They were losing millions of subscribers, primarily, because millions of people have been cutting the cord for years. Many of which, didn’t watch sports (and thus, ESPN) to begin with, which is why they’ve continually been getting rid of cable, which is a concept built on the notion of forcing people to pay for…

I mean.. They've applied an identical (and technically much worse) oligarchy around college football and college basketball.

If Gamefreak wanted to use it as one (I agree with most of what you’ve offered in this comment section, and yes I’ve taken the time to read everything), it absolutely is. It’s a radically different time today. Gaming was much smaller back in the day. Of the few games there were, most didn’t have tutorials (Street…

They gave away Modern Warfare Remastered and prior versions of NBA 2K, all of which are ladened from top to bottom with Microtransactions. No backlash in any of those cases. 

Wow. Slurms MacKenzie. The original party worm! (*Bender Voice*) 

They also get the additional bonus (which can’t be understated) of a rival nation harming themselves, their own economy, and citizens in a futile/epicly failed attempt to hurt China. The power of amusement.

Sort of unrelated, but thank you for your service to gamers. Loved World at War.

Absolutely. My exposure to Secret Wars, Apocalypse, Mr Sinister and all the comic book story arcs, etc came exclusively from the animated Spiderman, X-Men, Batman, etc series. They don't get their due, but in a lot of cases, they adapted stuff from the comic straight up. 

I interpret it as, in America adulthood is worshipped because of its association with freedom (at least, based on the things young people would mostly value). Being able to be in control, have sex, party, have agency, more or less. In that way, what I’ve observed about Japanese culture, this tends to be the inverse.…

As I understand it, it doesn't launch this year. It goes into Xbox Insider Testing in October. Official rollout, probably sometime next year. 

You're wrong. Terribly wrong lol. There are millions of adults who spend hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of dollars on Microtransactions in mobile games, PC MMO's, console games, etc. Kids don't have credit cards. Even those that have ready access to their parents CC's is probably not a huge number. 

Yes. Everything in FIFA/Madden Ultimate Team can be bought with in game coins (which can’t be purchased). Nothing is exclusive to packs. There’s an entire open market in both series which is the Auction House where people can buy/sell/trade their cards. That market dictates what a card is worth. Ex: I bought this…

The Crackdown situation is pretty simple, and you overdramatized it. They had to know the shipping 2019 product was lackluster. But, it had been in development hell for years (including Epic buying the underlying destruction technology the entire game was built on). Eventually, have to just put those games out. That…

Also, Handsome Collection is on sale for E3 week on Xbox (and probably Playstation) for (I think) $15. 

With your last point, you’re stating the obvious. But, also making my point. That’s precisely why there’s been such a gap between Halo games. The next Halo needs to move the needle. The last two, and the last Gears haven’t. Both upcoming sequels (Gears 5 and Halo Infinite) are much more ambitious games, which is what…

I would argue Halo hasn’t been Xbox’s true flagship for awhile. Obviously Master Chief is the Mario of the brand, but Halo hasn’t been the face of Xbox consoles since Halo 3. At this point, it’s either Gears of War and or Forza Horizon. Also, Halo Infinite is coming to Xbox One, so it’s two Halo games (and two Gears…

What you’re citing as a weakness or failure on the part of Microsoft (At least, in regards to Halo) is a strength. Phil Spencer learned from his predecessors mistakes. There were too many Halo games last generation. Halo 3, ODST, Reach, 4, Anniversary, Halo Wars RTS, Halo Spartan Assault all (minus Spartan Assault…

Just like hot wheels, genius partnership. Provides production quality that these toy brands could never get to on their own or paying some external team to do (which, usually ends up as a mobile game these days).

If anything, I'd wager E-sports players would be the last group Google tries to court with this service (in a few years once it's ideally made some traction and internet in the US and globally had made further enroads), given they're A.) the highest expectations for latency and performance, and thus the most likely to…

They had already been doing extensive Microtransactions for years (since Black Ops 2, 6 ish years ago) anyway. No change in that department.