I can finally stop saying it (Gaming)

by Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316) , Detroit, Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 18:44 (633 days ago) @ EffortlessFury

One of the biggest issues with paid games is that you have to be willing to put down the money for something you've yet to actually play, and often times you don't know that you dislike it until you can no longer refund it. (in the case of physical sales, the moment you open it, you can no longer return it) Free to play has the advantage of letting a player determine they enjoy the product and then give money to the developer if they so desire. Even if the game's design was completely reasonable in its pricing and what it offered, this would still be more advantageous as it greatly increases reach and thus a greater potential for profit.

Used to love playing the various demos on 360. Most games had a demo in the early days, and ALL XBLA games had a free trial. Gods, I miss the 360.

Game Pass is a decent alternative to this and is what I have always liked about it. Developers of traditional, non-MTX (save for significant DLC) games get paid and players who have the subscription have zero barrier to entry for any of those titles. Instead of whales subsidizing the cost of a F2P game, a subscription subsidizes the cost of every game on the service.

The government should honestly just ban any type of MTX/loot box. They have had such a huge objectively negative effect on the quality of games. Let devs and publishers figure out cheaper ways to make the games if the traditional way doesn't make money any more. Using better tools or AI or what have you.