Saturday Soapbox: Voting with your wallets isn't the whole answer to abusive micro-tr

[Administrator]

Do you read Cliff Bleszinski's blog? You should! It's really smart and interesting, which isn't much of a surprise from a guy who spent 20 years making games like Unreal and Gears of War - deceptively brainy action titles full of bright and influential ideas. (I still can't believe no one's ripped off Active Reload.)
This week Bleszinski weighed into the debate around the perceived misuse of micro-transactions by companies like Electronic Arts. He argued that we shouldn't be surprised game publishers are trying to make money first and foremost, and that the main difference between corporations like EA and Valve is that Valve is "way better at their image control".
The cost of making games is higher than ever, he noted, and shareholders need to be satisfied, while many of the things gamers intensely dislike about the application of micro-transactions aren't aimed at us anyway. They're for - if I'm reading between the lines of his comment on Madden and GTA consumers correctly - dipshits.
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