Are All Gamers Actually Marxists?

The crisis at the heart of triple-A games publishing is emblematic of the crisis facing capitalism.

There is a crisis happening every day; it just depends how many people notice it. One of these crises is the state of the triple-A games industry (typically high-budget and highly marketed games) and its trend towards microtransactions such as loot boxes (in-game purchases for uncertain in-game items) and DLC (DownLoadable Content, not included in the standard game but purchased after-the-fact).

Microtransactions have been heavily criticised, with individuals such as videogame reviewer Jim Sterling calling them predatory gambling mechanics, the UK government holding hearings on the subject, and several governments threatening bans. Whether predatory or not, they are certainly profitable, with Rockstar games — publisher of the highly successful Grand Theft Auto series — announcing last year that they planned to include microtransaction mechanics into all their future releases.

In fact, almost all major videogame publishers have recently released games oriented around microtransactions, with Bethesda game director Todd Howard arguing post-release content (DLC) justified the release of Fallout 76, a game almost universally criticised for being unfinished.