I'm not specifically talking about a specific dumpster fire that recently launched. Every time someone complains about a big popular game being pay to win, or even having a giant cash shop of cosmetics, there's always a large group of people who says "Well that's just how it is, mobile games need to make money!"
But see, there are mobile games that are one time purchases that make tons of money.
So WHY is pay to win, or cash shop NECESSARY/EXPECTED of a mobile game?
The most immediate obvious answer is because that's how the east monetized their games in the early proliferation of smart phones. But I'm not asking a surface level "why". I'm asking a deep why.
Why can't the standard for mobile games be one time purchase games? Why does everyone make the excuse that if it's a mobile game, that justifies cash grabs?
And for the life of me, I can't think of a suitable response that isn't countered by something else.
"Well they need to make money!"
One time sale games make money.
"Because it's part of this country's culture!"
OK? I don't see why the rest of us need to be alright with what is effectively gambling but with no chance of getting your money back.
"If they don't monetize like this they'll lose money!"
Then stop making shitty menu based games with endless time sinks solely designed to suck money out of players, and make games people actually enjoy playing? If a game is good, it won't lose money.
Give me a GOOD justification for why we should simply be fine with such things. A game being a mobile game is not a good justification. Because as we know, predatory monetization has been wriggling its way into PC gaming for the last 10 years. So once most PC games have tons of microtransactions, what's going to be the excuse then? When "It's a mobile game bro," is no longer an excuse you can use .
I don't mind some few games having this. Back in the mid 2010's, these games were rare but the whales had their playgrounds and they played in them. My problem is how this sort of monetization model is proliferating into every console and every genre.
To be frank, a game being a mobile game is not proper justification, and yet so many act like it is.
Ultimately, I do realize that a mobile cash grab is a lot "safer" for the investors. Investors know these kinds of game will almost always make their money back because fools and their money are easily parted. Investors have seen the past of gaming, where some really bad games lose a lot of money when received poorly. Just look at D:I, it's one of the worst games in history and it made back all of the money spent on development on day 1. I suppose my real question here is, why are game consumers okay with this?
And for those of you who love capitalism/free market quackery, the entire concept is that if you make a better product than your competitors, you succeed, and if you make a shitty product, you fail. That's often the core tenet of the church of capitalism. So why are the capitalism bros okay with a system that turns that on its head?
In before some mouth breather goes "BET YOU'RE JUST POOR"
I'm not, and welcome to ignore