EA Games's Desperate Greed Is Getting Worse

[@djmeowth]

Cash shops within cash shops within cash shops, half-battlepasses that combine with other half-battlepasses to create full battlepasses that unlock access to past battlepasses... What a nightmare. Every day I'm thankful that there are enough good games that were released before this decline into microtransaction hell to keep you busy for the rest of your life. There's no need to keep dealing with this nonsense. Gaming's back catalog is vast.

[@lostsurferjames5]

I downloaded the new Pokemon TCG game knowing it would be bad, but within minutes I'm being introduced to like 8 different currencies just to open cards 😂

[@_AriseChicken]

Typical bellular viewer comment. Reddit format and all.

[@Gamer-fy8qm]

It's a free game. As long as they aren't adding stuff that give a performance boost in game, most people won't really care.

[@drwilyecoyote5357]

86% of it is not preserved though :(

[@uhurunuru6609]

There are plenty of new games without Cash Shops, even from EA Dragon Age: Veilguard has no cash shop & no need to link to the EA App, no Denuvo either. I've been gaming since Pong released & have never stopped finding many new games each & every year, with no cash shop involved. I don't even buy games with cash shops. I gave up on multiplayer over 15 years ago, due to them & hardened my stance 5 years ago, to a total cash shop ban, but have no issues finding new games to play. If you only play multiplayer, I could understand you having that view, but for a Single Player Gamer like me, Cash Shops have hardly any impact on my gaming at all.

[@Tyr808]

I’ve been an Apex player for years myself, but i’m 35 myself and play with a group of guys that are in their early 20s. It’s alarming to me how there’s no real difference between any of us right up until monetization and FOMO comes into the mix, these guys have presumably less disposable income than me but buy all of the stuff. To make matters worse one of the guys keeps talking about how he wants a new GPU, but can’t seem to see that he has spent the money multiple times over on shit that he’s not even gonna care about if this game dies or he quits it. I’ve mentioned it casually, but it wasn’t met with a warm reception and to be honest I’m their teammate not their dad. I’ve noticed my GF younger cousin just to be absolutely wracked with FOMO about not doing their various mobile game dailies. It didn’t hit all of them, I’ve met gamers half my age that have just as much wisdom on the topic as I’d expect one of my own peers to, but man, the ones that were brainwashed got hit so hard it seems.

[@lstsoul4376]

That's why I stop paying for live services, trying to quit gacha as well

[@Bustermachine]

@@lstsoul4376 Never get started. All of this is essentially an unwelcome vegas casino brought into our lives.

[@Rousent]

I only feel FOMO on free things, and wven then im like "oh well, shit happens"

[@smartgoku9048]

i found the best thing to do is to just play offline games for a while and forget about playing online. get some fomo regret for a bit when i go back to them, but it's just like 'oh well, shit happens' and just continue playing.

[@ethanfreeman1106]

Sounds like you're hanging out with the wrong crowd

[@BearZA_91]

EA needs to learn that a horizontal line is also fine sometimes, it does not always need to go up.

[@tythus654]

Unfortunately, that is a lesson that most large companies are yet to learn. The dream (delusion) of endless growth and all that.

[@frazonedracaoo6981]

Unfortunately for a publicly traded company no it douse ALWAYS have to go up, and that's no joke nor hyperbole.

[@nocturnalverse5739]

The line for the company's stocks should go up. You can do that by creating new successful games and expanding your business to create even more new successful games. There's only so much milk you can get from one cow like Apex Legends. It's going to die bc they are squeezing too hard. However, the games industry is a very saturated market. The only real solution is to make the best games at the best value. EA, Ubisoft, and the like have not learned that and that's why they are in for a really rough time.

[@theravenousrabbit3671]

Well, if your company survives on debt and investment, the line needs to perpetually go up to keep the pyramid scheme going.

[@LayZKimochi420BlazeIt]

Lol do you have any idea what system you live in

[@asmoto755]

Having never played Apex, I am in awe of the absolute horror of a monetization hellscape they've put into it.

[@Dat_Jonx]

Being permabanned I'm glad at least somehow I escaped it and did it before it got worse.

[@panzer00]

Im not defending these manipulative business practices but it's all cosmetic. You dont have to engage with it at all to play the game.

[@soccerguy2433]

It's free to play. Monetization hell isn't a thing. It's just people crying about wanting to get EVERYTHING for free

[@thefirsttrillionaire2925]

@@soccerguy2433you’re the problem

[@pentakellium2525]

@@soccerguy2433 people don't want to get everything for free, they want to buy a few select things for either a reasonable price or by playing enough to earn it through the crafting system. Skins are both the main form of player expression, AND player progression aside from Ranked, due to Apex abandoning everything else that could fill that role like Quests, Clubs, and the Weapon Mastery system. The only "progression" system remaining goes like this: You play the game to get better, you get packs for that playtime, and earn random cosmetics and crafting materials through packs (lots of filler items, but that's just the nature of rng in free packs). You may earn event skins for 2,400 mats the first time around (unless it's a milestone event because you're not allowed to choose what you want for some reason), and event skins must be paid for when they return to the shop. Honestly if it just stayed at that, where we only got collection events and no milestone events, the community sentiment about how events worked would likely go back up, because there is a chance to play the game and always have the ability to earn rewards that you choose as a player, while also making sure that returning store items will always be getting the devs money. Trying to get money as a dev is not manipulative at all, it's their job after all! It is the tactics that higher ups are utilizing to get that money that crosses that line and sours the community's view on buying things. Pure gambling events, an inability to ever craft certain cosmetics no matter how much you've saved up, an exotic currency that is useless unless you first got that .045% chance for heirloom shards (or buy 500 packs), and more are the reasons that players are upset about the current cosmetic system, despite skins primary purpose having no effect on gameplay itself.

[@ea_gaming]

I’m sick of everything I love getting sacrificed on the corporatist altar of ‘line go up’- I yearn for the days when ‘being successful’ meant selling enough to comfortably stay open

[@Chickymasala]

I love how absolutely blind EA's statement is: "We have a strong core playerbase. Now we need to make changes to grow our audience". Brother...those changes are going to chase your core players away. You aren't back to square one if your mtx gamble fails. You're going to lose everything.

[@SkorjOlafsen]

Those days are today for indie games with indie-centric publishers.

[@arglebargle5531]

You were alive before the industrial revolution?

[@Lonelyboy0-u5n]

Literally everything I love is becoming worst and worsen ever

[@LikeAFemaleDog]

EA: We're losing a lot of players on Apex... I wonder what's up... Players: SO MANY HACKERS! EA: I think they want more skins Players: PLEASE DEAL WITH THE HACKERS EA: I know, let's make them pay more for the battlepass! Players: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DEAL WITH THE HACKERS EA: And let's monetize the game trifold to what we've done so far- We're geniuses. Players: I'm done, I quit. EA: Huh, I wonder why players are still quitting, time to release a new heirloom.

[@juanjox2006]

they are an indie company, cut them some slack

[@Kryssy128]

EA have no need to get rid of hackers. They know there are thousands of players that will jump at this new system and will spend thousands and thousands of dollars on it.

[@utfigyii5987]

EA: Hackers? Isn't Linux a HaCkEr oS?? Let's remove their ability to play

[@KamiEpix]

EA is like... Oh, hackers? Sure, we can get rid of them. Then proceeds to ban normal players who've done literally nothing wrong. Like me! I gave up on Apex and I have no trust in EA anymore. Such bullshit.

[@madhurgoyal12]

@@juanjox2006 Indie? Huh? Do you know what Indie even means?

[@tenmamut]

200k players no wonder we still didn't get titanfall 3. Respawn is funny to me. They escaped ea's grasp, did titanfall, enjoyed success and sold themself back to ea and now looks like they are in the same position, except someone probably got really rich along the way.

[@Rose.Of.Hizaki]

They in fact didnt escape EA's grasp. They escaped *Activision's grasp.* Respawn was originally born out of InfinityWard and founded by the same two people (Jason West and Vince Zampella) who founded InfinityWard. Respawn was founded in 2010. They werent bought out by EA until 2017. TF1 came out in 2014, TF2 came out in 2016. Their mistake was partnering up with EA to publish their games. West and Zampella should have never agreed to the sale of Respawn to EA. Sure they both made tonnes of money out of it, but it was never going to end well under EA's umbrella. Jason West isnt a part of Respawn anymore. He left in 2013. Word on the street is he's doing something at EPIC. Zampella should have never sold out (TWICE now...) But he's now in charge of many different studios and many projects so in a sense he sacrificed a baby of his so he could rise to the top. He'd probably say it was worth it. But the players will obviously think otherwise.

[@kman9884]

Game devs are dumb. They hate freedom and getting publishers to merely invest, and end up selling their IPs ands lives away to corpos.

[@JustSomeDude848]

​@@Rose.Of.Hizakithank you

[@JaydenLuna-bw7ce]

You do realize we never got a Titanfall 3 was because Titanfall 2 did so poorly

[@RandomKiddVR]

@@JaydenLuna-bw7ce , you do know that Titanfall is insanely popular today?

[@khankhomrad8855]

Western Online games are starting to make Eastern gacha monetization tame by conparison. This is wild.

[@SuperZura91]

Yep, this is my same thought. I played gachas a lot f2p, and those gave a bunch of freebies to players in events and whatnot, these live-service slops barely give anything.

[@168original7]

@SuperZura91 free currency isn't worth much

[@khankhomrad8855]

@@168original7 It really depends on the game, and how much you expect to get out of it being f2p.

[@Khotetsu]

Western investors have looked at the money Eastern gacha games make and asked for years, "why can't we do that?"

[@ak-ub1ym]

And these games aren't even gacha in the first place more like they have gacha like elements but not gacha , they are mostly PvP FOMO Machines so it's surprising to see them out-monetize some of the egregiously monetized gacha games out there.

[@Katzura]

how does EA manage to make my actual gacha games seem like a good value?

[@iainperkins2085]

Because every element except of the monetisation are designed to serve the customers, no agendas, no politics, just what will maximise engagement.

[@NaoyaYami]

@@iainperkins2085 Also gachas sell you actual well-illustrated waifus, not just a different color weapons.

[@kingsgold]

yeah. at the beginning, Apex was a game with a store attached. Now? Basically a store with a game attached to it. The game is no longer the highlight, it's the store that is the highlight. The game is there only to showcase the money you spent in the store.

[@jdevlin1910]

There's a game? I didn't even notice.

[@fireraid9173]

We're finally seeing the horror we were expecting when EA bought respawn, back in titanfall 2 when they promised us titanfall wasn't getting loot boxes. The outcome ended up being well beyond the horizon of worse

[@XXx-fp1je]

Lmao what tf are you even talking about.. just cause you string words together doesnt make them true.. your statement has zero backing.. so what.. pkayers go in.. spend money and then.. dont play the game? Yeah sure bud.. keep telling yourself thats true xD

[@sohnoterra16]

@XXx-fp1je Have you never heard of a little thing called... Hyperbole?

[@OzzyAusborn]

@@sohnoterra16 you look like a hyperbole.

[@TomJakobW]

0.05% is not a fifth of a percent, it’s a twentieth (!) of a percent, even! Heck the precise number is one over 22.2..; that’s quite a lot less than “less than 1%”, so big oof for them to be forced to disclose that!

[@Cloud7050]

Yes!

[@strangled_chicken]

chances are 1 in 2222 man what the hell is this shit

[@permaskunked]

​@@strangled_chickenits 1/500 but if you want one before that sure. I packed heirloom shards twice within 10 packs but i definitely waited about 500 packs to get the first of those two

[@piktasniekas8124]

@@strangled_chicken Everyone always knew that the random chance is very low and the only way to get the shards is on the 500th pack. Nothing new there.

[@strangled_chicken]

@@permaskunked Earlier they said "less than 1%", but now in accordance with South Korean law, they've disclosed the real chance: 0.045% = 45/100000 = 1/2222

[@DavidH373]

I think a good rule of thumb for choosing which hame to play is if you open the store and you see a spreadsheet attached explaining the different versions, battle passes, and currencies… Don’t pick that one.

[@glucky9970]

Ea respawn can’t milk the original passion and ideas the OG respawn devs had. Gaslight the fans and add no real content just sales

[@abserd01]

The part i think is the worst of all of this is they aren't improving the game at all, its basically been in the same state for 9 seasons and just gotten buggier with more microtransactions

[@SilverKnightPCs]

It doesn't help that all the guns are rehashed from TF1/2. Respawn cmon man. Just make a new TF and stop doing this last shit

[@BlenderHmn]

@@abserd01 Gotta say the changes to evo armor was a very good change since it promoted being aggressive instead of lurking to the end doing nothing. Ballance changes to characters have been pretty good, but they are slow to change op things. And same with weapons, hate some maps more than others but it would be better if they had more in rotation.

[@SuperZura91]

I was more surprised to hear they had devs to lay off. Given how little they cared about improving the game, I was sure they had a skeleton crew working on it.

[@lowfreqq]

@@BlenderHmncause you have to test things first? it’s not easy finding different things to add into a game and improving on it i don’t get why some people want apex to move backwards instead of trying new things

[@hehemicaeljakson]

@@lowfreqq ?

[@gameroxi]

Titanfall died for this

[@abaranihei2608]

@@gameroxi still cant believe it, im still playing Titanfall 2 and it still is way above Apex in every term

[@yonjuunana7613]

It still hurts

[@link5688]

I was always a hater of Apex for this, and now theyve made the game even more shit. But they still wont make Titanfall 3. Fuck you EA, you killed my favorite franchise for this stupid shit

[@kamilkarwowski5579]

I know its a hot take but i enjoyed early days of Apex (from launch till season 3) way more then Titanfall

[@BrokenSoul79x]

I haven't played apex at all _because_ of the bullshit!+ with titanfall, and you couldn't bloody _pay_ me to now.

[@aggromonk9154]

I loved Apex.. I stopped playing it when they made the store the focus over the lore and game play. Really a shame because it was so good.

[@ktmsx6]

@@aggromonk9154 Same here! The lore was my biggest reason to start playing this game and now it feels empty…

[@piktasniekas8124]

Eh the 'lore' has always been dei garbage. It has always been best to treat it as a purely competitive shooter with no lore (avoid it like a plague).

[@Malxer]

12:15 this is what you and companies still get TOTALLY wrong. People are in DESPERATE need of buying feature-complete games and avoid freetoplay cashgrabs like the plague. A shift is happening.

[@frecio231]

Numbers speak from themselves, this kind of model earns them way more than real contents, and is cheaper to produce, therefore why would they bother? Obviously I don't like it, that's why I don't bother with games with "micro transactions". But look it from the perspective of a company that is legally obligated to increase profits. The only solution is to stop playing altogether this kind of games.

[@Captain.Mystic]

@@frecio231 The numbers speak for themselves but are representing a different group than you think. Remember that Diablo 2 was top seller for its season 2 even though it wasnt anywhere NEAR any top 10 or even top 500 played games at the time. When we say "the numbers speak for themselves" what we are seeing is not "this is what everyone wants" but "this is what several people with more money than sense are draining their bank accounts on and everyone else has to deal with the concequences, and lacking a good multiplayer game to play with friends, this is what everyone is stuck with"

[@frecio231]

@Captain.Mystic I used the wrong numbers but I meant the money numbers, the ones companies like EA, Microsoft, Sony etc care.

[@nikokrisp5273]

​ @Captain.Mystic last one is too long, should be "this is what people with too much money spend on, and every single one of them is preoccupied"

[@LiftandCoa]

@@Captain.Mystic Both of you are right. The numbers dont lie. Both that its not what the majority of players want (your point) AND that this way is still immensely more profitable for these companies (frecios point). And at the end of the day, any business takes 10 people bringing in a million over 1000 people bringing in half a million, on any day of the week.

[@DieSerah]

EA needs to learn to be comfortable, not getting Money.

[@Elysium137]

Gamers need to learn what publicly traded companies are and how fiduciary laws cause this type of stuff to happen.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

Getting money is fine, games need money to survive. Its this constant pushing to make the line go up by any means possible that’s making these cash shop machines.

[@w00tyd00d]

​@@Elysium137 I don't think it's a matter of ignorance to the fact that EA has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, gamers are just rightfully sick and tired of being milked for every nickel and dime the publisher can get away with without giving any real content in return. The publisher has every right to try and do that, but the consumer has every right to tell them to screw. Also, the OP is a meme lol

[@psibug565]

@@Elysium137Gamers don’t need to know or care. They have no responsibility to the share holders what so ever. They are the customers and in matters of taste they are always right. If the gamers don’t pay for the game then the line goes down no matter what the share holders want.

[@psibug565]

@@w00tyd00dTBF the meme is aimed at Ubi-Slop I think EA has a diverse enough portfolio that they will still make money. Unless they keep making bad games or over monetising old games.

[@7783alfonso]

The game runs poorly and the servers are shit. But they do keep releasing new monetization methods.

[@MrJohannson]

The servers are sure ass, but I the game itself runs great even on modest hardware.

[@egorex1834]

58000 players on Steam though...

[@catonthephone]

@@MrJohannson Does it even matter if your FPS is super good, when you keep having connection issues; constant packet loss every 3 seconds, and inconsistent ping? I keep having these issues despite having no issues in other games like OW2, SF6, Deadlock, Valorant... Even if I have 50-70 ping on average, it keeps fluctuating rapidly due to very poor servers

[@MrJohannson]

@@catonthephone I never said one overrides the other. Simply pointed out the untruth.

[@raufmeister]

​I have a decent hardware though is laggy most of the time, 100mb internet on ethernet, is laggy as hell, the game crash itself due to servers being bad, you cant play some days because it doesnt load the menu, the other day i had a march it lagged and crashed when i was respawing die to ring, game said i abandoned, other time it crashed in last team 3vs1 it said i abandoned and got penalize because their servers are shit and i cant play the game properly, no matter if is 30 ping or 200 ping the servers are unplayable some days, no wonder asian player base is dying faster and now they merged singapour servers with tokyo servers and american are in the same boat, now we can not play in oregon and they merged new york, europe is been the same and i play in the same server always

[@maximuma208]

8:50 the number is actually closer to 1/23rd of 1%, not 1/5th as mentioned, which is even worse.

[@avlaenamnell6994]

Who knew cutting off your own leg, so you have more to eat today, has negative impacts for your ability to find food tomorrow.

[@naiiin6949]

I really like this analogy, describes perfectly what the "make the profit line go up at all costs" mentality does

[@haveiszalfaroqie1628]

I'll just drop this here: gacha system, and especially sparking, is a staple in Asian mobile gachas. You open boxes, you have chance to win big, and open a lot of boxes, you can just grab the big stuff directly. I'll leave it to the players who actually play these gachas on what they think of this money-scheme. What I want to point out, however, EA "innovates" on this gacha scheme by including a battle-pass inside a gacha, which utilizes gacha-ing as a form of its progression. The gacha-pass. I heard you like gacha, so we put gacha in your gacha, so you can gacha while you gacha.

[@Techigai]

They moved the battle pass into the gacha? Sounds like the other system that gives you benefits depending on how much you spend, with tiers. The pity system usually comes out to $250-300 for more of the popular gacha games. People usually stop at that point. Holy shit, just saw the Spark meter in the video.😅

[@raufmeister]

in asia prices in apex are way cheaper then in western countries, you can buy apex easily and not feel like you are giving your whole salary to the game, people in japan and china earn aroun 2000 dollars monthly and apex coins are around 100 dollars for the highest pack, asian games have only one gacha with two currencies, some have 4, all currencies can be buy al earn for free, the battle pass have only one a full membership with 60 lvls, in asia no matter if you are f2p you get a chance to win 1 5 star object with 90 pulls or less, Apex is more about earning money from you with multiple transactions without giving you gold or red objects for free so easily this is not gacha system, is bullshit

[@frostbot117]

EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard Activision... which studio does greed better? Its such a tight race.

[@Jmhgddsert54377]

Diablo Immortal still reigns supreme on the top of the greed hill.

[@TheBloopers30]

@@Jmhgddsert54377 But don't you get it? The whole mobile market does this so that means that it's okay or doesn't matter /s

[@Nossieuk]

I can one up you 2k games and GTA 6 ... oh wait, I'm from the future and wasn't supposed to let that slip.

[@affinityxs]

EA has literally gone on destroying every game they own. Apex Legends, Sims 4, etc.

[@Hurricayne92]

Doesn't all the DLC for Sims 4 cost over or around $1000?

[@SlavTiger]

pvz

[@Recuper8]

I gave the game up. Came back a month later, gave it another try for the new season. The exact major problems are still as bad as ever. Uninstalled. Unless word gets to me that they fixed the major issues (servers, sbmm, cheaters), I'm done. I was pretty addicted to the game. You know the game is terrible when even an addict chooses to uninstall.

[@ggalluuu5133]

Loot boxes in video games are just like slot machines. Except your winnings only work at that casino

[@BeanBoy7]

I refuse to accept the notion that making a 2.0 version of something is inherently less popular. The examples given with Overwatch and Smite don’t work because Overwatch 2 is an inferior version of Overwatch 1, and it was, and still is, unfinished. Smite 2 is currently locked behind a paywall and was pushed out way too early. The issue isn’t with games getting a 2.0 update-it’s that the 2.0 versions are often released before they’re fully finished. If you’re going to update and modernize a game, then actually invest in it and release a finished product that’s at least on the same level, content-wise, as the original.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

This!!!! So much this!!!!

[@aiodensghost8645]

A GREAT way of visualizing this is Metroid to Super Metroid. But yes, you get it!!

[@deathdealer646]

Happened to hunt showdown also

[@StalkerOfTheZone]

Making a better 2.0 live service game with same level of content is often a huge pain sipmly because the first live service game had years to be updated with new content, and spending the same amount on 2.0 is gonna be prohevitvely expensive in time and money.

[@DefCantGame]

its a br there is no 2.0 its just the same thing over and over again drop, loot, shoot, die/win. a 2.0 naming would be just that, a name change

[@automaton3889]

As long as gamers continue to buy packs the big publishers won't change.... we can moan at the changes, but gamers have always had this control at their fingertips.

[@NetNya]

They don't fix any of the games problems that are causing the players to quit.. Their solutions are always "how can we make people spend more money but differently" Stop giving EA/respawn your money or nothing will ever change

[@connorm7005]

EA sees a game is dying and fires everyone but the monetization team to milk the remaining playerbase before they kill it off completely

[@cfehunter]

oh no... It's not going well for EA recently is it?

[@skyler1469]

Deserved 👍

[@Shlompskii]

College football sold a gazillion copies so they'll be ok

[@Buddha1992]

Players: Leave because of EA's anti-consumer decisions. EA: Our revenue is dropping, we should increase monetization tricks. Also EA: Why our revenue continues to drop? 🤔 We should add more!

[@okamich.9797]

This is a simple yet catastrophic business oversight from EA. Why even promise a certain fixed revenue to investors when entire thing is dynamic and market dependent to begin with. All these "loss making companies" have one thing in common, "we want people to buy our product" mentality instead of "the customer wants these, we can make money providing them that" mentality. Its simply going against the basic demand-supply rule. Its ironic how greed is their greatest hindrance in making money.

[@Reirainsong]

At this point, getting invested into any live service product is a road to inevitable disappointment because the product worsening over time is built into the business model. Sustainability is not an option, the golden goose must be slaughtered. All such games are gradual frog boilers that aim to entrap the audience, weed out everyone not willing to pay repeatedly and constantly and squeeze the rest until the game becomes unbearable, at which point it will be used to make a new product look good in comparison so people migrate to it, then the servers shut down, taking everyone's purchases with them. Rinse and repeat.

[@MasckedUp]

@@Reirainsong i pray it doesn't happen to warframe which so far seems to me like an outlier, dont change pls🙏

[@Tzhz]

Apex Season 1 was the best BR experience I've had

[@raufmeister]

it was fun until season 20 tbh, season 16 was fun tbh, back the had 200k players no matter the hour, nowdays is 60k and below, im not the only one complaining about servers and stuff is been shit, NFS was killed for the same reason

[@SponsoredbyPfizer]

3:05 they acknowledged it, but the billions of dollars apex legend was making did not go back in to the infrastructure and servers. I stopped playing before the battle pass fiasco, but we used to joke the hamster wheel must be broken every time it froze or stuttered from server tick rate issues.

[@Drinkyoghurt]

I have 11k crafting materials and can barely craft anything. Honestly this game can die for all I care they're the epitome of greed.

[@MasterTeeee]

It's sad that you can create a piece of entertainment that's enjoyed by over 200,000 people every minute of the day, and still be told what you need to do to improve it. The AAA games industry is pretty ruined at this point in time, and I think it's going to have to ultimately collapse before it can get better again.

[@zoltire6478]

EA and Disney would be best friends, they don't know why they're losing so much money even though they make stupid business decisions

[@just_some_greek_dude]

@@zoltire6478 same with Warner bros

[@siontimmy1]

And there are some people within Apex community want to see Disney buys EA but what they don't realise that Disney will pull a EA on EA

[@A5tr0_o]

This is the worst death of a game. People coping on Reddit about how it’ll get better, and EA just squeezing everyone last drop out of the players that still deny that they’re getting ass blasted.

[@Quast]

8:48 Maybe I did counting wrong in school but this is not less 1/5th of a percent but less than 1/20th of a percent...

[@magicball3201]

Technically it's both, so he's not wrong...

[@Quast]

@@magicball3201 I assume that was a typo, otherwise I wouldn't know why this got a four fold increase.

[@lillones]

Everyone thinks battle royale is popular, but every famous battle royal game is ftp

[@Cordial-07]

_"We all know when you want to grow something, the best thing you can do is shoot it in the kneecaps first."_ - The best way I've heard Respawn/EA's line of thinking when it comes to improving the state of the game. WE DON'T NEED MORE F*** THINGS TO BUY; HOLY, WHEN WILL THEY LEARN? I've never given them a cent of my money (I would have for the battle pass, but after the recent changes, that's a hard no from me man), and them advertising more recolored cosmetics is not going to change that. *Although it used to be fun, it's tough when you look at a game you poured 2,500 hours into and feel nothing but spite.*

[@aiodensghost8645]

Welcome to how us Destiny players feel. Please, do come sit down, we have lots to talk about...

[@tysonsmith9366]

They said they were gonna focus on the game but I would argue the store got the biggest update this season. They will never change.

[@dolando5837]

6:10 smite is such a good example of bad company management. They released that thing in such an unfinished state it’s a joke. Deadlock it a third person moba with actual 3 dimensions rather than being 2d with a y axis as a joke.

[@senpaidxplorer6064]

EA: Why the player count is going down.? PLAYERS: Server is BAD, Matchmaking is BAD, ANTI CHEAT IS terrible, the game is needed to FIX EA: Oh okey, here take this STICKER

[@TwiztedEU]

I despise modern game monetisation. I understand recurring payments for recurring content, money needs to be made and devs need to be paid. It is almost an all out arms race to the bottom at times though. Genuinely thankful that it is GGG who develop my most played game, nowadays. They still have loot boxes, which is shit but the supporter pack model is pretty good.

[@CACNTRYAYC]

At this point the source code for the shop has more lines than the actual game code.

[@EstablishedContext]

EA has and will continue to fumble this game to its very end. Their monetization is horrendous and they miss the mark over and over again. Which is crazy because Apex players WILL spend money, but they've also seen how bad their system is over the years and that sentiment is going to be nearly impossible to revert. Almost every monetization decision that is made is so unbelievably detached from what their player base actually wants.

[@T-Rev-vz4qm]

Taking advantage of fomo is one of marketings biggest motivations. It's one of my biggest concerns for gaming.

[@JohnnieRunner-bi5md]

0.045% drop rate but streamers get 3 heirlooms in 500 packs 😅 sounds like some tricks are in the mix here

[@K4YM3Z]

8:50 I believe the actual probability is 1/20th of 1%, not 1/5th - so the actual heirloom shard drop rate was far, far lower than what the "less than 1%" insinuated what the probability would be.

[@shallot4991]

easy to pin all the blame on EA but it doesnt help that respawn is just as complicit and negligent even with their older dedicated communities

[@siontimmy1]

Especially under new devs

[@raufmeister]

is known that EA doesnt give a shit about their games, NFS, FIFA, Apex, Sims, ill be honest with you sims 2 was the best game i played, i dedicvated so many hours, sim 3 got rid of third person view and was boring tbh, NFS got rid of the street racing scene and started to go downhill after Carbon, FIFA doesnt even bother for graphics and used the same models for all players exepr popular ones, all EA games went downhill becaus eof thei microtransaction models and giving a damn about what people wanted, Activision went the same diection, Rockstar games still milking GTA 5 players since 2012, if fortnite was a fast pace game i would be playing it as i di with apex, if Valorant had servers i would be playing it as Apex, Valorant is more popular nowdays in asia and due to location restriction i can not play with my european and asian friends, after some days it restart back to my region, so basically no one to play with

[@720jlconner]

Its simple. Monetization has taken over the actual fun of playing the game.

[@AlwayzFresh]

It's a decade old, the line only goes down at that point. I stopped playing the day they introduced purchasable skins. I am not a teenager, not really into video game outfits. Any developer putting time and effort into making skins has lost the plot and I move on to better games.

[@ocoolwow]

The main demographic for micro transactions is in the 30s soooo maybe you don't but all your peers do.

[@WorasLT]

There was a point when I realised to stay clear of ANY free to play game and ANY corporation-made game. Its always trash - its always boring - its always money first, content later. Indie and AA segment is where gems at. ...... ...... And a landslide of garbage too :D You gotta really look for good games.

[@lonyo5377]

What do you think the return is on any development effort without something to buy? Why would they spend money developing a game with no revenue being generated?

[@snakeplissken1754]

Dunno purchasable skins are great, don't effect balance or impact the game. I don't care about skins in general so I happily ignore them but if others spend money on that then we all have more time till the inevitable greed sells game breaking stuff.

[@168original7]

Uuuuhhhh roblox, fortnite?

[@wsh3995]

I remember when there was ONE Shop site, and now more than 70% of the content added each season is cosmetics. EA is a company that constantly seeks to monetize their games and constantly is on the lookout on how to make the most amount of money, rather than how to make the player experience better.

[@woozy96]

Their event mission is bad. You can't swap tasks to complete it. Now I'm stuck with kill 5 enemies using Wingman in Launch Royale, knowing that it is near impossible to complete with limited resources on the ground and the god awful time to loot for everything, and I don't want to waste time in that boring ass event.

[@BURN447]

@@woozy96 My dude, if you can’t get 5 kills with the wingman, I hate to break it to you, but it’s 100% a skill issue. The gun is everywhere if you know how to loot

[@davailama1808]

Seems like skill issue to me ... Idk like every other dude that complain about apex store but in reality they just complain because they are bad at the game and just get killed in the first fight. And u know what being bad is ok but at least have the honor to complain about that instead of skins that nobody cares about.

[@woozy96]

@@BURN447 ​ it is a game mechanic complaint, so it is valid. trust me, if you play in asia server with only taiwan and tokyo bearably good, it is difficult to achieve that shit with few people and the loot system in APEX S1 mode.

[@Internetzspacezshipz]

That is definitely a skill issue. The wingman is broken as hell in the event, and I manage to find at least one (usually way more) every match if you survive past the first couple minutes.

[@woozy96]

@@Internetzspacezshipz mind to share your strat? i usually dive down to the most populated one to get it done fast.

[@ajthedemon40]

As someone who played a lot of Apex one of its big issues is that it has become completely inaccessible for a casual player. The skill gap became so big that the only players still playing are those that haven't stopped playing and for a new player competing against these players is just not fun. I personally think it is doomed to slowly bleed out players because new players just are not interested in the game.

[@davailama1808]

This. Idk ppl are just delu about apex problems. Complain where it matters not about some skins.

[@haral91]

the further into the moneytasation they go, the less new player they get, the more the loyal players have to pay. so sad to see the focus of making a great experience disappearing, and the focus shifting into profit growth.

[@TheRogueWolf]

This is where AAA has been headed for years. Milk the audience, drag out the live service as long as possible, don't waste money innovating. The line MUST go up! Can't really blame the companies, though. The _real_ problem is the gamers who happily pour money into this garbage. If they held out for something good, they'd get something good- but when you reward this live-service slop with _billions_ of dollars, what do you _expect_ to get but _more_ of it?

[@longhairedcello4109]

I've been begging people for years to stop paying money for bullshit and they'll stop selling bullshit

[@nectarinn3]

The thing is, who set the expectations of those gamers? Who normalizes scummy business practices to make people more willing to spend more and more cash? I'm not saying people are blameless but frankly i still find someone who makes irrationally poor financial decisions more empathetic than companies who are all too happy to suck people dry. Like, it is how capitalism works, but even a few years ago what's happening now in gameing would be unimaginable to the average player.

[@Eclipse_IV]

The ironic thing to me about the monitization is that I really dont like 90% of the skins for most legends. I think the skins usually take away from the character and personality carefully crafted into default skins. There are so many little quirks about the characters written into the details. From the stickers they place on their tools, to the materials of their outfits. There are little details that get lost when they try to make skins that look "cool" and edgy. I have rarely ever wanted to buy skins for characters in this game. I think the best skins are the ones that show off the personality of the characters in a different light. Skins of the characters' pasts, casual skins, formal skins, winter skins with jackets and scarves, beach skins. Those are the skins that I think are the most interesting.

[@pierrealessandre8902]

Remember, that in there infinite wisdom, they remove the linux player base. A game in decline need all the player they can get. 1000+ player is nothing to laught at. To me, droping linux support, is to save cost.

[@javijunior_gaming167]

Your barely noticing it, it's been getting worse since the old devs stepped away from EA.

[@VioletElite4]

Oh please. They murdered it since they deviated from Titanfall to make a crappy battle royal...

[@blkwng]

EA saw itself losing worst company to ubisoft and said "challenge accepted"

[@joaco545]

Sub minute gang!

[@iwantyou9944]

iam very happy to break the chain and free from apex

[@onikrux]

Thanks for covering this absolute Mess, Bell. Apex has been one of my favourite games in the last 5 years and watching it fall apart has been hard to say the least. It's made it extremely hard to simply login and keep playing when I can't help but see the storm clouds brewing overhead of this game.

[@cosmicchelonian]

I can’t believe people put up with this and actually buy these products…

[@SticktheFigure]

Oh wow, surprised to see a video on this out of you guys. My thoughts as an Apex player: The game is genuinely my second favorite FPS on its mechanics, losing only to the likes of Quake 3. I've stuck with Apex this entire time as it's been pulled in two directions (developers wanting to make a good multiplayer shooter and business suits wanting to see a live service game have infinite growth and generate infinite profits) and it very much feels like its stretched past its limit. It's genuinely heartbreaking because there is so much to love about the way the game plays, even in spite of the rampant issues with servers, matchmaking, and cheating. I can't even wish for EA to just give up and move on to the next big thing because I know that'll truly mean the death of the game and servers. I don't see a good outcome for this game and it's going to hurt like hell when its gone, knowing that it was nothing but EA shooting themselves in the foot the entire time out of misguided greed.

[@statphantom]

clarification: 8:50 said 1/5 of 1%. but it's actually less than 1/20th of 1%. way worse, that's less than 1 in 2,222.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

And this is why I wouldn’t touch a live service game today with a ten foot pole. If this is what the kids want nowadays, let them chase the lot boxes, I’ll be the old fuddy duddy over here playing my single player games.

[@shubhamstark8]

0:41 can't feel worried if you don't play the game anymore 😂😂😂

[@granttcg]

I really don’t think it matters what changes they make as it pertains to getting people to come back to the game. The game is creeping up on 6 years old it’s already at a point where even if the game is perfect people will still be bored with it. Making fixes and changes will help with retention for players actively still playing and they should start focusing on ways to bring on new players. But the players that left even if they fix cheating, AA, audio or whatever else, those old players will come back for a few days then be bored again and just leave. We’ve also never seen a BR have that 10+ year longevity aside from the current Fortnite run. BR may just be a game style that isn’t designed to have long term retention.

[@Toasty27-q6w]

I actually gave up on Apex's battlepass after the update because it's too confusing and complicated. Like they're trying to find every way possible to get my money. I don't even care about them trying to make a profit. I get it. But getting sucked dry by a corporate behemoth is not my fetish.

[@charge416]

The reason Overwatch 2 wasnt as successful as the original is because they took away or cancelled everything that definied and justified the 2, then lied to players for too long and in too many ways. I wouldnt expect a company that knows about nothing except "line go up" to comprehend the circumstances of cause and effect though.

[@maybedeadcatz6697]

this all started the damn day someone at EA said what if we make an event where once you buy the entire thing you unlock the ability to buy another final thing..... You know what Im talking about.

[@SirMouse003]

Are they doing this because Apex is not making money or because Apex is not making as much money as they want ?

[@Jmvars]

"We need to be better." The amount of times I've heard that...at this point it just bounces right off.

[@Alialmutairy]

Battlepass system is the worst thing that ever happened to video games history. i’d rather buy to play rather than having to deal with F2P bullshit

[@nikkfrostt]

Equally important problem is the amount of predator/aimbots running around low ranks and casual matchmaking. While the monetization can drive people away, not having people to even open the shop because they don't play the game is another massive problem Apex will be facing.

[@thrackerzod6097]

Here I thought removing Linux support would stop cheating. I am truly aghast at this development. /s

[@sercan9791]

I think this assessment is a little unfair. Apex is superb as a game and the monetization is strictly cosmetics. Furthermore free tier players get apex packs for leveling up and for completing the battlepass. They get apex coins for completing the battlepass which they can save for a couple of seasons if they really don't want to pay and buy premium battlepass or a skin. They get free event packs for most events and crafting materials to buy most event items. If you pay 10$ once you get the battlepass and the battlepass gives back more than you paid upon completion. The battlepass has some of the best cosmetics of the game, reactive skins. The only problem I have with this game is that it is not 18+ due to its lootbox mechanics. Personally I have only paid 10$ to buy a battlepass a couple seasons ago and I have loads of good cosmetics.

[@JustSomeDude848]

I don't understand where these companies come from with the idea that a 2.0 version has to take away from a game. If you're taking away that's not a 2.0. why not just make a massive upgrade to a games core systems and NOT take things away? I swear, corporate people in charge of this stuff are the most idiotic, counter intuitive people there are.

[@NoshuHyena]

It's one thing to make a greedy monetization plan; it's a whole other level of evil to do a total rug-pull and screw over players that are already hooked on your game.

[@elbee2324]

That sounds like... a whole lot of sunk cost fallacy. Which when people realise it, they sure are going to quit in droves.

[@muteloch2798]

Came back to Apex for the new season (23), and after a couple days the sweaty matchmaking and slow servers issues reared their ugly heads. They really do need systemic change to make the game work. The movement system feels taped-together and the slow tick-rate servers just make it worse. Ultimately if the game does not attract alot of new players with adjustments to matchmaking that help with retention, we may as well dig the grave.

[@lp211_]

The only thing wrong with the game is the audio, everything else your talking about isn't a big deal especially if u have a job and don't buy the whole store

[@AgentLumina]

It makes me so sad that Final Fantasy 7 is forever attached to this game in a negative way because of greed

[@Solibrae]

Shinra Corporation would approve, I'm sure.

[@z28yeti]

Line go sideways is WAYYYYYY better than line go down, if they don't understand that, they're going to kill their game.

[@benxsolace89]

your sarcasm through almost the entire video had me cracking up

[@urazz7739]

Funny how these CEOs think the line can always go up and in their blind drive to do that, they end up causing worse damage to the company and end up getting fired.

[@guilherme5094]

Every day I wake up with problems, but I feel good knowing that I didn't give Ubisoft and EA a dime. I wish everyone could have that same feeling of cleansing in their soul. Just say no to Andrew 'devil' Wilson.

[@simonkult3134]

If people want to burn their money like this, it is their choice. Stupid who gives, stupider who doesn´t take. For the rest there are old games and AA developers who make games for players and not investors.

[@brefy]

I feel I literally cannot grasp EAs monetisation model, it straight horrendous. Fortnite even though it’s item shops have become more and more filled with content over the years still hasn’t transformed into a casino and I’d assume they are making crazy amounts of more money. I just can’t comprehend how not focusing on the games core mechanics and actual content doesn’t transfer into a more healthy and popular game thus generating more revenue, do they assume every player is a spineless mtx goblin?

[@cl3935]

People stop blaming EA for being greedy, just take responsibility for your actions and choose not to buy. Unless of course you WANT to buy.

[@lenk1432]

well you as the player can choose to not spend anything, but joe shmoe who buys every new heirloom will negate your effort

[@AnnoyingSwedishGuy]

I've played Apex since launch, it's been fun but all good things has to come to an end at some point it seems.

[@Hugo_Prolovski]

Publishers and Devs shouldnt be public traded companies. Its the cancer of the gaming industry

[@KS-zt4nd]

Hot take, but I think we're seeing the beginning of the collapse of the free/stock market system. It's clearly been an abject failure for a majority of people. Half of this isn't EA's fault, I'm sure investors are screaming at them to make line go up more year over year. But now everyone is like that, we've reached a breaking point. The only way forward is for every product, every service, to become microtransaction/subscription hell and completely deteriorate the quality of living. The whole "Public company must only care about investors or they can sue" was likely one of the worst laws ever made.

[@seba_stiano]

Yeah, "line must go up" and every western country leaning on the "export first" growth model has had very deep impact on the world in general. I'm honestly curious to see where this derailing train will take us

[@Toniestbook]

I’m glad I called quits cause I’m not gonna play or buy stuff in a game that doesn’t respect my time or the players

[@PropaneWP]

If they'd had the balls to spend some money on implementing server side anti-cheat, it would have a more positive effect than to shut the door on everyone playing on Linux - which doesn't do anything about the obvious majority of cheaters playing on Windows.