Thread for predatory practices in the industry (you will own nothing)

[Segata]

I'll start with a recent couple of news:



https://www.pcgamer.com/like-a-dragon-i ... 5-upgrade/

It makes it all the more baffling, then, that Sega's upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is locking its New Game+ mode behind its Deluxe and Ultimate editions, which cost an extra $15 and $40 on top of the base game respectively. This is a series which, traditionally, has had its own features locked behind a NG+ run such as the legendary difficulty mode.

Specifically, NG+ is being folded into the 'Master Vacation Bundle' which isn't included with the game's base version. According to the game's official website the bundle also includes a bonus dungeon, special sujimon (from a Pokémon-like mode), resort guests, outfits "and more."

Frustratingly, none of these specifics are included on the game's Steam page. It lists out each edition and what bundles you get for them, but fails to detail what's included in each one. That means if you're just going by the Steam page it's perfectly reasonable to assume that a series which has traditionally included NG+ for no extra price would, in fact, have it in its standard edition.

https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-ex ... o-take-off

An executive at Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft has said gamers will need to get “comfortable” not owning their games before video game subscriptions truly take off.

"I don't have a crystal ball, but when you look at the different subscription services that are out there, we've had a rapid expansion over the last couple of years, but it's still relatively small compared to the other models," Tremblay said.

"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.

[Goblin_Hammer]

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evi ... d-updates/

Back in October 2023, Capcom asserted that mods were "no different than cheating," causing a pretty negative response from players. Last week, Capcom pushed that mindset further, introducing a piece of software called Enigma, that was aimed at preventing modders from accessing a game's .exe files and thus modding the game itself.

[Humbaba]

It is time to quit gaming.



-Humbaba

[maidenhaver]

https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-ex ... o-take-off

An executive at Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft has said gamers will need to get “comfortable” not owning their games before video game subscriptions truly take off.

"I don't have a crystal ball, but when you look at the different subscription services that are out there, we've had a rapid expansion over the last couple of years, but it's still relatively small compared to the other models," Tremblay said.

"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.

Executives need to get comfortable with gamers pirating games.

[WhiteShark]

I think there is a resurgence of anti-Publisherism because at this point in time gamers have not yet learned how to own nothing, and I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Gaming is not going to be the consumer-friendly hobby it once was in the last century. Publishers are going to be at the center of that. It's a huge transformation for gaming to make. They are now going into a subscription mode and publishers will be resented because of our leading role, but without that leading role and without that transformation, gaming will not survive.

[jcd]

An executive at Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft has said gamers will need to get “comfortable” not owning their games before video game subscriptions truly take off.

This is true though nobody should be paying for Ubisoft's boring faggot games. On PS4 you pay something like $10 and have access to hundreds of games. That's orders of magnitude cheaper than you'd get buying them normally. At this point I don't think anyone gives a fuck about collecting CDs. If you really want to own this or that game forever just pirate it and store it on an external drive or a NAS.

Sales are hyper-optimized to a point where games that are 1 or 2 months old get sold for 33% off, to boost their first quarter sales. After a year it's often -66% or -75%. If you don't give a shit about playing the newest games at release (why should you), you can get most of them after a year for a cheapo subscription. If you don't pirate that's probably the best deal you're going to get. It's gay to be attached to DVD cases on a shelf like it's your funko pop collection.

[Rand]

Well here's the thing. Corpo scum love subscriptions, but it's been made clear over the last century that consumers don't.
The last big subscription wave was video streaming after Netflix got big and profitable. How'd that work out for the industry? Hint: it didn't. Most lost money and none ever, not even Netflix, hit subscriber targets.
Now the big gaming retards see GamePass or whatever (which is a loss leader to try to get fools into the walled gardens of the shitty consoles) as a potential corpo revenue stream (subscribe to UbiShart Plus!) and are too fucking stupid to see that it won't work.
Fucking imbeciles are just gonna sink their own company trying it. Maybe they should.

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

The most obvious is when a microtransaction shop has their little faggy funny-money currency you are required to buy in bulk and priced in such a way you will always need to spend a few dollars or more.

For example, Ropulos' Mom costs $7 but you can only buy Kalin Bucks in $5 or $10 increments at the Crime Mall.

[Segata]

Can you guys take the off-topic shitflinging to another thread? I don't wanna do an Infinitron here (but I will if needed)

Relevant thread:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=328-the-jew-thread ... ead#unread

[Humbaba]

Wait a minute this isn't the jew thread.




-Humbaba

[Havitner]

Steam dropped support for W7 and W8 on January 1st 2024. Yeah, 'just update to W10', 'just install gentoo'. I get it. The OS is old, and I actually switched to Linux around the same time anyway.

But the fact that they can just lock people out of all the games they've bought is disgusting. I have single player games on steam that haven't received any updates since 2002, but now I suddenly can't play them anymore because my OS is 'too old'.

[maidenhaver]

Steam dropped support for W7 and W8 on January 1st 2024. Yeah, 'just update to W10', 'just install gentoo'. I get it. The OS is old, and I actually switched to Linux around the same time anyway.

But the fact that they can just lock people out of all the games they've bought is disgusting. I have single player games on steam that haven't received any updates since 2002, but now I suddenly can't play them anymore because my OS is 'too old'.

Avast ye!

[rusty_shackleford]

Steam dropped support for W7 and W8 on January 1st 2024. Yeah, 'just update to W10', 'just install gentoo'. I get it. The OS is old, and I actually switched to Linux around the same time anyway.

But the fact that they can just lock people out of all the games they've bought is disgusting. I have single player games on steam that haven't received any updates since 2002, but now I suddenly can't play them anymore because my OS is 'too old'.

Just install Arch.

[jcd]

But the fact that they can just lock people out of all the games they've bought is disgusting. I have single player games on steam that haven't received any updates since 2002, but now I suddenly can't play them anymore because my OS is 'too old'.

You'll find that Linux and SteamOS in particular have better support for old games than any version of Windows.

[KnightoftheWind]

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[rusty_shackleford]

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evi ... d-updates/

Back in October 2023, Capcom asserted that mods were "no different than cheating," causing a pretty negative response from players. Last week, Capcom pushed that mindset further, introducing a piece of software called Enigma, that was aimed at preventing modders from accessing a game's .exe files and thus modding the game itself.

They're probably doing this because denuvo is actually pretty expensive and keeping it long-term on high selling titles is probably expensive as fuck.
For those that don't know, Denuvo licenses are per-seat(per-customer). When you start selling games on discounts, they might actually be losing money sometimes or getting damn close. It's also why a lot of games just "choose" to remove Denuvo after a year or two, the games aren't profitable enough per copy to keep paying the fees.

[Goblin_Hammer]

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evi ... d-updates/

Back in October 2023, Capcom asserted that mods were "no different than cheating," causing a pretty negative response from players. Last week, Capcom pushed that mindset further, introducing a piece of software called Enigma, that was aimed at preventing modders from accessing a game's .exe files and thus modding the game itself.

They're probably doing this because denuvo is actually pretty expensive and keeping it long-term on high selling titles is probably expensive as fuck.
For those that don't know, Denuvo licenses are per-seat(per-customer). When you start selling games on discounts, they might actually be losing money sometimes or getting damn close. It's also why a lot of games just "choose" to remove Denuvo after a year or two, the games aren't profitable enough per copy to keep paying the fees.

I find it weird their adding this to older single player games where it's not needed. Here's a list below me of added enigma drm to older games. I don't see a profit incentive since most of these games are old and already have torrents for them floating around the internet. But you could be right since some of them got enigma drm after denuvo was removed.

[maidenhaver]

Games are shit.

[jcd]

A lot of these games are single player titles which are already available on torrents. I wonder what's the point.

[Nooneatall]

Well games were good while they lasted.
Rip video games
1980 - 2010

[Nammu Archag]

A lot of these games are single player titles which are already available on torrents. I wonder what's the point.

IP worship is a very real thing that you might have noticed before if you've ever been around Silicon Valley types. They will run themselves into the red over "protecting their intellectual property" despite not understanding how any of this actually works (and usually not even having anything to do with the creation of said IP lol). Japanese firms are also rabid about it for whatever reason, probably a part of their weird elite americanism cult.