Microsoft: The money demon perverting video games

The more i try to like the Xbox brand, the more the name Microsoft makes me hate it, i really do hope their new CEO sells the brand to Google, Valve or Samsung or something. Microsoft are just becoming a terrible burden on this industry and it pains my inner child to watch our favourite hobby become an investors wet-dream.

Most of you who know me would have already noticed i tend to hate on Microsoft, even though they bring good products to market, their monetization practices are just irritating, incase you guys forget so soon. There is a correlation between when Microsoft joined gaming and paid DLC, Subscription services and etc....now it has extended to Microtransactions. Both launch tittles Ryse and Forza5 which are games people already paid full price for are riddled with microtransactions, it is totally unnacceptable for this company to still want a cutt from an already paid for software.

It comes as no suprise that it was this same company that wanted to enforce an awful DRM that dictate to consumers they do not own the games they purchase, it is no suprise it is this same company that slaps third party apps behind a paywall, it is no suprise this is the same company that has turned common apps like Microsoft Word into a subscription service for their OS, a software that usually came free with every windows OS. Something is becoming worrysome about this money perverted demon called Microsoft.

It is so unfortunate that while the Xbox brand is a solid offering, the company's ethos is just not in the right place and i hope to heavens they do not set another de-facto standard in gaming, goodness lord please we need Valve to enter the console business ASAP, Microsoft needs to GFTO!!

dude... where is you flame shield?

You can't talk about the most angry and fragile fanbase groups console and expect to come out ok. You have alot of good points but the lemmings won't stand for it.

oh noes

muh poor vidyagaemz

I'd like them to be a behind the scenes player helping with infrastructure but not as a company actually selling hardware and games.

Yeah because Google and Samsung are so much different...

Pot meet kettle.

Expect hate from Lemmings and Hermits on you dissing their God but it's true. When the dinsours in the business world stop relying on office though it will be troubled times for MS.

This isn't new. Microsoft has been a problem in every industry they have ever set foot in. They are aggressive and anti-competitive. I despise their company and I would never purchase anything they created out of principle.

And be left to use something like Open Office? Law.

hermit meets fake boy, the fact that so many lemmings fee the need to hide behind PC to preach their raving xbox fanboy propaganda shows that there must be something wrong with simply claiming it as the platform they prefer.

Lemmings are the only group that is actually afraid to openly claim that is the platform they prefer because of how terrible the company is compared to the competition and feel that it robs them of credibility to be associated with it.

lol, keep claiming to be a hermit Clyde46...while coming in EVERY xbox/playstation related thread and arguing in favor of xbox and/or MS and bashing sony or playstaton in some way in every single topic.

Why would a hermit be defending the weaker console that is much more restrictive than a PC with the same features but cost more money? lol wait that would be stupid...yeah, a "hermit" wouldn't do that. If anything a hermit would simply bash both but we know how desperate xbox fanboys are, carry on!!!

Still so quick to anger casharmy. Show me where I have praised the X1 over the PS4.

Could at least one Lemming comment as this whole topic feels embarrassing when they have put in all that effort together .

I wasn't expecting anything like the total Cow meltdown earlier this week after Forza when Lemmings reeled in butthurt Cows like they where Sardines but come on .....people ......maybe one ....Lemming ...

please ?

Quite the rant you've put together there....

Every year my iPhone is taking over what I use to need a pc to accomplish. The biggest blow to the pc, is that my iPhone can now use every printer I own. The last time I bought a pc game, the ps3 wasn't released yet.

Ms office is microsofts last strangle hold.

I am confused. Why would hermits be mad? And who is this "god" you speak of?

OT. I agree with everything you said TC and I too hope that Microsoft pulls out. They are a plague on our hobby. I would love to see Steam buy the Xbox brand, but don't really see that happening with them about to jump in with their own system.

As long as there are dumb, unscrupulous consumers there will be companies like MS. Their whole business model cynically assumes that people are idiots and will buy whatever free feature they hold hostage behind a purchase button. Then other companies look at them with envy (e.g. Sony now charging for online). The extra $100 for kinect might be the overreach that ends up being the difference between Sony and MS. The no used games thing was an overreach for them. They miscalculated how dumb people really are, in that case thinking that people were practically lobotomized.

Meanwhile in the world of smart consumers, Steam is the most profitable company in the USA per employee. How do they accomplish this? By offering value at a low cost. How is it that Steam somehow manages to offer online gaming for free and voice chat for free? Hmmm. Shouldn't they be bankrupt if they are offering servers for free?! Answer: you pay for the servers when you buy games (just like on consoles). Valve also assumes that their customers have half a brain and that the moment they charge a subscription is the moment everyone one of their customers goes to another gaming service.

Unfortunately, MS assumes customers are morons and they are right. Well... a great number of them are, but you can only run from reality and math for so long before it catches up with you.

So much bias that it blinds you, TC.

Micro gonna soft

while I believe the xbox is a fine product, you would have to be made of something special to continually throw money at MS the way xbox fans do, $500 for a glorified remote control despite outing their true anit-gamer intentions at E3 with the whole DRM shenanigans. Truly a special breed of people, boy I hope Halo is worth it.

If it bothers you this much, do what I am doing: stock up on retro games. I will tell you something, this practice isn't going away anytime soon. And if MS didn't do it, someone else would have.

Hopefully for the sake of gamers Sony stays atop the gaming industry. This will keep things simpler and better for gamers.

I dont like them either, but the competition they give to Sony is vital to the industry.

You want to know the latest BS MS tried on my PC?! It came with Office and they tried making me buy the newer version of office by downloading the newer version onto my PC without me saying they could. Then I kept getting warnings that my 30 day trial was going to run out and I wouldn't be able to use my Office any more. I kept ignoring it and then they shut down my MS Office so it wouldn't work. So I went in and had to figure out how to get rid of their control over my Office by web searching. I got rid of it and now it's back to normal. They're such money grubbing losers!

All this crap about microsoft monetising. here comes the saviour SONY and FORCING you to use PS+ despite saying they never would. and the fact that probably 99% of YOU on system wars will want multiplayer or PS+/XBOX GOLD in some form or other it means NOTHING that free apps are behind the paywall.

Bottom line is, microsoft never beated around the bush, they wanted the consumor to fund their online service. meanwhile in Sony camp "lie for the rest of this gen, then BAM do exactly the same thing"

stop talking s*it. sony console peasants are all in the same boat now.

Or vice versa.

That is not the point bro, i am not talking about percieved value here, i am talking about the irritating invasive monetization Microsoft is bringing to gaming, it really is irritating if you have been gaming since the days of the NES. That Xbox brand need to be sold, i pray that new CEO does sell it to another company or something. Microsoft are setting very very terrible precedent for the future of gaming

It's the consumers fault for buying Horse Armour.

You can't blame a company for selling something people are willing to buy.

I agree completely with your sentiment but i think we have reached a point where perhaps the Xbox brand would be better off with a different company, most preferable, one that understands the gaming industry

What bias do you speak of?.....Do you wana pretend that Microsoft had not been the fore runner for these irritating practices?

If google and samsung want to get into the gaming business why would they want to buy the xbox brand? There's nothing attached to it on a technological level and the reputation of it is, well you know.

Microsoft didn't bring subscriptions, DLC, or micro-transactions to the gaming industry.

I see false statement, and things MS had nothing to do with. I am surprised you did not blame MS for season passes and Used online activations (sony)

Also you think Word came FREE with most Windows OS's? You need to just stop your lying rant of butthurt right now because you lost right when you said that.

like it or don't every game will game micros soon enough

@Jakandsigz: When did you start using personal computers?

When did you start using computers not in a school? (which you still seem to be in present day if you think word comes with computers.)

^I mean, why do you think alternatives like Open-office exist?

God of war ascension and Gran Turismo 6 have microtransactions. Will you make a thread about that?

I've been gaming for close to 30 years. Microsoft is without a doubt the worst thing to happen to gaming. If micro-transactions get any worse I'm done gaming as if DLC aint bad enough.

sony is just as bad

Microsoft killed Remedy, Lionhead, Rare, and now Crytek.

M$ loves killing gaming.

You know those things...MS had nothing to do with...Like season passes and used game verification for online that Sony pushed. I wonder how many cows who know nothing about PC's agree with the TC that laptops and computers that are brought all come with word free because I want to see the stupid for myself.

It's reputation is great in the U.S... Most people don't browse the internet long enough to pick up on the bad press. The brand is still huge and if it were for sale, would be the best way to get in the market.,. It's also be pretty unwise to try to enter the market when the Playstation Xbox and Nintendo brands are already so deeply embedded.. Not to mention google is never interested in directly selling you anything.. They sell your info and i'm sure would be licking their chops at the chance to have access to the kinect in every home

Seeing the micro-transactions in Forza is incredibly disheartening. I saw the thread on GAF and looked at all of the individual deals and was dumbfounded. Why would they go down that path?

or any company

Wait is this a thing? Is that for real?

So you need Valve to come in ASAP, even though MS was looking at steam when they came up with the DRM. The ONLY difference between the service that MS wanted and how steam works, is the constant sales on steam, that is the only reason people accept it.

But YAY STEAM, GOOOO VALVE. Because I really feel like I own all the games in my steam account (sarcasm).

It would be a thing if people stopped pulling things out their ass and realized that consumer computers usually don't come with MS office free.

Totally agree. Microsoft + EA + Activision is the diabolic trio of gaming.

It's the illuminati run!

lmao, omg I remember that. Oblivion right?

True though, most people are ignorant.