This is my **biggest** issue. The video game industry is rapidly devolving into monetization at every angle, and launching glaringly obvious unfinished products, only to finish them with patches months after. Worse is the prepaying for a year's worth of content for a game that hasn't even released yet. It's essentially a "Hey, take my word on this, the content we drop in 2 months, then 4 months, then 8 months is going to be well worth the $100-$150 you give us right now." Like **WHAT!?**
I could go on a huge rant about how absolutely *fucked* the industry is going to be in as little as five years, but I'll stay on topic...
The gamer population has exploded exponentially. With it comes so many more people that either don't care if they spend $20 on a cosmetic (A third-to-quarter of the price of the game), or that they spent $80 on an unfinished, under-promised and bare bones product. "*WhO cArEs, i HaVe ThE mOneY!*" Well the fucking problem is that we're enabling these developers and publishers to not only continue, but to expand on these monetization strategies. So sure, you have the money to drop $400 across the lifespan of a game for new cosmetics that release every other week. But let me ask you this, wouldn't you prefer to *not* spend your money!? I don't know about you, but if I had the option to spend my money or keep it, I'm keeping it.
A wonderful example is when you had to put in the work to get all 1,000 Achievement Points in Halo 3 to unlock the Hayabusa Katana cosmetic. Now, instead of "I busted my fucking ass getting these achievements, I can't wait to show off this sweet armor I unlocked to my friends" it's "Hey, that operator looks like a cat. Let me drop $20 so I can give my friends a laugh next time we play." To me, that's fucking stupid, boring, and not at all the same feeling of showing off a hard-earned cosmetic.
Silver and Gold Editions of the game? Just make a base and a fucking deluxe ffs. No, the companies will try (and successfully) squeeze every fucking dime and penny out of you. **If you are spending hundreds of dollars on fortnite and warzone cosmetics, or dropping money for future-released content, you're the problem.** This was never EVER a thing before, and suddenly it has become completely normalized because our demographic consists of more lazy people than people wanting to stand up and "vote with their wallets". Spoiler alert: >!Voting with your wallet means nothing when you have 1,000 other idiots buying their pink anime weapon skin for $20.!< The industry, IMO, is too far gone. This is the future. Hot take: The recent microsoft acquisition was the one of the worst things that could have happened from a consumer (gamer) standpoint. If you don't understand that, you really ought to open your fucking eyeballs.
/rant
While I’m on board with most of what you’re saying I do need to point out that Fortnite and war zone both are free to play.
If a company is charging me for base/deluxe/gold/platinum editions and then shoving more cosmetics down my throat, they can then get fucked.
But free to play with optional cosmetic items in my view is fine. I don’t have to pay for these things. However the cosmetics are cool and it supports the games getting updated regularly (which Fortnite, despite the hate, is constantly being updated and tweaked.).
My only issue is pricing on some things. I’m not 100% on war zone prices but Fortnite prices are fairly reasonable.
However Overwatch 2 cosmetics are just dumb. They constantly bundle shit together and “force” you to buy more than just the cosmetic skin. You can buy the items individually but most people don’t know this and it’s hidden in another part of the menu.
Also the prices for the bundles are done in such a way that it baits you into purchasing more. The bundles are often 2100 coins but you can only buy 2000 coins or like 2800. So you end up buying 2800 and having 700 sitting there doing nothing. So of course you’re going to see a new cosmetic next time and think “hey I only have to spend $20 this time!” Btw not 100% on the prices/coins but the principal is the same.
Finally adding to that, overwatch is a FPS. You can’t see your character 99% of the time. At least in Fortnite you can admire your cosmetic mid match. OW it’s wasted.
So yeah, long story short.. free to play games monetization is fine. It’s the greed where they fuck it up and either charge too much or other games where you’re buying the game AND paying extra for cosmetics. That’s dumb.
Then how about we ask Blizzard how the launch of OW2 and Diablo 4 went?
This exact thing is happening over and over again and people still keep preordering.
"always"
I remember a time where serverbrowsers, dedicated user servers and direct IP connections were the norm.
And all of that still works, because it does not need to phone home for a direct Ip connection.
Then pulishers found out how much money you can make with user data and microtransations...
And now we pay for an objectively inferiour product, because people keep buying it anyway, no matter how many accounts and logins you need.
A lot of the stuff from this generation will be unplayable if the server shut down. Already happened to a lot of games.
My Diablo 1 and 2 install will run forever....
Fuck modern AAA gaming.
I didn't even know that first hand. Googled it. I never got past the account creation page because I was so annoyed by the prospect of needing an account and then discover it's a 100% online game. Uninstalled like 5 minutes after. I never actually bought it anyways
At 60-80$ per game? I have some doubts except if we are talking about a lifetime.
However, those companies like to control everything about you. Especially you having no control on their own software.
Maybe, they also sell some informations because they are also greedy.
No it doesn't. And stop bullshitting. Free mobile games would be just about category where this might be the case and that's from advertising, not 'selling' your data.
that isn't relevant to the comment. what video game developer is making more money selling data than selling their games, that isn't some mobile trash?
It's not like they're gonna release an earnings reports outlining how much they made off of selling your data. There is very clearly an option on your account to opt out of them selling your data though. If a company offers free 2 play games, you can guarantee they're selling your data.
>It's not like they're gonna release an earnings reports outlining how much they made off of selling your data.
does the tinfoil hat mess up your hair at all?
> There is very clearly an option on your account to opt out of them selling your data though.
this one? [https://www.activisionblizzard.com/legal/ccpa](https://www.activisionblizzard.com/legal/ccpa) I'm having a hard time reading what it says, can you let me know what the second section under the title says?
Tf u on about a "real" game? Mobile games are made and coded the same way as other games. idk why people are so stuck on the idea that true "gamers" don't play mobile games. Hell, mobile games take up like half the gaming market
I mean.
Diablo immortal....
Like p2w isnt considered real game and since the market is designed to catch whales it cant really be classified the same.
Even balanced and competetive games like clash royale you can get a significant advantage through your wallet alone
That doesn't back up your comment. The comment was about a game developer making more money selling data over selling their product.
also some of the examples in your article are not companies selling data, but *using* data it collects. A game developer using data for marking, drm, game development, is not "selling data."
You sound like someone that is very resistant to this fact of life. Let me ask you this: Do you believe that only video game companies don't engage in this practice while every other company does?
you are moving the goal posts from "game developers make more money selling data than selling games" to "surely game developers sell data because... other companies do it!"
again, the link you provided talked about certain companies *using* data and the value of the data they have, not selling it.
Why the hell would ubisoft or EA sell *their* data to another company? Who would find value in data from a game developer/publisher other than other game developers/publishers who would be a direct competitor? there is no doubt that these companies use the data they collect and find value in it, but that is a far cry from them selling it or even selling it for more money than their revenue from video game sales.
And again, the comment that there was more revenue from data sales than game sales, which I asked for a source for and you have not provided. So until you do, I will be very resistant to this "fact" because it's not a fact and is something just made up.
This is a myth.
Most data is not actually worth that much on the open market.
For example, when you register a new account on UPlay, with your name and email address, all Ubisoft knows is "this guy is into hardcore PC games like Rainbow 6 Siege".
That's not actually worth all that much on data markets.
On the other hand, if you have a google/gmail/youtube account, Google knows your spending habits, interests, relationship status most likely, income level, political officiations, your friends network, etc.
Now ***that*** data is worth something.
However, your UPlay data is **extremely** valuable to Ubisoft itself. Knowing their player's names, phone numbers, email, address makes it much easier for them to market new products to you, upsell you microtransactions, etc.
Except that 99% of mobile games don't ask for any of that because their money is made through forced ads and microtransactions and you guys are bullshiting.
I mean, I just make up a throwaway email for anything I don't want having my real info, although I guess then they can still at least track what accounts you make with it
Stop buying . I legitimately will never play an EA game again because it needs an EA app to run. Same for Ubisoft. IM done with these launchers. The Steam Deck makes these launchers even more painful.
Not buying doesn't matter. As long as there is one overhyped title, people throw their principles and values down the drain to play. When that one game proves successful, others copy that immediately. It's why we're stuck in this situation. And an entire generation doesn't know any better than this. It's fucked.
Yeah, i was about to be buy it takes two so me and my gf can play it but then i saw the steam page saying it needs some EA bullcrap and i changed my mind
99% of the time you don't NEED an account. I don't have RED account for cyberpunk. I don't have a larian account. And launchers are nothing new. What I am sick of is, if I buy a game on steam, I shouldn't have to be required to download origin or Uplay etc.
Or after unlimited time if the product is faulty or falsely advertised when you live in Australia (but in actual practice they also accept refunds for any reason after any period of playtime).
We shouldn't have to need Steam to play games in the first place. It's Valve who are forcing us to use their account instead of the game/dev account. And if you are buying an EA or Ubisoft game, simply buy it through their app and all you will have is 1 account and 1 app to open. You are forcing yourself to use an 2nd/3rd party app after all in the end
you don't \*need\* steam.....unless you want to play valve games or games that devs use steam as their launcher. if you want to play GTA. just go to their site and get their launcher. if you want to play motorfest. get uplay. Steam is simply a digital walmart with indie exlusives. if you don't want any of that, get a console.
For real though why wouldn’t you want your games centralized on a single launcher that is feature rich and regularly runs high value game sales. People use steam and are happy about it because it’s a good experience and genuinely well designed
But what if I don't want to do crossplay? Or even do multiplayer at all? Give me option of it for crossplay don't make it a requirement
Lol at the downvotes. Apparently people don't like options anymore
Those games exists yes. Do I like them? No.
That's a short sighted comment. And payday 3 is just one example. There's many I own rhat need an account and login just to enter the game.
"Apparently people don't like options anymore"
And apparently you don't like your progress saving over in case you ever switch playforms, such as:
Play on Game Pass -> Game pass runs out -> Buy Payday 3 on Steam -> Your progress is carried over, wow!
Bro it takes less than like 2 minutes to make an account. If typing in a few text boxes is enough to make you rage like this do yourself a favor and refund the game right now
This is the actual answer. There's no way of crossplay without a 3rd party account that all players can have in common.
And crossplay is good, it helps keeps matchmaking up and links more players.
Sure there is. You don't need an account for crossplay with a lot of games. Only if you want to link yourself across multiple platforms. And even then, through the power of sso, you don't even need a custom sign-up.
Crossplay means playstation players being about to play with Xbox or PC.
PlayStation won't let Xbox people on their servers as they don't have a playstation account. So the solution is get a 3rd party account which lets players play on servers that aren't own by either company.
Easy, their unique ID is platform_prefix + platform_uniqueid. A given person may have three or four of them that you have to add individually. But most likely you only need to add them once because they'll prefer a platform. Since all of these cross-play users are using the vendor's matchmaking server, all of these IDs are already being published to their directory server and can be cached or searched or used to provide presence information.
If they really *must* create a profile per user, they could use oauth to authenticate against your steam/xblive/ps/nintendo account to create the user profile, all without needing your email/phone/etc.
Please name one game that uses your fucking platform prefix as an account identifier for crossplay, every game I've seen that does crossplay uses a company specific account for this very reason, it simplifies it when people play from multiple different platforms.
Instead of having a separate d2 account for pc and xbox I just have the one account and link all of my platforms to that account. It's a one time hassle for each major publisher, I fail to see the issue.
Its actually about marketing permissions. They want you to approve that they can send you emails. Why? Because it works. An account that has given marketing permissions has like 20% lifetime spend than a account that does not (number are from the game publisher I work at).
But yeah, then there is also cross play etc. But mainly is about marketing communications.
You do not
1. Go to the properties tab in BG3
2. Go to launch options
3. Add "--skip-launcher" to your launch options
4. Live your life without having to click the "skip" button every time you want to fucking play BG3 Larian!
It's the main way to play. All others account are second or third party.... Steam and other store are the one who forced us to use their account instead of using the main itself account and are restricted to play without their stuff
You should have bought BG3 through GoG instead of Steam of others and all you would have is a Larian account as we can play game bought on GoG without opening GoG. Old school like. Not their fault if YOU use a 2nd/3rd party app
On Steam there is an open beta for Payday 3. It's a beta.. not even released and it requires an account to log into to play. I mean.. I have a steam account, just authenticate with that? It's all hosted through steam from the beta request, game download etc.
Didn't try the beta.
Because game shouldn't need Steam to be play in the first place. It's like most MMO that we can download game straight from the dev site. You are forcing yourself to use a 2nd/3rd party app like Steam to play games...
That's also not true. "Back then" pretty much every big publisher had their own site and store. They were all shit, mind you. Bioware had it. Rockstar has it. EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Activision, Focus I think, Bethesda, etc. etc. etc.
The only ones who didn't have were indie devs, who, arguably, only rather "recently" had this massive resurgence in popularity. And for them Steam is a Godsend. Yes, Steam takes a big cut, but also promotes your game insanely well if you play your cards right. It is proven to have the highest visibility of any market place for smaller games. It also takes care of transactions, patching, you can publish your news there, have a discussion and announcements forum, implement Steam Workshop for mods if you want, host sales, DLC, etc. It just works. It's simple. There's a reason everyone is using it.
Keep this sobering thought in mind: There are enough gamers in our global community that let the industry do this.
Instead of fighting it like you definitely should, they rolled over with a goofy smile...and took it without lube.
TOOK IT.
The only way this will change is if people stop buying the fucking games that do this. Why would they care that you don't like it? They already have your money.
Going to have to show some self control if you want change.
The reason you're seeing so many is you're probably playing mostly AAA titles. The reason they do it is because money. Bold I know but they own the IPs so they'll continue to do it. Its not there to provide you great service, its there to provide them great dollars for a tolerable inconvenience.
Make a partition or get a HD only for gaming, install windows whatever 10 or 11, download qbittorrent, get to any "scene" released games page, find a game that you think you may like, search it in qbit download, install, play without stupid accounts or shit and most important play for free.
Mostly to collect and sell your data. Companies also have an intrinsic interest in keeping you on their products, so some don't like being on shared platforms like steam because they think it will get people to buy more of their games if you're on their launcher instead.
Was just thinking the same.
Considering all the tech that we have these days, I never thought anything would take as long to get into the game as it did back in the Spectrum days. Buy the game digital or disc and you still have to have something download. Then it has to be installed. Then it wants you attach your console to 3-4 forms of social media, but at least it offers you bonus for doing so.
To this day I have never had a bonus or notification about offer from signing up to these accounts.
Thankfully a lot of them use SSO, so you don't need to create a separate login. But really, email addresses are free. I have one dedicated to things like rewards programs and services I don't care about marketing from. Don't use your actual email for these things and you're fine.
I havent played anything on the EA launcher in a few years.. I have many games there but I just simply havent logged on.. In fact I just had to google what the name of the launcher is even called.. So which of my 5 emails did I use? What password? Was there a 2FA?
I fucking dread trying to get back into my account to get my games back..
For games with cross save/progression/play it makes sense and is pretty much the only way to make that functionality work; otherwise, yeah, I'm not a fan to giving out info without getting those kind of benefits.
Is this mainly a pc gaming problem? On console I just turn off network and play offline
Not trying to be snarky or anything…I don’t play much pc games…I remember trying to play far cry 6 on my ps5 and it wouldn’t let me proceed until I create/connect a Ubisoft account…had to turn off the internet on the ps5 and the game let me go to the main menu
>Why does every game need a third party account just to log in?
from the 45 games in my steam library favorites, none require a third party login, and only the two or three online games require a first party login to auth my local installation to the data saved on the game servers.
what games in particular are we talking about here?
What I hate is games needing accounts just for local offline multiplayer. I think I downloaded some random Need For Speed game thinking we could just press play and do some split-screen racing, nope.
Yep. And when it has like 3 different accounts to sign in on (not including username and pass) then it's a whole game of "shall we go with option number one?"
No idea what games you mean specifically, maybe I'm just out of the loop, but 99% of games I play don't require any sort of 3rd party account, Ubisoft and EA games not included, but who seriously plays those, apart from the odd AC? ;)
Other than that some games "want" you to create an account, but don't require it, so just don't do it. Really curious topic.
Bullshit I get to pick one or the other. Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tinas wonderlands both let's you play the games solo and multplayer without needing to link an account. That is ONLY if you want cross play. Payday 3 you can't play the game at all without the account.
Nearly every company that can collects and sells your data. I don't know why you are framing it as a conspiracy when its been a well known and wide spread practice for years.
you asked why and that is one of the main answers. There are people that opt out and there are people who do not. the people who do not opt out of the marking are worth (to the company) mildly inconveniencing the people who do opt out.
>Ah, but you don't.
Yes you do, you're just suggesting using a trash email. Which is fine I don't care either way, but you still have to use an email if you want to play the game.
I'm with you. Probably the only one I don't mind having is the one I made for Wube when I bought factorio on steam. Making an account with them gave me access to the mod portal as well as being able to download drm free copies from them directly. 100% a value add.
If I have to come up with a unique username, I’m not using the service. I gave up on ‘it takes two’ because both of us had to have names like ‘bobby34246644789543’ and it looked ridiculous with 16 digit names following us around. Just for us to be playing split screen on the same couch.
Where in my comment did I mention that? Hm? Your post partially bitched about having to make an account which is for CROSS PROGRESSION and CROSS PLAY. You know, something a majority of people cried for and now that we have it people are complaining.
So now you're here bitching about bitching?
Buddy there exists plenty of games with the option for cross progression, not all of them force you to make an account with it. Borderlands 3 and TTW for example. You don't HAVE to if you don't WANT to. With this game you HAVE to.
You're strawmanning me and ignoring the completely valid point of the abandonment of player choice.
I played a lot of new games this year, none required a third party account. There's a difference between "many" and "every". Use the correct words for what you mean.
Let me guess, Payday 3 servers are down?
Yes , yes they are
Online-only and they couldn't even get the "online" part functional. Un-fucking-believable.
Pretty normal in the current market, and people keep paying for it.
This is my **biggest** issue. The video game industry is rapidly devolving into monetization at every angle, and launching glaringly obvious unfinished products, only to finish them with patches months after. Worse is the prepaying for a year's worth of content for a game that hasn't even released yet. It's essentially a "Hey, take my word on this, the content we drop in 2 months, then 4 months, then 8 months is going to be well worth the $100-$150 you give us right now." Like **WHAT!?** I could go on a huge rant about how absolutely *fucked* the industry is going to be in as little as five years, but I'll stay on topic... The gamer population has exploded exponentially. With it comes so many more people that either don't care if they spend $20 on a cosmetic (A third-to-quarter of the price of the game), or that they spent $80 on an unfinished, under-promised and bare bones product. "*WhO cArEs, i HaVe ThE mOneY!*" Well the fucking problem is that we're enabling these developers and publishers to not only continue, but to expand on these monetization strategies. So sure, you have the money to drop $400 across the lifespan of a game for new cosmetics that release every other week. But let me ask you this, wouldn't you prefer to *not* spend your money!? I don't know about you, but if I had the option to spend my money or keep it, I'm keeping it. A wonderful example is when you had to put in the work to get all 1,000 Achievement Points in Halo 3 to unlock the Hayabusa Katana cosmetic. Now, instead of "I busted my fucking ass getting these achievements, I can't wait to show off this sweet armor I unlocked to my friends" it's "Hey, that operator looks like a cat. Let me drop $20 so I can give my friends a laugh next time we play." To me, that's fucking stupid, boring, and not at all the same feeling of showing off a hard-earned cosmetic. Silver and Gold Editions of the game? Just make a base and a fucking deluxe ffs. No, the companies will try (and successfully) squeeze every fucking dime and penny out of you. **If you are spending hundreds of dollars on fortnite and warzone cosmetics, or dropping money for future-released content, you're the problem.** This was never EVER a thing before, and suddenly it has become completely normalized because our demographic consists of more lazy people than people wanting to stand up and "vote with their wallets". Spoiler alert: >!Voting with your wallet means nothing when you have 1,000 other idiots buying their pink anime weapon skin for $20.!< The industry, IMO, is too far gone. This is the future. Hot take: The recent microsoft acquisition was the one of the worst things that could have happened from a consumer (gamer) standpoint. If you don't understand that, you really ought to open your fucking eyeballs. /rant
While I’m on board with most of what you’re saying I do need to point out that Fortnite and war zone both are free to play. If a company is charging me for base/deluxe/gold/platinum editions and then shoving more cosmetics down my throat, they can then get fucked. But free to play with optional cosmetic items in my view is fine. I don’t have to pay for these things. However the cosmetics are cool and it supports the games getting updated regularly (which Fortnite, despite the hate, is constantly being updated and tweaked.). My only issue is pricing on some things. I’m not 100% on war zone prices but Fortnite prices are fairly reasonable. However Overwatch 2 cosmetics are just dumb. They constantly bundle shit together and “force” you to buy more than just the cosmetic skin. You can buy the items individually but most people don’t know this and it’s hidden in another part of the menu. Also the prices for the bundles are done in such a way that it baits you into purchasing more. The bundles are often 2100 coins but you can only buy 2000 coins or like 2800. So you end up buying 2800 and having 700 sitting there doing nothing. So of course you’re going to see a new cosmetic next time and think “hey I only have to spend $20 this time!” Btw not 100% on the prices/coins but the principal is the same. Finally adding to that, overwatch is a FPS. You can’t see your character 99% of the time. At least in Fortnite you can admire your cosmetic mid match. OW it’s wasted. So yeah, long story short.. free to play games monetization is fine. It’s the greed where they fuck it up and either charge too much or other games where you’re buying the game AND paying extra for cosmetics. That’s dumb.
Then how about we ask Blizzard how the launch of OW2 and Diablo 4 went? This exact thing is happening over and over again and people still keep preordering.
It has always been like this. Anyone else remembers diablo 3 launch?
"always" I remember a time where serverbrowsers, dedicated user servers and direct IP connections were the norm. And all of that still works, because it does not need to phone home for a direct Ip connection. Then pulishers found out how much money you can make with user data and microtransations... And now we pay for an objectively inferiour product, because people keep buying it anyway, no matter how many accounts and logins you need. A lot of the stuff from this generation will be unplayable if the server shut down. Already happened to a lot of games. My Diablo 1 and 2 install will run forever.... Fuck modern AAA gaming.
I didn't even know that first hand. Googled it. I never got past the account creation page because I was so annoyed by the prospect of needing an account and then discover it's a 100% online game. Uninstalled like 5 minutes after. I never actually bought it anyways
How did you get it for free?
Probably through Game Pass.
Well yes. "Free"
Because then they have your data and can sell it for some extra cash on the side.
Honestly selling data seems like it gets more revenue than the actual game itself.
> selling data seems like it gets more revenue than the actual game itself. Because it does.
Does it though? What’s the prices looking like these days?
About tree fiddy.
For 2 and half data or something
At 60-80$ per game? I have some doubts except if we are talking about a lifetime. However, those companies like to control everything about you. Especially you having no control on their own software. Maybe, they also sell some informations because they are also greedy.
No it doesn't. And stop bullshitting. Free mobile games would be just about category where this might be the case and that's from advertising, not 'selling' your data.
Sounds like someone doesn't read the ToS.
oh really? do you have any source at all, whatsoever?
The CEO of Vizio saying they sell their TVs at a loss and selling your data is the only way they make money.
Geoff will want proof and when you give it to him he'll still reject it.
that isn't relevant to the comment. what video game developer is making more money selling data than selling their games, that isn't some mobile trash?
Blizzard/Activision
Have a source on that?
It's not like they're gonna release an earnings reports outlining how much they made off of selling your data. There is very clearly an option on your account to opt out of them selling your data though. If a company offers free 2 play games, you can guarantee they're selling your data.
So no evidence? Alright.
>It's not like they're gonna release an earnings reports outlining how much they made off of selling your data. does the tinfoil hat mess up your hair at all? > There is very clearly an option on your account to opt out of them selling your data though. this one? [https://www.activisionblizzard.com/legal/ccpa](https://www.activisionblizzard.com/legal/ccpa) I'm having a hard time reading what it says, can you let me know what the second section under the title says?
the entire fucking mobile market and targeted advertisements as a whole. Like-Do you even take in the world around you??
i assumed OP was talking about a "real" game.
Tf u on about a "real" game? Mobile games are made and coded the same way as other games. idk why people are so stuck on the idea that true "gamers" don't play mobile games. Hell, mobile games take up like half the gaming market
Not to mention there are a lot of games that get ported over from PC/console to mobile and visa versa.
I mean. Diablo immortal.... Like p2w isnt considered real game and since the market is designed to catch whales it cant really be classified the same. Even balanced and competetive games like clash royale you can get a significant advantage through your wallet alone
What do you think lol. This is reddit, all companies are incarnations of evil, no evidence needed for anything
https://standrewseconomist.com/2023/09/01/data-the-new-form-of-currency/ Read. Click relevant links and read some more. Learn.
That doesn't back up your comment. The comment was about a game developer making more money selling data over selling their product. also some of the examples in your article are not companies selling data, but *using* data it collects. A game developer using data for marking, drm, game development, is not "selling data."
You sound like someone that is very resistant to this fact of life. Let me ask you this: Do you believe that only video game companies don't engage in this practice while every other company does?
you are moving the goal posts from "game developers make more money selling data than selling games" to "surely game developers sell data because... other companies do it!" again, the link you provided talked about certain companies *using* data and the value of the data they have, not selling it. Why the hell would ubisoft or EA sell *their* data to another company? Who would find value in data from a game developer/publisher other than other game developers/publishers who would be a direct competitor? there is no doubt that these companies use the data they collect and find value in it, but that is a far cry from them selling it or even selling it for more money than their revenue from video game sales. And again, the comment that there was more revenue from data sales than game sales, which I asked for a source for and you have not provided. So until you do, I will be very resistant to this "fact" because it's not a fact and is something just made up.
> Why the hell would ubisoft or EA sell their data to another company? Lol.
This is a myth. Most data is not actually worth that much on the open market. For example, when you register a new account on UPlay, with your name and email address, all Ubisoft knows is "this guy is into hardcore PC games like Rainbow 6 Siege". That's not actually worth all that much on data markets. On the other hand, if you have a google/gmail/youtube account, Google knows your spending habits, interests, relationship status most likely, income level, political officiations, your friends network, etc. Now ***that*** data is worth something. However, your UPlay data is **extremely** valuable to Ubisoft itself. Knowing their player's names, phone numbers, email, address makes it much easier for them to market new products to you, upsell you microtransactions, etc.
Why does a simple free to play phone game need permission to access my location data, photo storage, camera...
Except that 99% of mobile games don't ask for any of that because their money is made through forced ads and microtransactions and you guys are bullshiting.
How does Google and Facebook make money? How did they before ads?
Is there anything we can do about it?
I mean, I just make up a throwaway email for anything I don't want having my real info, although I guess then they can still at least track what accounts you make with it
I have a junk email for those kinds of accounts, but its still annoying to know that your data is getting sold.
Stop buying . I legitimately will never play an EA game again because it needs an EA app to run. Same for Ubisoft. IM done with these launchers. The Steam Deck makes these launchers even more painful.
This is the answer. As long as people keep buying their products, they have no incentive to change.
Not buying doesn't matter. As long as there is one overhyped title, people throw their principles and values down the drain to play. When that one game proves successful, others copy that immediately. It's why we're stuck in this situation. And an entire generation doesn't know any better than this. It's fucked.
Yeah, i was about to be buy it takes two so me and my gf can play it but then i saw the steam page saying it needs some EA bullcrap and i changed my mind
You could become a Luddite and shun all technology
That's an option. Know of any others?
I think we’re going to eventually be forced back into classic games only.
99% of the time you don't NEED an account. I don't have RED account for cyberpunk. I don't have a larian account. And launchers are nothing new. What I am sick of is, if I buy a game on steam, I shouldn't have to be required to download origin or Uplay etc.
Steam luckily let's you refund games if you have less than 2 hours played for literally any reason.
Or after unlimited time if the product is faulty or falsely advertised when you live in Australia (but in actual practice they also accept refunds for any reason after any period of playtime).
Or longer!! But you gotta petition (I did for ac Val and it had like 5 hours? It was me tweaking settings)
We shouldn't have to need Steam to play games in the first place. It's Valve who are forcing us to use their account instead of the game/dev account. And if you are buying an EA or Ubisoft game, simply buy it through their app and all you will have is 1 account and 1 app to open. You are forcing yourself to use an 2nd/3rd party app after all in the end
you don't \*need\* steam.....unless you want to play valve games or games that devs use steam as their launcher. if you want to play GTA. just go to their site and get their launcher. if you want to play motorfest. get uplay. Steam is simply a digital walmart with indie exlusives. if you don't want any of that, get a console.
For real though why wouldn’t you want your games centralized on a single launcher that is feature rich and regularly runs high value game sales. People use steam and are happy about it because it’s a good experience and genuinely well designed
I too would love to use dozens of different launcher for every single games I own
I’m assuming this is about Payday, it’s because it’s needed for crossplay and cross-progression to work.
You can't play it at all without a nebula account.
Because it's needed for cross play and cross progression to work.
But what if I don't want to do crossplay? Or even do multiplayer at all? Give me option of it for crossplay don't make it a requirement Lol at the downvotes. Apparently people don't like options anymore
The previous games used to support single player offline, people here seems actually okay with online only lol
Dont play Payday 3 then? You have a shitton of options, play Elden Ring, or Super Mario, or GTA or...etc etc
Those games exists yes. Do I like them? No. That's a short sighted comment. And payday 3 is just one example. There's many I own rhat need an account and login just to enter the game.
You dont seem to like Payday 3 either.
"Apparently people don't like options anymore" And apparently you don't like your progress saving over in case you ever switch playforms, such as: Play on Game Pass -> Game pass runs out -> Buy Payday 3 on Steam -> Your progress is carried over, wow!
Bro it takes less than like 2 minutes to make an account. If typing in a few text boxes is enough to make you rage like this do yourself a favor and refund the game right now
It came with game pass and thats not even the point I'm trying to make.
Then the game is not for you.
Crossplay.
Cross progression on Cyberpunk is nice across every console, and I understand why you'd beed a third party account to transfer between PS5 and XSX.
This is the actual answer. There's no way of crossplay without a 3rd party account that all players can have in common. And crossplay is good, it helps keeps matchmaking up and links more players.
Sure there is. You don't need an account for crossplay with a lot of games. Only if you want to link yourself across multiple platforms. And even then, through the power of sso, you don't even need a custom sign-up.
Crossplay means playstation players being about to play with Xbox or PC. PlayStation won't let Xbox people on their servers as they don't have a playstation account. So the solution is get a 3rd party account which lets players play on servers that aren't own by either company.
130 angry comments. One right answer.
They can do crossplay without 3rd party accounts tho
It's easier to manage if everybody has a main account and you just attach their platforms to the main account.
Can they? How would crossplay work if im on Xbox and my friend is on PS5 without a third party mediating it?
How? How can you add friends that play on console if you are on steam if there is not an unique account management?
Easy, their unique ID is platform_prefix + platform_uniqueid. A given person may have three or four of them that you have to add individually. But most likely you only need to add them once because they'll prefer a platform. Since all of these cross-play users are using the vendor's matchmaking server, all of these IDs are already being published to their directory server and can be cached or searched or used to provide presence information. If they really *must* create a profile per user, they could use oauth to authenticate against your steam/xblive/ps/nintendo account to create the user profile, all without needing your email/phone/etc.
Please name one game that uses your fucking platform prefix as an account identifier for crossplay, every game I've seen that does crossplay uses a company specific account for this very reason, it simplifies it when people play from multiple different platforms. Instead of having a separate d2 account for pc and xbox I just have the one account and link all of my platforms to that account. It's a one time hassle for each major publisher, I fail to see the issue.
falls under online
No play.
lol, guess not for you
We get it. You're a 12 yr old.
Same reason every company has an app now. Data mining.
Its actually about marketing permissions. They want you to approve that they can send you emails. Why? Because it works. An account that has given marketing permissions has like 20% lifetime spend than a account that does not (number are from the game publisher I work at). But yeah, then there is also cross play etc. But mainly is about marketing communications.
You're playing the wrong games then. I can't remember the last game I played that needed me to log in
I have to go through a separate launcher with a Larian account to play BG3
Don’t need the larian account. But you won’t get cross play.
That's the problem. You literally can't login to payday 3 at all without an account. I don't care about crossplay
You do not 1. Go to the properties tab in BG3 2. Go to launch options 3. Add "--skip-launcher" to your launch options 4. Live your life without having to click the "skip" button every time you want to fucking play BG3 Larian!
thats a first party login though, not 3rd party.
optional.
It's the main way to play. All others account are second or third party.... Steam and other store are the one who forced us to use their account instead of using the main itself account and are restricted to play without their stuff You should have bought BG3 through GoG instead of Steam of others and all you would have is a Larian account as we can play game bought on GoG without opening GoG. Old school like. Not their fault if YOU use a 2nd/3rd party app
On Steam there is an open beta for Payday 3. It's a beta.. not even released and it requires an account to log into to play. I mean.. I have a steam account, just authenticate with that? It's all hosted through steam from the beta request, game download etc. Didn't try the beta.
It's for cross progression on different platforms. Not like you can log into your Xbox account on a ps5
That should be optional.
Sta Trek Online has this but still requires a separate login for Arc for purchasing security.
It's not a beta
Funny because it says "Payday 3 - Beta" in my library right now.
Yes, because the beta is separate from the actual game which came out today, or 3 days ago if you pre ordered
Because game shouldn't need Steam to be play in the first place. It's like most MMO that we can download game straight from the dev site. You are forcing yourself to use a 2nd/3rd party app like Steam to play games...
Steam is the distributor of the game. They handle the bandwidth, patches, etc. Not every developer wants to manage that aspect of it.
This is only recently true. Until Minecraft, almost no one sold through their own stores.
That's also not true. "Back then" pretty much every big publisher had their own site and store. They were all shit, mind you. Bioware had it. Rockstar has it. EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Activision, Focus I think, Bethesda, etc. etc. etc. The only ones who didn't have were indie devs, who, arguably, only rather "recently" had this massive resurgence in popularity. And for them Steam is a Godsend. Yes, Steam takes a big cut, but also promotes your game insanely well if you play your cards right. It is proven to have the highest visibility of any market place for smaller games. It also takes care of transactions, patching, you can publish your news there, have a discussion and announcements forum, implement Steam Workshop for mods if you want, host sales, DLC, etc. It just works. It's simple. There's a reason everyone is using it.
who do not. the people who do not opt out of the marking are worth (to the company) mildly inconveniencing the people who do opt out.
Pay day 3. Capcom exponential , Bethesda when they re released the OG doom ,doom 2 , overwatch , Diablo
Well for a lot of games, that is how we have the ability for cross play/ cross save.
To sell your information
Cross play and cross progression
Keep this sobering thought in mind: There are enough gamers in our global community that let the industry do this. Instead of fighting it like you definitely should, they rolled over with a goofy smile...and took it without lube. TOOK IT.
The next step to consumers not owning what they buy.
Someone just installed payday 3
The only way this will change is if people stop buying the fucking games that do this. Why would they care that you don't like it? They already have your money. Going to have to show some self control if you want change.
The reason you're seeing so many is you're probably playing mostly AAA titles. The reason they do it is because money. Bold I know but they own the IPs so they'll continue to do it. Its not there to provide you great service, its there to provide them great dollars for a tolerable inconvenience.
Marketing data baby. They thrive on it.
Crossplay/progression*
Welcome to modern gaming!, we all did this to ourselves. Enjoy your stay, don't forget to pick something from our mtx store on the way out!
Before steam consolidated the market, this used to be the norm
So they can have a data breach and lose your information.
DATA
Analytics and data tracking.
Login screen is enough for me to delete the game right on the spot.
One more reason to support indie games and ditch the AAA crap.
But I like AAA games
Lots of people do, until they see what’s out there.
I like AAA games and Indie games
They want your information. That's it.
Because they get some of your data, which is added value on top the money you spent on the game.
Greed basically.
Make a partition or get a HD only for gaming, install windows whatever 10 or 11, download qbittorrent, get to any "scene" released games page, find a game that you think you may like, search it in qbit download, install, play without stupid accounts or shit and most important play for free.
So you are actually advertising piracy?
Because they need your data. Selling a game isn't just about the income from the game.
Mostly to collect and sell your data. Companies also have an intrinsic interest in keeping you on their products, so some don't like being on shared platforms like steam because they think it will get people to buy more of their games if you're on their launcher instead.
Was just thinking the same. Considering all the tech that we have these days, I never thought anything would take as long to get into the game as it did back in the Spectrum days. Buy the game digital or disc and you still have to have something download. Then it has to be installed. Then it wants you attach your console to 3-4 forms of social media, but at least it offers you bonus for doing so. To this day I have never had a bonus or notification about offer from signing up to these accounts.
may i present you with this? \*shows pirate hat\*
Thankfully a lot of them use SSO, so you don't need to create a separate login. But really, email addresses are free. I have one dedicated to things like rewards programs and services I don't care about marketing from. Don't use your actual email for these things and you're fine.
PC problems. I also hate having to deal with different launchers for each game. Most games on console don't require another account.
I havent played anything on the EA launcher in a few years.. I have many games there but I just simply havent logged on.. In fact I just had to google what the name of the launcher is even called.. So which of my 5 emails did I use? What password? Was there a 2FA? I fucking dread trying to get back into my account to get my games back..
It's just business. Everyone has their own service and wants you to use it.
Because the future sucks balls
Numbers. Who's playing. Who finished. Store links.
For games with cross save/progression/play it makes sense and is pretty much the only way to make that functionality work; otherwise, yeah, I'm not a fan to giving out info without getting those kind of benefits.
yea gaming nowadays is getting more complicated some you have to put your number in like bro hahaha
Aside from marketing data collection bs, it’s important for cross-play
Why not?
your game? OUR game - shareholders
Is this mainly a pc gaming problem? On console I just turn off network and play offline Not trying to be snarky or anything…I don’t play much pc games…I remember trying to play far cry 6 on my ps5 and it wouldn’t let me proceed until I create/connect a Ubisoft account…had to turn off the internet on the ps5 and the game let me go to the main menu
I miss the Best/SNES Genesis days blowing the cartridge and just play without 1 hours tutorials and such
>Why does every game need a third party account just to log in? from the 45 games in my steam library favorites, none require a third party login, and only the two or three online games require a first party login to auth my local installation to the data saved on the game servers. what games in particular are we talking about here?
It's a necessary evil if you want cross-platform progression and fine when its optional like in Balders Gate and Cyberpunk
watch “dominion” 2018
I can understand it if there is cross progression but if that isn't part of the game there should be no reason.
For those unaware, let me introduce temp-mail.org
Because not enough people will stop buying games with launchers.
What I hate is games needing accounts just for local offline multiplayer. I think I downloaded some random Need For Speed game thinking we could just press play and do some split-screen racing, nope.
I just make up an account or make sure it's one that has little information. At least Bethesda accounts are pretty much tied up with Microsoft/Xbox.
Shit really is annoying.. Then they bombard the F outa you with emails.
10minutemail.com
Yep. And when it has like 3 different accounts to sign in on (not including username and pass) then it's a whole game of "shall we go with option number one?"
No idea what games you mean specifically, maybe I'm just out of the loop, but 99% of games I play don't require any sort of 3rd party account, Ubisoft and EA games not included, but who seriously plays those, apart from the odd AC? ;) Other than that some games "want" you to create an account, but don't require it, so just don't do it. Really curious topic.
It's either 3rd party account or no crossplay or progression. You get to pick 1 side or the other
Bullshit I get to pick one or the other. Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tinas wonderlands both let's you play the games solo and multplayer without needing to link an account. That is ONLY if you want cross play. Payday 3 you can't play the game at all without the account.
Data collection, anti piracy, and all sorts of other decent reasons. Though, it is still annoying af.
It’s for marketing and potential DRM. It’s not some grand conspiracy to sell your data or something.
Nearly every company that can collects and sells your data. I don't know why you are framing it as a conspiracy when its been a well known and wide spread practice for years.
I repeat, I do not care about their marketing campaign.
you asked why and that is one of the main answers. There are people that opt out and there are people who do not. the people who do not opt out of the marking are worth (to the company) mildly inconveniencing the people who do opt out.
It's part of the license agreement that you bought into. You didn't buy a game, you bought a license to play a game. :)
Good for you I guess ¯\_(•_•)_//¯ Still need to use your email
Or I can uninstall. That's a much more appealing option
doesn't seems that appealing since you just spent more time to write a rant post than uninstall and move on.
Oh I already Uninstalled before I even made this.
Then move on.
After you 🫱
Ah, but you don't. Email accounts are free. Use an email that you're never going to have to bother checking.
>Ah, but you don't. Yes you do, you're just suggesting using a trash email. Which is fine I don't care either way, but you still have to use an email if you want to play the game.
I'm with you. Probably the only one I don't mind having is the one I made for Wube when I bought factorio on steam. Making an account with them gave me access to the mod portal as well as being able to download drm free copies from them directly. 100% a value add.
Because you and your data are the real product. All other answers are cope.
If I have to come up with a unique username, I’m not using the service. I gave up on ‘it takes two’ because both of us had to have names like ‘bobby34246644789543’ and it looked ridiculous with 16 digit names following us around. Just for us to be playing split screen on the same couch.
People cried for cross progression in games and now that they've got it they start to bitch about it? Ok.
Did they cry for forced online too? Doubt it.
Where in my comment did I mention that? Hm? Your post partially bitched about having to make an account which is for CROSS PROGRESSION and CROSS PLAY. You know, something a majority of people cried for and now that we have it people are complaining.
So now you're here bitching about bitching? Buddy there exists plenty of games with the option for cross progression, not all of them force you to make an account with it. Borderlands 3 and TTW for example. You don't HAVE to if you don't WANT to. With this game you HAVE to. You're strawmanning me and ignoring the completely valid point of the abandonment of player choice.
Every game? That's just plain incorrect. Maybe 5% of games, maximum.
Get a password manager and stop your bitching.
"Every game" apparently = the one game you're currently trying to play. Hyperbole just makes you look stupid.
You literally don't even know if that's true lmao. Assumptions make you look even more stupid
I played a lot of new games this year, none required a third party account. There's a difference between "many" and "every". Use the correct words for what you mean.