Back to our regular scheduling program, a number of missteps and breach of trusts yet again. Though, I feel as if things have gotten way out of hand than they have before. I don't know why these companies can be so inhumane about this, treating us like cattle, thinking we will have money to spare and spend it instead of fixing our current financial problems.
People can do whatever they want with their money, but leaves scorn at the end result of giving money to corporate giants that don't want to treat us any better. The economy is in shambles, Amazon lost 1 trillion dollars market cap, and now everybody it seems desperate to cash in much as possible.
But where does it all end? Is this the start of the worst so far? Does that mean that all the worse fears we had this time, are finally coming to be a reality? I wish I could keep this aside, no one likes to talk about bad news all the time, but there are so many problems that are brewing even now.
Constantly Being Deceptive
What is it about this company that still continues to deceive us in many ways, even after knowing how they play their games, they still continue to be a nuisance. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II finally seems like the game we've all waited for, it did better than what the 2019 game did in many respects. And what does Activision Blizzard do?
They sell us anemic, 72MB sized physical disc versions of the game. There's nothing inside, and the only way to play is to download the rest of the game as an update. Why do this? It feels like e-waste, when you sell them something that only acts as a media to be used for transferring ownership. Was it because the main game was 150GB large? Why not sell the game with 2 discs? You're already charging people 70 USD, or just put the campaign mode in there?
There's a video about game preservation made by SomeOrdinaryGamers that is still very relevant to discuss now. And I agree, pirates despite hurting companies, they also help preserve game files that companies don't bother to. But their blunders aren't over yet, because now we're gonna look at Overwatch 2.
Overwatch 2 was a good change of direction as a game, it fixed many of the issues that plagued the original, and changes to character kits that were welcomed (though, some were not). Overall, the game found a way to make it reachable to anyone. But, the progression system is something dastardly. Because you have to unlock characters via the season pass. Which wasn't there in the original, but now every progression is tied to it. And some estimates made, people are guessing that it'll take centuries of grind to unlock everything.
As if that wasn't bad enough as it is already, Mei and a few other characters got locked out of the game because of broken bugs and balancing problems. Who does that? I hope no one follows this, and then there's the whole season pass grind for unlocking new characters. It took the worst of live service in order to be F2P. There's nothing wonderful about that. Is Activision Blizzard ever going to change? What happened to the stance they took after Microsoft's acquisition announcement?
Yeah, let's talk about that one on this next segment.
How Much Disdain Can One Carry?
Once heralded as one of the greatest electronics companies out there, I grew up with a lot of their stuff around. CRTV, stereo system, Walkman, the only time I've ever owned a PlayStation was with the PS4. But ever since then, I'd stayed away from them. Only looking at the DSLR camera and TV departments. They've only become a company now that latches on to their movie business and PlayStation brand. And they've lost so much of their ways in the last decade or so.
I've talked before about God of War Ragnarök's pricing being high for the PS5 when it doesn't offer much. But one of my biggest gripes with this company is how they're setting the worst example for pricing of games and their own system. One which even Microsoft is caving to, and thinking of following.
One of their other egregious plays is how they're meddling into major acquisitions from Microsoft. The Activision Blizzard merger deal with the aforementioned company is getting investigated by the UK and EU regulators. Remember, this is their biggest purchase ever, and Microsoft went through an antitrust lawsuit back in 2000, they barely got out from that. I've mentioned on the last segment why Activision Blizzard isn't doing so hot right now, and it's probably because they have doubts now on their minds.
Just remember, Sony this year increased pricing of the PS5 across multiple countries and regions. They're already adapting the 70 USD pricing so readily. The justification for that I guess is giving more features and covering development costs. But now that feels like a flimsy reason. But if that's bad, this new report is astoundingly terrifying.
Yes, that add-on translates to microtransactions and DLCs. I mean, it's nothing new. Sony has had that for years. But recent rumors have been circulating that Sony wants to heavily invest into the F2P live service market, they even want their own Genshin Impact game. I mean, what's stopping them? They're already at their peak avarice, why not go further? The data indicates that they make more there than their actual game IP releases. This year it went down, but they're moving to earn back the loss here by next year, and you can guess how that scenario will play out.
Bracing For The Future
So Naughty Dog hired a battle pass designer from Fortnite to, well, work on their upcoming Last of Us multiplayer game. Yeah, never sounds good, but I wish them well. Anyway, I am done talking about Sony. It's the same thing right now.
But look at what Square Enix did, you thought they were done with NFTs? The Parasite Eve fans did though, or they weren't aware, that's what was going on this year. A Symbiogenesis trademark had been filed, which was clearly a reference from their Parasite Eve games. With the recent revivals and trends of horror games within the last few months, some thought Square Enix was hoping the bandwagon. Nope, this spineless, tactless company decided to jump into NFTs instead, and that's what it was. Nothing to do with that game series. Didn't they tell us they're taking a break from it?
So while Modern Warfare II had finally filled in on the military shooter void, where has Battlefield 2042 gone to? It turns out, even after adding missing features, fixing the bugs, and putting in more content. It didn't do anything, because the foundation of the game just isn't as impressive as their earlier titles. And that's where most people went back to. Battlefield 1 player count have ridiculously surged, about nearly 10 times the number compared to where 2042 is now. Maybe the next Battlefield game will be pretty far off from now.
Roblox this year lost money, as much as other companies have. Which is why I think they've been allowing (or just looking way) their community game developers to create gambling based rewards systems. Where you open like loot boxes and get randomized items, but you'll need Robux, which is Roblox's official in-game currency. Back in 2020, the marketplace fee was around 90% for normal users, meaning that creators kept only 10% of whatever is sold. Guess what, that was lowered to 30% for everyone. This opened a pandora's box of bad ideas in a game where mostly kids play in. They've been also investing into the Metaverse, VR gambling for kids. Just great.
The current recession will last probably till 2023 or even longer. In fact, some say the real recession hasn't even begun yet. If that's so, was this middle point the whole time? I can barely afford any games, I had plans on getting a PS5 and upgrading my PC this year. It doesn't seem like I am coming close to those plans any longer. Which is why it boils my skin that companies are becoming toothless like this.
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And the worst part is that unfortunately, more than already being a commonplace set of conventions in the game industry, it is far likely that these will only be rising more and more, clearly by the economic incentive of companies to get more and more money by any costs...specially when these so-often criticized battle pass and live services approaches happen to still generate all the money they want.
Just look at how Diablo Inmortal went: Despite all the shady practices criticized and such, it still made HUGE bank, and I feel almost sorry for the guy that tried to protest against the game by buying a huge rare gem or something only to discard it...because he already paid THAT much for it; the money's already in their pockets and its all they want, so it is a huge example about how sometimes it turns into a pointless cycle of trying to prove a point to companies...when all they see is the money flowing in.
There's really two answers for this:
Either way is unacceptable. If someone buys a physical copy of a game, they should be getting that physical copy. They should have the Campaign and the base multiplayer on the disc. Not using the disc as a key to unlock those contents to download.
The point you make about overwatch 2 though, I've gotta disagree with. Of course this is coming from someone who hasn't played Overwatch. But from what I understand from your post is that you need to purchase the season pass then you unlock characters by reaching certain levels of the season pass.
I find nothing wrong with this. IIRC, Overwatch 2 is a f2p game. In order to make up for the costs of it being an F2P game, there needs to be some sort of microtransactions. Having it harder to level is just the downside to an F2P as it incentivizes people to buy shortcuts, which is where the company makes money.
If they wanted to implement this more successfully they could really offer a subscription system like some MMO's do. Have a monthly Sub cost x amount of price, in it include say the season pass and early access to it, an exclusive character every now and then, and have subs earn experience towards the season pass faster.
F2P games seem good in short term, but players often end up paying for it somewhere down the road.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the paid subscription version. But you do have a point, some point they all have to pay for it.