Not news. Kids are pressured to buy things their friends have, regardless of medium. Duh.
No fucking duh.
Any lever that can be exploited, will be. That is the core of this abusive business model. If we allow this to continue, there will be nothing else.
Just ban this. You want money for games? Sell 'em. You want money for new content? Sell that too. Don’t coyly install it for free and pretend only some people have it. Horse armor is blameless, relative to this bullshit. That’s how bad this is.
If you expect repeated revenue from players, that’s called a subscription. If people aren’t keen to sign up for that - take a fucking hint. The market is telling you no. Tricking your way to yes is not a form of consent.
All according to corporate plan.
Of course they are. It’s good to have data though.