It's not uncommon to see a game exploit female characters sexually in order to make a sale, but the question is... do people really like it in the first place?
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds
With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?
Not clicking on your article otherwise.
MY KIND OF ARTICLE...
x_x
Notice all the pictures are of only the sexualized women, not the men, which seem to be just as common.
People should save their ridiculous double-standards lest they end up being laughed at as pathetic relics of the past.
Good looking PEOPLE are "exploited" to get sales. It's called marketing.
If the article is actually decent and reasonable, I'm sorry. I just can't risk giving a click to any more redundant nonsense.
Since AD-block i haven't had to look at those weird sexualized game ads lol. Games with a more serious tone generally don't have characters that portray male or females accurately, they either look like models who are perfectly toned or have over exaggerated muscles/boobs. I stopped caring about this stuff a while ago, i play games for the gameplay first.
People who complain and or promote sexual exploitation, using it as a primary reason to play games... are casual gamers. It is annoying because Publishers force devs to cater to the casual audience for more $$$. But that is the world we live in as of now. Hopefully it changes soon, because there are many, many, MANY more problems in the gaming community that also need fixing. But back on topic, I don't mind if a female character in a game looks visually appealing (I am a guy after all.), but if that is the main focus, I could care less about the game. Especially since I am in school for CIS (Computer Information Systems) and Videogame Design... I will hope to be able to get my input into gaming, where it counts. Hopefully sparking a trend of true growth rather than exploited growth. Which is the major trend as of now.
I wouldn't have Lara Croft any other way.