[my_usernam3]

I think I agree with you, but to play devil's advocate, the video game industry is struggling to monetize their work.

No one wants to pay for games anymore, no one wants a pay to win system in a game, and cosmetic items seem like a waste of money to most. The result is the gaming industry pulling out all the tricks to try to separate the consume from his or her wallet to pay for content.

[JohnFen]

> the video game industry is struggling to monetize their work.

The video game industry is exceedingly profitable. It makes more money than the movie industry, at nearly $100 billion per year.

I don't think it's struggling to monetize. It seems quite successful at that.

[thewebcount]

> No one wants to pay for games anymore

Is that true, or are games so broken that nobody is willing to pay for them anymore. I've completely stopped buying almost any game that isn't on Apple Arcade because I know those games will be free of pay-to-win mechanics and nickel-and-diming you with more charges and dark patterns. On Apple's service, they all have to ask if they want to steal my data and resell it. I always say "No." I have a Steam account for playing older games I bought a while ago, but I buy maybe 1 game per year on it, if even, and only because it's not available anywhere else I'm willing to spend money. I'm playing more games than ever before now, too!

[mrguyorama]

It had no problem monetizing their work BEFORE the microtransaction hellscape we have now, which has made these companies insanely profitable.

[account42]

Exactly - it's not that there aren't people that want to buy games, it's that giving games away for free and then selling microtransactions is more profitable.

[leroy-is-here]

It’s always great to have companies like FromSoft who still make great and complete games which empirically deny claims like “people don’t want to pay for games “. The statement feels like it came from a board room that was discussing the latest digital-cosmetic store dark pattern.