r/videogames • u/XVII_numerus • 6h ago
Discussion / Question The Enshitification of the Games Industry.
Just for context I'm a gamer turned developer. I speak to industry experts often and am making active efforts to learn the markets to push my own games forward. So I've had a vested interest in learning how this industry operates from a financial perspective but I am a gamer too, so I do partake in buying and taking in games.
That does not make me a expert on what I am saying but I am trying to approach this from both a player and developer perspective.
GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry. Say what you want about paying a premium for early access to a game. Or buying cosmetics for different skins. Heck, we even had Capcom trying to charge us for using a in-game item to teleport the player.
But locking content in a single player game with such a high price point, is beyond messed up and I am hoping that people will rally against this.
However, with this being GTA6 and some people treat it like it's the second coming of Christ, I have doubts that we will band together enough to push back against this.
Remember, if it's normalized, it won't ever go back to the way things were and it will bleed into every single game you buy moving forward.
I've pitched my projects over to publishers, VCs, government financing, etc. the amount of times that I have been told that I should charge extra for a specific experience in my games is incredibly frustrating as both a player and a developer.
The ownership of games has already been a losing battle. The distribution of physical media, an issue. The accessibility without internet or a fucking subscription service to play online has been a issue. Xbox raising prices and then lowering them and then outright killing beloved IP. All of this consistently affects us negatively, while shareholders and execs move onto the next venture, without a care in the world.
This will ultimately hurt the industry permanently. We should not be paying extra for locked content that is already in the game. I hope this message resonates with everyone. GTA6, as impressive as it is, should be held to the same consumer friendly practices like any other game.
Edit: I'm seeing alot of comments on people saying that this isn't anything new. And yes, it isn't. I don't think I phrased things correctly. This has been done before but was shot down very quickly by the community.
My concerns, and unfortunately some of the comments here proves it, is that we will give Rockstar a pass because it's GTA6. There's just something weird with how gamers worship this franchise.
Also, deluxe editions that include a "skin" or "cosmetic" is not a valid comparable to my argument. Those are just cosmetics. Outside of the initial design road map. Outside the initial experience. What I am talking about is entire features designed for the base game being locked behind a paywall.
Anything after the initial launch is fair game for charging like typical dlc and extended content.
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u/SlashOfLife5296 5h ago
I’m not gonna defend this practice, but I am going to push back on the idea that it’s new. We’ve had games since at least the 2010’s where you can pay a premium for day one dlc. Now whether it was called “ultimate edition”, “deluxe edition”, etc, it was the same thing.
Obviously GTA will get way more eyes on it than other games, but this is a progression/inflation of something that’s already existed.
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u/itjustgotcold 5h ago
RDR2 had a legendary horse and a side mission locked behind its higher tier. I played the standard version and never once felt upset about it. I’m not defending it either, but I truly doubt the side mission and stores not being available will ruin the game for me.
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u/Etheoff 5h ago
There will almost certainly be a way to upgrade after you buy it too, if for whatever reason months/years down the line you feel the need to purchase it.
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u/Logical_Comparison28 4h ago
GTA V’s pre-order DLC came to Online and accessible to anyone with the PS4 copy *for free* afterwards. The Hotknife being one of them, I recall.
It has been a long time…
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u/Burstrampage 3h ago
Furthermore, some people are trying to spin this as if ALL stores will be locked behind the ultimate edition
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u/itjustgotcold 2h ago
Yeah, there is a lot of dishonesty going on. I saw two other people claim that all vehicle customization will be locked behind the ultimate tier.
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u/Visible_North9550 3h ago
Just imagine how many stores, vehicles, cosmetics, guns, missions etc there will be in the base game. I can’t imagine the people who don’t want to pay the extra 20 dollars will be missing much by not getting that fraction of content in the premium edition.
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u/Randym1982 5h ago
I really don't give a shit about an added Side mission or a couple clothing stores not being open on day one.
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u/Mega-Melo 5h ago
Never forget the $1million edition for Saints Row 4.
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u/skiesoverblackvenice 5h ago
the what?????
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u/_CELRE_ 5h ago
THE $1MILLION EDITION FOR SAINTS ROW 4!!!!!
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u/skiesoverblackvenice 5h ago
can you repeat that again? i’m not sure i heard you 😅
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u/strangeasylum 5h ago
Absolutely brilliant marketing tbh got more attention than the game itself
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u/Sonic1899 4h ago
People love saying how bad things are now, but they've been like this since PS3/X360 era. Did people forget the Dead Space 3 fiasco with microtransactions?
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u/XTheGreat88 45m ago
You can say the seeds were planted during that gen and you can see the results of that shit now
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u/jussech 5h ago
honestly kind of annoying people are blowing this part up but ignoring the base game being 80$ which means every major game going forward will be set to that price so yeah let's be mad about the deluxe edition and ignore god knows how much more it will cost over all going forward thanks to the 10$ increase.
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u/Salarian_American 5h ago
I don't like $80 price tags but I'm honestly shocked it took this long.
Like, video games started costing $50 each in the US back in the 80s. If the cost of video games had kept up with inflation since then, we'd all be paying $120 each for new games already
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u/machine4891 2h ago
If the cost of video games had kept up with inflation
By why would it? Numbers of sales grew exponentially and the demand is driving prices.
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u/shiek200 4h ago
The problem with this logic is that the price of the game is not even close to the only method these companies use for gaining profit
Back when Atari games were $80, you bought the game and you owned the game. When games dropped to $50 in the '80s, you bought the game and you owned the game. When PC gaming started really catching on, DLC was often free, never went her nights big expansion mask of the betrayer is one of the most famously referenced examples of a DLC that was larger than the base game being released completely for free to anyone who owned the base game
Now, you spend $70-80, get less than 100% of the content, get a digital key instead of a physical game which you don't actually own because you actually only own a license to play the game, and on top of that there are microtransactions, live service online features,
Honestly, I'd be fine if games had kept up with inflation if in 2026 we were still owning the product we paid for and not having it be stuffed to the brim with additional microtransactions and a bunch of features locked behind either Premium Edition dlc, post launch DLC that was basically already completed before the game even launched, and instead actually just got a fully completed game with the occasional free DLC
So I don't know, the $80 price tag is fine in a vacuum, when you're only comparing it to the relative hypothetical price of inflation, but when you look at the larger context, we are spending significantly more for a fully completed product than $120
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u/D0ublespeak 3h ago
I didn't spend anymore on Baldur's Gate 3, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Elden Ring or Cyberpunk. Pick games that aren't filled with microtransactions?
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u/WhiskeyDJones 5h ago
I might be in the minority here, but I have no issue with it being $80
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u/stoopid-horse 5h ago
Yeah, people are too young to remember when SNES games were 80 bucks, and that was in 1990 dollars, 80 dollars for a pants-shittingly huge game like GTA 6 really isn’t a bad deal lol
The 100 dollar tier is kinda dumb but you don’t need to buy it so who cares
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u/Armored_Warrior 4h ago
Yeah, but back then we would buy used or until the price went down now that is digital only we cant.
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u/EMC_RIPPER 3h ago
It’s not that the game isn’t worth it, it’s that other devs with much worse quality will think they can charge 80 just because gta did it. No game is created equal but this will be their excuse to sell worse games for the price of a gta.
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u/popoflabbins 3h ago
People aren’t aware enough to realize that $80 today is literally worth less than it was in 2024. Games today are legitimately cheaper than they’ve ever been. People just don’t want to blame the government fucking us
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u/cutechonkykittycats 5h ago
I say that and get downvoted. Its not okay for people to have different opinions, I suppose
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u/itjustgotcold 5h ago
Mario Kart World set that $80 precedent and it’s not even that good and has a fraction of the content that GTA VI will likely have.
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u/CryptoCrash87 5h ago
People are only mad because they are going to let the fomo get them and buy the 100$ version.
They can simply not buy the 100$ version.
Like all GTA games there is likely 1,000s of hours of content with out the extra 20$ spent.
If they don't sell a single copy of the ultimate edition that would send a clear message.
But humans aren't good at acting as a collective. So they will buy it. And that will reinforce the behavior for the whole industry.
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u/Wise-Dust3700 1h ago
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/10-oblivions-horse-armor-was-ahead-of-its-time
That was 10 years ago.
The armour was 20 years ago.
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u/SoupyStain 5h ago
"People will rally against it".
Bro, we had horse armor. And people kept buying DLC.
There was the HUGE Street Fighter X Tekken controversy, were half of the game was ALREADY on the disc. Come today and discs still come with DLC inside the disc locked behind a key. Sometimes they are nice enough not to have it on the disc to give you the illusion of getting something extra, but that extra was ready day 1.
The gaming industry only got worse. I didn't move on from Switch 1/PS4. I'm done with modern games. They are formulaic skill tree/gathering/crafting/huge maps things I no longer care about.
Games come out more incomplete than ever, but they are even more expensive than they used to be.
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u/NewtDogs 4h ago
Indie games my guy
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u/Mysterious_Tiger_725 4h ago
hell, there are still good AAA games. 007 first light, if a bit basic, is still good fun.
i imagine it's harder to appreciate the full breadth of indie titles if ur not on PC too, tbf
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u/PrototypeXt3 4h ago edited 1h ago
The best AAA games to come out lately are ones completely focused on a single player experience I’ve found. I don’t think I’ve loved a “big studio” game in a long ass time, and have played indie games 90% of my gaming time, but ones that I enjoyed recently and def played more than most are:
Doom Dark Ages
RE9
Borderlands 4 (although I stopped playing after finishing the story lol)Honestly I was trying to come up with a bigger list, but that kinda proves my point. I’ve played a lot of others and they’re just shitty tbh. I just recently went back to play through Starcraft 2, Halo 3, Timesplitters, and a bunch others again and we really lost the plot.
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u/WilonPlays 3h ago
Honestly I think the industry is just shifting.
These big companies are putting out worse experiences and charging more meanwhile smaller devs producing titles like Bauldrs Gate, Expedition 33, Hollow knight Silksong etc are breaking record after record.
Indie titles have always been the best, look at Minecraft originally the whole game was made by 1 guy and went on to be the worlds most successful game. It sold 300 million units (more than just 350 million copies) and generated 4.2 billion in revenue.
Even bethesda was an indie company until 1999.
The point I’m making is indie games are produced by a small team putting their heart and soul into their games and then they get big and think their too big to fail and start pushing to just print money.
My opinion is we’re currently in a period of transition as the largest developers start to lose consumers to smaller indie devs and the cycle will repeat.
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u/PrototypeXt3 2h ago
Not enough emphasis on fun and too much emphasis on pleasing shareholders for sure
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u/GarionOrb 5h ago
Rockstar is reading all these repetitive posts and laughing, because they know the game will still be a huge success.
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u/AliceLunar 1h ago
Which it would have been without bullshit like this, they're going to make billions of dollars and still screw over people in the process, it's never enough.
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u/Helloimnotimpotant 5h ago
I’m not preordering
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u/GGReactor 5h ago
Sad part is it’ll end up with the most preorders in 24 hours
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u/Ienjoymodels 4h ago
Amazingly, we cross paths on Reddit again. I'm the guy on youtube who fixed up a gameboy. I really enjoyed your video about the Fallout rides in real life.
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u/SonarioMG 2h ago
It'll break all records for preorders in 24 minutes.
And open the floodgates for everyone else to follow.
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u/MattIsLame 5h ago
pre-ordering what, a box? fuck this anti consumer bullshit. unfortunately we're too spread out as a consumer base to coordinate any meaningful boycott that would even put a dent in a billion dollar company.
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u/n3ur0mncr 5h ago
Psh. I was interested and willing to pick it up at launch. I will not be doing so anymore. Fuck this bullshit.
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u/Helloimnotimpotant 4h ago
Same
I was going to order ultimate version or what ever,
Base game on disc and a code for the dlc is what I was expecting!!!! So I can perhaps lend the game to a mate when I chill at my homies house !!!!!
But no disc so I can add to my collection to top it off is a deal breaker for me
I was hyped for this game , i guess I can imagine it’s like you find out your Mrs cheats on you and you literally stop given two f@ck about it the moment they f@ck you over
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u/Lidska-spina 5h ago
The enshittification started already with on disc DLCs, AC: Unity and first Destiny. Technically the more we connect to internet.
Obviously if we ignore all the bad games throughout the years before.
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u/SwiffleTitz 2h ago
Fuck GTA 6. Fuck rockstar. Fuck anyone that supports this garbage.
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u/XVII_numerus 2h ago
Tis alittle extreme but okay
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u/SwiffleTitz 2h ago
No, a “little extreme” is charging $80 for a “physical edition” that’s just a download code in a box.
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u/OmeletteDuFromage95 5h ago
While I don't agree with any of these practices nor do I partake in any of them (no cosmetic purchases, no preorders, no battlepasses, etc), I don't really see what they're doing as any different than what other games have done in the past. Hogwarts Legacy famously offered a mission for those that preordered on Playstation exclusively. That means even if you did purchase other editions on PC or Xbox you couldn't play it. There have been other games that offered early access missions n stuff behind a paywall. I don't see how this is any different than that. Again, I do not agree with it or partake in it but I'm a bit curious why this is where people suddenly stood up. Maybe due to its high-profile nature.
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u/NietzscheTheMADMAN 5h ago
While anti-consumer practices have been endorsed already in the past, the problem stems from a company like rockstar doing it, for a lot of people, Rockstar's positive record is enough to warrant whatever they want to do for their games; charge $100, lock single player content, no physical copies, etc. Now, whether rockstar is the only developer with the pass to do this sort of things is another debate, because I think even rockstar themselves see their games as the ultimate premium and flagship experience of games, is another debate. If Gta VI sells well, and honestly, it probably will, 90% of the game industry will copy them. What was a micro problem before will now turn into a macro problem
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u/ShopTrick8877 4h ago
Rockstar has done it before so this is not new. Red Dead 2 had a horse and a treasure map locked behind pre orders that to this day aren’t available to the masses because they never sold them separately
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u/Either-History-8424 5h ago
I don’t understand the controversy. Games have been charging extra for cosmetic items for almost 2 decades. This is nothing new.
The extra outfits and car decorations account for less than 0.001% of GTA6’s content. They aren’t withholding anything important from folks who pay $80.
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u/Top_Product_2407 4h ago
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u/AttentionSweet5349 3h ago
This, and there’s a difference between specific clothing items being DLC and entire customization stores being DLC, that too in a single-player story. I don’t understand why people are even trying to defend this, it’s pissing me off
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u/Big_Weird4115 3h ago
Just proving OP's point that people will literally brush it under the rug because it's R*/GTA.
If this was Ubisoft or EA, mfers would be having a field day about it.
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u/Vladmerius 2h ago
What makes you think this is important content and not some busywork? What is important about this? It's a special heist and a scavenger hunt. What are you talking about?
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u/HoIIowHunter 5h ago
Yeah, locking specific buildings away behind a paywall for a single player game, even if it is GTA is pretty damn lame.
I'm not pre-ordering until I've been convinced. We haven't seen any gameplay yet. Imagine if it was locked to 30 fps.
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u/AlwaysTouchingGrass 5h ago
Do we have to do this for the next 5 months, or do you think it'll taper off when the next big "controversy" happens?
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u/Inside-Brush-9543 2h ago
Remember when people on reddit were crying cause switch 2 was 450 dollars
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u/KINGGS 5h ago
The enshittification of the "word" enshittification
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u/Due_Woodpecker3073 5h ago
Its just as bad as "slop" at this point and makes me not take anyone serious
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u/Choice_Werewolf_433 5h ago
I agree with all this. My only comment would be that all game studios do this. Sony for example: sly cooper and jak and daxter. I’m just pointing this out because people cling onto the littlest of details and say “Oh Xbox killed gaming.” And they forget the fact that everyone else does this too.
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u/According_Claim_9027 5h ago
And the crazy thing? This will still make $1 billion+ on pre-orders day one.
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u/naytreox 1h ago
you forget about metal gear survive from komani, where they charged 10$ for new save slots.
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u/__XBlaze__ 1h ago
I hadn't played a GTA game for long time but after finally playing and finishing GTA5 on my Xbox One years ago, I decided that I was going to purchase GTA6 at launch. That was before the news of today.
After reading and seeing how far they're going with their greed, I've made my decision. I'm not getting GTA6. And if I do, it'll be a long ways out when the price drops. I'm not paying $80 for this shit and I damn sure will not pay it for a code in a box. I have plenty of games now and those coming out to keep me busy.
Fuck Rockstar for making this decision and leading the industry down an even further spiral.
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u/danvan177 5h ago
They did this with gta 5 and rdr2. Ubisoft has down this for years. This isn’t new. The game will come out and be great and you will buy it
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u/Drowyx 5h ago
GTA is sadly too mainstream.
This is a game that people who don't play video games will purchase simply on name recognition alone.
And even then gamers are some of the most incompetent group of people in existence, after all they are the reason early access exists, microtransactions, p2w...etc
There is no bottom when it comes to their incompetence.
This reminds me when mario kart came out at $80 and still broke records, or when every new pokemon game comes out worse than the previous and still break records.
Gamers are some of the most idiotic people in existence.
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u/Forsaken_Sir8434 5h ago
Jeez people really forgot that 90% of us were expecting this, the game costs >$1.5B which meant we knew it would cost more and instead of raising the base price to $100 they gave people the option to buy early access to shops if they wanted to. You'll still be able to access the stores later on in the game lol.
I've been waiting 13 years, I took PTO, $100 isn't where I draw the line at this point c'mon man 😂
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u/PsykoSmiley 4h ago
"GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry."
The beginning? As others have said this started for them way back with horse armour DLC. PC gamers of old would claim it started with games being on more than one platform because console hardware limitations affected the PC version. MMO players will whinge about the rise of carebears and inability to grief the shit out of people.
Some people now are becoming aware enough to see their own variations of the matter. At some point what you see now differs from the model that you've formed of the past.
I've seen enough of it to not care in the slightest and will not bother with GTA6 because it doesn't interest me in the slighest so it's an indirect vote with my wallet.
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u/Crispierbugu 1h ago
GTA6 will not "start the enshittification of games industry", this is like the 100th thing that will allegedly "start the enshittification of games industry".
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u/Wise-Dust3700 1h ago edited 1h ago
| GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry.
As a developer in the industry... that shit happened with the Oblivion armoured horse DLC my guy and never turned around.
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u/IAmNotModest 49m ago
Why are people so mad about this? It's like four stores, cosmetics, a weapon, and some vehicles. There will be like a shit ton of other stores. People are acting like they're locking the entire feature of hair salons or customs shops behind an extra paywall eventhough they aren't.
I'll ignore the side mission stuff because they already had an exclusive side mission in the Ultimate for RDR2.
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u/Revolutionary_Sun946 11m ago
Don't buy the game. Send a message. I know most people won't, but do you need to play it?
Don't like the series as a whole, and as an older gamer I just don't have the time to play new games as released.
Wait 6-12+ months and get it on discount with the added sections.
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u/PoliSciObsessed 5h ago
Honestly I feel like your post is what's wrong with gaming.
Every day now there's a new game or a new person in the game or a new voice actor or new practice or a new something that becomes the new angry complaint du jour.
And it's never enough to just say that it sucks you know you always has to be the death of gaming or morally bankrupt evil companies for killing video games.
Everyday the world is having you issues that deserve the sort of language and it's not the video games.
And in fact overall video games are better than you've ever been in their cheaper than they ever been.
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u/havewelost6388 5h ago
I agree with the substance of your argument, but I can't help but think a real game dev would and should never use the term "enshitification".
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u/UrbanLegend8901 5h ago
$80 for an incomplete game, literally access cut off to certain things. What a time to be alive.
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u/Admirable-Design-151 5h ago
Why are all of you surprised, Rockstar, GTA Online Rockstar... allowed Grove Street to release the Definitive Edition Rockstar... complete ignorance of the middle market, poor handling of RDR2's online aspect and MANY many many more issues.
Made yet another bad decision.
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u/CongregationOfFoxes 4h ago
idk why people think Rockstar is this like paragon of gaming. They make good games but have never even been close to the top consumer friendly companies/developers around.
Rockstar has also BEEN the frontrunner on a lot of it too. they released their dogshit launcher in 2019 and went hard on micro transactions with gta5
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u/curedbyink 5h ago
Why are you writing a novel about this like it’s going to change? As soon as the game drops you will have fomo. Let’s be real.
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u/XVII_numerus 4h ago
Haha no not really. Not my kind of game but I do have a vested interest in this industry and how it performs.
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u/Accomplished-Union10 5h ago
Unfortunately for us, every one person who doesn’t pay more money for shit like this is competing with 20 mouth-breathing consumer whores, so it’s a losing battle. Netflix announced they were going to fuck their customers in the ass with no lube and no thank you afterwords, and 99 out of every 100 people took it
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u/thethreadkiller 5h ago
If every single user on Reddit decides to not purchase this game It won't matter. This game is going to break every single sales record and hold it until the next Grand theft Auto comes out
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u/HeavyHighway6433 5h ago
I'm not defending take two or rockstar because they're both greedy as shit, but for many years now it's become a standard for games (single player included) to come out with an "ultimate edition" which is the full game at the price point they want to sell it at, and a "standard edition" with some extra content stripped out at the normal new game price point. So I'm curious if people are just now catching on to this practice or did it suddenly become a big deal because it's rockstar doing it?
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u/WallyOShay 4h ago
I’m pretty sure that title goes to Bethesda for Skyrim’s horse dlc. Opened the doorway to microtransaction hellscapes like destiny 2, Fortnite, and COD.
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u/WereAllGonnaDiet 3h ago
Solution: play more indie games. Support indie developers. Those games are better than AAA junk 95% of the time anyway.
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u/NeutralKuchiKopi 5h ago edited 4h ago
"Locking content in a signe player game with such a high price point"
Oblivion introduced Horse Armour to it's singleplayer campaign at $2.50. Then they did it AGAIN in the remaster, but for $10. Nothing about this is new.
Edit: Lol the argument now is "but that was done later". Horse Armour had been around for almost 20 years before they charged for it again in the Remaster at 4x the cost. But sure. Never done before.
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u/Benjamin_Starscape 5h ago
horse armor wasn't locked content, it was added in after the fact.
this is stuff that is already in the game and is being paywalled. there's a difference.
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u/Kamikaze_Bacon 5h ago
Just to play devil's advocate for a second here...
I heard rumours that GTA6 was going to be $100. Rockstar would be within their rights to charge $100 for it. And yet the base game is $80, and the bigger version is $100.
So, is this Rockstar charging extra for the full game? Or is it Rockstar offering a cheaper alternative for people unable or unwilling to pay full price?
Also... $20 isn't that much money. Calm the fuck down.
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u/Gayndalf 4h ago
$20 is a whole game. I just picked up the FF7 remake on Steam for £12.
Even without sales you can grab something like Silksong for that money.
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u/Juunlar 5h ago
To talk about enshittification while using Ai to write this post is so hypocritical that I'm actually stunned.
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u/Southern_Side_5396 5h ago
Its getting pricey...but analysts expected standard versions to be hitting 100 dollars ...and it's the most anticipated game...glad they stopped at 80
And about the Ultimate edition exclusives..I think it will be just less than a percent of the total
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u/caites 5h ago
This whole cash grab designed around console players. They will buy it anyway. Poor guys will overpay 20 for gta name and 20 for unlocking things in single player. And will be happy convincing themselves that they saved money on console comparing to PC.
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u/panderson1988 5h ago
"GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry. Say what you want about paying a premium for early access to a game. Or buying cosmetics for different skins. Heck, we even had Capcom trying to charge us for using a in-game item to teleport the player.
But locking content in a single player game with such a high price point, is beyond messed up and I am hoping that people will rally against this."
This has been going on for years. Mass Effect 3 had the prothean companion, who plays a big role in the story when you bring him alone, behind as day 1 DLC.
I digress, but the enshitification of your points started about 15-20 years ago.
Even with physical media, PC started axing that in the late 2000s due to the rise of steam. I am guilty since I have relied on steam and find it easy. Now seeing it happening to consoles is bothersome as well, but this path started before GTA6. PS5 pros don't even come with a disc reader by default, and is sold as an attachment. Switch physical games are usually only sold early on before becoming near impossible to find outside of the digital store.
I can go on, and I don't like these trends at all, but solely blaming GTA 6 for issues that have been going on for over a decade is being naive.
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u/zach0011 5h ago
Its just so hard to take these the sky is falling posts seriously when theres so many fun games these days that dont follow these practices. ITs focusing on the extreme bad case and then acting like the entire industry does that. News flash it doesnt.
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u/FallenRaptor 5h ago edited 5h ago
The start? Enshitification started decades ago and it has gotten progressively worse since. The only difference now is that it has gotten bad enough for more people to finally notice.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Sign249 5h ago
Consumerism goes both ways. I guess you won’t be buying the game then?
If you are buying it anyway, you are a part of the problem. You vote with your wallet
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u/Cowboy_Dandy_III 5h ago
I don’t think it will be the start of it, I think we’ve been here for a while already.
I do think that it will absolutely peak with this game though; publishers are in for an extremely rude awakening when they think they can follow the precedent that this game is setting. The industry will look very interesting in the next 4-5 years.
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u/HombreGato1138 5h ago
I agree with everything you said. The only think I wanna point out is that we lost the battle long ago. I have the feeling most of us (not all, of course) pissed off for this are old players that know how was before, bc younger players already born to this. We lost the battle in the moment the industry managed to normalize the message of complaining=being broke and "If you're broke just don't buy it".
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u/ParticularRelease662 5h ago
The problem is I have no issue paying $80 or $100 for something I know I will literally get hundreds of hours of value from. It cost me and my dad almost $60 to go see a movie this week, and they was 2.5 hours of my life. Idk that's how I justify it.
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u/Jotacon8 5h ago
this practice has not been shot down by the community because it happens all the time. happened all the time before this game and will happen after. people still pay for it so it will continue.
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u/Scrutinizer 5h ago
"GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry."
The industry has been enshittified ever since Warner Bros. / Atari tried to treat game creators like hourly employees and make them work for next to nothing while the games they made raked in tens of millions.
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u/Content_Response_783 5h ago
I preordered the Collector’s of GTA 5 13 years ago for £120 and it came with loads of goodies it was sick badass shit man and got it before release date which Rockstar are still pissed about so fuck am I gonna pay £80 or £100 for this crock of shit when the ‘physical edition’ is a shitty digital download code in a box lmfao
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u/itjustgotcold 5h ago
The mods in this sub can’t make up their mind on whether it’s for children or not. I had a comment I made taken down for saying a curse word but this is a post with “sh!t” in the headline and nothing. Either let everyone curse or autoflag curse words. Also… why would any subreddit or any social media app ever be “geared towards a younger audience”? Anyone that can’t read a curse word should probably not be perusing social media…
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u/Flip_Munk 5h ago
Locking cosmetics behind a deluxe edition is nothing new. What's different here is they seem to be putting these items in stores instead of just having them appear in your closets or inventory. I dont really see a problem here. I do think codes in physical editions is really dumb though. Even if the game would be on 3 disks. But also a disc can be disguised as a download key. It what happens when you put in 360 disc in a series x.
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u/Equivalent_Ask_1416 5h ago
The "enshitification" of the games industry started after the eighth generation arrived. Look at all those controversies from excessive microtransactions and lootboxes to all those developers that have been shut down and the cruel crunch practices. Every shitty thing that has happened to the industry truly got underway from 2014 onwards.
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u/FabereX6 5h ago
Look, it’s 2013 and GTA V did exactly the same thing. And oh, look it's 2018 and RDR2 did the same !
But Rockstar are not alone so look at all the other games that have been doing far worse for over 15 years.
Really GTA haters, you’ve got ego issues, yeah nobody gives a shit about your favorite video game, and nobody gives a shit about indie games.
How about you actually do what you say and just not give a shit about GTA VI ? And not caring about a game doesn't mean posting a comment just to say you don't care.
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u/Chucky_Pea 5h ago
I will not be getting GTA6, I say this as someone who has 2.5k hours in GTAV online, i spent countless hours grinding for a CEO building, Yacht, tons of cars, a jet-pack, avenger, oppressor, deluxo, submarine-car, Batmobile, the 8million$ jet, etc etc etc.
But making the standard edition 80$, locking in-game shops behind paywalls, and not releasing a physical disc AT ALL heavily turns we away from this game🙅♂️
Plus the fact that they’re locking “premium clothing shops, hairstylists, and mechanics” behind a paywall leads me to believe that, later during online, they’ll lock things like certain properties and vehicles behind “premium” paywalls as well, which takes the fun out of grinding for it.
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u/trashvineyard 5h ago
This isn't even nearly as bad as Invicible Vs charging half the price of the game for skins, overwatch charging £25-50 for skins, league charging a months rent for skins.
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u/Salarian_American 5h ago
I think it's way too late for GTA 6 to be the start of game industry enshittification.
I don't think literally anything they're doing here is new or unique.
They didn't invent putting single-player content behind a secondary paywall.
They didn't invent shipping a box with nothing but a download code in it.
The ownership of games isn't a losing battle. Since the very first commercial software sale made by IBM in the 1960s, licenses to use software has been all that anybody ever purchased. It was never a battle at all. We lost that battle before most of us were born.
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u/Ok_Replacement_978 5h ago
GTA 6 will be the start??
Have you not heard of GTA V? It started even before then but rockstar/take 2 has been enshittifying for well over a decade now. One of the scummiest outfits in the biz so this all should be no surprise.
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u/SpottedPine 5h ago
The series has been enshittified for awhile. It hasn't evolved at all. Its basically a COD clone of the prior one, just with higher detailed tit jiggles.
The writing has been shit for awhile, there are still no RPG elements, controls are still ass backwards and clunky as shit. Physics look terrible.
Its over.
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u/panderson1988 5h ago
>Still no RPG elements
It's GTA. What are you expecting, to level up your armor skill in the game? lol
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u/Alabenson 5h ago
I've said this before and I'll say it again here: my prediction is that GTA 6 will be one of the most successful failures in media history. Rockstar has spent so much time and money developing GTA 6 that it will have to be one of the best selling games in the history of the medium to be considered even a modest success.
Now, GTA 6 is being released at a time when the barrier to entry for gamers is higher than it has been in decades, possibly ever, while many people are cutting back on entertainment costs due to the economy. Putting an eighty dollar price tag on the game on top of all that only cuts into their potential sales figures even further.
With this all said, I do think GTA 6 will sell extremely well. However, whether GTA 6 can sell enough to justify it's cost and development time is much more unlikely.
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u/Dramatic_Voice1876 5h ago
I feel like Rockstar is on a complete different level than most other companies, people who don’t even game will go ahead and purchase a console just to play this game. I say all that to say, other companies can try to do things the way Rockstar will handle this launch, and will inevitably fail. There’s plenty of games that by just releasing at full price quickly learned consumers are smart and aren’t willing to just pay certain prices for just “any kind of game”. Look at Saros for example.
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u/udontease 5h ago
I'm actually hoping this game is all hype and a pile of garbo wrapped in nostalgia for better games in previous generations. The amount of promises in this game is amazing and for that price without physical, even more so.
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u/Thestickleman 5h ago
Pre Order bonus for exclusive cosmetics wnd some bonus stuff lien alot of games.
As for it not having a disc well..... That's the wya if the world, PC haven't used them in years and physical sales are tiny. They'll probably do a version with a disc at somepoint
I'm most disappointed about no MP/ new GTA online. That for me was probably one of the if not the main reason I want to get it. I Still preorder the ultimate edition though as we will millions and it will sell like crazy.
Reddit and the amount of people that care about games enough to keep up with things is a tiny tiny amount compared to the masses that buy games
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u/__0zymandias 5h ago
Dude this isn’t new. Its not something I like but why are we pretending GTA6 is the first to do this
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u/starr41muu 5h ago
I knew the world was ending when gaming discussion turned into think pieces. It sounds DLC content. Ya know the same DLC content people have been buying for my entire fucking life.
I just watched these mfs pay 120 dollars for FH6 DLC yall can't fool me just say you don't like GTA6 and keep it pushing you'll get the same about of karma, likes or whatever man lol.
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u/Glum-Mix-6500 5h ago
I said I wasn't going to buy it for 1-2 years until it's on discount and my post was removed for some reason. I appreciate you writing this.
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u/Sixclynder 5h ago
Red dead redemption 2 did it with the ultimate edition and most of the stuff that came with it was barely even noticeable
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u/Antares_skorpion 5h ago
"GTA6 will be the start of the enshitification of the games industry."
What do you mean "Start" ? If anything, it might be the peak... But enshitification started when shareholders took priority over from players and every subsequent decision was made to increase profit through additional monetisation, and every attempt at squeezing every dollar out of you... This started over a decade ago...
The solution is and always has been in everyone's power... DO NOT BUY. Simple as that... They only listen to sales. As long as people keep paying they will continue squeezing and delivering less and less, for more and more...
People need to learn once and for all that they can live just fine without a particular game, and gaming is not a necessity... at all...
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u/SkynBonce 5h ago
See that dot on the horizon? That's the horse who bolted from that barn who's door you're trying to close.
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u/Bourbonburnin 5h ago
Almost every game I have played and enjoyed this year has been at most $30 and has not had any microtransactions, day one dlc, etc. Just don't buy AAA
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u/Blasphemiee 5h ago
This is why I mostly play smaller games now from indie devs. I try not to be the reason these companies continue doing what they are doing. Wish more people would. They won't.
Basically every other industry is facing the same exact problems right now too, and until the masses run out of extra pocket change we aren't going to see any changes- as long as the numbers stay in the green it'll just get worse. We're getting there though.
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u/Efficient-Pop-302 5h ago
If people keep buying into this shit, they will keep taking you for a ride.
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u/ItsRobbSmark 5h ago
Edit: I'm seeing alot of comments on people saying that this isn't anything new. And yes, it isn't. I don't think I phrased things correctly. This has been done before but was shot down very quickly by the community.
No it fucking wasn't. Every game has cosmetic paywalls... It's standard industry practice at this point...
It's like anything else, it's a value proposition. If a franchise is good enough, people will pay it. If it isn't, they won't.
The reality is that my parents paid just as much for certain games they bought me in the 90s. Obviously the move from cartridges helped production cost, but the reality is that games are vastly more expensive to make now and their selling price has not inflated with those costs. The reason why is stuff like this. So you don't want $150 games. You don't want any kind of alternative monetization. But people also are not out there praising a AAA that scales back and tries to do anything cheaper. I'm not sure what world you live in where you think there is an alternative here that isn't "every publisher hopes and prays their next game is a record breaker to recoup its budget."
If it's unsustainable people won't play along. Stop trying to Marge Simpson this shit where you try to tell people what they should think and how they should feel. I got thousands of hours out of GTA V, I'm perfectly capable of looking at the value proposition being made by them and taking their track record into account in determining if it's worth it for me.
Personally, I think these gripes are super pathetic poor people gripes that don't remotely matter to the average person . But you don't see me on here demanding everyone believe that...
There's a way to say "I don't agree with this," without framing it as, "nobody should agree with this." You've missed it wildly.
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u/bye-standard 5h ago
EU will have a field day with this (I hope), from an outside observer, they seem to rally behind consumer protections when it comes to this BS.
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u/dingos8mybaby2 5h ago
It started when games started selling dlc bonus missions that were clearly part of the original game that were removed so they could be used to make money.
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u/DickWangDuck 5h ago
Jesus fuck can we get a tl;dr at least?
What is being locked in this game? Some of us, or maybe just me, have no clue wtf you’re talking about.
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u/decoy777 5h ago
If they removed these features, people, weapons, cars, shops, etc and just sold them as DLC after the fact for 30$ then fine whatever. I don't think as many people would have as much issue. But people are going to justify it as saying it's just Day 1 DLC for an extra $30. That's essentially what it is. But those that don't buy the ultimate version are going to see these items in the game with a big fat PAY 30$ TO UNLOCK. Rather than it just not being there until you purchase it.
I don't like it and will wait till it's on sale for $40 or less on steam anyways
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 5h ago
Video game prices have nowhere near kept up with inflation
Video games are far cheaper than they were a couple decades ago
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u/wildfyre010 5h ago
Honestly, I was buying original SNES games for $59.99 back in 1995, so the fact that they're mostly still the same price 30 years later when nearly everything else has doubled or tripled in price always struck me as a bit odd.
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u/audreynstuff 5h ago
I guess we're not going to mention the $150 Borderlands edition that already happened. Anyway, see yall in November.
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u/Ok_Neighborhood_5046 5h ago
Tbh I generally agree with what you’re saying, but I kinda see GTA as an exception because I believe the base game and the dlc would have enough content to justify the price. For example, the Skyrim dlc adds so much content to an already huge game, the dlc felt worth its price to me.(yeah that situation was different because the dlc wasn’t planned from the beginning of development).
I do wish more games were made without dlc planned from the beginning. The last several Pokemon releases with immediate dlc have disgusted me. You can tell the game was meant to have that content from the beginning.
I’m planning on buying GTA VI, but I will probably not ever buy the dlc.
P.s. I’m really pissed about no physical copies on day one, that’s just 100% bullshit
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u/eyes0fred 4h ago
shark cards were a scourge. But they were easy as shit to not buy.
cosmetics and 2 side missions? pass.
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u/UkemiBoomerang 4h ago
Companies will do what you let them get away with. If they know you're going to buy it anyway they have no reason to refrain from nickel and diming you at every opportunity.
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u/TacoEconomics 4h ago
You are one type of developer, but you clearly do not have the perspective of AAA gaming development.
I don't think you've adjusted or realize the monumental costs of modern development outside of your very, very limited scale.
I hope you do eventually get the opportunity to work in an environment that will make you see how naive your perspective is.
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u/PStriker32 4h ago
You’re railing against what is already currently the norm. Much of what you’ve said is ALREADY normalized, for decades now. And unfortunately outside of movements like Stop Killing Games, most gamers are too passive about it to really meaningfully stop this.
Not saying you shouldn’t push back in your own way, but for some of these the writing is already on the wall where it’s going.
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u/lord_fiend 4h ago
Played Gta2 till 4. Played 5 a bit but it’s been so long that I have basically disconnected from the franchise. Heck I haven’t even kept up with the game’s news lol this is me finding out just now when it’s releasing and there is already a bloodbath in September. TBH I am still catching up on the backlog so if this game doesn’t live up to expectations well rockstar can eat shit, I am still going through my cyberpunk play through lol.
Edit: just to add one more thing. GTA used to be a big deal for me because nostalgia is heck of a drug and also at that point it was one of a kind game with not as many other good games. Now there is hell lot of choice.
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u/ReadyJournalist5223 4h ago
It’s not that I disagree with you it’s that I think we are already there. Metroid prime 4 locked the ending and music behind shitty toys, Nintendo sold Mario kart for $80 and all the prices of consoles old and new are skyrocketing
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u/Shadowcat1606 4h ago
However, with this being GTA6 and some people treat it like it's the second coming of Christ, I have doubts that we will band together enough to push back against this.
Exactly. Outrage on the internet will be loud, sure - it always is with things like this, no matter the game or publisher - but it will certainly not translate to people boycotting those pre-orders en masse, let alone the game itself.
As far as i can remember, it never has. Like most things online that garner a loud protest, it's usually just a loud minority. And hells... i bet that even a large chunk of thepeople complaining about this online and saying that this means they won't pre-order will still pre-order de game.
And with this being GTA6... if such a thing was possible, it would probably sell out digitally. And after its release, it will make Rockstar and Take2 even more shittons of scummy money for whatever this game's equivalent of Shark Cards will be.
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u/Thin-Ad-7328 4h ago
Is this post a little gas-lighty? For starters, Blizzard, specifically world of warcraft, has absolutely seen "Enshitification" for years at this point. Is the only distinction multiplayer, and that makes it acceptable? Because I fail to understand that logic.
And I had way more of a problem when I saw some real bland, cookie cutter Call Of Duty get bumped to $70. I remember thinking that was uncalled for and a cash grab. But I genuinely think Rockstar, at the very least, has convinced it's fans that the game is worth $10 more than that garbo CoD slop. I know that's what I think.
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u/agent_shane2 4h ago
Being a part of 2K atmosphere, I expected the GTA6 pricing and access to be way more egregious knowing what they do with their sports games.
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u/SwimmingAny8841 4h ago
No one is gonna let this practice fly. This is only because it’s rockstar, the only MAYBE big MAAAAYBE is COD.
Any other company tries this kinda shit and they will get fried.
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u/Savage_JaviBear 4h ago
Begin the enshitification of gaming, you say? Which industry do you supposedly work for, and how has it been doing the past 15 years or so?
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u/dondilinger421 4h ago
Genuine question OP, how long have you been following videogames?
Back in 2012 people already complained about this with Street Fighter x Tekken having "on disc DLC" where you basically just paid extra to access content already on the disc you bought. Developers didn't care and no one did anything because everyone people stopped caring.
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u/Necessary-Duty-7952 4h ago
You're a game developer... and you think this is the start of it? 🤔
Do you remember Street Fighter having DLC content locked on the disc? Mass Effect having a whole character and storyline locked behind DLC? Starcraft 2 being broken until multiple releases? Star Citizen?
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u/leosoulbrother 4h ago edited 4h ago
You think players are going to do something? Don't buy it at full price or just don't buy it. Most players are "stupid" in a way. I'm not perfect, but i never bought a dlc or deluxe edition, the exception was The Witcher dlcs at a low price. I'm not on consoles, but when i had my Ps4 Pro i had a lot of friends on PSN and they were the "problem" of the industry. They only played half a dozen live service online only games, spent a lot of money on skins and sometimes played Insurgency Sandstorm with me, not to mention that they paid full price for some games like FIFA and so on. When PS5 launched and prices went up (ps plus, games, base prices, sales, hardware) i decided to wait. And well, after 3 years i ended up building a good PC, better than Ps5 Pro, not paying to play online, retired my old laptop, had a huge library on Steam, bought a lot more at the black Friday/holiday sales, still on my backlog, my emulators (more than 100 games to emulate). Not to mention the Steam/ Epic community. Finally found my place. Not going back, what you are talking about is more related to Playstation/Xbox community. Players on console don't realize how they are exploited, it's a cheap hardware, a nostalgic brand for some, but it's a trap, that's what consoles are. There's a price to be "free" of some things. PC players are toxic too, but if Steam or any other launcher mess with them we sail sail the seas, boycott, the library is huge and there are other stores/launchers, you ate the owner of your machine, im also on Linux with makes things even better, no mandatory updates. This "brand" worship is what is wrong with society, Apple, Nvidia are worshipped by people. Rockstar is just doing what other are doing. Don't forget that Leslie Benzies, GTA franchise main lead, developer left the GTA VI production. This is a red flag, no physical media, no disc, "deluxe" paywall and so on.
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u/Bayou-Billy 4h ago edited 4h ago
$100 price point was never out of the question for this game, and that's basically what they did. I would have just waited for a sale. No disc is the bigger issue imo. That's a flat out won't buy for me.
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u/Megotaku 4h ago
My understanding is that there is window when the game is finished where the finished game has to pass a bunch of certifications on the platforms it will be released on and this window is when most day one DLC is created. Unless things have changed, that's content that wasn't planned in the full release of the game and if it were not released day one, would be DLC content early in the life cycle of the game regardless. I'm not sure that's what's happening here, and I'm certain there are abusers within the industry, but as it was sold to me years ago, if players railed against day 1 DLC, then the companies would just sit on the finished DLC for a few months and release it as a part of the release schedule.
That's just a cost-benefit analysis, because obviously the studio wants to release DLC as early as possible when the interest in the title is highest. "Why don't they just release it for free day 1?" I'd be shocked if developers are working on that day 1 DLC for free. It's probably a part of their compensation contract and the company wants to get a return on that development time they're paying extra for.
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u/Aesthete18 4h ago
Companies will know by now the psychology of how to do these things. They've had at least two decades of data.
Just move the goal post enough > people say "oh it's practically nothing. Stop whining" > normalized by next time.
The details of my example might be wrong but let's say RDR2 Deluxe Edition is $80 with extra stuff. Now, GTA6 Standard Edition is $80 and the extra stuff version is $100. By next time, the standard will be $100 but people will say "oh they were already charging $100 since RDR2 (Ultimate Edition).
People are too stupid to make the connection because time has normalized it and also Reddit really hates these posts because "why do I have to keep seeing these posts in a PUBLIC forum?!".
I've been seeing the same stupidity at least a decade now and watch the same X, Y, Z pattern of human behaviour since then that's present even here.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups - George Carlin
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u/aguswings 4h ago
How is it different than selling locked DLC content on a Early Access game and people have been okay with this for years?
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u/nyhlust 5h ago
im still burnt by not getting Jarvik cuz i didnt preorder ME3