I've been following the gaming industry rather closely lately, and there are many things happening. Bungie ditched Activision, BF5 launched with almost no promo and no fanfare, which then proceeded to get smashed to pieces because of the SJW bullshit. It's now full of cheaters and support is lacking.
Blizzard, another company which is involved with Activision, paid its staff to leave. Blizzard can't split from Activision as they're a merged entity but it seems that some of those within have decided enough is enough too and will probably start up a new company free of the shackles of Activision. As a die hard Blizzard fan, this makes me happy.
Loot boxes have been banned in Belgium, Holland has made the RNG element of loot boxes illegal and two states in Murica (Washington and Hawaii) are reviewing them too, EA lost their lawsuit quite spectacularly which resulted in the removal of loot boxes and the whole Ultimate Team gimmick in Belgium at least with hopefully more countries to follow. Australia is also weighing in on the matter. As someone said in an article I read, this is merely the beginning. The wheels of legislation turn slowly but once its claws start taking hold, we're going to see the whole loot box scene collapse overnight.
Black Ops 4's black market only showed its face once the reviews were all in and settled, showing that Activision knows that gamers hate that shit, so they've shown their hand and are probably milking their games for all they can at the moment. On Black Ops 4 you can buy a red dot reticle for a dollar. Yes, a dollar for a red dot, in a game which you've already paid $60 for and will have to pay for all the DLCs as well.
Another one of CoD's amazing moves was in WW2 you could only open crates in the social space which meant everyone could see it. Why? So that little Jonny can go running to mommy and ask her for $5 for a loot box. There literally is no other reason, and it's become part of this movement which is slowly forming against this kind of bullshit. (I can't find a source for this atm, saw it in a vid)
Looking further back we have more incidents like the Battlefront 2 debacle in which EA managed to piss off two of the most passionate fan clubs in the world: gamers and Star Wars fans. It got to the point where Disney got involved and told EA to wind their neck in (Disney being a whole different bag of evil but that's a thread for another day).
Destiny 2's reliance on Eververse when it first released again showed Activision's true face, yet another instance where gamers saw straight through the cloth and got pissed off. Bungie has now parted ways with Activision and naturally the internet is full of theories and bullshit but I personally think that they just got fed up with being squeezed for everything they had and had enough cash to be in the position to tell Activision to fuck off.
Over the last few years there's certainly a trend developing towards people getting fed up with microtransactions and loot boxes. Some games do it right, like Fortnite which is free and doesn't restrict anything from the game by not having a season pass or spending any money, yet shows you exactly what you'll earn by buying the season pass. Overwatch treads a fine line for me, in that the limited time events encourage people to buy loot boxes otherwise they'll miss out permanently but then this is a game which gives all its DLC away for free. You can also earn the loot boxes through normal gameplay so it's not all bad.
As a whole I think the writing is on the wall. We've hit a turning point in gaming history and crossed a line which can no longer be uncrossed and the big guns know it. It's for this reason we have £20 skins. Not because these devs or publishers think it's worth £20, but because they know their days are numbered and need to eke out every penny they can before their little game collapses like a house of cards. I think what we're seeing with triple A titles at the moment isn't "'let's make a game and make some good money, and fuck all the gamers" like we have seen for the last decade or so, but rather "shit, the're waking up, stop investing anything, make a few shiny bits and charge extra for them, we're getting fucked anyway so we may as well squeeze what we can out of the ones that are still asleep on the way down".
For me it's not even the amounts, it's not even the half assed launches, the lack of support or their absolutely spectacular inability to manage damage control, it's the sheer blatantness of it all. The lies, the deceit, the incessant bullshit and straight faces. To gamers, to shareholders, to anyone who looks at them, they just don't give a shit and it's really starting to show.
I just hope these guys have enough of a nest egg saved up for when this shit really goes mental, or their kids will be eating loot boxes for Christmas.
This channel is pretty good. The guy waffles on a lot and repeats himself in all his vids but this one is worth a watch if you haven't see any of his stuff yet.