Call of Duty content creators are already teasing the return of the beloved Fortune’s Keep map with the Warzone Season 2 update on PS5 and Xbox.
Trevor Walker said: Well, here we are again. Every time I think I’ve said all I have to say about this topic, another studio falls into the same cycle. Monetization in video games seems to be getting more and more out of hand. If you’ve played any AAA title in the last 6 years, you’ve surely seen it. Battle passes, exclusive skins, and sometimes pay to win features have spread throughout the gaming industry like a plague, and we need a cure. Badly. I never thought I’d see the day, but the first game that comes to mind is one that holds a special place in my heart.
You need a cure. Here it is:
1. Don’t buy the game.
2. Don’t just not buy the game, announce it!
Announce on every social media/chat/discourse/streaming … platform available & imaginable that you will not buy the game that is coming out & state the reason that we all know. Then advise others to do the same.
Once you’ve announced it, announce it again for the next game by the same dev that you will not buy their future product either, because of their past dealings with consumers.
3. See 1.
I don't sub to anything digital, games, movies, TV shows, etc. I just take what I want for PC for the unbeatable price of $0.00 🤣 But I sometimes buy the occasional game, but as for the others I mentioned yeah ok, haha paying for a streaming service to watch shows, movies, etc man GTFO lol
I know many people who don’t buy MTs or support gaas. But unfortunately there are just as many people that I know who do and they don’t care about it. Companies won’t stop doing it until the vast majority don’t buy anything. Some GaaS do it better than others but most are looking to make as much MT money as they can get away with and there’s too many who don’t mind it at all
Reviewers can prioritize monetization schemes in their reviews and give companies low scores based on severity.
This is one of the reasons why I've been focusing more on older games from PS3 & X360 all the way back to the NES.
Rarely can a modern big budget game garner my attention, because its just the same stale concept over and over again. Open world, busy work, grinding, where your job is literally to be a trash collector (constantly picking up endless resources off the ground), the entire industry has been copying Ubi-junk, and I'm just not interested.
Add in the fact that games are clearly releasing in beta form (sometimes very early beta form!), then there's randomized gear you have to pick up and upgrade, then all those boring skill trees to fill in, which is the laziest form of fake game progression imaginable.
Then there's the nasty business model of paying an extra $20 just to play an unfinished game 3 days early. Disgusting behavior, and anyone who supports those companies are actively making our industry worse.
The game industry has never been perfect, but its also never been this bad either.
Activision Blizzard is now charging $80 USD for a 'Godzilla x Kong' crossover weapon for 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III'.
I noticed that it doesn’t say Microsoft but Activision blizzard like trying to cover for them as if Microsoft don’t own it
Ah, the powerfully reductive "you're just jealous" defense.
Perhaps you don't understand how much corporations subscribe to the belief that they should "never let a good tragedy go to waste". The layoffs at ABK and this article have something in common: gamers who are aware of the acquisition would blame Microsoft, but those who aren't as up on this news as we are (most normal people) would say it's a scummy move from ABK. See my point? There's no agreement about who is to blame. It's fascinating because the way it is reported, you'd think they're a separate entity. I think Microsoft wants that. If you boycott ABK but you've got a Game Pass sub, you're still supporting them.
Purely anecdotal, but I do have a friend who hated Starfield not coming to PlayStation. He's got all of the platforms, but he does love his trophies. So what'd he do? He got Game Pass to play Starfield making sure Bethesda made "pennies on the dollar" (his words). He has no idea they're the same company and thought the exclusivity was a deal rather than a consequence of the acquisition, but that's my point: he's as normie as can be.
So when you say hate has increased, I think it's more a consequence of their actions following the purchase rather than any loyalty to a box. What's more, Microsoft is doing a pretty decent job of insulating themselves from what should probably be bigger backlash because there is a constant public separation of their properties. It's kind of like people having no idea Apple owns Beats or Better Help being an Israeli company.
@S2Killiniy
I used the comment section of this site, which is very good at gauging Sony Fanboy status...
Once again, as I always explain, I own and love both, but there is absolutely a one sided fanboy status that Sony fans pretend doesn't exist. I think it's because they want to justify their purchase and want to be on the cool side so they mock and insult the other console. A lot like iPhone users versus Android users...
Also, this article is also misleading. You don't but the glove for $80. You get it for free for buying 4 other $20 items... It rewards the whales. Nothing wrong with that.... It's cosmetic! And technically, it's free...
Last Activision game i played was Transformers Devastation a PS+ freebie.. before that i have no idea.. I am boycotting them since PS3 for their anti consumer practices.
It shouldn't cost EIGHTY F#$KING DOLLARS!! they're making more than enough money, and you just love bending over and spreading your cheeks to give them even more. Tf is wrong with you people? 🤨
It costs more than the game it ships on and offers very little for some sort of movie tie in licensing thing it's gross.
No one is upset with them making money they want them to instead great their players with some respect which this clearly does not
For those who didn't bother reading the article, it's given automatically to anyone who buys 4 of the other DLC
it's not Microsoft it's the idiots that still run Activision in LA
they need to close that office and put xbox peeps on the games and it will be great
LA office employees think of themselves over the company that is paying them - sad but true
They put $20 on a generic color for halo infinite…
Microsoft is not going to be a solution.
MS probably didn't make them do it. But they didn't object either.
Is it activision now or is MS to blame now? MS owns them so it’s no longer what activision wants to do or Bobby kotick
I am just really tired of the greed in gaming industry right now. A company could make 250 million in profit and the following year could make 248 million. Instead of saying we made half a billion in 2 years they say we lost 2 million.
Well they would have done it anyway, but MS would have maybe had to sign off on the deal? So both.
That's not how profit/loss statements work. A loss would be income minus expenses. What you're talking about is growth and/or the lack thereof.
Greed is inherent in all of us. Most individuals are self-serving and greedy; but few of us will admit as much.
Profit loss statement yes but these suits just don’t see it that way anymore. We have people investing in gaming who have no clue on how this works. All they see are numbers only
You should read about opportunity cost on investopedia. Whoever has a stake in companies are more and more making decisions like that: Opportunity cost represents the potential benefits that a business, an investor, or an individual consumer misses out on when choosing one alternative over another.
They believe that they will indeed lose the potential of more revenue if not adding more micro transactions. Even if the experience is bad. If a 100K people are willing to pay for this then for them they see no other choice but implementing it. They don't want to lose the opportunity of selling to whales or people susceptible to predatory tactics. The fun experience comes second in their eyes.
The only recent good example I can think of is Helldivers 2. And let's hope that remains like that. Warbonds and items can be farmed in a very reasonable time (Got a free warbond in less than 20 hours of gameplay myself). And no Fomo since it will always be available. Guess what I did. I bought the other one to support the studio but was not needed in any way to enjoy the experience.
"It's just cosmetic DLC! Don't buy it!" The problem is not that is cosmetic, the problem is that anyone with a functional brain saw the dark path we were heading a mile away. These companies employed outside firms in order to cater to the easily addicted personalities; Their whales. And it worked.
And what happened?
The abuse of cheap DLCs and Microtransactions by these companies Fundamentally changed how they design and develop their games. Now they just make billions selling the absolute worst trash to addicts. And THAT's the problem.
AAA games were supposed to be AAA experiences that have turned into AAA Bull💩 Trap Houses for microtransaction Junkies.
To each their own, but with uBeSawft now pushing for an always Online Single Player Campaign future, don't say we don't know where this path is headed. Cuz we know and we're focked. You've been warned.
Now get the fudge off my lawn hippies!
And the ones that have, you can even pinpoint exactly how the design of the game has been altered in order to accommodate such microtransactions.
Take Capcom fixation in making Fast Travelling a pain in Dragon's Dogma 1 & 2. Where you have to waste a lot of in-game money in order to move around. The original DD didn't have the Eternal Ferrystone, so they added it with the expansion because people were mad and the whole Microtransaction thing was too risky at the time. But instead of carrying that item over, and making the traversal experience a joy - Hello, Elden Ring - what do they do? Microtransaction bay bay! Pony up real ca$h or grind down the same path ad nauseam. Great choice.
And this example is on the more benign side of things. Games like Call of Duty have irreversibly changed their entire game design philosophy.
It was never about us not buying the DLCs "Cuz it's only Cosmetic!!" but about them finding a complete difference audience to exploit. And that they did indeed.
Stellar Blade, Balur's Gate 3, FF7 Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, Spider-man 2 and plenty of others disagree.
Ok, you named a few incredible games that differ...
All other games disagree with you
Call of Duty Warzone players will see today's solar eclipse happen in-game, which is kind of a neat thing to do by Activision.
We're afraid that for a few hours today you may actually go touch grass, we can't have that. Activision
