[p1necone]

I notice the examples you're giving are all lower budget indie games, it's also worth pointing out that there's a /tonne/ of big budget games that also eschew this kind of nonsense. See: FromSoftware, basically anything that was a Sony published PS4 exclusive (Horizon Zero Dawn, Spiderman, Days Gone, Uncharted, etc etc), Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, basically everything Nintendo puts out, many many more (honestly I could probably recommend like 50+ AAA quality titles released in the past ~5 years if I sat here thinking for a while, without predatory microtransactions (maybe a few would sell some silly cosmetic items but that's about it)).

Really if you ignore the 'axis of evil' publishers (Activision, EA, Ubisoft) /most/ AAA games are fine.

Also in any single player Ubisoft game I've played (so mostly Far Cry and Assassins creed + Ghost Recon Wildlands (which is great btw)) the microtransactions can be completely ignored, none of their games are balanced around people spending money like mobile games are, nor is any meaningful content locked behind a pay wall unless it's in the form of a proper expansion/stand alone spinoff.

There seems to be a commonly held opinion on HN threads like this that the gaming industry has failed beyond repair, and all AAA games are dark pattern riddled slot machines. But it's really not true outside of a handful of large bad actor publishers. Just open up Steam and read user reviews, it's pretty obvious when a game is a poor cash grab.

I echo the sentiment of another comment here, saying that the market for "good" games never went away (really it's grown). It's just that there's now also another market, serving different customers with casual games with gameplay related microtransactions - which you can completely ignore as a consumer.

[dylan604]

Not being a game dev, I've often wondered how much the mobile platform for games lowered the barier to entry compared to PC/console games. Unity came along and opened up a lot of doors for people, but I'm not sure how much it is used for mobile (should provide an idea of my knowledge--or lack of--in this area).

Mobile games seems to just be flooded with copycat/clones with slight variations of the same game play with a lot looking like something that could be completed in a weekend or 2 or 3 weekends by someone looking for a quick buck. I've seen some games that look interesting, but their lootbox or other constant nagging for paid enhancements are really just a total turn off.

[donavanm]

I have a little knowledge of actual gambling “games” ala video poker etc. They seem to be dominated by large publishers who farm content from a collection of in house & contract “studios.” The studious crank out an entire new game on the order of 12-16 weeks using a single integrated team of development, art assets, marketing and production management. Releasing multiple games varying in assets/branding, but identical mechanics, is a very intentional strategy. Applies to “refrahing” popular older games as well.

History wise I suspect the micro monetized mobile apps trace their origins back to the “social platform” games of the 2000s ala Zynga, and the online “game platforms” of poker, faux-scrabble, etc of the yahoo era.

[bobthepanda]

I think part of the problem is the games that ended up setting the tone for the platform. Consoles historically did a fair amount of vetting of titles on their platforms. Steam did not have programs like Greenlight or Early Access until later in its lifetime.

Mobile's games that set the tone were ad-supported tchotchkes with microtransactions and the rest is history.

[8note]

Mobile imo replaced flash games... which were also full of variations on a theme

[AniseAbyss]

There's a lot of money in gambling.

[dylan604]

Yeah, I've met several people that use cashapp to send money to reload their account in games, and if they do well, they get paid their winnings via cashapp. Totally circumventing the 30% cut, and legality rules too. I'm sure it's a wackamole type of thing with games getting yanked off the stores.

These are targeted directly at addicts (not just gambling) as the game play is rather basic and just entertaining enough to keep that tweaker mindset occupied.