Is this a sponsored post by a bought-and-paid-for shill, or is the writer just so worn down by microtransactions over the years that they're Stockholm-Syndromed into thinking this is somehow OK?
I mean Skull & Bones, the $70 always-online piratey piece of shit from Ubisoft, has an ad in the game for the Premium Edition - which, I shit you not, the first line of the description says "premium edition gives you access to the Full Game."
Like, fuck any form of modern gaming whatsoever after this point. I bought the Arkham games cause they're on a huge sale on steam (literally $10 for the whole trilogy, and Origins is currently $5) and have been having a fucking blast replaying those amazing games.
I made a coupleof posts recently about how it doesn't really matter that there's all this money-grabbing because we're so spoiled for choice from the past few decades. My conclusion was that there's no point in worrying when I've got a big pile of great games to play already!
I think this is just what happens when an art gets big and becomes an industry. Film buffs don't get (too) wound up at every new formulaic action movie, soulless remake, or low-brow comedy (and all the money-grabbing tie-ins that come with them); maybe we should all just chill out and stop worrying about the mass-market blockbusters when there's still a wealth of great stuff to play.
Maybe you are right but it is a bit like when search engines are flooded with crap: super annoying. I would any day prefer fewer options of mid to high quality stuff to whatever this is.
Preaching to the choir mate, I run freegames@feddit.uk, I acquire recent-but-not-brand-new AA-but-not-AAA games faster than I can play them! It's still a great experience to be a patient gamer.
Diablo 4, a full priced game, has microtransactions that are as expensive as the game itself, and skins that cost as much as 30 USD, when a game doesn't fuck the people as hard it draws attention.