I’ll take that as a compliment (even though there’s no conceivable way that’s meant as a compliment lol). 
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for better or worse, govts are gonna look into this stuff
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Looking back in time to the “mortal kombat hearing” days, I tend to think it’s for the worse. But regardless of what I think, the games industry definitely doesn’t want this. Which ironically means ut could be very good. The threat of government intervention is especially impactful to large developers and it might persuade them to get their act together first, in order to prevent any new laws or regulations.
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my trust in govt is very low, i have no faith in it. also once they get their foot in the door theyll never leave but instead will try to push further in.
anyway, maybe this will wake up AAA devs to quit their ■■■■■ with this loot box junk. me personally, i just would love for games to go back to 1 time purchase. expansions are fine, long as its worth the $$$
Well, that’s one of the more interesting takes I’ve seen today. Without outside publisher funding. SFV doesn’t exist. Full stop. You don’t get Laura or Abigail or Menat or even updated Ken, we’d all still be watching a decade-old game at Capcom Cup, and the future of “eSports” probably shifts to some other title. The End. If someone is willing to bankroll a project to the tune of several million dollars, then yes - they expect to make some (lots of) money back. And that’s ok - if someone wasn’t looking after the bottom line then the industry wouldn’t work, period; especially at the AAA level. The SFV situation isn’t that unique - someone has to take the upfront risk to let a game sit in development for several years without making a dime. Even Blizzard eventually decided to stop self-publishing at some point, and they’re one of the few “guaranteed” moneymaker developers out there.
Loot boxes and microtransactions are things that companies and publishers and consumers are and will continue to feel out for the foreseeable future. I think Mass Effect 3’s loot box system was pure genius, and it got me to invest in the title for 3 years, with new maps, characters, and scenarios galore, without me personally having to pay a dime more than the $80 I dropped on the Collector’s Edition. I never thought a Harrier X was worth me shelling out money trying to get, so I just…didn’t shell out money. I played the game and enjoyed the weapons that I got, and eagerly played as each new free content pack was released. If you asked me if I’d rather Destiny 2 used loot boxes instead of pricey expansions, I’m pretty sure I’d choose the loot box experience. It’s worth losing 1/10 firefights in Crucible to me to be able to get the Taken King or Curse of Osiris or whatever free of charge.
And for all the people out there who despise EA and everything they stand for, it’s important to understand that their size and eye for making a steady buck are what allow them to also sponsor titles that probably won’t be making tons of cash. Mirror’s Edge 2 isn’t a gamble a company that doesn’t have a solid financial byline gets to take. Companies living on the edge don’t often get to invest in labor of love works or new IP’s that Joe Consumer probably won’t be interested in.
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“thank you for playing early access”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. In EA’s case it seems like they might be pretty much done with games that aren’t big market-optimized sellers, at least as far as their AAA titles go. And any other more creative titles they involve themselves with may very well just get assimilated into that plan and become mediocre fodder for it, like we’ve seen in the past.
To me the problem isn’t microtransactions and loot box systems existing, it’s the bad decisions these companies make with them and the lackluster payoff they offer in return. As usual it comes down to companies that prove they can do these ideas right to enhance their games, and those who don’t and squander their games’ potential. And unfortunately EA tends to be the latter.
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It’s fine not to like what EA does with games. I don’t like lots of things they’ve done. But people need to realize EA isn’t making money through black magic. They are funding the development of games which are producing good returns on investment. The only way that works is if lots of people are giving them lots of money for those games. We can all decide whether we like it or not on our own, but we have to admit they’re successful.
We’ve had a couple of pretty high profile “breakups” between creative geniuses and the major studios that fund them lately. These have invariably led to highly anticipated games produced by the creative genius - which have disappointed everyone. Yet somehow everyone is willing to entertain almost every imaginable explanation other than the fact that publishers actually contribute to making games better. If anything ever goes wrong with a franchise we blame the publisher but no one ever thinks they might be contributing something to making games successful. We just assume that developers would make perfect games if it wasn’t for publishers. Doesn’t make sense to me.
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Commercially, EA is very successful and there’s no arguing against that. But this issue is about the quality of the games being created under their name, and to a significant degree under their control and influence. How much money people give them doesn’t say everything except for their marketing and mass-appealing IPs.
I’m not trying to frame the whole issue as a black-and-white “developers good, publishers bad” sort of thing. Both are vital to creating videogames, both can ■■■■■ up and make bad choices, and across most of the games industry they actually play together nicely. I just think EA has become a spectacularly narrow-minded and unwise business concerning its studios and the games it helps develop. With the all cancellations, studio closures, disappointing titles, suspended series, and repeated controversies related to them I can’t muster any compelling reason to defend them anymore.
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The thing is, everyone has skeletons in their closets
Capcom is infamous for their DLC politics(remember DLC blocked on disc?)
Activison basically doesn’t do anything but COD and Destiny now. Other stuff is extremelly rare
Ubisoft doesn’t polish their games, launching with a lot of bugs(Several Assassins, Watchdogs…)
The list goes on
My particular view about the industry is quite simple: I don’t support “X” company. I support “good work”. If “X” developes 50 crap games, but one master piece, then I will get that master piece.
EA has some ■■■■ of them, but they make good games. Not all, of course. I’m a big Mass Effect fan, and I didn’t got Andromeda yet, because I don’t approve what they made with the franchise, and even being a huge Mass Effect fan isn’t enough to make me buy a crap game.
Meanwhile, Battlefield 1 gave me(and still does!) hours of fun. I got Battlefront 2 since I like the game, besides their loot box politics. My way to NOT support them is not spending a single euro in loot boxes. I also enjoyed a lot DA:Inquisition
Is EA making mistakes? Sure. It’s everything they do a mistake? Nop. Should I boicot them for their mistakes? I don’t believe so, just don’t take what you don’t like, and get what you like.
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I actually liked ME: Andromeda. It isn’t a bad game by any means, even if it was a bit buggy at launch. I liked the story, the characters, the exploration (the starscapes are absolutely gorgeous), and the combat was quite good also.
Long story short - I think the community uproar over the game was overblown, and made a flawed but good game into the worst monstrosity ever created. Which sucks, because I think the Andromeda universe and narrative has a lot of potential.
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I agree. Games are what matter in the end, not companies and consoles.
I don’t have any grudge against EA or anything, nor am I saying Ubisoft or especially Activision are saints by comparison. I’m just explaining why my opinion of them and many others is so low and distrusting of them. They haven’t offered me anything besides disappointment in past years, especially concerning established franchises that I used to count myself as a fan of.
It definitely wasn’t the disaster people were making it out to be, and it played fairly well, but otherwise I thought it was a disappointingly average experience. Same for Dragon Age Inquisition.
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I liked ME: Andromeda, but it didn’t have Garrus Valkerian or Liara and thus it was doomed in my heart from the get go. 
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