Government really needs to step on subscription-based everything

This shit is getting way out of hand. Give it a couple of years and you won't be able to buy a Honda Civic without having to pay an extra $5 per month to be able to unlock the fucking doors.

I blame Xbox Live.

Stay away from my GameFAQs platinum.

It's the reason why I don't support the Game Pass model. It leads to a lot of disadvantages in the long run.

I only have PS Essential for the cloud save feature and online gaming, not because of the free games. I prefer to buy the games I want and I'm willing to pay a fair price for those.

It's a matter of principle for me.

I knew this shit was going to get out of hand back in the 2000s. I had my PS3 which had the free service. Xbox was the only one charging at the time and I knew that from an obvious business perspective, Sony was going to see this free service as missed-out revenue (Nintendo too) .... then with DLC coming out at the same time, I quickly picked up on how things were just going to be penny pinched everywhere in the video game space (and others) so I quickly backed out of that space.... back in 2012.

It's 2024, I have never bought a new system since. I don't have any subscription services anywhere. I wish others would back out of this too and not support these practices but hey. People want it. I don't.

pinky0926 posted...

This shit is getting way out of hand. Give it a couple of years and you won't be able to buy a Honda Civic without having to pay an extra $5 per month to be able to unlock the fucking doors.

Fully agree. Corporations are blatantly just extracting as much wealth from their consumers as possible, and it's going completely unchecked. Having the features in the vehicle and having to pay extra to use them is wacky nonsense, especially when you're already paying $30k+ for a new car and the hardware is a part of that cost.

I've also heard of some manufacturers tossing around the idea of limiting engine power and putting the full power unlock behind a subscription model or additional cost, which is outrageous.

And while we're at it, for all the safety regulations in place around vehicles, I really don't understand how these tablet dashboards are considered acceptable. It requires you to shift attention from the road. It's almost as dangerous as using a phone while driving, which should be illegal and heavily penalized in all states.

There's just so much bullshit going on with cars right now and you can tell officials are bought and paid for because they're turning a blind eye to everything.

My favorite are shitty news sites that ask you to pay a monthly fee to view an article.

For real though, who's paying for this when you can find the same article for free on another site?

LinkDaLunatic posted...

I've also heard of some manufacturers tossing around the idea of limiting engine power and putting the full power unlock behind a subscription model or additional cost, which is outrageous.

The endgame is likely to be the manufacture of a single power unit, and then charging different tariffs for different power levels.

And while we're at it, for all the safety regulations in place around vehicles, I really don't understand how these tablet dashboards are considered acceptable. It requires you to shift attention from the road. It's almost as dangerous as using a phone while driving, which should be illegal and heavily penalized in all states.

To be honest, I never had an issue with tablet dashboards. The ones I've had, you can do pretty much everything via the steering wheel or voice control.

we got youtubers starting streaming services now i unsub every time fuck that

When Adobe won in court decades (seriously, it had to still be 00s, if not the 90s) ago that we don't own the software we bought on a disc and only "licensed" it, the subscription battle was lost.

DnDer posted...

When Adobe won in court decades (seriously, it had to still be 00s, if not the 90s) ago that we don't pwn the software we bought on a disc and only "licensed" it, the subscription battle was lost.

dude, I pwn all my software it knows who the fucking boss is

Alteres posted...

dude, I pwn all my software it knows who the fucking boss is

A typo almost as old as Adobe's court case... sigh... I fixed it.

Alteres posted...

dude, I pwn all my software it knows who the fucking boss is

fucken 1337 dude

Companies don't want to provide a working long term product anymore. What they want is essentially a license to print money by charging rent. If they can reduce or eliminate the product and if they can charge you over and over for the same thing that used to be a one time purchase, that's better. If things can be made to constantly break down or be stripped down to the bare minimum so you have to purchase back basics, that's great too.

They realize that the people who have the real money mostly haven't gotten it by doing work. Actually competing in the marketplace by producing good products and services is messy, expensive, and uncertain. The truly wealthy got there a much easier way. They got it through owning things and owning rights that create money by existing. Land, royalties, stocks, etc. That's always how things were going to end up.