I think the best way to put it is that a game at release today is more like a game in beta in the 90s.
A game in beta at the 90s would mostly work and would probably be almost thoroughly playable, but the difference is here you don’t have a cartridge that you can’t update. You have a piece of software that’s sitting on a hard drive anyway and is fully updateable after launch. And so they’re pushing the production further and further down that line, right? The enshittification comes where they push it further and further towards Alpha so they can cut their losses if the game doesn’t turn out to be all that profitable or interesting to the players.
I think the best way to put it is that a game at release today is more like a game in beta in the 90s.
A game in beta at the 90s would mostly work and would probably be almost thoroughly playable, but the difference is here you don’t have a cartridge that you can’t update. You have a piece of software that’s sitting on a hard drive anyway and is fully updateable after launch. And so they’re pushing the production further and further down that line, right? The enshittification comes where they push it further and further towards Alpha so they can cut their losses if the game doesn’t turn out to be all that profitable or interesting to the players.