Mr Perkin’s?
I’m pretty sure the poor kid was being manipulated, by this:
Wait, so companies are now doing things to deliberately encourage me to pay them money? How dare they! This is obviously unprecedented in the history of commerce!
If EA overcharges for their games, then I’m just not going to buy any EA games. At which point it doesn’t affect me at all, and I have no reason to be mad at them. And if I do decide to buy EA games, then clearly I must think their prices are worth it, and still won’t be mad.
You’re leaving out the more likely scenario. Yes, paying for this game seems like it’s worth it. But then I actually get the game and have to put up with bad stuff. Or have to pay extra to get this feature that would make the game better.
It’s not like you know how the experience works before you buy the game. You can do your best to try and figure it out by reading or watching reviews or demonstrations, but until you actually play it, there’s no way to know.
And it’s not like people aren’t vulnerable to psychological tricks that get them to spend more money than they actually think the game is worth. Few people are robots who calculate exactly how much they want to spend and doesn’t feel tempted to spend more.
People aren’t perfectly rational, and they don’t have all the information they need to make the choices they make.
We have an Xbox for my sons to play.
My sons do not have access to a payment method. Xbox does not either.
They are able to earn Xbox Live and Xbox Gift Cards, which are available at grocery stores and Amazon for substantial rewards and/or discounts. They may also receive these as stocking stuffers/holiday presents.