Do Amazon realise that a physical PC copy of this particular game is literally unusable once it has been played, which requires irrevocably attaching the product key to an Origin account? :?

This is why games that support community-run dedicated servers are far superior to every other implementation; the fun only ends when you say it does.

If you've ever read an EULA they can do what they want with the data on the disk ... theres nothing illegal bout what they are doing, its just questionable from a consumer standpoint.

razgriz_101

Just because it's legal doesn't change the fact that it is morally reprehensible. Publishers may be free to lock out portions of the disc, but gamers are equally free to choose not to reward their greed.

Publishers exist to serve gamers, not the other way around.

If you want DLC to mean Downloadable Content instead of Disc Locked Content you need to avoid rewarding publishers that do this; buy the game used and don't buy any DLC for it, or buy a competitor's product instead.

As long as it keeps selling the publishers will keep doing this and find even more devious ways of giving you less of a game while still charging full retail price for it.

It would be great if things got to the point where any random PC was capable of console-level gaming, with dedicated cards only being necessary for those that want to turn up all the shinies. This will of course depend on the relative power of the next generation of consoles; if it's the same usual performance leap IGPs will be left behind, but if Microsoft and Sony opt to follow Nintendo's lead by sacrificing performance for gimmicks PC IGPs will catch up very quickly.

It might be OK for games designed specifically for the Wii U, but for multi-platform ports the touch functionality is going to be largely unused. Hopefully playing such games with a Classic Controller is still an option.

There have been rumors of an TES mmo for a long time now, from what I hear, it is not done by the same studio.Maroxad

ZeniMax established ZeniMax Online Studios a while back specifically for making MMOGs, so yes, it's unlikely that Bethesda would be developing it themselves.

I wonder how much of this is the result of circular reasoning: console players buy our dumbed-down games so they must be dumb, and because they're dumb we make dumbed-down games, and because they buy our dumbed-down games they must be dumb, and...

I have always said that I think consoles won't die out but that they will become more and more casual for money purposes and lose alot of support from core gamers. :)PcGamingRig

The console makers are currently focussed on gimmicks because they want to make sales to those that don't already have one of the current consoles--for those that do the multi-platform games are sufficient and almost always outsell exclusives anyway, hence why they now try to secure exclusive DLC and so forth rather than games themselves. Once the next generation launches they'll swing back towards the traditional gamers to sell them on the new consoles while still keeping the gimmicks around to keep the new audience interested.

The real problem is that consoles have become more complicated while PCs have become much less so. We're heading towards a point where PCs will have all the price, approachability and form factor advantages of the consoles. The upcoming Windows 8 is a big step towards this. At some point in the near future the continued existence of consoles will be in doubt; why buy a box that just does games and movies when this other box can do all of that--with the exact same controller and interface--and runs Microsoft Office?

I want full fat, PC-style expansion packs, not DLC; DLC exists for the specific purpose of selling you less content for more money. There are exceptions like the GTA4 episodes but they are few and far between.

If you demand more from publishers they will work harder to bring you significant DLC, but as long as you happily lap up insignificant garbage they'll just keep churning out more of the same.