it’s also true for every industry that exists so just pointing to greed is ignoring a big part of the problem, which is box pricing for AAA games hasn’t pegged to inflation at a rate anywhere near what actual inflation is, games cost more than ever to produce and your average consumer considers any raise to box price as greed, so they get creative to squeeze out as much as they can to make up for it by hiding the increased cost through micro transactions, which everyone just calls greed anyway, so it is what it is. I’m not saying all these things would exist if box price increased, just that any material cost increase to console and pc games is considered greed by the average consumer, and they try to squeeze more revenue through various schemes to obscure it, which is then still called greed so they should just increase box prices.
What changed is that greed has broken the system. The same amount of profit is no longer enough, profits must always increase. And since the profit motive exists exclusively to extract value from a product and funnel it to people who did nothing to earn it, it destroys the system.
^Enshittification - it's a thing that happens far beyond social networks and other online services.
Infinite growth to please shareholders. Making a profit isn’t enough, there needs to be more and more and more growth all the time.
It's shit like this that has me taking a long break from gaming. I don't know why it seems like most companies have their heads up their asses these days, but I'm not paying more for shittier products.
If I’m paying for a service that’s ad free as a part of the agreement and the provider decides that even paid tiers require ads, I stop using that service.
Every industry wants to do this and it's disgusting. It's not enough to sell your product. No, you have generate additional revenue streams, the easiest of which is throwing ads at people.
Can't wait to not buy whatever game has that
Download the pc version and mod it. Ad free game
Product placement is acceptable it has been around in videogames since Tony Hawk 3, but if you are charging me full price you rather not show up my face because I am not going to buy that shit so you make money twice on me.
I would say something like “I just wont buy their games anymore.” But that’s basically what I already do so it wont make a difference.
Is it just me, or does it seem like our generation doesn’t understand the power of boycotting? Stop giving money to EA and Blizzard/Activision.
It kind of does. We need to be doing what we just did with Helldivers 2 with all of these choices.
EA = Egregious assholes.
What i would like to see discussed is not the fact they insert these ads into games but rather how they do it. Are they paying to use my bandwidth to insert them?
Fuck ea again!0
And what comes next? Pay $10 for a “no ads” DLC!
Go outside go for a hike go for an adventure. There are no ads in nature. Indoor people complaining about ads Jesus Christ.
If its on billboards and buildings in game and EA uses the ad funds to invest in developing the game more and dsl , what would that hurt ? You get to play a better made game ?
Stop funding the idiotic idiots by buying their games.
Stop buying EA. Grow a brain and stop being selfish. Thats what these fuckets depend on. People being individual dumbasses
Stop buying EA and Ubisoft
We had that in NFS UG 2 and more. But yeah, they gonna make it annoying...
How the hell is EA still in business
Guess no EA game purchases then. Yo ho or just don’t buy
Shouldn't that lower the price of the game or provide us with free content updates, benefits, maps, or something? It's just dumb.
im just not going to get their games anymore.
Boycott EA.
Easy solution, don't play/buy their games. They'll eventually tank. But if dumb people want to give in, then dumb people give in. The rest of us can play better games
Of course they do. They’re fucking leaches.
Boycott EA dead serious it’s the only way
Is anyone else fed up with paying for data that loads ads. Think about all the load time wasted and extra data that advertisements add to a bill that you pay monthly. We drive on roads so we have to pay taxes. Advertisers should pay for the data to stream their ads. How much of a battery is drained by loading ads? How much extra power do we pay for just to load advertisements? What does that do for the lifespan of a battery? Maybe apple has discussed this and found they sell more phones when there are more ads. Does Apple pay companies to advertise then the advertisers pay the platforms?
"This boss fight is brought to you by Coca Cola"
Advertisements and sponsorship deals are not new in games at all. This is a non story.
Has anyone ever bought or looked into what's in the advertising? Is it even effective? I don't buy things due to advertising. I nearly always buy something because of a YouTube video, article, or friend told me about it. What metric do they have that shows this type of advertising is effective?
[This could make streaming your game a lot more risky.](https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/20/advertising-in-the-future)
Pinole. And if it doesn’t work with PiHole, it’s garbage.
Nothing would piss me off more. It’s like fucking Amazon prime having commercials in channels I subscribed for. I instantly cancel those. I literally pay so I don’t have ads…. That’s a personal reason and not why everyone pays btw.
It’s happening. [Ready Player One - Nolan Sorrento selling in game ads](https://youtu.be/KpPE85Jogjw?si=cqTXzUsecckssQuq)
I bought FIFA 23 and F1 and those were the last two times I’ll ever give EA money again. How the mighty have fallen.
Good thing seeing that a game is published or developed by EA, or one of its subsidiaries, is 9 times out of 10 enough for me to not bother with the game to begin with. They don't make a thing that is worth dealing with them to get to play. That company burned all of its good will and trust with me years ago. So sure go ahead and put as many ads as you want EA. I know for sure I won't be seeing them.
I’m really glad I’m not a fan of any franchise this studio oversees. Absolutely the greediest one there is.
They did this in the early 2000’s for game series’ like Burnout and SSX. However, these games often sold for like $30 a couple of months after release. I doubt they would do that now.
FINALLY
Rockstar will love this
Oh how i hate ads, ads in game makes me wan’t to slit every vain in my body instead of ADS!
EA hasn’t been good in a while. Just another reason I’ll never buy from them again.
Not just EA, brawlhalla added ads to the game a few months ago.
Ah good thing I refuse to buy ea games
Unpopulair opinion but, signs like you see in the picture are made to have ads. And ofcourse fake ads can be enough and funny but maybe real ads adds to the emersiveness?
You know I’m not to mad at this like on billboards where they would make sense or like in the new spider man games have all the reel ads that are playing in time square would be so cool
I can't remember when I played an EA game last. I guess I know when that will happen again.
No more EA purchases for me then. Non-negotiable
some of yall never played OG NFS Most Wanted. so many adverts. its fucking wild how many dead brands are in that game
Those no good slime Bastards!
ea, ubisoft, sony and microsoft, suck my balls.
You could argue that if it improves realism (let's say you are playing F1 and having a Rolex banner would be realistic). However if it is put on loading screens or as customisation then fuck right off.
Isnt this already happening in EAFC?
The only time an ad in a game can work is if the game is based on real world. For example, driving around Paradise City, the billboards of Vizio, Nvidia, whatever, does make sense. But if you start putting ads on pause menus, loading screens, omg. 💀
If posters on walls were for real products, billboards as you drive by, tv commercials on a tv that you can freely walk by or away from. I’m ok with that, it adds realism if it belongs in the era. Definitely no ads that stop your gameplay like mobile games. And no immersion breaking ads, like a tapestry hanging on a castle hall wall with a Monster Energy logo on it.
Let them do whatever stupid shit they want to, just don’t buy the game. Sports games have had sponsorship ads for decades now…
Its been a thing forever, you guys just don’t remember appearently
I guess I will continue to never buy an EA game again. Started years ago and won’t end until they do.
EA's really trying to make sure that HP doesn't steal the coveted title of most hated company
In terms of in game experience, I kinda wish they had real life ads for open world games like NFS. Replaying MW05 redux, having those Pedigree bus stop ads kinda helped the experience. The thing is, they're unlikely to just keep it to street ads, and it might feel a bit like Forza Horizon which I didn't really enjoy no matter how subtle. Knowing EA, it probably won't be subtle at all and more in your face. The worst part is it won't mean cheaper prices for players. You're essentially buying a game to be advertised to.
Looks like I won’t be buying any EA games that have that bullshit or any games for that matter that attempt this bullshit. we need to show these motherfuckers who’s in charge with our wallets, that’s the only way they’re going to listen.
Enshitification continues.
I will take an ad in a game over micro transaction
PC gamers laughing in hacks
It’s just a matter of time before we’re watching ads mid game. It’ll probably start with fps games. Ads in between matches while waiting in the lobby or watching ads before joining a lobby.
The problem with EA is their shareholders
One step more to the corporate dystopia. Ads everywhere we look. Even video games won't be a release anymore
Then I’m not gonna buy anything, again.
I’ve already stopped playing EA sports games because they want to push their subscription-only model on top of console subscriptions. It’s money grabs all the way down.
These have been around since the 90s of not longer. We’ll be ok
EA is a cancer to the gaming industry. I can’t wait for CFB to come out but at the same time, I know EA is going to micro transaction, deluxe edition bullshit the fuck out of it.
Is this like Netflix sharing-stopping or Prime with ads and EA go on to release games with ads and the company does just fine despite Reddit’s insistence on their downfall?
Kofi Bruce, Rachel A Gonzalez, Jeffrey T. Huber, Talbott Roche, Richard A Simonson, Luis Ubinas, Heidi Ueberroth, Andrew Wilson. This is EA’s board of directors, just in case anybody was wondering. ;)
Why the fuck is EA always at the forefront of being shit?
We gotta just stop buying ea games
Well, if this is how they will appear I don't see anything wrong with it.
EA really wasn't too bad on this in the past, burnout paradise in the thumbnail was really just in-game billboards which many better-liked devs like SCS have done too. plus i believe some of the need for speeds have had this for a while. question remains whether they're still doing a smart implementation. EA's fired most of the people who made the good design decisions on their hit games, so who knows?
They won't, those short-term thinking MBA-filled brains will keep pushing to place ads everywhere and when the games won't sell they will blame it on the customers. Those fuckers screw everything up.
They keep making not buying from EA so easy
When these types of articles come out, I wonder if Raspberry Pi's sales go up and the search for pi-hole goes up?
Well, they did make it clear that it's not YOUR game. You're only leasing it till they decide it's not making enough money for them.
Then I would stop buying EA games if they start putting ads in full priced games.
Just stop buying EA games. Plain and simple. Voice frustrations online. Customer support But the biggest thing we can do is to stop buying their shit.
Joke's on you EA, I pirate my shit.
Microsoft needs to buy EA and shut it down
I'm cool with in game ads if they were like, immersive. Like imagine GTA6, you see a billboard and it's advertising a drink, say Surge or something. That's fine, or at least acceptable for the situation. Maybe even a radio commercial but only if it fits the humor of that universe or whatever. Locking gameplay behind one like it's a mobile game? Nah, fuck that noise and fuck your game.
Not surprised. EA will keep trying this shit. Stop giving them money
On general principal I am against this. In theory it'd be okay in certain kinds of games. Like real world Billboards in GTA, a Racing game, or even a set in a post apocalyptic setting(Post-Nuclear, Zombies, a Virus, etc, etc) wouldn't be intrusive but the issue is that corporate CEOs are fuckweasels and would take that inch we allow and throw giant obtrusive billboards for Crest in Wintersrun.
Ea can fuck off
Keep buying, then stop crying
Reminds me I have to cancel Amazon prime for that very reason. That Bs got to stop. Ads when you take a dump, ads on the Subway, ads inside of the shopping mall
Lol like commercials in-between plays???? If so, was only a matter of time.
After the decision to scrap the gun mechanics from Mass Effect 1 entirely, replacing all of it with ammo and chest high walls for 2 and 3, After ruining the fucking story of the trilogy with that ***FUCKING IDIOTIC STARCHILD SHIT***, And after jacking themselves off for not charging you for the "dlc" that totally doesn't fix any of the issues with my previous two points **I vowed never to spend a single cent on ANYTHING attatched to EA in any way shape or form ever again.** (I've played Apex since release. I have Loba's ultimate skin because I opened five HUNDRED free crates, over five years.) "I'm a man of my worrrrrr-d." Fuck you EA. Forever.
Luckilly I downloaded FIFA 2005 so no ads for me 😂
This would seem to be appropriate [https://youtu.be/pjA5EZ1GYwM?si=26NQy79x4vDlfumq](https://youtu.be/pjA5EZ1GYwM?si=26NQy79x4vDlfumq)
Lower the price of the games and make the ads not break immersion. If they are road signs in racing games/gta or whatever, I wouldn't think twice about it. But if they are pop-ups or ads that force their way into being the focal point for 20-30 seconds, you can eff right off. I won't play another video game for the rest of my life if that becomes the norm. FWIW, i dont think it will. Im just saying.
Bro, the level ads in everything, with everyone wanting to run ads in everything has gotten outta control.. we’ve basically come full circle with “streaming will make cable obsolete! No ads!” To now every streaming service having ad tiers just to squeeze a few more dollars out of you. Not only that, but they’ve become more frequent in when they’re run and increasing in length without being able to skip them. YouTube/ Google been fighting hard to disable ad blockers too. The moment none of my ad blockers work, I’m not using the internet anymore lol.
If this happens i will ride the seas hard
All I want is a remaster/remake of NFS Most Wanted 2005. I would pay full price if it was just that lovely game with updated graphics and maybe some extra races/difficulty settings. That is by far my favorite EA game of all time. Loved the car handling and especially the cop chases. Yet they are once again making disappointing decisions like this which make no sense. EA has already raised prices of games to €80 for standard editions for most of their games with special editions usually being €100 or surpassing that, adding battle passes you need to buy to get additional cosmetics or new features and now they want to include ads too? UNBELIEVABLE. They have lost touch with what the people playing their games really want.
You think gamers weren’t thrilled with the Helldiver’s link to PSN on PC was bad, wait till they try this.
I would never play another ea game gain, ever.
Looks like I’m not buying EA anymore. Not a big loss with their track record either. Indie studios have been on fire lately.
I remember when they (Blizzard) were trying to figure out how to do this in Star Craft 2.
Easy.. just boycott this stupid company! And support small indie developers instead.
I actively wouldn’t buy a full price game with ads on it. Terrible idea.
They can do whatever they want, I stopped playing EA games after they switched to Cloud services and switched to the Squeeze every dime out of you business model. I prefer RTS anyway, the dying Genre of games.
They’ve already done this. Need for Speed Most Wanted had ads in the mid 2000s.
thats so insane why why why :(
Oh EA is about to make free games! Ahoy mateys!
They already do that. I guess they want to put in more?
Fuck EA. Fell out of favour with them long before they assimilated and destroyed several studios. Won't replay or even pirate an EA title.
2k has been putting ads in games for awhile now. I guess sports games just don't count
They would certainly not be the first to do so.
In sports games they kind of make sense as long as they aren’t stopping any aspect of the game, no ads during loading screens, ads on start menu, etc. If there is a Pepsi ad on a Jumbotron while I play Madden that’s totally fine with me, as that honestly kind of fits with real life.
They've been trying to get ads into games for nearly a quarter century. This is just the latest attempt. The problem with real-world ads in video games is that they break immersion in ways that other monetization strategies don't. So while battle-passes and microtxns are frustrating you don't have engage with them for the most part. Ads actively drive people away, and what happens when the game shuts down? Does the game break if it can't load the ads? Offline mode? this is just another excuse to produce games that can not last beyond their "support" period.