this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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PC Master Race

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[–] bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip 95 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 46 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They really are trying alienate their users.

[–] ulkesh@piefed.social 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They never cared about their users -- only their investors.

[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Are their investors morons?

[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Money now! Future prospects? No care, money now!

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[–] Rothe@piefed.social 23 points 1 month ago

Well, I am glad it is Microslop patenting this. That means it will only ever be used in a handful of games noone evert plays before xbox goes completely belly up.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Every day we veer closer to that Black Mirror episode.

[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 month ago (9 children)

"Which black mirror episode?"

"Yes."

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[–] crapwittyname@feddit.uk 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've lost hearing young due to a health condition. The sales model for hearing aids is depressingly close to the Black Mirror episode with Rashida Jones.
The hearing aid costs 15 per month on "basic", rising through eight different tiers, to "platinum plus" at 120 per month. The hardware doesn't change, only the software. So if you want to be able to hear nature sounds, that's an extra 10 per month. An extra 20 to hear conversations in the car. It's 50 if you want to be able to go to a concert, and so on.
The hearing aid itself is capable of doing all of that, all the time, but the functionality is just switched off.
The term is 4 years and then it becomes obsolete and receives no further updates; you have to get a new one.
This is in the UK.

[–] GeirGrusom@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What the fuck. Is this real?

[–] crapwittyname@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It is. They tend to hide this until the hard sell, but here's a little bit of info that I could find: https://www.bootshearingcare.com/hearing-aids/hearing-aid-prices/

There's more info that's only revealed after your second hearing test, when they put the "platinum plus" software driven device on your ears, then reveal the pricing in a handily confusing leaflet. It's similar at Specsavers where I went after, thinking "is this real? Surely they're not all like this"

[–] freshcow@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Capitalism strikes again. In a just society, the people who devise these extractive schemes would be in prison.

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[–] spacegoat@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

There’s enough old good games to last me the rest of my life without giving any money to these evil companies

[–] SoupBrick@pawb.social 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

"It makes games more accessible for everyone! If a player does not want to experience ads, then they can purchase the game at full price!"

They are tired of people not buying their shitty games, so they want a way to at least make a bit of money before the servers go down.

Or they just want to make more money off of everyone.

[–] yaroto98@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And then after a while, the rug will be pulled and paid tiers will have ads too.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No, no... Paid tiers will get relevant and targeted ads, to make the experience more immersive and personal! And if people don't want it, they can opt out with a small additional fee! This will enable us to provide a better experience for everyone!

Who doesn't want a better experience?

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 8 points 1 month ago

Optting out will just result in generic, untargeted ads, doesn't everyone want ads targeted to them specifically?! Don't we all just love ads?!? Everyone loves ads right? Especially when they are tailored specifically to you right?! So personal, what else could anyone want from anything?

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[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

killstreak reward: force entire enemy team to watch an ad break immediately in the middle of the match

[–] EfreetSK@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Stop giving them ideas!

[–] rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure there's a black mirror episode on this.

"Open your eyes!"

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Goforce5@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

We grow ever closer

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

yep, the second episode, Fifteen Million Merits, where the MC is forced to watch aggressive sexual ads or pay to skip in order to just exist in his room in peace

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago
[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago

Let's make version of Proton to block all that when playing the games on Linux. It's gonna be hilarious.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 11 points 1 month ago
[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

They patented so we can't get games with mechanics like this for two decades, right? They did this to protect us, right? Right? ...

[–] richardisaguy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Yeah, do patent this microsoft, good thing only your crappy games will have this

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 10 points 1 month ago

probably going to be AI-GENERATED ads too.

[–] Master167@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Things like this tell me Microsoft doesn't care any more about what brought them to make Xbox. Only how they can get as much money out of existing users.

Reminds me of this video about Mature markets. https://youtu.be/_HJXSt7ofOU

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Or, instead of ad-free playtime credits, don't inject ads in the first place.

[–] jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah, yes, of course; let's screw with the player's flow by taking them completely out of the game, just so they can continue playing the game!

How could this possibly go wrong?

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[–] oyzmo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Download your pirated copies now! I can totally see this being implemented in older games via updates.

[–] DeadEndLink@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago

What in the fuck...

Literally the Black mirror episode.

[–] Jaberw0cky@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

I would rather read a book

[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

lol mobile platforms have been doing this for what decades at this point.

Lmfao

[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There is a reason why mobile gaming is mostly garbage.

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[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, and there's a reason a lot of us are unlikely to even try them. If I still bought consoles, the first one that did this would be the last I ever bought, and I'm not buying it if it's like that from the start.

[–] FrChazzz@lemmus.org 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I've hated Microsoft since the late 90s. I refused to ever own an XBox. My friends rolled their eyes, but I get semi-regular reminders that validate my feelings.

I've been a console guy my whole life, but I'm starting to realize that PC is, indeed, the master race.

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[–] kingkong@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

so microsoft strategy is to make games not fun and to sell u ai slop

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[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah good luck with that. I'll stick with windows xp games if I have to. I'd rather play playstation 2 games than sit through ads on modern hardware. Amiga games, even.

[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (5 children)
[–] Linktank@lemmy.today 6 points 1 month ago (5 children)

They buy other companies that make games and then proceed to ruin everything about both.

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[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

From the looks of this patent, no.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

I've seen this mechanism a hundred times already, and they want to patent it? Good luck

And yes, it sucks as bad as it sounds

Can we just drop the pretends and go straight to making everyone slaves?

[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I was playing an Xbox game you can only get by downloading from the store. They must have been testing out this freeze function because the game had to buffer so many times while I was playing that I will probably never play that game again.

It's my favorites series as well but I guess I'm not playing any new Skate games anymore. I didn't have that problem with all the Skate games that came with a disk.

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