Did you know you were part of "toxic fan entitlement"?

[Bambooza]

If you own a mutual fund or if you invest and EA is one of your holdings, you like seeing those profits role in.

On the other hand, as a gamer, you are not happy with the fact that they want to sell you a half assed game and then hit you with DLC's for the same price as the actual game, not to mention p2w loot boxes for that sense of pride and accomplishment.

The game industry really needs to figure out if they want to break from the current trend of 60 dollar games. RIght now they have done it in the most dishonest way with DLC but I think as a whole they are worried about the backlash from the consumers over raising the cost and so have found alternatives.

Until gamers are actually willing to vote with their wallets, and be willing to go without mediocre games for a while, this will not happen. People can complain about publishers all day long but as long as the games sell, nothing you say as you hand over the cash matters. Anthem, Andromeda and Fallout 76 are the way they are because they will sell regardless. Bethesda has released broken games for over a decade that were only fixed by the modding community after the fact and people still bought 76 knowing that modders wouldn't be allowed to fix it. If people started refusing to by broken games then the shareholders at these companies would start demanding a change. When that happens, then things will change. Remember, the job of the execs at these companies is to make money for shareholders, not games,the games are just a tool to make the money.

This is the truth as much as we complain about DLC and loot boxes along with half finished games at release game sales are still high. Until we as consumers pull our funding from the practices we dislike they will continue to as it's profitable.

"Focus Groups" and "pre-release screenings" are a thing in the film industry. They have changed the way whole films have not only ended, but also how they have been edited just because a bunch, sometimes a lot, of layman pre-release viewers didn't understand or like what they saw on the screen.

While this can be helpful it also more recently has lead to community-driven movie scrips that are rather bland and vanilla or going after the current social trends and talking points instead of following the vision of the director/story writer. While it has a high risk of failure on one person it also has the chance of being impactful and meaningful. The same seems to be happening with games we see this year turn out of the same rehash with few improvements beyond updates to graphics. Its the same by listening to the consumer and truly hearing what they are saying as a lot said would end up destroying the game if acted upon while there are always legitimate criticism that should be addressed. Which is why it's always best to do controlled feedback from closed playtest.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Great article, cos attacking your paying customers always pays off right? Just look at how well Soylo did...


The whole premise of the article is ridiculous! It twists the narrative of customer vs developer/publisher.
It makes you, the customer, feel like the developer is doing you a favor by delivering a product they promised. It's like they do all this out of the kindness of their hearts, not for your Money! It paints the customer as a neccesary evil, something that exists for the corporation and the product, instead of the other way around.
It makes the company Entitled to your money, regardless of the product they may or may not even give you in return.
It's vile and disgusting.

If I PAY for a product, wheter it's milk, an iPhone, or a piece of software, I AM ENTITLED to receive that product exactly as advertised (just to go with the article, mass effect 1-3 was advertised as your choices having real effects through ALL the games and especially on the big ending. In the first iteration of mess effect 3 there were non of these present. Thus outrage, new endings. The writers points on this are invalid)
If I Pay for a product, I am ENTITLED to my opinion about that product. Wheter the creators of said product take my "demands" into account is their choice. Actually it is their Job to Know if they should bend to my so called "demands" or not. Then it's my choice Not to pay for their next product so they can go bankrupt for not serving the needs of their customer base.
Yes, the basic reality of the market is, I am entitled to my shouting "fuck your broken piece of shit game" because they can only EXIST BECAUSE OF ME THE PAYING CUSTOMER!
When will you people get over this bullshit of excusing game developers just because it's a game and not any other product?
Since when does the customer has to know and understand the nuances of developing and creating a product??? What kinda twisted bullshit is that?
Do you know how the brakes on your car are designed, fabricated, tested, assembled, and installed on your car? Do you have to? NO! But do you need to know all this in order for them to function? NO! So how is "but game development is hard" any more of an excuse for a bad product? IT ISN'T! I tell you how it happens though, it's only because you let it!
(BTW the brakes on your car are at least 50 times more complicated to "develop" then a video game, even today, but let's not get carried away)

Let me put it into a context you can understand:
What would you do if you bought a 6 pack of beer but then realized there is no beer in the cans? Would you just say "oh but beer development is a hard process, things can change, I won't say a thing about it" ? Don't you think because you Payed for 6 cans of beer you are Entitled to receive 6 cans of beer instead of 6 empty cans?
When it comes to buying a product, you expect to get said product. Games ARE a Product!
Ffs...

Ps.: And those of you thinking "but games are art thus they are different" can GTFO. Games are products that contain art and can be artful in their execution and elements, but are Not art as a whole. Even if you keep sticking to this art bs, when you buy an art painting you do expect to receive a painting, and not just a note saying "we might paint the actual art later as a DLC" right?

As the games industry grew out of basements into huge corporations, so did the passion projects turn into products made for profit and nothing else. With this, the perception of games and it's customers changed and grew to being mass market consumers. And just like with any popular product consumed by many, came the usual groups of fanbois, haters, and the majority, the normies who just wanted to play and enjoy their video games. In this environment, you can't get away from the fact that most video games are products, and not just things made for fun. Thus they should be treated like any other product.

TLDR.:
1. As a PAYING CUSTOMER you enable the developers to create products (yes, you, not the investors. Investors wouldn't invest without you the customer buying their product), thus you are Entitled to voice your opinion on their products.
2. Do they have to listen to you? Not strictly have to, but they should unless they want to go out of business.
3. Do you have to understand how the product is made? Of course not! It's their job to understand it, and deliver the working product exactly as advertised.
4. Game development is not different to making any other product from the customers point of view. It is NOT a valid excuse for not delivering the product as advertised.
At least It shouldn't be, unless you are stupid enough to somehow think it's different and a valid excuse for not delivering the product they advertised and you Payed for. Then you end up with shit like F76 and Anthem and your opinion on the matter is invalid.

 

[Montoya]

The game industry really needs to figure out if they want to break from the current trend of 60 dollar games. RIght now they have done it in the most dishonest way with DLC but I think as a whole they are worried about the backlash from the consumers over raising the cost and so have found alternatives.

You hit an important topic there.

We have being paying $50-$60 for PC games for as long as I can remember.

It just would not feel right paying $75 for a game, even though in terms of entertainment/hour they still give you way more value than movies.

 

[ColdDog]

Ctl-f... who's pissed now. I am entitled. I am only entitled to what I paid for... kinda like the jerk giving the waiter/waitress a hard time about their food. Some people will not be happy even if it is outside reason. The culture feeds the industry (great example is fortnite). As long as there is a market, it will be exploited, the bounds of that exploitation will lead to innovation by competitors to get the upper hand.

 

[maynard]

...It just would not feel right paying $75 for a game, even though in terms of entertainment/hour they still give you way more value than movies.

I remember when the cost of a pound of weed rose to where we couldn't sell an ounce for $10 any more

people were outraged at the thought of paying $15 for a 'dime' bag, but they ponied up

gamers will bitch, and then buy well-reviewed games at a higher price

edit: games have become far more complex as memory, cpus , and gpus have grown in capacity and capability

that complexity comes at a cost which somebody has to pay for

 

[DontTouchMyHoHos]

I remember when the cost of a pound of weed rose to where we couldn't sell an ounce for $10 any more

people were outraged at the thought of paying $15 for a 'dime' bag, but they ponied up

gamers will bitch, and then buy well-reviewed games at a higher price

Gamers are bitching and they are not buying. Battlefront 2, Fallout 76, and Destiny 2 to name a few. The list is growing of people not poning up the money for the bullshit.

Would like to add: Well reviewed games also get shit on by gamers for actually being bad and still dont get bought either. The Cods were well reviewed and Cod Bo4 is going down hill. Activision is losing money on games that are well reviewed.

 

[Bruttle]

You hit an important topic there.

We have being paying $50-$60 for PC games for as long as I can remember.

It just would not feel right paying $75 for a game, even though in terms of entertainment/hour they still give you way more value than movies.

This is absolutely applicable to the current issues in the industry. I remember scrounging together spare change and paper route money to buy a $50 NES game in the 80's. It was really expensive. Especially when you consider that I paid $100 for the console with Super Mario Bros. Now compare that game to a modern game. The average NES game used around 100kb. The development was a fraction of what it is now. Hell, you can fit the entire NES game collection inside the space that Ark: Survival evolved takes on the HDD.

So in a purely logical sense, I get why there are microtransactions. Everyone has bills to pay. It takes an enormous amount of money to run a large game development studio, so much more than it used to. Remember the amazing Super Mario 3? It took 8 programmers. However, instead of paying more for something that cost more to make, gamers have flocked to F2P games. In fact, they even whine, bitch and complain with a massively expensive MMO comes out and it's not F2P... wtf is that about?

So yea, I'm with you. Paying $75 or $100 for a game would feel wrong, but it may be where we are headed. In fact, it may be where we need to be headed to turn this around.

 

[August]

It just would not feel right paying $75 for a game, even though in terms of entertainment/hour they still give you way more value than movies.

 

[WaterShield]

I'd rather pay $75 for a game and get quality without the compromise for loot boxes and such. They directly undermine the experience in the name of additional monetization, at the expense of those vulnerable to addiction more than others (whales). I genuinely hope that base price comes up and after sale monetization falls out of favor. I doubt publishers will let go of that cash cow now that they've tasted it though.

 

[Bruttle]

This is the truth as much as we complain about DLC and loot boxes along with half finished games at release game sales are still high. Until we as consumers pull our funding from the practices we dislike they will continue to as it's profitable.

This is the big problem. Gamers as a whole just can't help themselves. For every one person that uses their brain and decides not to buy, there are 100 people believing the hype and throwing money at them. The general population will never succeed in regulating them and corporations will NEVER regulate themselves. They will always push every advantage until regulation is forced on them. No other industry is allowed such freedom. They are all regulated because the general public is incapable of stopping themselves.

Modern game developers are like a car manufacturer that sells their cars for free. However, nothing ever works right. The seatbelt won't latch, the window won't roll up and the headlights won't come on. There isn't any customer hotline though or a dealership you can take it to. All you can do is put in a ticket. Seven days later you get an automated response sending you to the FAQ that starts with "Where can I buy a new air freshener?".

The car is electric, of course (because they care about the planet). You can't recharge it normally though. You need to use the bicycle recharger that comes with the car. After some experimentation, you find that you can actually achieve 5 miles of charge by pedalling for 8 hours straight. You won't have to pay a dime for transportation ever again!

The best part though, is the company's "surprise mechanics" program. You can buy tickets for $5 each. You can buy as many as you want, day or night. Each one of these tickets gives you the chance to win stuff. You can win cool stuff like racing seats and custom lights. If you get something good, mechanics will show up and suprise you with the installation!

I mean, most of the time it's just a $0.10 air freshener or a $0.99 bobblehead, stuff like that. But they released the odds. You have <1% chance of winning the stuff worth well over $500! That's basically one out of every hundred tickets! Even if you have the worst luck, it'll break even right? Each box you buy could win you the jackpot!

It sounds ridiculous right? You can bet your ass people would flock to buy that car though if government regulations allowed it.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

You hit an important topic there.

We have being paying $50-$60 for PC games for as long as I can remember.

It just would not feel right paying $75 for a game, even though in terms of entertainment/hour they still give you way more value than movies.

What I never understood is why do AAA game makers and publishers only make and publish AAA games?

Look at SC. While making AAA games they have made a bunch of mini arcade games, Rescue Medics, the Vanguard one, a bunch of small titles while working on the big one, all perfectly fun, all with some value... If SC were not crowd funded those little arcade titles could have been on sale in app stores for $1.50 a peice bringing in a steady stream of income in while the big but infrequent AAA games trawl in the dough when they are released completed.

Basically, I don't know why games companies don't make more games. Have different price points, aim at different markets, try to make some small but fun projects - would Lootboxes be needed if EA released cheaper runaway successes like FlappyBirds every few months?

 

[ColdDog]

Basically, I don't know why games companies don't make more games. Have different price points, aim at different markets, try to make some small but fun projects - would Lootboxes be needed if EA released cheaper runaway successes like FlappyBirds every few months?

Because they are like Hollywood... Star Wars was great when I was kid... revolutionary but now I am sick of it. Destiny tried to break the mold but it fell into the same problem... same mechanics, same visual effects, same bad guys. We have two genres right now... the first person shooter (COD, Battlefield, Destiny) and the third person (Gears and the Division). That's all they make the same "Big Mac"... just a different story. We need SC to change the direction. Otherwise, we are going to get another Lion King movie that was made in the 80s and rebranded. Marketers take a recipe that works and reuse it... they are lazy and don't want to take chances. Any parent knows fortenite is their worst nightmare... I have spent too much money on seasons already... please STOP! :). Doesn't compare to SC but we need to break the mold as a community.

 

[DontTouchMyHoHos]

View attachment 13154

View attachment 13156

He was talking US dollars.

 

[August]

He was talking US dollars.

I’m aware of this, but other regions pay more than $60 USD.

 

[Tealwraith]

I hate having someone else's viewpoint shoved down my throat. There are a lot of hot topics and I'm getting sick of hearing about how its the duty of the entertainment industry to propagandize and indoctrinate the audience for the common good. Someone is always screaming that this movie or that game needs to have gay/no gay characters or show the damage/benefits of private gun ownership or some other hot button people feel strongly about. I'm really getting sick of having other people's opinions forced on me and I wish the makers of games and movies would quit listening to the toxic entitled fans and make movies that leave political-religious-philosophical issues out unless absolutely necessary. This is what is ruining entertainment for me.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

I see all this nagging that "oh but games should just cost more cos it costs more to make em" ... bullshit. Yes, some games cost more to make, but something that everyone seems to forget is that they Sell a lot more also!
And don't give me that shit that "but AAA titles cost trillions blah blah"... look at the actual games ffs! cod blops reskin 67th release costs more than blops 3 did? Yeah right. If it really did, they did something horribly wrong. It's the same engine, half the same assets, same underlying system...
Look at Senuas Sacrifice and keep telling me how it costs hundreds of millions to make the shitty rehashes they push as new games, and so they should cost a 100bucks. Eff that...
Also, when they have an established franchise with its audience that will buy the game no matter what, why do they keep spending 100+ million on marketing when the games development only cost like 50, and then cry about high development costs? It's just stupid. I'm pretty sure that overspending on marketing is the huge issue behind their " high development costs".
This is nothing but corporate greed. They would make profit on " just" the 60 dollars without the micro transactions and gambling mechanics, but ofc nothing is ever enough.
I agree that these things need to be regulated, and if that means the compromise that games will cost 75-85 usd, I'd be okay with it. Just stop pushing the fake narrative that these companies are taking a loss on every game they "only" sell for 60. It's just not true.
As for all the entertainment I used to enjoy going woke and getting destroyed, I just hope they go broke as a result. Keep that shit out of my fun, thankyouverymuch. If I want to be lectured by a purple haired loner women soaked in cat piss, I talk to my neighbors...

 

[Bambooza]

I see all this nagging that "oh but games should just cost more cos it costs more to make em" ... bullshit. Yes, some games cost more to make, but something that everyone seems to forget is that they Sell a lot more also!
And don't give me that shit that "but AAA titles cost trillions blah blah"... look at the actual games ffs! cod blops reskin 67th release costs more than blops 3 did? Yeah right. If it really did, they did something horribly wrong. It's the same engine, half the same assets, same underlying system...
Look at Senuas Sacrifice and keep telling me how it costs hundreds of millions to make the shitty rehashes they push as new games, and so they should cost a 100bucks. Eff that...
Also, when they have an established franchise with its audience that will buy the game no matter what, why do they keep spending 100+ million on marketing when the games development only cost like 50, and then cry about high development costs? It's just stupid. I'm pretty sure that overspending on marketing is the huge issue behind their " high development costs".
This is nothing but corporate greed. They would make profit on " just" the 60 dollars without the micro transactions and gambling mechanics, but ofc nothing is ever enough.
I agree that these things need to be regulated, and if that means the compromise that games will cost 75-85 usd, I'd be okay with it. Just stop pushing the fake narrative that these companies are taking a loss on every game they "only" sell for 60. It's just not true.
As for all the entertainment I used to enjoy going woke and getting destroyed, I just hope they go broke as a result. Keep that shit out of my fun, thankyouverymuch. If I want to be lectured by a purple haired loner women soaked in cat piss, I talk to my neighbors...

You are right rehashing old games don't cost a lot and they do make a great deal off the current game sales. Which is why they continue to do so. But when we start to look into how much they make and how much it truly costs to make it you realize the profits are no there and the risks of doing something unique are too high for more corporate appetite. While the development costs are low on rehashing a game the marketing costs are still the lions share of the budget and often times eats up all of the profits. Its the same issue that movies experience and while actors complain about the accounting practices in marketing and how it can turn a 100's of million-dollar movie into a loss there is still a lot of truth in the cost of marketing. Look at CIG and their taking on 3rd party capital in anticipation of the marketing cost of releasing SQ42. Even small development houses for the app stores and facebook games spend most of their profits on advertisement in the hopes of generating more revenue to feed their small development team.

To start seeing new ideas in games there needs to be an incentive for game companies to take the risk and that incentive will always be a bigger cash prize which can be funded by higher game prices. The second advantage of that would be spreading out once again the game price market where you can spend the 50 dollars on a new Madden NFL, COD, Battlefield. You can spend the 20 to 30 on a no name indie company that is trying out a new idea and 100 or more on a new AAA that is pushing the bounds. We are already seeing this with CIG who's player base has on average spent well over 100 dollars each. But even here we see some of the trends we complain the most about with the pay to win and microtransactions.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

You are right rehashing old games don't cost a lot and they do make a great deal off the current game sales. Which is why they continue to do so. But when we start to look into how much they make and how much it truly costs to make it you realize the profits are no there and the risks of doing something unique are too high for more corporate appetite. While the development costs are low on rehashing a game the marketing costs are still the lions share of the budget and often times eats up all of the profits. Its the same issue that movies experience and while actors complain about the accounting practices in marketing and how it can turn a 100's of million-dollar movie into a loss there is still a lot of truth in the cost of marketing. Look at CIG and their taking on 3rd party capital in anticipation of the marketing cost of releasing SQ42. Even small development houses for the app stores and facebook games spend most of their profits on advertisement in the hopes of generating more revenue to feed their small development team.

To start seeing new ideas in games there needs to be an incentive for game companies to take the risk and that incentive will always be a bigger cash prize which can be funded by higher game prices. The second advantage of that would be spreading out once again the game price market where you can spend the 50 dollars on a new Madden NFL, COD, Battlefield. You can spend the 20 to 30 on a no name indie company that is trying out a new idea and 100 or more on a new AAA that is pushing the bounds. We are already seeing this with CIG who's player base has on average spent well over 100 dollars each. But even here we see some of the trends we complain the most about with the pay to win and microtransactions.

Agreed about the second part. Spreading out the pricing, while getting rid of all the predatory gambling micro stuff would be ideal, as long as it reflects the quality of the game.
New games with new ideas are not dependent on raising the prices. CIG is the proof, along with with a bunch of kickstarters that were either successful or failed. Anyway, it demonstrates pretty clearly that ppl are willing to pony up for games they want to happen, but it doesn't show in any way that they are willing to spend more then the usual 60ish bucks right out of the gate.

As for the first part, you really want me to dig up numbers? Gawd I'm too lazy for that lol... Last time I've seen sales numbers in some analysis video it was pretty clear that they make tons of money just in the sales compared to just development costs. It's pretty clear that in lots of cases it's the marketing that takes up a huge chunk of the profits, just like you said it, in Hollywood.
What I was trying to say is that spending sometimes 2x the cost of development on marketing is not something we should be paying for, especially if that cost is absolutely unnecessary, like in the case of well established franchises with well established customer bases. The CoD fans and Destiny fans and Total War fans and so on, Will Buy the next iteration wheter you spend 6million or 60million on marketing. So they shouldn't spend 60mil, take out the gambling boxes, and they would still have decent profits.
The problem is they don't want decent profits, they want ALL the profits, so they're will spend insane numbers on marketing to get more users, so they get more money from the gambling mechanics. Their Marketing adds Zero value to the game. So whike I do understand why they think it's neccesary to spend so much on marketing, I don't think it is something that I should pay for. They know the game will cost 60 on release, they should calculate budgets accordingly...

To me, this argument that they need to spend a lot on marketing so they can get more profits, doesn't justify why I should pay more for their product. Especially when that product is broken, incomplete, and has gambling mechanics breaking my enjoyment.
Just as an example, how come that CDPR has the money to pay for the development of Cyberpunk, when they didn't sell the Witcher3 (one of the highest quality games of the last 10years or so) for 80 or a 120 bucks? Nope, it sold for the standard 60. Does it have microbullshit or "surprise mechanics" in them? Nope! Oh yeah, they did sell DLC for some small amount, DLC that has so much content it could be it's own standalone game! Yet they somehow managed to make an AAA+ quality game and not go bankrupt!

About poor developers barely breaking even, it's not my fault as the consumer, and I shouldn't have to pay for it. It's the whole system that's become untenable. Publishers sell impossibly higher and higher numbers to shareholder, and then try to deliver on those numbers by giving as little to the developers as possible. This in turn allows them to gain even higher profits, so they show growth, and get even more investors involved, and they can "project" even more ridiculous numbers in hopes of more money. And the cycle continues while dev studios get eaten beaten and closed, and publisher and shareholder rake in even more money.

Now explain to me please cos I don't seem to get it, why should I enable this cycle even more, by paying more?

Tldr.:
Justifing higher price cos they spend a shitton on marketing instead of development so they can have ALL the profit is not something I'm willing to accept.
Spreading out pricing from a few bucks to maybe around a 100 is okay to me if the quality/innovation/content is there.
Tldr2.: just learn to vote with your wallets ppl, buy more beer, less shitty games!

 

[Bambooza]

@Lorddarthvik this is a great question and I do not have an answer for you. All I know is that almost every product we purchase has a good 20 or more percent add on cost for marketing. That the simple cost of creating the product has become a small part of the total cost and this is not at all limited to movies and computer games. Take books, computers, in fact, even wood purchased from the big box store has a rather large marketing and admin costs added on and the further you get from the original source the more that costs builds.

So yes from a consumer standpoint it seems insane to pay for the marketing costs. But the truth is that without marketing it is very difficult to get one's product out in front of the consumers so they know about it and intice them to buy it. And if your sales force is really crafty they are even able to convince those who don't need or even particularly want your good to buy it anyways.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

@Lorddarthvik this is a great question and I do not have an answer for you. All I know is that almost every product we purchase has a good 20 or more percent add on cost for marketing. That the simple cost of creating the product has become a small part of the total cost and this is not at all limited to movies and computer games. Take books, computers, in fact, even wood purchased from the big box store has a rather large marketing and admin costs added on and the further you get from the original source the more that costs builds.

So yes from a consumer standpoint it seems insane to pay for the marketing costs. But the truth is that without marketing it is very difficult to get one's product out in front of the consumers so they know about it and intice them to buy it. And if your sales force is really crafty they are even able to convince those who don't need or even particularly want your good to buy it anyways.

Fair points!
My apologies for the overly long winded posts, it's quiet hard to get my thoughts into short and clear sentences. Anyways, I think what I'm trying to get across is:
- having marketing costs is okay, having +200% marketing costs compared to dev costs just to try to ensure absolute maximum profits at extra cost for the fans/consumer is very much not okay
- I'm not willing to pay 100+ usd for a game just because they cry about it costing a lot and conveniently omitting the fact that it cost so much cos of the insane marketing cost
- I'm willing to pay 100ish usd if the game justifies it with content, quality, and innovative ideas that are fun for me
- to me arguing that games cost so much more to make today then they used to, is not a valid excuse to raise prices, because that rise in cost is balanced by a much larger consumer base, ( and a lower cost per worker, taking into account the software and hardware needed for that worker as well), and most of that cost increase comes from having Hollywood levels of marketing, which doesn't add anything to the game itself

Ps.:

Spoiler: Hollywood marketing

I hope this Hollywood levels of marketing is going to end soon, cos it didn't help movies in any way.
They raised prices, cos movies cost more to market. In my locale we had 3 rather large cinemas in shopping malls. ALL of them closed in the last 3 years after the price hikes. It used to cost sub 1000huf (approx 3 bucks) for a ticket, now it is at 1850huf. Add on the fact that most movies are now played in almost only 3D which adds another 700-800huf on top, that's about 2500huf for a ticket. Add some popcorn and a small coke, it's 5k huf per person. The avarage monthly wage for the avarage Joe after tax is (and I'm talking real numbers, not the fake elevated numbers reported to the press) is about 120k huf. If you bring two kids, and the wife, that's 20k out of your monthly 120k. That is a significant amount. So what do ppl do? They don't go. They don't buy the product cos the movies cost 3x as much to watch as before, and they don't get anything more for 3x the cost!
They just sail the high seas and maybe buy it when the DVD lands in the discount bucket at Media Markt (or Target or whatever).

Ps2: writing all this out on a phone is getting really effing tiresome lol. I need to be way more concise hahaha