I’m back to talk once again about Xbox and what the fuck is going on in the industry. Xbox has big main villain vibes, but it’s not just them. It’s not even mainly them. They are just the most obvious symptom of an evergreen disease–corporate greed. That’s the disease. It’s always the disease. It probably always will be. That’s part and parcel of America; it’s built into the fabric of American society. We just take for granted that we are at the whim of our corporate overlords, and there is nothing to be done about it. Oh, and here is the post from yesterday in which I talked about how deluded (and heartless) the C-suite at Microsoft is when talking about Xbox profits.
I read a work blog, and any time the conditions of the American workforce is brought up (especially the fact that our healthcare is tied into our employment), Europeans pour in to tell us how appalling it is and how they can’t believe it. I mean, true, but we don’t need to hear/read it every time. We know it’s gross and terrible, but it’s not as if we can just move countries on a whim. Or overhaul our entire employment system with a snap of the fingers.
Journalism is dying out in general. Gaming journalism, in particular, is on its way out, too. And life as a gaming dev is hard AF. I don’t see how in good conscious I could encourage anyone to go into the gaming industry today*. Then again, it’s not like there are a ton of industries I would encourage anyone to go into, anway. But, especially not anything entertainment and/or journalism related.
Things are dire in this realm. People in the industry are feeling pretty bleak. There are some saying that it’s going to get lower before it goes higher. Others are not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Every day, it’s just bad news after bad news.
Which, come to think of it, is much like the regular news as well. *Sigh*
One thing I will say is that the physical discs issue–by the way. They didn’t even tell their partners that they were doing that until they dropped the news to the public. And, yeah. That did not go over well. Sony really thought they were just going to drop that and let it wash away. (I use Sony and PlayStation pretty interchangeably in this post for complex reasons I don’t want to get into here.)
To be honest, so did I. I mean, what was there to do? PlayStation in the past pretty much just did whatever the fuck they wanted to do with little to no pushback. Given that Xbox has floundered for several years, essentially giving PlayStation free rein. I wrote free reign at first, which works, too (meaning that PlayStation is acting pretty much as a dictator). And, really. They slid it in while the Xbox turmoil was going on, so they probably thought they would be able to go unnoticed.
Well, joke’s on them. There was such an uproar about it; I was quite surprised. It was loud. It was angry. It was sustained. I thought it would wash away in a day or two, but no. People were furious about it, and, weirdly, it’s the one thing that actually bolstered me. The reaction, I mean. I had been so beaten down by the news (gaming and general), I was numb. Everything sucked. Nothing was going to get better. Why bother?
I’ll be real with you. When I first heard the news about the physical dics going away, I internally shrugged and thought, “That’s too bad. Oh well.”
Look. With the bad news flying around left and right, I can be excused for not reacting much to this tidbit. As I’ve said, I’m a PC player, which means I don’t use discs. Ever. I don’t have any kind of disc player, and while I’ve thought of buying one, there’s really no reason for me to have one. If by chance I ever want to watch a movie, I can stream it. Same with a TV show or music.
I can’t remember the last time I used a disc to play a game. Oh, wait. Yes, I can. When I was platting Blood–no, that’s not right. I was going to say when I platted Bloodborne (FromSoft), butb that’s not true. I only got the digital copy. I think?
So, physical discs were never at the forefront of my mind. I just did a quick Google, and physical copies of games account for approximately 15% to 22% of all sales of games. I saw a few forum posts about how it’s way up for PlayStation first party games, which makes the recent announcement even more bitterly ironic.
I am all for fighting the powers that be. Hell, I’m an anarchist at heart–even if it’s papered over with a veneer of pragmatism and civility. I question authority every opportunity I get, to the point of irritation.
I included above a video by IGN talking about the whole situation. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I trust them to have something insightful to say about it.
Have we reached a tipping point? I have no idea. I mean, everything has been going to shit for many years, and I’m not hopeful that it’s going to change any time soon. With prices soaring, wars being waged, and civil rights being destroyed, it’s hard to have any hope for humanity.
And, no. I’m not keeping politics out of gaming because gaming is part of the world we live in. The problems in gaming are problems we have in the real world. Well, to a certain extent. I’m grossly simplifying things for this post, but the basic gist is right. The decisions this administration is making that has wreaked havoc on the world in general has trickled down to affect the gaming industry as well.
It feels like a real ‘eat the rich’ moment. I mean, we’ve been in that moment for decades, but it wsa low level in the past. What I mean by that is that our country was founded on principles that we never lived up to. Hell, I don’t know if we ever really believed in them, but we at least gave lip service to equality, freedom, and justice for all.
Now, there’s not even a thin veneer of promoting any of that shit. It’s fear, distrust, and disgust being sown across the country.
I’m done for tonight. More tomorrow.
*Let’s not even talk about the sexism. Ugh. Let’s really not talk about that.