Topic of the Week - Video Game Industry's Never Ending Greed

Even now, I could remember the time I got my first video game console. It was the first Xbox which just came out around the time of birthday. When I got unwrapped the paper revealing the console, my eyes lit up. From then on, I played it nonstop and It opened a whole new world for me. I fell in love with video games for it's open worlds, story telling, and it's beautiful graphics. Now back to the present, I have a Playstation 4 and a Nintendo Switch, both that I play regularly. I love video games, but nowadays it seems the industry has gone far away from it's more humble days. It no longer about the player or delivering a adequate product. It's now about simply how much money they can squeeze from you and how many times they can make the same games. They do this by pre-order bonuses, loot crates, pay-to-win features, and the dreadful season pass. Of course they do a lot of other behind the scenes features to make you more tempted into spending more money than the price of the actual game. The worse perpetrators of this unchecked greed is EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, and Activision to just name a few.

Let's look at EA first, one of the worst perpetrators of them all. I won't go to deep since their devilish deeds are already well documented, but they are one of the most greedy companies I've seen. They destroy multiple franchises such as Mass Effect, Sims, and Star War: Battlefront by pumping it with season passes and loot crates as well as rushing it to production and releasing a broken game. The worst crime, however, is the yearly release of their sports line of games. Year in and year out EA pumps out the same Madden, the same FIFA for the same price and no changes. Even worse is they release a broken game, FIFA 20, which cripples the single player aspect with bugs and leaves you to play FUT, their cash cow gambling mode. They destroy well establish franchises and release the same game and put pay walls and pay-to-win features just to line their pockets instead of actually releasing a competent game. If there is one thing to take from this article, don't buy a game from EA, but I hope you already knew that.

Next, let's take a look at one of the more hated companies as of late, Bethesda. Now if I was writing this article circa early 2010's people would be gathering their pitchforks, but Bethesda has been doing some shady things lately. They recently released Fallout 76 which was a downright atrocious and broken game. On top of that they released a $100 season pass which was broken at launch and deleted loot which made you start over from the beginning. On top of that the pre-order bonus for Fall Out 76, Power Armor helmet, was toxic and was recalled. They also keep releasing Skyrim with different versions and use the same engine which is just simply outdated at this point which both just irk me so goddamn much. Bethesda is no shining beacon of honest and hardworking companies that you can trust. You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Furthermore, let's end with one company I wish wasn't on this list since I do love some of their franchises, Ubisoft. I love their Assassins Creed and Watch Dogs franchises (the second watch dogs was great, but the first one was atrocious and they lied a lot about the features in the game), but they have done some shady things as well. Take for example their new game Ghost Recon Breakpoint which was broken at launch, was filled with boring content, and was pay-to-win. The funniest thing is you can legitimate beat the game as your first mission and cheese your way into killing the boss. They have fixed Assassins Creed and made competent games for the franchise, but their other games don't share the same fate with it being pumped with loot boxes and pay walls. Ubisoft is mainly bad in showcasing beautiful games, but when it's launched its not even the same game as the EA trailer. So with Ubisoft games, just be wary and look at reviews and video clips before you buy.

Video games will always be with me as a part of my life. It's been there through the good times and the bad. It help connect me with friends both old and new and inspired me at times with it's creative worlds, life like characters, and sometimes draw dropping story telling. It's sad to see greedy companies suck the life out of video games and it's consumers. However, where there is darkness, there is light. There are thousands of companies and developers who make video games not for the sole intent of making money, but for telling a story that needs to be told. For creating a world and filling it with characters of all different backgrounds, with different strengths and weaknesses. There is more to video game than loot boxes so don't let the greedy companies win. Don't buy there shitty season passes or crappy loot boxes instead invest your money in video games that are actual games and not glorified casinos. This has been the Topic of the Week, thanks for reading. Ricardo signing off.