Episode Details

A former Epic Games employee went on X and argued that players, media, and influencers helped create the current crisis in the video game industry by rejecting DLC, microtransactions, loot boxes, higher prices, and other monetization models.

Some of the cost structure argument is fair. Games are too expensive to make, studios overhired, and the business model clearly needs a reset. But blaming players for not accepting predatory monetization, bad live service games, and $70 or $80 price hikes is where this completely falls apart.

In this video, I walk through his argument, where I think he has a point, and why I vehemently disagree with most of it. The industry’s leadership decisions are not the fault of the people buying the games. Period