The patience economy undercuts microtransactions as Sega flags risks
The gaming audience prices patience as the publishers defend microtransactions and expand franchises.
Today's r/gaming reads like a ledger for a maturing hobby: redemption arcs are now revenue strategies, franchises are stretching their identities to the breaking point, and players are weaponizing patience against cash shops. The day's threads expose a simple truth the industry keeps dodging—gamers aren't just customers, they're gatekeepers who remember.
The Redemption Dividend Has Become the Business Model
The community's victory lap over CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 sales milestone is deserved, but revealing: we celebrate the fix as much as the original sin. That energy spills directly into the crowdsourced canon of turnarounds in a thread asking for games that launched atrociously but eventually got good, effectively normalizing the idea that shipping broken but promising can be a viable path to glory.
"What a redemption arc...."- u/DuckCleaning (699 points)
That same expectation raises the bar elsewhere: the argument that GTA's once-special mechanics aren't impressive anymore frames the long wait for GTA6 less as perfectionism and more as survival. In an era where redemption sells, baseline excellence stops being enough; studios are chasing post-launch legend, not launch-day competence.
Franchise Identity Whiplash
Even fun games stumble when the brand voice goes off-key, as seen in the critique of Star Wars Outlaws' jarring tone: a wisecracking lead in a world of lethal stakes triggers the uncanny valley of modern IP writing.
"Ah, the MCU flavor of dialogue...."- u/joestaff (5206 points)
Brand sprawl doesn't help. Ubisoft's month of extremes—fans praising Mirage's free expansion while panning Shadows' Attack on Titan crossover—reads like a franchise playing marketing Mad Libs. It mirrors the crowd's appetite for naming misfires that insult clarity and amplifies the lore anxiety powering posts like the demand to see an ESO icon in Elder Scrolls 6. When the brand bible starts feeling like a mix-and-match catalogue, players call it out.
The Patience Economy Makes Better Sense Than the Cash Shop
Publishers keep insisting the cash register funds the craft, most recently with Ubisoft's defense that microtransactions pay for Assassin's Creed updates. But the audience has already built a counter-model: wait, don't buy, and force a better deal. Sega openly admits its habit of “definitive editions” is deterring launch purchases, meaning players have learned the exact timing of value. The nostalgic reminder that childhood happiness once came as a free CD-ROM in a cereal box isn't wistfulness—it's a benchmark.
"Yes, that's why BG 3 managed to release so many updates. Because of all of the micro transactions… wait a minute...."- u/International-Fun-86 (1572 points)
Players are voting with time, not just wallets: hold out for complete editions, reward substantive expansions, and starve crossover fluff. The industry can keep pitching the shop window, but the community has priced patience—and it's cheaper, cleaner, and increasingly effective.
Journalistic duty means questioning all popular consensus. - Alex Prescott