It was fine, arguably a good practice, when physical non-patchable games existed. Especially, say, Pokemon games that would otherwise be sold out for several months, meaning the social aspect was ruined if you didn’t get it as it came out.
I personally don’t think it was ever fine, not when there is a giant publisher standing & profiting behind it.
For smol independent studios or even one-man-dev teams (as a high risk “investment”/support) I would understand.
I want to finance devs & artists as much as possible, not lowering financing costs of a giant company (and give them even more monetization opportunities).
Im not familiar with the Pokemon thing you mentioned but that seems like an artificial scarcity. Physical copies could always be stamped overnight (vidya game magazines did it for decades).
(Or ever?)
It was fine, arguably a good practice, when physical non-patchable games existed. Especially, say, Pokemon games that would otherwise be sold out for several months, meaning the social aspect was ruined if you didn’t get it as it came out.
I personally don’t think it was ever fine, not when there is a giant publisher standing & profiting behind it.
For smol independent studios or even one-man-dev teams (as a high risk “investment”/support) I would understand.
I want to finance devs & artists as much as possible, not lowering financing costs of a giant company (and give them even more monetization opportunities).
Im not familiar with the Pokemon thing you mentioned but that seems like an artificial scarcity. Physical copies could always be stamped overnight (vidya game magazines did it for decades).