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"Is a proposed bill to ban loot boxes a threat to sports games?"
Before even watching the video, I'm just going to say, again, that any video game (sports or otherwise) that is threatened by attempts to get rid of loot boxes are video games that need to die forever. If they require loot boxes in order to be profitable, then fuck 'em. To hell with them. I don't give the slightest shit.
Now, to watch the video.
The fact that sports licenses are "astronomical" is something else that needs to fuck off and die, too. Fuck the NFL or FIFA or whatever. But then, I'm of the belief that sports "stars" don't deserve the multiple millions of dollars that they get every year just for moving a ball around or whatever, either.
Ian says Electronic Arts is making 2.2 billion dollars per year on their microtransactions (overall, not just from sports games). Eight hundred million dollars per year of that is from one game (some FIFA shit). Holy fuck, indeed, Pat. Electronic Arts has never needed to die more quickly and as hard as they do now, even ignoring the fact that they are poisonous death to everything they touch.
Funny how Madden or whatever lasted for decades without the need for loot boxes. Why, all of a sudden, are they in danger of going away if they can't have loot boxes? (Though, of course, that's probably only because the technology required to let loot boxes become a thing didn't exist until relatively recently, because if they could have done loot boxes ten or twenty years ago, you can be sure as shit that they would have.)
So glad I don't give a fuck about sports or sports video games.
As I'm sure I've said elsewhere, I'm not normally one who is all rah rah, get the government involved, and such, but in this one particular case, if it takes the government stepping in to put a stop to this asinine dumbshit, then by all means, government, step the fuck in already.
If this becomes a legal battle, I hope that the video game companies lose and lose hard and lose decisively and lose forever on this issue.
Of course, the underlying issue is that none of this would even matter or be a thing if people didn't buy the shit. Or if parents did a better job of preventing their kids from buying the shit.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-11 06:01 am (UTC)From:1. When the bar goes up, it doesn't go down. So as they got use to making shitloads of money by milking their loyal whales in the game franchises, they simply expect those profits now. Regardless of any actual work done on the game or costs associated with it. If they made 500 billion last year, they better make 600 billion this year or they've lost 100 billion dollars in their mind.
2. EA in particular pays for exclusive licenses to make sure they don't have any name brand competition. It's what killed Sega's sports lines off when they were no longer able to get a license for a big name. It was either fictional teams or GTFO at that point for anyone but EA. I'm sure exclusive licenses cost more than just getting a license. The solution is to not get an exclusive license and then make sure your game is more than a fucking roster update each year. (keep in mind they were doing the exclusive anti-competitive BS long before lootboxes became a thing.)
Final verdict: Let it die in a fire. Anyone who wants to play a sports game can just pick up a used (or even new) of the previous year for a buck or three and have pretty much the exact same experience. EA is no longer needed.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-12 09:41 pm (UTC)From:(EDIT) "We've Basically Been Playing The Same WWE Video Game For Over 15 Years" (/EDIT)
(EDIT 2) And there are loot boxes in the latest WWE games, too. I don't even know why I felt the need to "check to make sure" because of course they would have had loot boxes by now. (/EDIT 2)