This publisher, along with most of the other large publishing groups, seem set on this course of making 'games as a service'. They are trying to make console and PC games function like the old arcade games, except now when you put a coin in the slot, it is the full retail price of the game, and every subsequent coin to keep playing is now translated into micro-transactions and loot boxes. Assuming control over how and when you can play a game has been the end goal of these corporations for some time, so they can lock you into an ongoing monetisation spiral. It has just taken them a little longer than expected, with many blips along the way, but these corporations are playing their own long-term game. Take three steps forward, pushing certain practices and business models, then if there is a backlash from the consumers, they take one or two steps back (never three), and say 'hey, we listened', when in reality they are one or two steps closer to their end goal. This three-step dance has been going on for many years.
It has taken time, and considerable manipulation to get gamers to accept ever more intrusive and egregious business models. We are the frogs slowly boiling in the pan of hot water, hardly noticing that the temperature has continued to rise over the years because it has been such a gradual process. On occasions, the corporations turn the heat up a little too much to the point where we notice and complain, then turn it down again slightly until we settle back into our comfort zones. In the end, however, we will still be boiled and taken for every free cent, penny, (or insert currency here) that they can finagle out of us.
If you truly oppose the direction many of these companies are going, then the only thing they understand is lost sales. It is no good buying a game and complaining afterwards, because they already have your money. Not buying a game at all is the only thing that hits their bottom line, but that takes willpower, especially if it is a franchise you love. They know this, and prey upon that weakness, making their proposition as attractive and 'user friendly' as possible. Apologists will claim it is just something extra and 'you don't have to buy it', but if it affects the fundamental game design, as with the recent Battlefront 2 debacle, then it affects everyone, and those who do not buy into it are going to be the most negatively impacted, especially during online play, when they go up against someone who bought their way to extra power to dominate the now unlevel playing field. Literally paying to win.
The choice is in the hands of gamers, and we each have to choose where to draw our own lines of what is acceptable, and what is not. Unfortunately, I do not have much faith going forward, because so many current gamers have grown up not knowing any different. Some have grown used to micro-transactions in mobile games, or games tied to online accounts, while others simply don't care. The financial success of games employing some dubious business models speaks for itself, and the corporations know they have a captive audience, bolstered by the ongoing analytics of their psychological profiling of game consumers.
Caveat emptor, fellow gamers. The fat sharks are hungry and looking for whales.
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