Bringing this post back in particular because of how poorly Bioware's management has been since Veilguard dropped. And now I'm doubling down by saying:
Stop Killing Games did not win enough backing in the EU Parliament. Ubisoft executives met with several members in a closed-door meeting before the voting commenced. Sony is being sued for monopolistic practices. [Though as yet officially confirmed] Epic Games has been in a prolonged lawsuit battle against Steam for what they call "price monopoly"--they want to take away the one platform's ability to offer affordable games to players.
This is the age when the "Player" is finally transitioned into a "Consumer". Your voice will soon hold no weight.
DON'T BUY ANY DIGITAL PS GAMES (ESPECIALLY IF ON SALE)
BUY SECOND-HAND, PHYSICAL OR GAME KEYS IF YOU CAN!
AND DO NOT (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD) GIVE IN TO THE GTA 6 FRENZY: IT IS LITERALLY A GATEWAY TEST FOR PLAYER RESPONSE TO A DIGITAL-FIRST FUTURE BUSINESS MODEL!
Just like how Skyrim has been the gateway model for Bethesda and Naughty Dog to release Remasters of the same games for the last 8 years! You give them an inch, they'll take a country mile.
And if you're thinking digital is easily more accessible and affordable than physical, I will remind you that if we lived in a near-dystopian future (we do) where the electric supply got cut off due to intense strain on the power grid from data centres while the internet's cloud-based storage systems underwent climate-change-induced blackouts from overheating, water rationing for their cooling systems and general lack of affordability in this current economic crisis, then your digital game license would be as useful as a hope and a prayer against a hurricane! Physical media can withstand one of these scenarios; digital cannot stand both.
If you think these scenarios are extreme hyperbole and cannot happen, they already did. The entire US electric grid is under warning that the current plan to build new data centres would strain the power grid so badly they'd be forced to do state rollouts of power rationing. Just this week, a family died of carbon monoxide poisoning because their electricity was shut off after they had an outstanding bill of $2000 (they paid off half the bill, but the electricity company refused to turn their power on). Heat stroke, heat waves, extreme cold--these are all regulated with internal cooling and heating systems; this adds up in daily expenses; this is part of the power cycle. If you cannot pay for your wifi bill because you have to prioritise your exponentially more expensive electricity bill, you can still play a physical game without the internet; your kids can still have an activity to do without relying on streaming; creativity can still be fed.
And if you think digital will remain an affordable model, I will also remind you that subscription models that began as cheap, accessible alternatives to physical media (Netflix) have literally become more expensive while monopolising the market, sanitising the creative sphere and single-handedly ruining the entire entertainment model by making it an algorithmic, metric-based business model. Same thing is happening to popular fiction in publishing, and those god-awful cartoonified covers (wonder why there's no diversity or creativity in book cover design? blame data sets, blame algorithms, blame "market research"). So take this with a grain of salt, my lovelies:
If you love something, find a way to own it without relying on a third-party app, server or subscription model. Find a way to hold onto the things you love without the need to continually shill out money from your paycheck, because nothing is definitive, everything is uncertain, and for the next five years we will be living through some of the most unprecedented economic and ecological crises since the Great Indian Famine of 1877. El Niño is here to disrupt everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING! Just this year, several tonnes of fertiliser were held at the Hormuz Strait; the effect was that farmers didn't get their fertiliser in time to prep their fields for planting season. UK has declared its first drought. Food and farmers' yields will reach an all-time low by this time in 2028. Lab-grown food start-ups [ahem--based in Israel--ahem] have been seeing more coverage and investment this year (since before the Hormuz Strait scuffle, make of that what you will). Seeds are patented by companies. A peach seed company went bankrupt, and all farmers had to uproot their trees because they were a "proprietary patent", not a tree. If you have to choose between your next meal, your next tank of gas and your ability to unwind by enjoying art you love, games you play for comfort, you'll have some budgeting to be doing in the foreseeable future. I'm not even going to touch the income disparity machine that is AI and the AI "investment" bubble.
I'm not even going to repeat my talking points on the fact that all-digital futures are extremely occidental and deny any and all consideration of the global south!
EVERYONE IS SAYING THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL, BUT WE ARE NOT BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE THAT GUARANTEES A STABLE ELECTRIC GRID AND A NON-HARMFUL CLOUD-BASED TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM.
If we lived in nuclear-first, solar-first or generally well-maintained and distributed resource nations, maybe, maybe, an all-digital future would be applicable (not feasible!). But choice was the tagline for liberalism, for capitalism, wasn't it? How much choice do you have left now? One subscription streaming service over another? One overpriced console over another? One corporate layoff after another. The same eight actors in all the blockbusters? The same book covers? The same formulaic stories?
It's time we relearned how to have conviction, relearned how to stand on precedent, even at the possibility of our own discomfort.
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