this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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[–] warm@kbin.earth 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Youre right, its a game people are 'told' to buy, rather than a recommendation. The first thing they see when they start up their console will be an ad for it.

Consoles have always had that market of just buying a few big games a year, they never broke into the indie scene very well.

But PC isnt immune to it, Steam shows ads for launches on startup and both platforms suffer from social media influence. The biggest seller of games has to be Twitch. Get a bunch of streamers playing your shitty game and youll sell loads of copies.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

At least you can turn off Steam's startup ads. I forgot those even were a thing until you mentioned it since I haven't seen them in years.

[–] warm@kbin.earth -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have them disabled too, but even if you just open Steam, there will be an ad on the store page.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

A store telling you what it sells?

Oh! The outrage! The audacity!

[–] warm@kbin.earth -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Did I? the whole conversation is moot. Why wouldn't a store show you what it is selling? Yes, launch titles get the spotlight for a while. Should movie theaters remove all the posters because it is disgusting marketing(?). There's a difference between that and egregious, invasive and unethical advertisement. But it is impossible to expect a point of sale to not advertise what it sells. Even still, Steam allows you to disable startup ads and you can also boot directly to library so you don't have to see the store page ever unless you want to. It's so much different from what Play Station and Xbox do.

[–] warm@kbin.earth -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes. You did. We weren't discussing stores advertising, but the effects.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

the effects.

That you now know that a new product is being sold. Your arguments don't make sense. How are people supposed to know what to buy if they don't find out about it somehow, someplace? That place being Twitch, Steam, a webpage review, their best friend, a curated list by a popular YouTuber, etc. It is irrelevant. There's nothing special on whether someone is a console or PC gamer. No one just buys whatever X source tells them to buy. That's a desire to dehumanize someone just because they play games different than you. That's intolerance and tribal thinking of the stupidest order.

[–] warm@kbin.earth 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Have you been personally affected by this? I didnt mean to offend you.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not personally but I think that tribalism is one of tools used by mega corporations to implement abusive practices. So claims that "console gamers will buy anything they're told to" is a bad take that deviates conversations to put a blame on console gamers that is not honest.

[–] warm@kbin.earth 1 points 2 days ago

I don't blame them, the tactics used are manipulative by design and should be regulated further.

Even ignoring the market research, its an easy observation. Most gamers buy a few or less games per year. Them games usually being the big AAA ones marketed to them.

Consoles are brought up a lot because that is what is most popular with the average gamer, I mentioned it's not exclusive to console. PC has however always had more success with indies and has less of that type of customer, though that seems to be shifting a bit recently with the PC market overtaking consoles.

It's not tribalism to merely point things out about different segments. Not everything someone says is an attack.

I also never said

"console gamers will buy anything they're told to"

I dont know why we are fabricating quotes or falsely insinuating.

[–] Agent_Karyo@piefed.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Steam shows ads for launches on startup and both platforms suffer from social media influence.

I haven't seen the startup ads in what seems like a decade. I don't see a big deal with content creators providing reviews (and commentary), the key is finding content creators who are independent and focus on the needs of their viewers/readers.

[–] warm@kbin.earth -2 points 3 days ago

There's no issue with it, they are obviously going to take money to play a game, that's on their own morals to decide.

But a lot of people just blindly buy whatever is shown to them, its why standards for games in the mainstream market has fallen off a cliff over the last 15 years. We have people buying $30 skins on the regular...