These companies are doing what is in the best interest of their platform.

Maybe this is why we can’t agree. I’m not talking about antitrust law. I’m talking about logical cause and effect. If a business decision is made that is detrimental to consumers, that’s anti-consumer in the logical sense of the word.

It’s not an issue of people not wanting SP games. It’s just that live service games can potentially make way more money. Ultimately, commercial game development is about profit so companies will chase whatever they think will maximize profit. No single-player game will ever be as profitable as a successful live…

Harm is defined as loss or injury.

I believe I summarized your position pretty accurately in my previous reply. You didn’t actually address it so I’m just guessing, though.

Fair enough. Judas is effectively Bioshock 4 and given that IP’s renown, I figured most people would remember its debut announcement trailer. Maybe it wasn’t as impactful as I thought.

...that’s it? You’re not even going to try to refute my specific points anymore?

You’re comparing apples and oranges. You wouldn’t compare amusement park prices to medical expenses. That’s the problem. Gas is a relative need. Video games are a luxury.

A strictly financial barrier to entry is not harmful to consumers.

I’m genuinely confused by this. Based on how often you comment on articles, you presumably read Kotaku on at least a daily basis, suggesting that you care about videogame news. How did you miss this game’s announcement a year ago? I’m pretty sure Kotaku covered it.

I see. So your criteria for good or bad choices is based solely on the magnitude of the detrimental effects. You don’t see a one-time $500 cost as a problematic expense so you think it’s reasonable for people to spend that much to play exclusives.

Just because a choice is available to everyone doesn’t have any bearing on whether or not it’s a good or bad choice. See my gas analogy.

You don’t think spending an extra $500 to play a game is a bad choice..? When given a choice between spending $60 or $560, the first choice is clearly the better one for customers.

I find it surprising that you read a niche gaming blog like Kotaku but didn’t know about the spiritual successor to Bioshock that was revealed a year ago at the biggest event in the gaming industry (The Game Awards) and was featured in Sony’s State of Play event two days ago.

If the writers of the article can’t offer anything new beyond the bare minimum of information that already exists, what’s the point of the article? Barely anything has been revealed about the game so there’s simply not enough information to warrant an article like this.

Like I said before, just because an option exists doesn’t mean it’s a good option. For example, if gas companies raised gas prices to $20 a gallon, you’d still have the option to not buy gas. You could switch to public transportation, ride a bicycle, walk, hitchhike, take an Uber, etc. However, most of those are not go…

A game being exclusive to one platform means it won’t be available to players on other platforms unless they spend up to $500 (or more if the game is PC exclusive) to purchase the required platform. Forcing consumers to spend more money for access isn’t good for consumers. Multiplatform games allow consumers to avoid…

This article seems... premature. The writer doesn’t know any more about it than any of us. There have been two trailers, a blog post and a store page description. That’s it.

That view doesn’t make any sense. Exclusivity doesn’t benefit consumers in any way. If the Granblue demo was available on both PS5 and PC, how would that be worse for consumers? It would make literally no difference for PS5 users because they already have the demo and it would be good for PC users because they could…

Live service games are always repetitive. They have to be because they’re designed to be played for years so the content needs to be replayable. The main retention factor for most live service games is character progression. Loot, leveling, cosmetics, etc. That’s why SS has all of those things.