Forbes - This article over at Kotaku is focused almost entirely on the different mindset gamers and game developers have in Japan compared to the West when it comes to things like PC gaming, cloud computing, and so forth.
The CFPB issued a report examining the growth of digital commerce in online video games and virtual worlds.
Anyone defending their company of choice is smoking something. I’ll provide just a small part of the article. If you really care about the future of gaming you have to recognize all of these companies are just using you to make money by selling off that info. They literally have a profile on you.
“Gaming companies are assembling gamers’ personal and behavioral data: Publishers are collecting large amounts of data on players, including behavioral details such as financial data, purchasing history and spending thresholds. Gaming platforms can also track players’ location data, which can generate an accurate portrait of a player’s daily routines, such as their home address, places of employment or worship, and health and medical status. And with the advent of virtual- and mixed-reality gaming, the information gathered by headsets may include biometric data such as iris scans, eye movement, pupil response, and gait analysis, which may pose medical privacy risks.”
Want to still go with the narrative that your company cares???
And they use that data to sell influence over us. That's not a conspiracy theory. That's literally how Google and Facebook, Pinterest, etc make money.*
It's not from selling your data per se. It's from selling influence. AI is the next influencer. No accounts needed.
*source: The Social Dilemma
Charging for early access has started to become a regular practice in several AAA games, and the gaming community should not tolerate this.
Don’t uh… don’t pay for it then? 🤷♂️ It’s 3 days early, let people who can’t wait pony up to pay for early access. I’d hope people have more control over themselves if they don’t want to pay extra. I personally, do not see an issue with the option. If I’m hyped for a game and they give you early access, I’ll pay. If it’s something I can wait to play on “actual release” I won’t pay extra. It’s as simple as that.
Except your entirely mistaken if you think it's "early access"
Theyre just charging you extra to play it on release. So gullible.
"Theyre just charging you extra to play it on release. So gullible."
Not really.
In some cases, paying for early access will grant you access to play those games at the same time media outlets and reviewers are playing their copies.
Besides, it´s a single player game. It´s not like early access to MP competitive games like Battlefield which EA would grant a full week early access to those willing to pay; which gives a unfair advantage to those gamers and breaks the game´s balance.
are you playing it earlier than retail release?
If that’s the correct answer, how is it not early access?
It's not early access...it's playing on release...early access is when the game isn't finished and needs a little more time...you also get it months in advance.
Let's not get confused here..
You get access to the game before it goes live for people who purchased the standard version of the game... thus you are getting early access.
Nope...you get access to the game the day it goes live. Those who didn't pay extra are blocked from accessing it as a punishment for not paying full price
Microsoft has been doing premium edition early access for awhile(Forza and Starfield recently) ...so why is it an issue now when Ubisoft does it?
It can't be the gamepass excuse as Ubisoft has day one subscriptions as well.
I´ve paid for Starfield´s Premium Edition to get early access to the game, plus Shattered Space expansion.
I don´t regret my decision and I mighty pay for it again to get early access to Fable and TESVI.
@VincentVanBro yea like the kind of idiots who worry about how adults spend their money.
@crows do you understand what the word scam means? Choosing to pay more money to play a game before other people is not being scammed.
as long as people are paying for it, it will be a thing unfortunately.
the fear of missing out is ... huge. especially online.
I don’t think it’s about missing out. Think of it like a movie you’re hyped for. You can see it early if you pay extra or just wait until Friday when it officially releases.
It’s nothing more than that.
Nope. You're not seeing it early. Everyone else is seeing it late.
When a product releases to the public...that's the release date. If they company then chooses to block access to the product unless you pay extra...that's not early access...that's day 1 access.
@Crows90
No, there’s a public release date and an early release date. Just like with movies having early screenings and then public screenings.
They let the public know the release date and then give people an option to play early by paying more.
Game industry working conditions are improving, but occupational burnout still runs amok. Studios and workers have the power to slow it down.
They do it for the hits. I'm sure they know half their headlines are ridiculous. It's part of the reason you don't see their stories on this site anymore unless another site is reporting their stupidity.
I haven't checked out anything Kotaku had to say for ablut 6 years now. Ever since they tried the hardest to put the PS3 down.
Wow, Forbes wrote this? That's awesome. Kotaku needs to be called out for that bullsh*t.
I never understood the negativity on N4G towards Kotaku until that headline. I get it now.
Kotaku is a piece of garbage! This is why i dont click on there articles anymore! And they will lose credibility amongst developers and the industry as a whole, those attention shoes bastards
Thank you, Forbes. Great read and so true.
It's a device to get hits that many people who post articles on N4G use, most likely learned from Kotaku.