Turning Players Into Payers (The Jimquisition) 

I'm so sick of your bitching and assumptions with no facts. "Only whales buy crates". You are basing that off of conversations and conjecture, you have no hard facts showing game sales and who buys crates. People dont mind loot crates as long as its not gameplay changing (hence the uproar with battlefront and shadow of war). Games are incredibly expensive to make and market, and NO its not developers pushing the graphics envelope for their sake, the consumer loves amazing graphics and will often complain "looks like ps3" when a game isn't freaking astounding. You are a "games journalist" there is nothing noble or special about your job, you talk about video games for christ sake. You are NOT in the industry, you have never programmed or made any sort of 3d art or map, and NO making youtube videos doesn't make you a "creator" or creative. Dead space 2 selling 4 million and not being successful is proof enough on how expensive modern games are to make. Steam and retailers take a 30% cut, + a game can only be 60 bucks for so long so profits go down. I dont care spending 80-100 bucks over the course of a year on a game if I like it. Get used to it you entitled little babies who don't know how the world works or the effort involved in making games. I'm sure your sheep audience will rush to downvote me. You want to really convince me, you need to be in the industry and present numbers, salaries, years to develop, marketing and distribution costs, and weigh that vs selling a single 60 dollar game, not your constant assumptions and bitching!

"Turning players into payers" just sounds like a catchphrase for a pimping service...

Back in my day we called it spyware

I hope THePunisher Xxx enjoys getting exploited at every turn by the greed of today's tripple A gaming.

Remember when you bought a game....and that was it? Yea I loved those days to.

"Turning players into payers." Jeeeeeesus. They're really dragging the subtext straight into the text, aren't they?

That Scientfic Revenue video sounds like an ad from one of those dystopian movies where the squeaky clean facade hasn't cracked to show the dark underbelly yet.

I wish Ferrari used Dynamic Pricing...

That pinned comment has so many replies that it lags chrome.... And it can't support more....

8:12 So, the American airline industry is under investigation for PRICE GOUGING during the 2017 hurricane season. Meanwhile Uber got a lot of customers to uninstall the Uber app after both acting as scabs during a January 2017 taxi driver strike and temporarily allowing PRICE SURGING during that time (they later disabled the price surging, likely only after the outcry). Meanwhile Jackass McGee from Scientific Revenue here is telling us to look to these two industries for comfort? That's like being caught sneaking around at night with a machete and saying "Hey, don't worry about it! Lots of people walk around at midnight with a machete. Just ask my buddy, Jason Voorhees!"

"I can already see the posts on NeoGAF and Reddit now!" Oh, I guess I know when th- "...Well I can already see the posts on Reddit now!" My sides entered orbit.

You should be more understanding Jim, publishers are having a rough life. Look at EA, they are probably hitting a record high of only 5 billion dollars net profits this year, after a rough patch since 2015 where they didn't sunk bellow the 4 billion mark and kept a steady upward trend. My hearts and prayers are with them, poor bastards. (Thanks for stepping up for us, the consumers

"Charging people different prices is fair because everyone has different incomes". By that logic I should be able to go down to the local dealership and get a Ferrari for $1,000 while the rich guys pay 100,000.

I am a nurse. And sometimes I wish that I had some of those greedy suits lying on my ward, because I would _love_ to play the game of DLC and lootboxes with them. Hello, good Sirs, I am your friendly nurse and you've just bought a copy of *"Basic Care"!* This includes me checking on you regularly at the beginning, the middle and the end of my shift, me sending a trainee nurse with your meds and even three meals a day! Of course there is more! There are great things that can and will extend and enhance your hospital experience! Things like... - "wiping your ass" - "the nurse nurse is kind to you" - "the nurse has time for a conversation" - or even "the friendly nurse has time for a converstation"! Amazing experiences like... - "answering your questions" - "comforting you when you are scared" - "changing your bandages, even when they are not completely grubby" - "changing your bedclothes more often than once a week" - "getting painkillers when you need them"! And all of it is accessible through just a tiny bit of grinding, called "moving your ass to the nursing station", "making me lots of compliments", "shut up when the nurse is in a bad mood", "never complain or even ask for something" or "making me gifts". But of course we understand that as a busy executive you might not have the time for all the grind. And being the sympathetic nurses we are, we even offer a solution for that! For only 1000 Euro you can buy our *DLC - Direct Loving Care* that not only includes all of the mentioned goodies above, but also comes with an extra -skin- colored bandage that is exclusive to our DLC! You don't feel like you want our DLC? Why not trying our *Care Boxes* that give you that extra flexibility? Each *Care Box* only costs 50 Euro and has a staggering 5% chance of giving you the treatment you actually need! And they even come in batches - get 5 Care Boxes for the price of 4 and a half! Yes, I think I like that idea. I am seeing my meager salary getting considerably boosted in the near future! And the best thing, according to companies like €A, _both_ sides will benefit from that!

I’m waiting for Jim to read out the pinned comment on a future video it would be gold

THePunisher Xxx: _"I'm sure your sheep audience will rush to downvote me."_ Jim: _"Actually yes."_ **pin**

THePunisher Xxx is a classic case of "Video Game Stockholm Syndrome."

Upvote if you refuse to buy Battlefront 2 or Shadow of War cause of this shit. I feel lonely

Publishers seeing THePunisher Xxx's comment: IT'S HUGE! FIRE THE HARPOONS BOYS, WE CANT LET THIS ONE GET AWAY! WE'RE GONNA MAKE A FORTUNE I TELL YA!

Hes just gonna read that pinned comment out on Commentocracy now lol.

Sooo loot boxes arent gambling because your using real life money to buy fake money and using that to gamble. So why cant a 12 year old to go vegas and use real life money to buy chips and sit at the craps table?

I remember a time when you paid full price for a game and got a full game in return.

To put a little fuel into the fire: all products with flexible pricing mentioned as defense share one quality: they are limited resources. there are only so many plane seats, for example, therefore prices have to be adjusted according to supply and demand. With digital goods such as freemium currency, supply is virtually (heh) limitless, and therefore other economic laws (as in "laws of nature" but for economics, not actual legislature) apply. The bloke compares apples with seawater. Plus, the Nash Equilibrium is a well known economical phenomenon that states that if everyone tries to recklessly get the max result, nobody will achieve the optimum and the system might even crash completely. Some have to "play suboptimally" so that the system as a whole can work. In the end, SciRev is not only morally questionable, it is additionally, plain and simple, bad economics.

"Turning Players into Players" The AAA industry in a nutshell

As someone who wants to become a game designer, the industry makes me want to puke.

Games don't make enough money anymore? I never asked for SWBF2 to be the second highest budgeted game in history. If they can't make their game financially solvent then that is their problem. I'm not here to pick up the fucking tab because of their shit budgetary management.

Triple Paid Games

I'm in this strange place right now. On one hand, I'm sad that this is the latest thing to plague the industry. On the other hand, I find myself gleefully receiving yet another industry video vivisection by Mr. Jim Sterling son. Edit: Apologies, I meant Jim - *fucking* - Sterling son. Where are my manners?

Machine learning? well LEARN THIS!!! I flipped off the screen, you didn't see it but it was totally badass

"fuck with the orc merchant" best game of the year 2017

Whoa, wait! @Jim Sterling You should definitely use a clip from The Talos Principle or Serious Sam, they have this "easter egg" of a guy in the company wearing a suit who just constantly yells "money!" while a big pile of cash sits on his desk. It's... Perfect.

Who watches Jimquisition at 3 AM? Rolls over, checks phone, sees new Jimquisition OH BOY 3 AM

"Turning players into payers" Nope! I'm out!

Somehow I can't shake the feeling that Jim pinned ThePunisher Xxx's comment just so he could memorize it for his Commentocracy.

For people defending the practice because games are too expensive to produce now I would like to make some statements that are mostly backed up by actual evidence. Dead space 3 failed. Dead space 1 and 2 did not. Why? Dead space 3 made itself far more expensive, far less attractive to the original audience by abandoning horror to go more action shooter assuming there was a bigger audience for that. They were wrong. Not enough people wanted it to cover the money they spent on it. Publishers and devs should be smart about how much they spend on games. I dont think dead space 3 would have sold much better without the microtransactions. We people who shun them are still a minority. If they kept the budget smaller instead of jizzing out elaborate cinematics and set pieces, as well as keeping it horror, I expect it would have been successful. Destiny 1, the most expensive game ever that sold only a small fraction of what it developed at launch, made its entire budget back in one day of just $60 game sales. If it actually delivered what was promised then it would have done even better. The cost of development can be covered by the potential consumers of a market and bungie/activision did that precisely because they knew bungies next game would have huge interest. They still made it a safe bet by pizza slicing the game and even then it was successful. Freemium goods are over priced garbage even before they start to affect gameplay. Every company on the sun is trying to tell me a single costume is worth anywhere between 5-30 dollars in an age where I can get full quality games for that price? I work as an illustrator, when you're pedaling a product that has a one time cost to design and can then be distributed infitintely at no additional cost you mark the price down to tempt more people to buy it. Instead the price stays abussively high, justified flimsily by how its extra, its optional, its over priced so you can support the ailing devs. No. This narrative is false. The prices stay high because no company wants to unsettle the idea from peoples brains that these digital goods are worth this much cash. They dont stay high because few people want to buy them. Few people buy them because the prices are high. 35 million people bought overwatch because it was a good deal. Only a small fraction of those people buy loot crates regularly. I suggest thats because very few people stay hyped long enough to want to spend an entire games price on roughly 3 good costumes worth of crates. 2 of which are random. Those 3 costumes did not take more time to design than a game with numerous maps and playable characters yet they cost far, far more. Blizzard made enough money off of selling the game to keep those servers alive for years while pumping out new stuff and still rolling in cash. There is no argument for the heavy premium on their freemium. Sell the goods at a tempting price with less bullshit. In an age where souls games and witcher 3 turn great profit off of $60 price tag and $15-20 dlc, expensive games that dont insist on pushing the limits of visual fidelity, I really hold no sympathy for these idiotic publishers who insist on spending more than is reasonable to make games where they shouldn't expect that many sales. I hold no faith in their constant mantra that heavily over priced loot crates are necessary. Its time that mid tier budgets be embraced again and if microtransactions want to stick around they better be consumer friendly and priced appropriately. If a single armor took a week or two for one dev to make after a concept artist farted it out over a couple dozen hours in a game where there's millions of potentially interested customers you can sell that shit for 50c. Anything more is shaking consumers down for their cash. If devs really need donations to stay afloat they can open a bloody patreon while they make something worth buying. If the publisher is afraid that not enough people will buy it then they can put their less popular item into a bundle with other items, sell them collectively cheaper, and get more peoples interest. Almost like dlc. Which is why they dont. A lot of AAA games these days dont stay popular long enough to get dlc. Why? Because they're just not good enough. Hardline sure wasnt dark souls 3 or witcher 3 or horizon zero dawn. A lot of modern releases will retain a few players but most just dip so far within the first month that producing expansion type content is unattractive with so few potential buyers still paying attention. So whats a publisher to do to make more cash off of their original original investment (instead of investing safely and not throwing the bank at a new ip)? Season passes and day 1 dlc. Also microtransactions. Have as many things as possible for hyped people to buy day 1 or even before the game comes out to maximize profit. So, if a publisher doesnt have faith that its game will make enough they frontload options to minimize loses by exploiting dunces willing to splurge on something marketing has sold them on. Publishers do this instead of being consumer friendly because it makes reliable money. If the game succeeds they have a marketplace to peddle more price-inflated shit and if it fails they've extorted cash from the faithful and minimized loses. Publishers want big and flashy to catch peoples attention and have convinced themselves thats the only way. So dont defend them. These tactics are a step in the wrong direction instead of addressing the problem inherent in spending more than they have reason to on every title. Halo? Spend the cash. Random new ip thats not that imaginative and hasnt been proven? Dont give it a huge fucking budget so that you dont need as many sales. But nope. Publishers want everything to sell as well as overwatch or cod or destiny. Reason has abandoned the big publishers.

You should rename “The Jimquisition” to “Why Another Market Crash Needs to Happen, Reason Number [EPISODE NUMBER HERE].”

Remember back in the PS2 (and before) days, when gaming was so simple and convenient? We totally took that shit for granted...

Jim, Cassandra could prophecise events of the future, but her curse was not be be believed. So it may be more accurate than you think :P

Actually there is one correction that makes a HUGE difference: game sales are a bigger cut than microtransactions for _most_ pc games. Not the other way around. Remembering this will allow us to remember rule number one - if you buy the game with the intent of not purchasing MTs, you've sent no message to the publisher. But avoiding buying a game because it has microtransactions - this sends a message to the entire industry.

and we all stupidly thought SkyNet was going to be a military AI

I am disturbed by this trend. Gambling is _not_ legal everywhere. The reasons for outlawing it vary from place to place, but there _is_ always a great benefit to banning it - problem gamblers (addicts) will _not_ be tempted to play. Given the knowledge that "whales" exist, *isn't it UNETHICAL to **_provide_** this gateway for addiction?*

18:29 love this game that you invented Jim!

Pinned comment: Randy Bitchford, is that you?

Heres a thing that really stands out in my memory because dev talks about finance are typically the most depressing thing ever, i get a constant sense of despiration from them constantly... Anywho: i was at a small game dev conference last year and a dev from Fireproof Games was giving a talk. 2mins in to his planned speech he snapped and went on a rant about how devs shouldnt care about meta data and should really focus on making the games they want to see. Ignore the alledged market demands of being F2P, if you make a good game you can make money on a single payment game (using their The Room as an example). Everyone cheered, it was very refreshing to hear this alternative (even though its older) to an imagined demand for free to play. The microsoft rep who was on after really struggled to win the crowd back :P

So any other bipolar people (or anyone with similar mental illnesses or disabilities) really skeeved out by this? I'm type 2 and medicated well enough that my hypomania isn't too bad, but the idea that algorithms could learn the typical cycling patterns of people like me is creepy and manipulative, moreso than the already skeevy manipulation of neurotypical or players with unipolar/major depression. It's even worse to think about potential future applications that might specifically target the mentally ill or developmentally disabled by looking at social media or other activities on phones for signs of mania, psychosis, or other signs of impulsivity and vulnerability. I think what scares me even more than that is I think deep brain stimulation and similar implant devices are the future... and, well, the idea that games could read the input/output of a device that manages my brain's own vulnerabilities and use it to sell me things is particularly dystopian. Anyways, to Jim and anyone else who studies this kind of AAA shitbaggery, keep an eye out. I might sound paranoid, but these publishers for sure aren't above manipulating the mentally ill.

THePunisher Xxx - A couple of things: The development and success of Hellblade pretty much negates 90% of your argument about compensating the expense of making a video game in modern day. Also coming from a guy who has worked in the industry, the tools and software used in making those games has become much cheaper and made much more easily accessible in recent times. Some publishers have ridiculous expectations, like EA not thinking in the long term when they think Dead Space 2 selling 4 million copies as not successful, that's really successful for a game in that genre. The biggest problem in the industry today is the control and pressures that publishers put on developers, EA being the worst offenders. They set themselves up to fail by only investing in producing 100 million dollar games and not looking where they can push the envelope elsewhere; so in case they don't re-coup that 100 million they jam micro-transactions and loot-boxes into the game, even going to the point of changing the game design entirely so they can force that crap in. Look at how successful companies like Rockstar, CD Proj Red are when they are left to create a game without publisher pressure. But sadly most publishers aren't interested in the quality of the games/gaming experience but only how much cash they can milk from it. Also, you say ''You are not in the industry' to Jim, but hasn't Jim done some voice-over work for video games? I'm pretty sure that constitutes working in the games industry in some form.

How about we all get together and troll the publishers? Like if we had 1 or 2 million people, we could all pre-order a particular publisher's games and all the content, and then cancel the day before it launches. Hehehehehe

The day microtransactions went too far was the day Solitaire introduced its monthly plan.

Wether or not this business model works or is popular it doesn't change the moral aspect of this model. Sure it's all legal but that doesn't mean it's not scummy

It's almost hilarious how bad the pinned comment is. Basically every single thing THePunisher Xxx talks about has ALREADY been a FEATURE on a different Jimquisition. Either THePunisher Xxx didn't do ANY research and this is his VERY first Jimquisition OR he's just hoping that the majority of people who read his comment either haven't seen many Jimquisitions themselves or are as big into eating corporate ass as he is. And don't get me wrong. I am not, for a second, trying to imply that ThePunisher Xxx is a paid corporate mouthpiece or works for gaming in any way. In fact it's pretty obvious he is nothing more than a customer. But that's the real issue. He's JUST a customer and yet he's STILL going to bat 100% for the very people who view him as nothing more than a walking wallet to bleed dry until it can give no more. He loves his corporate masters so much that he's willing to open his financial veins for them and he's just completely mystified as to why others aren't equally willing. In short, he's a living embodiment of everything that's wrong with the consumer side of gaming. He's the reason for all the bad things in gaming today. He's the reason that these AAA corporations know they can get away with adding microtransaction gambling loot boxes on top of their preorder penalties on top of their tiered games model on top of their games as a service on top of their season passes, etc, etc, etc. He may not ACTUALLY be a whale (because, in my experience, most whales are actually pretty self aware of what they are and at least a little ashamed about it), but he's the kind of gamer who thinks he is and is somehow proud of his implied status as a literal human-shaped wallet. Thankfully, Jim is, as ever, right about his industry predictions. There are only so many THePunisher Xxx's in the world. And the rate at which new ones are being made is FAR outpaced by the rate that old ones get tired of being nothing but a wallet with legs to the industry and leave forever. Eventually this whole system we have today with loot boxes and season passes and all the other garbage that infests the industry WILL end up consuming itself and there WILL be another big video game crash. Thankfully, because of the indie scene, there will still be great games to play. Sadly, it's gana mean a TON of people lose their jobs, a TON of big name studios gone forever, etc. And, "sadly" (not really), it's gana mean that people like THePunisher Xxx are gana have to go elsewhere to get their daily flogging from their corporate overlords.

Calling it now: “Turning Players into Payers” will be a new meme.

Hit the lever!

DLC was the beginning of the end for gaming, everything went down hill after DLC was introduced, now corporations took over with their greed.

Dynamic pricing. What they want you to think: They're making microtransactions cheaper for people who can't afford them. What's actually happening: They're making microtransactions more expensive for people who can afford them.

Let’s be honest, Science Research is full of bullshit when they pull the “different incomes” card. If there was a poor gamer that had a gambling complex and a rich gamer that spent money once in a while, we know exactly which one they’d sell to.

Their comparisons to other dynamic pricing are so transparently bullshit. Uber (and yeah, another less than ideal company to compare oneself to, like pharmaceuticals) justify dynamic pricing because peak times increase demand and therefore there is a potential lack of supply, which is finite. Charging different amounts for the same video game content is entirely irrespective of supply - there is infinite supply, and there is no justification for charging each customer what they think they will splash out, rather than what the content is actually worth, based on its cost to manufacture and market. Sickening - though sadly not surprising.

This video just got you a sub :) Explains so much what is wrong with the gaming industry. Indie games are the future for now.. i hope they find the revenue they need, to stay around.

Jim: "I can already see the posts on Neogaf and Reddit now... I mean, I can already see the posts on Reddit now!" Me: **slow clap**

Every Monday is just getting jim one step closer to getting black listed by every single company on the planet

So micro transactions today are like walking into a bar after paying the cover charge. You go to the bar and order a drink. The wait time is 30min... Unless for pay $2.99 to "expedite" your order. Then you get your beer and it's half head. So you want to ask the waitress but she was outsourced to India. So then you want to order some wings (don't forget to expedite that order for $2.99) and you are informed you will get a random assortment of wings, some mild/hot/no flavor. You can spend an additional $8.99 to make another order to get a better chance of the wing flavour you want... Or you can spend $24.99 for the Hot Wings season pass to get at least 70% hot wings per order for 6 months. You can also spend another $4.99 to customize the bar stool you are sitting on, but the customization fades when you head to the bathroom... Unless you spend $12.99 for the Reserved Seating DLC.

For everyone who is wondering, what a Cassandra is: Cassandra is a seer / oracle, that warned the Trojans to not take Gifts from the Greeks. And we all know what happened to Troja

"Nothing stands between you and monetization." Nothing except... you know, good conscience and morals.

Who the fuck is THePunisher Xxx? The official phallic appreciator of the gaming industry? This industry is Cancer. It has gone from delivering finished goods for a finished price to stretching out how much they can squeeze out of every title. These AAA titles have been embarrassing over the last several years. The predatory behavior in establishing gambling mechanics in games sold to children is just the tip of the iceberg. People who defend this behavior are likewise cancer to the same community looking for a solution. If it takes $100 for a finished product, no necessary DLC, no microtransactions, no Season Pass, then so be it. Who wouldn't rather see a total price for a total product? Besides trash who defend shady business practice and call it "hard work".

The entire "Let's all fuck with the orc merchant" part made me laugh so hard I woke up the entire house. I hope you're proud of youself, Jim

I liked that pinned comment. That guy would make a very good mark for a snake oil salesman.

Are people now pretending that the Witcher 3 doesn't exist? A triple A game with no microtransactions, valuable and content full DLC, absolutely gorgeous graphics and it made money. It was a fucking success. Like, why the fuck are people talking about companies having to go the microtransaction route when Witcher 3 is proof that they dont have to do that...

dynamic pricing is fucked up.

If the CEO is so confident in his 'rational' argument why did he need to feed an evasive puff piece to another site instead of directly answering your questions? And if his practice is entirely ethical and he thinks no one has a problem with it, why did he not just freely share who he's working with outside mobile gaming? Is he worried about public reaction to his methods? And most importantly; if he's got nothing to hide and has nothing but good, fair 'best practices' in mind, why did he throw this tantrum at the first confrontation and act like such a fucking piece of shit over basic concerns?

I stopped playing mobile games in 2012. They went from a harmless, cheap experience, to just utter crud that milks you for pennies. If I'm out, and want to play a video game. I bring my 3DS. Nintendo still seems to adopt the good old policies.

Is "Turning Players Into Payers" the new "Here's a TV that looks like an apple."?

"Look, don't get angry just because I bought that $100 token that uninstalls your game and forces you to buy a new copy. Just buy a new copy! Or pay $200 for that token that keeps my token from working on your game... for one month. It's all optional, you know- you don't HAVE to p(l)ay."

Well, seems like I can't afford AAA-Games anymore if this trend continues. Too bad. If there only were a metric shitton of equally enjoyable but cheaper videogames with fixed prices and without microtransactions...

Want to lower the cost of game-creation? Stop feature-creep, stop bloating games, stop wasting equal or more on advertising than the actual production-costs, aim for certain audiences, do what your studio is good and proficient at. A studio that is almost entirely focued on MP shouldn't do SP games etc.

Imagine raising a child and they grow up to be THePunisher Xxx.

Disappointing that orc merchant is oddly satisfying.

Imagine this Dynamic Pricing base on people's data for other things in our lives. Imagine your mother calls you saying your dad's health took a turn for the worst and he doesn't have much time... You rush to the airport, and them the cashier (I don't know how you call the people selling plane tickets) tells you it's 5000 dollars. But for the person in front of you... going in the same plane... the ticket was 200 dollars. You ask why and she says "Well... our system calculates the price of the ticked based on each individual willingness to pay that price... since you must really need to get in this exact plane... the price will be higher for you" That's absurd... so why are people defending this policy with videogames?

I think this is part of the reason the switch is so popular. I wouldn't touch any mobile games now, but I have no problem paying full price for games on the move that aren't wallet extraction units.

I'm a gamer for life. And i hope that the video game industry goes bankrupt REALLY quickly. :D the faster the better.

Games like Nier Automata, Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Cuphead, Divinity Original Sin 2 and so on prove that when AAA publishers claim that disgusting business practices are necessary they are about as honest as Randy Pitchford.

I want to thank you for making these videos. You made me realize I have a terrible addiction to these loot crates systems and stuff because to me is not about getting "that one skin" for me is about getting EVERYTHING. To the point that I was paying about $150 on games like Overwatch every two months. I'm sickened with how much money I've spent over the years on cosmetic items. Money I could've spent on more responsible things or even like actual games instead of falling victim to the freemium. Now that my eyes are open I'll definitely look into getting some help with my addiction :X

Scientific pricing is an attempt to apply perfect price discrimination, which is a concept in economics that essentially means charging each individual consumer the maximum price they're willing to pay for a good. Price discrimination is an attempt by firms to take consumer surplus and convert it to revenue, and perfect price discrimination takes all consumer surplus and converts it to revenue. I would need a legal expert to confirm this, but as far as I know, price discrimination is an anticompetitive and illegal practice in the United States, specifically that firms are required to charge all consumers the same price (see Robinson-Patman Act of 1936). In a market that is already so geared in favour of firms and large corporations, surely there is a case for stronger government regulation against price discrimination, at least in its perfect form. What a disgusting business practice. Thanks for bringing this to light Jim, you're a fucking hero. Perhaps there's scope for a class action lawsuit? I'd donate to that fund even though I live in Australia. Stamp out this predatory business practice before it gets any stronger.

As a guy that runs a "free to play" game, Jim is correct. People that spend massive amounts do not continue the trend long term. It's often an impulse buy from people that can hardly afford it. I try not to focus on them. Sure it's nice when a guy comes in and spends 500 in a month, but you can't count on it long term running an online game with repeated costs. You're better off with small amounts from a larger number of players (As Jim's Patreon proves).

To me, this brings back the old _"are video games art?"_ argument. As an avid gamer, I've long defended them fervently as such. Now though, I'm not so sure. Once games went from a piece of a developers soul programmed into a computer to an incessant shotgun blast of _"enter your credit card number for this gun; this shirt; this paint job; these boots; this chest; these orcs; etc etc etc ad nauseum"_ , I just can't see them as art anymore. Now they're just... Products- like shoes or car accessories.

I'm so glad this came out when it did. I started tracking my mobile purchases two weeks ago, and I'm finally seeing the damage I'm doing to myself in real-time. I finally went F2P on one title, and was doing okay on the other until an in-game event coaxed me into whaling ($100 over the course of a week). So, lesson learned on that front: in-game events are fucking scams these days.

EA stock crashes, Fallout 76 crashes... Suddenly I feel more alive.

It's funny how gaming debates change over the years. Remember when cheat codes in games like GTA San Andreas were called "too seductive to ignore and undermined the game." Now we have the "totally 100% optional" microtransactions all up in our shit.

You have to know that if this definitively existed in a PC game, within days someone would create some sort of application to run in the background to ensure you get the minimum pricing and have it 'sold' to you as infrequently as possible.

Once the PSN store figures out I only buy games at 80% discount price, I will go on a buying streak to end all buying streaks.

I love how people like the guy Jim pinned think they're helping the game industry, like these practices are fine and should be accepted if games are to grow. But these practices are us devs' worst nightmare. I and 5 of my colleagues got fired literally 3 days ago from our junior positions, in an all junior team in a mobile game company, because they decided the mobile game they gave us 2 months to make, wouldn't make enough money to reach the investors' anticipations. Not that it wouldn't make back it's development costs, they were paying us jackshit, with 2 interns on the team, and only 2 months of development time. It just wouldn't make as much as they thought it would. That's who you're defending, assholes.

This is why I buy pre-owned games. I will always happily support a caring and passionate publisher with my money but the second any company starts harassing me with loot boxes and in game micro transactions then fuck you you get exactly 0 of my moneys! The more money you try and filth out of me the less likely I am to ever consider purchasing anything off of your company directly every again! Regardless of how good I think the game is! I refuse to support that cancerous shit!

I thought the pinned comment was a joke the first time I read it. I’m still not sure

The biggest issue with ALL of the examples, they are based on merchandise or content that has LIMITED QUANTITIES there's only so many Airplane tickets or Auctions are for a singular item, things that live on the back of supply and demand. The availability for digital content is practically limitless, which makes the idea of supply and demand pointless.

20:27 "It's just cosmetic items, you don't have to buy them." What did this Punisher fucking say? "People don't mind loot boxes as long as it's not game-changing." You know what? No I fucking despise loot boxes even if it's only cosmetic items and here is why: Take a look at games like H1Z1, PUBG, etc. You know how when you first start out and your character looks plain and boring while others look cool because they paid more money to get those clothes for their character, why do they have to pay more just to add a few skins to their character especially at ridiculous prices. Yes there are people that pay thousands of dollars just have cool skins for their character because they are "rare". I get it you want to buy and resell them to the market buy why do people pay absurd prices for digital products and paying for "gambling" of said products, yes I said "gambling" because that's what IT FUCKING IS!! Call me a hypocrite because I've bought into these items but I guess me growing up and actually thinking how stupid it all was was actually a blessing to me. My point being is why should I have to pay more just to look cool in a game, now you can argue that you can get loot boxes for free but you have to do an insane grind to get those loot boxes. Why? Because they are trying to tempt you to purchase loot boxes instead of working for them. This applies to any game that has loot boxes that are "pure cosmetic". Another reason I despise loot boxes is specifically for the reason people say that they are "only cosmetic". You fucking brain-dead idiots essentially allowed this shit to escalate to the point where it got so bad. Sure there was a massive backlash when EA brought out the Battlefront 2 Beta but because the idiots out there allowing this shit to happen IS THE REASON THIS SHIT HAPPENED!! Calling loot boxes as "only cosmetic" is the LAMEST EXCUSE EVER!! You can't just hide behind that because then it tells publishers that what they are doing is ok, IT'S NOT!!! I still play old games from my GameCube, PS1, Xbox (The original) and my PC, why? BECAUSE GAMING BACK THEN WAS AND STILL IS BETTER THEN IT IS NOW!!! I'd almost say just allow these idiots that defend this shit to just waiste their money meanwhile we stay away and be smart with our purchases while we laugh at those idiots getting ripped off, however, if we were to do this then these bullshit practices will never end and the smart people out there will find themselves with not a lot of games for their consoles like me. I only have two games on my Xbox one and one of them was plagued with bullshit DLC. I HAVE MORE GAMES ON MY ORIGINAL XBOX THEN MY XBOX ONE BECAUSE THE GAMES ON MY ORIGINAL XBOX ARE BETTER THEN GAMES TODAY! That's mainly because they're fun and not riddled with DLC.

"Players into Players" Faith_In_Humanity.exe has encountered an unexpected runtime error.

God that Scientific Revenue is some Skynet shit.

"Pricing Signals" Eugh... Makes me shudder like Sideshow Bob.

Hey Jim - Love your show, great episode. I recently had a panic attack from an interaction with my meds - I thought I was going to die. I saw white light creeping in at the edges of my vision, and could hear a choir of angels calling me forth to a serene rest. And there, lo, I saw the face of that which is called I AM. The DEIURGE. That is to say, God. And there - in its glory, its unnameable and thoroughly terrifying presence...I managed to say one thing. Just one: "Jim Sterling says to tell you 'thanks'." TELL HIM HE'S WELCOME. And then, on my bathroom floor, I came to. Thought you should know. That, unlike these other so-called fans, I literally thanked God for you.

They literally tell us that we are nothing but stupid cows. They have the BALLS TO TELL THAT STRAIGHT TO OUR FACES NOW??!!

Joke's on them, these bullshit trends have me avoiding most video games these days, even though I love video games and have played them pretty much my whole life. I'll wait until every Game of the Year or Complete or Perfect or Gold or whatever-the-fuck edition comes out and then MAYBE I'll buy it (because let's be real, if it has micro-transactions, I still don't really want to buy your game until you remove that shit permanently from the game). I can't wait until Nintendo does loot boxes and people try to defend that shit, as if Nintendo hasn't already done pretty much everything all the other companies have been accused of (and before you say "but micro-transactions", go play Fire Emblem Heroes, or just take a look at all the Day 1 DLC for Fire Emblem Echoes). I remember when I enjoyed playing video games. Now a lot of them just make me angry and sad, and that's before I even buy them.

Someone draw a fanart of THePunisher Xxx getting spanked by Jim Sterling's riding crop.