Flats Reacts To "How Modern Games Trick You Into Spending More"

[@ihopeyouandicanbefriends]

idk if flats will read this but the reason the no-suit samus ending is the best is because the player most likely thinks samus is either a robot or a dude (i was the former). the zero-suit confirms that the badass bounty hunter we've been stomping around as has been a woman the whole time

[@bambampewpew32]

What I thought I heard about a game where she flat out gets naked lmfao, now that I think about it that game might've been taken off the market or something

[@YasdanyR]

Overwatch lootboxes were not as bad, because you could get them for FREE after PAYING the game, if you want to get extra, go ahead, in many games you dont have that free option, even now we dont have it anymore in the game

[@johnsuri000xd]

you forgot the L

[@GregorHey]

Overwatch Lootboxes were not as bad AFTER the update to events. At the beginning it was a bit predatory. During events you only could get the skins out of the boxes and couldn't spend your excess gold to buy them creating a bit of FOMO where you were forced to grind a ton and gamble for your skin or spend money for a few boxes.

[@Ermagerdddrohernnnn]

I was gifted Overwatch 1 from a friend 5 years ago. I've yet to buy a SINGLE thing from Blizzard. I EARNT my skins, I did not buy them.

[@key2shawn154]

I haven’t bought a single thing from cod or apex

[@derick5295]

I hate to say it, but i prefer WAY MORE the cosmetics being the only paid things nowadays, paid characters, maps and etc is BS

[@Tonypollyoly]

How old are you ?

[@derick5295]

@Tonypollyoly enough to know that nostalgia ≠ good

[@Memo-yh4nc]

@@TonypollyolyBased on the way you asked the question, you made it seem like what the commenter wrote is outrageous. Which is totally wrong. Cosmetics are always an optional thing and don’t affect gameplay. Stuff like characters and maps being locked behind money is way worse and way more scummy.

[@Tonypollyoly]

@@derick5295its not nostalgia. Iv just been able to see franchises do both. Think about how that type of monetization model has negatively impacted popular franchises like gta or COD. Then look at other games like Elden ring or cyberpunk and see the amazing paid for dlc we got

[@derick5295]

@@Tonypollyoly I am not talking about DLC and Expansions like elden ring, cyberpunk, the witcher and etc, i was talking about paid characters and maps in online multiplayer games, normally the pvp ones

[@fortesque9506]

Flats you are right that video game prices haven't gone up much BUT you are forgetting a few things : 1-Video games are made once and sold countless times, but the number of sales has skyrocketed. Once upon a time, games sold ten thousand copies, but now they sell twenty million. 2-previously the bulk of the sales were counted in the first months now in the first two weeks and a large part are special and premium editions that cost hundreds of dollars 3-there is no longer the cost of producing physical copies or at least it is very little given the predominant percentage of sales of digital copies and at this point it should be added that now developers only pay the royalty of the platform and no longer also that of the physical store

[@overpoweredcrew1604]

i personally never really disliked the overwatch lootboxes but i also never bought any of them cause i would just grind some lvls more when there are skins i wanted

[@somedm3080]

I'm sorry, but I disagree entirely that the companies aren't run by bad people; by definition, to run a company means you have to put profits ahead of everything, and I don't believe you can put profits first and be a good person. Profits can be important, they can be a goal, but if they're THE goal, there is almost no limit to the horrible things you'll do to make it.

[@applejuiceman]

28:32 ayyy, that’s ‘the finals’. That’s actually a really fun game, (and yes it’s in this vid cuz that game has a battle pass system, just like any other free fps game)

[@derick5295]

@@applejuiceman and tbf The Finals had some of the best BPs in gaming, the skins are really good and u got like 1500 coins in the 950 bp, and the cosmetics are cheap so u can always get the BP and some skin every time

[@Jorrod392]

@@derick5295 facts the finals easily handles cosmetics the absolute best imo, being able to buy individual pieces from bundles and full character customization make it so worth it, plus there's tons of free skins you get just from playing the game and using weapons

[@Jorrod392]

and almost all the skins never "leave" the shop they just get moved to the inventory so there's no real fomo unless its specified like the halloween skins.

[@leana339]

What many don't know the whole stuff with pay for ammo existed already a long time ago in a game called Kwari in like 2007. You even had health pools bound to money basically.

[@bloodyidit4506]

the fact that no one's heard of it should tell you something.

[@GiRR007]

I love that he plays the Darth Sidious theme when the EA guy is talking in the beginning 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Spluge_McDucktv]

I've been in the gaming scene since 4.5 floppy B were a thing. I am honestly saddened by what has happened to my lifelong pastime of choice. When I was growing up, staying up until 4 am playing Goldeneye with my friends, you could feel the love and care that went into each game that was considered "good". We no longer have "good" games, we just have "good enough" (outside of the indie scene, which is the only place you will still feel any semblance of what games used to be).

[@crossdaboss8914]

You can find some stuff in the triple a and double a space but you have to look for it

[@nuggsy7085]

The thought process of "Games have been the same price for years" is flawed when they haven't stayed the same. The basic bitch, no extras, least value version of games are. But most come with $100+ versions, microtransactions, etc. The "games have been "$60 for years" is a myth if you actually look at it rather then just the price tag.

[@ZombieApocalypse09]

Also they did raise the price of the base game. $60-70 is the shell price for the incomplete game nowadays. If you want the full game you're paying at least $100. They just call it the "Ultimate Edition". Also, when we were kids part of that $50-60 price was manufacturing instruction manuals, discs/cartridges, boxes, and giving an at least 40-50% cut to the storefront that shelved the game disc. Now, many games suffer no % cut (for example valve's games sold on steam, microsoft's games sold in one of their storefronts, etc..) or a very low % cut like 10-30% (30% being the app stores and I think valve's is similar but valve provides a lot of additional avenues for revenue like trading cards and furnishing multiplayer, etc.) and cost $0 for distribution. So the price of games from the company's perspective went from $25-30 (MSRP $50-60) to now it is $60-100 + microtransactions on TOP! Don't be so gullible, Flats.

[@strawberrydialectics]

yep

[@domothebro2435]

His takes on game monetary practices have been consistently bad

[@BurbleB]

Regarding the Income Statement slide Flats, you find it egregious that only 13% is Sales & Marketing? How about the fact that only 18% goes into Product Development... 18 Cents on the Dollar spent on making the actual game is kinda sad.

[@yuriikrasylovych3939]

25:30 oh, how naive... My brother and I started playing Factorio, the game about BUILDING cool and complex logistical chains. I was trying to come up with cool and expandable blueprints for the different parts of the base (factory) and defences. He bought 5$ patreon sub from one (actually good) youtuber to access his blueprint for factory, pasted it, just went to doomscroll on the phone and then, an hour later, said to me "You didn't do shit, look at how good this base works!" when I was not even 1/10th done with my project. P2W, microtransactions, skins and shit like that will always exist, at least because of stupid people.

[@christhiantrevisan8084]

11:54 BRAZIL MENTIONED, LETS GOO!! Jokes aside, you hit the nail on the head here, piracy is something very commom here, even though its illegal its a lost cause to fight against it cause most of us have to use piracy to at least be able to access things, cause we just cant afford to pay all these subscriptions or even games themselves because everything is so expensive for us To put things into perspective, the average monthly salary here is 3500 BRL(even being the average, it is not commom to find people earning this much), while in the US it's around 5000 U$(from what I found), looks bad right? Almost half of what is in US, but its worse than that. US pays 60 for a AAA launch, we pay 350 You think OW skins are overpriced? US pays 20 for a legendary skin, we pay 92 So for us its more a necessity rather than a convenience factor

[@mikeskitch]

falou tudo q eu sempre quis falar

[@scribbles1940]

This is consumer’s fault. They’re legally obligated to make investors as much as possible. If consumers refused to buy these micro-transactions they would be legally obligated to change.

[@nazzmezz8816]

I've seen one of the previous videos, and when you saw Celeste, I was shocked. You didn't play Celeste? Oh you have to, do it real soon 'cuz it's so good. I didn't know you haven't experienced the fun of this game. SO I beg you, please play Celeste and make a gameplay video!

[@ReivecS]

2:52 if we played a drinking game of how often flats could be wrong by at least 1 order of magnitude, I would already be dead at this point.

[@ReivecS]

I clicked play to see him immediately correct this issue. Too bad I am already dead. Blood on your hands, flats!

[@Stefanixx808]

My glorious king flats should make us pay for every minute we watch him

[@JesusNav]

Weirdo

[@Dracoknight]

On twitch he does with the ad-pocalypse especially during drops lmao

[@applejuiceman]

And that’s why I don’t use twitch at all. That app has a stupid amount of ads. KZbin ads are a billion times more tolerable (in the US atleast)

[@kujas]

@@Dracoknight and any mention of the absurd amount of ads and this guy cranks it up even more

[@yuriikrasylovych3939]

28:50 the worst thing is, a lot of games actually are made with concept of "chores" for this exact predatory reason.

[@RoyaltyRogue]

I love and agree with the message but the problem is the majority of gamers already refuse to pay for most microtransactions. The main demographic that pays for the microtransactions are whales with ridiculous high income or people who are addicted to the game. The EA sports ultimate teams in fifa and madden are great examples. I have to find that stat again but I remember something along the lines of 90+ percent of their revenue comes from 5-10% of the player base. The games are built the same way flats was talking about his experience with gta and madden. Its done by design to exploit the mentality of needing to keep up in combination with the sunk cost fallacy. The goal of this game design is to hook whales. The only way this will stop is for the government to get involved and regulate it.

[@luizgustavovendrame8413]

12:00 as a Brazilian, I can confirm to you that the prices of micro transaction is wild in every game

[@Anivia92]

That announcement in china didn't last. They almost immediately back tracked on that after they lost all that money. lol

[@ebhaenger8246]

to Flat's shield question.. hell, I think some would have even trouble naming the genre of OW.

[@Raydongamin]

Bro I was at a restaurant and heard a couple talking about an old console they found. Referring to the Xbox 360 and I felt my back muscle jolt

[@robertovillagran5364]

Great to see Big A used as a good source for business in the gaming industry 🔥

[@emeraldgiss]

Don't worry, john is also on the list to be a disney CEO.

[@Fenrir_Aus]

15:04 please sir make me feel older then i need too.......*cries in old man tears*

[@CrimsoniteSP]

I love it when people use the Celeste soundtrack in videos. Also yeah, I agree most people who pirate don't want to. It's like Gabe says, piracy is a service problem. You make a fair priced product? I'll pay. The moment you throw hurdles, bad business practices, limited time availability or pay to win mechanics, I'm either gone or setting sail on the high seas. There's no in-between there.

[@Senorgato029]

The biggest upside to micro transactions is the free to play format. The fact that I can get some games in there entirety try them out and decide to spend versus possibly never playing a game I’m unsure about because I have to pay upfront is great. If I can even earn some cosmetics for free even better. As long as I don’t have to pay for actual content I’m happy

[@buckyttvbarnes]

So I stumbled on this yesterday, backstory 4k plus hrs on overwatch console. Recently built gaming PC and started a new acct for my PC. Was looking to spend in game currency for skins you know jazz it up a lil. Well, found out the prices change based on how much you have...and a white currency skin changed to gold once I went under the amt it cost for white. And then changed back twice when I built up more currency.... 🤔

[@strawberrydialectics]

this sounds like a big issue if true. i only play on pc so i cant test it

[@DEML91]

If a company has a "cash cow" game to feed the production of good single player games then I don't mind, the problem is when the money just go the CEOs and Shareholder pockets then we have a problem.

[@dragonfistX200]

I honestly just avoid modern gaming for most part. Most my gaming hours is playing older titles that haves less BS microtransaction and are actually fun

[@Lups-fk5qr]

11:53 BRAZIL MENTIONED LETS GOOO

[@pawel0s1]

Well the only good thing about prices not being localised is that skins are too fkin expensive so I never buy them. Sucks for game prices but discounts happen eventually.

[@MetalTeaCup]

I feel like every time there’s a new skin for Tracer in the store, I’m bound to buying it.

[@unfortunatedisgrace246]

flats is back again with his great takes!

[@Deathstroke2666]

the way i justify buying things for games is its my only vice i dont do drugs of anysorts (alcohol, weed etc...), and i dont have hobbies that cost money

[@emilyfinchat]

hades ost nodders

[@zachk80]

His point on GTA is so accurate

[@musicxxa6678]

i'm not into this mtx/lootbox culture but since i play ow for years, i wanted to get involved in at least battlepasses and got my main ram collab skin. end of the day, they banned my account for light toxicity. i thought they were silencing accounts instead of straight up banning. i now don't interact with cosmetic system at all. i use default cosmetics. they are less distracting and i actually play better now because i play the game for the gameplay rather than distracting myself with fake progression and collection. I had hundreds of lootbox unopened in OW1. OW cosmetics aren't exciting outside of maybe highlight intros and special effects like some mythic's have. it's also ridiculous they banned me. i suspect it's because i was playing with group players a lot lately and these group players mass reported me. idk why i always have to play with and against coordinated groups as a solo player anyway. the system is far worse since s9. i think devs do a very bad job overall. i got 30 win streak with jq on my new account. it's crazy that system didn't push me back to my rank asap. i unintentionally smurfed so many hours. the game shouldn't let you win 30 games in a row, it should test you in higher lobby and give you more SR for your wins to quickly get you there.

[@benlandis6317]

Yeah and now apparently Disney is considering that former EA ceo for their next ceo 🤦‍♂️

[@zaco5206]

I have been feeling the skin fatigue for a long time 😅 i spend £20 on skins in a free to play, (a full priced game is more than that so can't complain, im gonna put in the hours)

[@rafaeldiaz8634]

When epic games ran with my early access money for fortnite and paragon to prioritize fortnite battle royale mode, that's when I stopped funding these kind of things. I knew it would only get worst

[@hoodiesempai5608]

The diablo thing was just straight malicious by blizzard. A one click purchase after giving a free BP token. Not to mention about every other time you opened you're map or inventory it would be like "hey claim you're pass token" alot of people accidently used theirs cause of blizzards SHITE UI ans interface

[@nork9459]

I've really given up on the issue. The major problem with asking people to vote with their wallets and stop funding these practices is that democracy isn't an inherently sensible system. It's moral to give everyone a say, But it's crazy to imagine that everyone acts and thinks reasonably. We're just people. I live in the free/cheap indie space, The last AAA title known to my wallet remains Portal 2 if that really counted at the time. I pirated Skyrim and I was disappointed in the writing, I haven't given Beth a cent since, And look at Star-noun, Vindicated. We can't even praise Skyrim for backing away from the horse armor topic because Beth would eventually trapse right through the door they cracked open all those years ago and plop low effort mods onto a proprietary store about a decade later. You want a decent health stealing spell? or zombie summons? or more than two crossbows? Please disregard all the quality mods our fanbase puts out and purchase some bethesda coin. But there are good games out there. The guy who made Elona all those years ago just came out with an intuitive isometric facelift on the concept in a prequel on early access: Elin. Cataclysm:DDA is a free open world zombie apocalypse survival game with ludicrous car crafting mechanics, stellar lore writing, a robust system of mutations and bionics, whatever you want; and the fanbase churns out mods and texturepacks for it all the time, Because it's worth the effort, Dread Delusion is like $10 and it's like if King's Field and Morrowind had an ugly baby, In a good way. But comparatively nobody is going to play them, Taste is a lost sense, Our diets consist of salty grey mush and so many people are just okay with this, And that's all they deserve for it.

[@Jkobe915]

The whole talk about skins possibly fading in interest is so out of touch, they have always been a staple of bringing interest to players whether they needed to be bought or unlocked. It’s a basic cornerstone to what makes games enticing. Player attachment, projection etc. it’s one of the most important things in any game is how appealing the look of characters are to players.

[@oneleapforward903]

I never understood paying for a skin that you see the least of. Literally buying it to show to other people.

[@Nijsh.]

Okay why does nobody ever bring up Blizzard for their shady monetization? I mean I feel like I don't hear about them as much. Sure sometimes people joke about Overwatch but that's not even my biggest issue, I feel like the World of Warcraft community is just full-blown stockholm syndrome. How are you guys not mad about STILL having to pay 15 dollars a month just to play your game? It's highway robbery. It was a stupid monetization system back then and it has aged like milk. I wish they'd go on strike or something and all cancel subscriptions at once because they seriously deserve better.

[@Bakaa45]

Mobile gamers over the years in my opinion are 90% people that couldnt afford a pc or console so 5 dollar game here and there is better than dropping hundreds or thousands on current gaming equipment, plus regular gamers that could find more time to game when they werent on pc or console

[@groveht17]

Today I learned that Sims 2 had a story mode

[@AegisHyperon]

FTC needs to go after Ubisoft next

[@KingMaler00]

Flats go more than a minute without pausing challenge : level : impossible

[@S1rSlippy]

worst micro transaction game that no ones knows about -> COD Online (only available in china), did a short stent for act QA and they purposely made their "zombies" (robots) mode hard so players would get downed and you could pay money to revive yourself. Not only did you pay for the attachments on your pew pews but if you bought a skin you'd have to rebuy the attachments. it was so bad so many more, made me so disgusted with the company I ended up no call no show quitting within the week of working on COD online. It wasn't my only issue with the company but was the last nail in the coffin. SCREW ACTIVISION.

[@alp6502]

As an 06 I can indeed vote😅

[@GregorHey]

I think its just going to get worse and worse as time goes on because the people who complain and push back is way less than the whales that pay for the outrageous MTX. Take League of legends Ahri skin for example, The ahri bundle was $430+ and there was MAJOR pushback. People were banning ahri for months to the point she shot up to around a 70% ban rate for a little while. But what happened after that fiasco? They got paid out the ass and kept doing it. Now LoL does recolors of already popular skins (True damage ekko/Cosmic jhin) for $250. 2 hundred and fifty dollars for a RECOLOR. And the worst part? PEOPLE BOUGHT IT, If only a few dozen of the people bought the skin they already made their money back. They literally only recolored the skin from purple to red and charged 5x as much and it was successful. That's why i just stick to the indies. Marvel rivals (while it has MTX) has been a breath of fresh air. The game FEELS good, It runs okay (albeit shit at some points but after fixing some settings its been great) and you can feel the love put into the UI/Effects/MVP and even the skins themselves. Then you look over at the cesspool that is Apex and all they've done in the past year is shill out "events" where you pay them $200+ for a cosmetic and call it a event.

[@gendalfgray7889]

39:12 shame on you evil unity ceo i never play such stupid games😂😂😂

[@Devon-hw6ih]

They forgot they need to make a good game first, then monetize is😂

[@AliceinEntropy]

Overwatch skins are far from the peak of skins. Dota 2's customization and effects and more recently personas to change how the character looks are way better. It is like making WoW glamor, and the effects of the spells frequently change. Plus you can sell most of them back to the steam market and buy game when you are done with the game.

[@Shi-shou]

Watch that video but buy all the mythic and Battle pass in Ow2 is kinda funny and sad because YT/Streamer are the best seller for those

[@bubblewrap42]

did u hear about the shoes in fortnite?

[@supermariomaker1734]

Micro transactions work very well I should know I sometimes pay money on fornite skins so I know a lot about greed in video game company’s cause I play video games a lot.

[@sno7599]

I think microttansactions sre an overall positive. I kinda like hoyoverse having paid characters. I don't like the fomo much but as singleplayer games skins are not intresting. Also Dlc is great most times. Enhances the game without taking away from the main game. Also, with a lot of games I kinda love the progression. Saving up my hard earned coins to unlock a character. The reward is the same but the hype is bigger. And gsmes being able to go free because of microtransactions is a big win. Its why me snd my friends play overwatch. Its why we play dbd (it was fre on epic once) valorant and league. Id never touch those gsmes if they were paid. Then again my morality is dubious at best. Ive pirated both cyberpunk and bg3. Cyberpunk i bought when i saw it was on sake csuse i just loved it so much but bg3 i putt quite a lot of hours in and just decided it wasnt for me even though i was tend if hours in. And honestly, im glad i didnt buy it. I got to experience it and i thought it was cool. But i never wouldve tried it if i hadnt pirated it. Same for cyberpunk but instead of cool im obsessed.

[@lstsoul4376]

Isse is with microtransactions is most often the price. A lof of fps games, many decent skins usually cost 20 dollars or more, and with that money you can buy full whole games. Fomo while effective for companies, it's a terrible scheme for the players as it forces you to play the game for a certain period of time or you will find behind or not get x item. On genshin impact fomo is terrible because of the gacha system, look at characters like shenhe which has been missing for almost a year. There's also fomo on event rewards and game modes which sometimes whole areas will be unavailable to play after a certain date. Game also forced you to login everyday to do boring stuff in order to get little bit of currency and limits you progress through an energy system, now there's rewards that "force" you to finish the story mode on the same patch.

[@lstsoul4376]

Dlc is not a bad thing either, it just heavily depends. Elden and ring cyberpunk dlc were great and reasonably priced for what they offer. Other times, dlc is used to sell what should be on the game on launch as seen on cities skyline.

[@lstsoul4376]

While games being f2p increase their accessibility, they usually rely heavily on fomo or have aggressive monetization, like the 500 dollar skin on lol. Also when the server closes, you will lose all your purchases

[@evilpeach]

I don't mind games that are free having micro. But games like world of Warcraft. Like I pay every fcken month but there non stop micro.

[@llllMiNxllll]

Remeber when when ea was the most hated company?😂 What you mean like yesterday? (EA set the stage and the rest followed...)

[@rd-lw4td]

The mobile games are so bad. They don't even feel like games.

[@Tyschlorp]

Oh yeah, and the constant p2w pop-ups on certain ones. You'll get a pop-up ad for a $100 set of armor that makes you harder to kill in an FPS game for example lmao

[@rd-lw4td]

@@Tyschlorp well, there is that and also the game just stops progressing unless you pay a lot of money. Too much p2w to feel like a game. It's sad, because really good games could be made for mobile.

[@starnstine]

I miss ow1 loot boxes because I could get them for free, otherwise they are terrible

[@Acrobuster]

I mostly agree, but I'm sad that content dlc and some kinds of cosmetics almost always get collateraled in these arguments. And some live service games are just fun, sometimes I want to be in that universe for years!

[@SneakPeaks]

Deep Rock Galatic is a great example of a good live service. Recently, the new update removed all FOMO possible

[@Luci-pz8xx]

Turning players into payers

[@finnaldredge-byars7578]

The easy way to avoid microtransctions: just play Nintendo games.

[@strawberrydialectics]

yeah.. nintendo is its own mess of problems lol

[@phasedthrough3647]

Remember kids, it’s called gacha cuz once you spend for the first time they “gotcha” by the wallet and you’re more likely to spend again

[@thewrath4462]

grandpa flats

[@ryzer1626]

Surly flats replays sims 2 lol

[@anassright5342]

PLAY Sims 2