u/deezzbutzz

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

There was a point where you bought a game and it was finished. Complete. The studio had put everything they had into that disc and shipped it. No season pass. No live service roadmap. No battle pass dropping 3 weeks after launch. The game was the product.

Now the game is the entry point to the product. The real product is your recurring attention and your wallet staying open indefinitely.

I'm not even mad at the business model. I want to understand the exact moment the shift happened. Was it the Xbox Live era? Was it mobile bleeding into console? Was it when publishers realized FIFA Ultimate Team was printing money and every studio in their portfolio got a memo?

Because something genuinely changed. Not just in how games are sold. In how they feel. There's a texture to a game made by people trying to make something versus a game made by people trying to retain you. You can feel the difference even when you can't articulate it.

What was the last game you played that felt finished on day one? And when do you think the shift actually happened?