@N4o7A This is a Federal Trade Commission report issued to Congress and released publicly, not just a gaming news article. The only way the politicians involved in the gaming debate will miss this is if they intentionally ignore it... which they probably will.

@saint311 Because she is wrong, it doesn't benefit gamers at all, it just leeches more money off of us in smaller, but far more frequent chunks. About the only people it benefits are Ubisoft's shareholders.

@Vojtass Been supporting GOG since it launched in 2008. I also buy everything CDPRed makes, even if I don't have time to play them (I'll get to both Witchers eventually). Those guys and a few others like them have earned my active support and respect and will continue to as long as they continue to operate in such a consumer-friendly way.

So, can we now stop this irrational attack on "the industry" for allowing kids access to mature game content? Obviously the entire industry, from publishers all the way down to the retailers, is already acting responsibly in this regard and does not need any additional "help" from Congress or any other part of the government. Maybe they can focus instead on some actual problems that need fixing, like the economy.

@ShamusZ3R0 I think you may be greatly overestimating things. While I agree, those of us who are vocal about this are definitely a minority, I still feel the majority of actual game players are not going to buy into microtransactions in their AAA titles. Your example of Dead Space is actually the perfect example of this. While plenty of the vocal gamers here complained about it, far more gamers than just us were upset about it and didn't buy the game because of it. They might not have shown up on sites like this to voice their complaints, but they did do one better: they complained with their wallets. If microtransactions become the future of gaming, I think you are going to see a lot more silent, wallet-based complaints bringing down otherwise good games and franchises.

@megatronx2 @Zork_Wesker The problem with those statistics as it doesn't answer the question "why do games with demos sell less?". My opinion is that the demos are not the problem, it's the games themselves. With a demo, you get to find out that a game is simply not that good before you make the mistake of buying it. Without a demo, you're kind of on your own and far too many people fall victim to the marketing machine, buy the game, then end up regretting it. Or, even if the game is good, the demo lets you know that it isn't the kind of game you will enjoy, despite what the marketing and even the reviewers might say about it. However, since only some games actually have demos (very few these days), the statistics themselves are inherently flawed. Who's to say if those games that sold well without a demo would not have sold just as well with a demo? Using the relatively small sampling of games that do have demos to predict that just doesn't work.

@danteswart However, I would say your brother is the exception, not the rule here. There are SOME games where microtransactions work and SOME players who would be willing to spend obscene amounts of money on them, but the majority of games and players are not like that.

@Frozensky And that may work for simple tablet or mobile games, but that doesn't work on console/pc games, where players expect their hard-earned money will buy them a full and complete game experience and not part of an experience that requires nickel and diming to complete. Tablet and mobile games are unique in this because they are not "couch experiences", as in, no one actually sits down for hours on end to play games on their cell phone. They do that in fits and bursts; on the bus, during a lunch break, waiting in line at the DMV, sitting on the can, etc. Spending 99 cents or a few dollars here and there to get more content for a game played that inconsistently is no big deal, but sitting on your couch playing the next Mass Effect game for hours and having to spend real money every time you want a new gun or armor will add up way too quickly. EA and Ubi seem to be thinking that the profit margins that mobile games have for their microttransactions will be the same on a console/pc game. They won't, people simply won't spend that kind of money, especially in this economy.

@Saidrex You've never actually owned any game you've bought, you've only licensed them. At best, you could say you own the disk the game came on, but the content on that disk has never been yours. The only real difference between now and then is modern draconian DRM schemes allow for the enforcement of that license by the publishers, meaning they now have the ability to easily take away your access, while before they really couldn't without taking you to court first.

@ShamusZ3R0 I've been wondering the same thing: who keeps telling these people that we want microtransactions in our games? It's like they have completely failed to understand that what works and might be desirable for mobile and other casual gaming doesn't actually fit with more "traditional" gaming. Sure, there are certainly some types of games where microtransaction would work (like MMOs, for example), but shoe-horning them into every kind of game out there is just stupid. Frankly, I hope these behemoth companies like EA and Ubi do try to force microtransactions into everything, it will bring them down that much quicker when their core customer base abandons them. Go right ahead Ubi, make room for the smarter, smaller companies out there that actually respect their customers and have a clue as to what gamers really want in their games (I'm looking at you CDPRed).