Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?
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@dbub_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I'm not going to list all the reasons that this is clearly happening. Many have been discussed on this board in '25. If you are playing this year and you compare it to any other year it's clearly gearing towards more microtransactions.
So I'm curious if they've come out and tried to defend this or is it just swept under the rug, hoping we'll forget?
The flip side is how did they defend the lighter monetization of 2023 and prior to the Sony shareholders? They dont give a rats [censored] if the players are happy, and its a widely known fact that player happiness is largely irrelevant to profit in gacha or ultimate team modes.
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@Teak2112_MLBTS said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
@dbub_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I'm not going to list all the reasons that this is clearly happening. Many have been discussed on this board in '25. If you are playing this year and you compare it to any other year it's clearly gearing towards more microtransactions.
So I'm curious if they've come out and tried to defend this or is it just swept under the rug, hoping we'll forget?
The flip side is how did they defend the lighter monetization of 2023 and prior to the Sony shareholders? They dont give a rats [censored] if the players are happy, and its a widely known fact that player happiness is largely irrelevant to profit in gacha or ultimate team modes.
I don't disagree but I find it disgusting. I guess that's the state of capitalism today.
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Easy: DD is free to play without the need to register a credit card, and completely optional. They have franchise and RTTS that are 100% offline and free to play.
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@dbub_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I don't disagree but I find it disgusting. I guess that's the state of capitalism today.
The gaming industry in general is in a bad place. Live service is one thing, but monetization is rampant in single player games even.
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@dbub_PSN they dont address anything except ways to take stub making abilities away from players. Remember the line "working as intended". A BS line Ramone used in a stream, only for them to fix the issue a few weeks later. Don't forget they like to pride themselves as completely transparent.
However, the game play issues that many have said are an issue they havent addressed or even spoke on. I can't remember anyone complaining about bunt cheesing on goat being an issue. I've seen it, which means 1 of 2 things. 1) A SDS employee was playing a goat game, and his opponent bunt cheesed him to death, so this became an issue. 2) SDS realizes that more and more people are moving on to other games and they are losing money as people aren't buying stubs. So, they have to eliminate people from making stubs and get them back to buying stubs.
I dont think earning stubs is an issue, but I play a lot more than others. I also don't have an issue with a company trying to make money. That's what running a business is for, just be honest. Stop insulting the player base and be transparent, not just claim to be.
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They have been moving towards monetization for years now. In the more recent years I remember them putting the Holliday's in a pack instead of the Father/Son program. Then they just started adding more packs. Then they started adding packs to Topps Now/POTM programs. Now the Spotlight programs have become 3 cards in the Program and 5 in the pack (with the added bonus that you can complete the programs without actually playing a game or taking or throwing a pitch).
So you're a few years late if you are just this year starting to complain. Maybe they finally crossed some line for you this year but is is nothing that is new.
They have no need to justify it as long as it is working for them.
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@yankblan_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
Easy: DD is free to play without the need to register a credit card, and completely optional. They have franchise and RTTS that are 100% offline and free to play.
This.
Imo the model has not changed that much. It basically sums up to:
- It is free to play. You do not have to buy anything to field a good squad. The rest is individual thing of how good your thumbs are or adapt
- You could always buy your way to more cards … that did not make you all that better (believe me, I had all the cards
) - You do only have to buy cards with real money if youdo not have the time to play the game some time or (and this is important) wait a few weeks/months
- If you fail on any of the carrots hanging right in front of you and you therefore feel urged to put money in, then that is your own decision or problem (which may be okay for some)
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@YOSHI24_XBL said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
@yankblan_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
Easy: DD is free to play without the need to register a credit card, and completely optional. They have franchise and RTTS that are 100% offline and free to play.
This.
Imo the model has not changed that much. It basically sums up to:
- It is free to play. You do not have to buy anything to field a good squad. The rest is individual thing of how good your thumbs are or adapt
- You could always buy your way to more cards … that did not make you all that better (believe me, I had all the cards )
- You do only have to buy cards with real money if youdo not have the time to play the game some time or (and this is important) wait a few weeks/months
- If you fail on any of the carrots hanging right in front of you and you therefore feel urged to put money in, then that is your own decision or problem (which may be okay for some)
2023 released 13 packs for the full year, and some of them were mostly fluff like Alter Ego. Packs were not needed to complete collections outside of the ones they gave to you in programs. 2023 also had 10 total chase packs.
2025 has 13 packs already, all of which factor heavily in collections. We are up to 12 chase packs. On top of this, outside of one niche method stub generation is night and day decimated vs 2023
Some of what you said is true, except the big one: simply playing the game a lot is worth a LOT less now unless you play in a very specific way.
And on top of that, the collections started out with Roki and Santander needing maybe one rare round cards to now needing all rare round cards plus a chase card for the latest. So even within the year we are devolving.
That said, I'll give that one a bit of a pass because content has been much better in inning 3. Content was great in 2023, absolutely awful in 2024, but it looks like we are back on track now.
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Wait a second...are you telling me that businesses try to make money!?!?!? This is the first I have heard of this!
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I’ve long guessed they were either SDS/Sony employees or friends of people who worked for the company.
Otherwise the only reason to defend this consumer unfriendly shift is that they associate such a large part of their lives to this game that any slight on the game is taken as a personal attack on their character that they simply can’t stand for.
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2024 was WAY worse. There's still a huge micro-transaction aspect of a lot of the DD content they've released this year, but they're giving way more opportunity to earn the packs in the game than they ever did last year.
I've spent $0 and I'm essentially just missing the Chase pack cards at this point. If you want to put in the time, you should be able to get essentially everything. Which is how it should be!
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If you care enough about cards it is very simple to attain all but those gold 1000s card. Why do these whiners cry about having to buy stubs? Either grow a brain and figure out how to get what you want or just except what cards you have.
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My biggest issue is them decreasing quick sale values on the non-live series players and this year, the unlockables. MLB the Show is still far better than other franchises. Go try NBA 2K25. That one is the worst.
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@TripleH-4481_PSN actually it’s the other way around: I do NOT need everything immediately (or ever) to enjoy the game and the chase. Being a completionist in this game os setting yourself up for eternal disappointment.
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I find it absolutely astonishing that people have become so entitled and selfish that they feel a company needs to "publicly defend" themselves for recouping costs and actually generating a profit.
Is it actually a reasonable position to expect a company to put out a base game in March, sell it for $70, and then continue to pay their staff to update it weekly and release new content to keep it fresh and new for the next seven or eight months without charging its players anything further? The amazing thing is that the system they've put in place actually allows for that; they put cards in packs and design it so that people who want the best and newest things right away have to pay stubs for them; it's essentially a donation system. They have still allowed a path for people to earn every single card in this game without dropping an additional dime... that the option for that exists at all is a gift. So what if it takes an astonishingly long grind... if you want free [censored], you should expect to go to some lengths for it. If you want things fast, you should expect to pay for it.
I play this game a lot, about 200 hours or so at this point, and while not everyone plays that much, I would assume that the people who enjoy it enough to spend their time writing about it in forums while not playing it squeeze quite a bit out of it. How far should $70 go? On what planet do people live if they expect one $70 purchase to bring them hundreds of hours of newly refreshed entertainment over the course of several months? I was not so lucky at the Monterey Bay Aquarium last weekend, and there was no NMS option to just sleep there and not leave, enjoying the exhibits for many days to come...
I don't drop a lot of money on this game, but I have spent about $75 since I bought the game at launch--and I was happy to do so. I like this game (I'd be absolutely masochistic to spend so much time on something I didn't like), so I contribute. I don't need the stubs, but I enjoy using new cards when they're released, so I supplement and feel good about it. I also throw some money at Fangraphs, from time-to-time, and contribute to some causes I support. Support comes with benefits (perhaps the entitled aren't familiar with mutually beneficial arrangements and prefer to be parasitic), and it should; the benefits here are the "best" cards without much wait.
I get that some people are by choice or necessity NMS, but that group is not who is first in mind when a for-profit company commits money and resources to adding new content. That's delusional thinking. While there is certainly no shame in being NMS, it is not some exalted status; if you have to do it, fine, and if you choose to do it, okay, but to think of it as some state of being that deserves special treatment is to misunderstand what it really is... you're the person who orders a mocha at Starbucks at 10am and hangs out until closing, using free internet, using their bathrooms, lounging around and studying or meeting friends over the course of many hours, but only giving Starbucks $6.
Maybe that mocha was overpriced and not as good as you'd hoped or expected, but you're still getting over on them. Not the other way around.
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@The_Joneser_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I get that some people are by choice or necessity NMS, but that group is not who is first in mind when a for-profit company commits money and resources to adding new content.
I wish they would target my money. I would gladly pay a subscription fee if it meant more mini seasons/large conquests/TA rounds/large programs with everything earnable through gameplay itself and not stubs (keep the stubs around for people that want to bypass grinds).
I will certainly not financially support the current model as the % of cards earnable through regular gameplay is too low, and I would never enjoy using a card I didnt earn but instead bought.
That said, the notion of SDS needing to defend itself is ridiculous. But the model is absolute [censored] and should never, ever be defended regardless of EA/2K. if you defend it you are the problem
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@AstrosJake_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
2024 was WAY worse. There's still a huge micro-transaction aspect of a lot of the DD content they've released this year, but they're giving way more opportunity to earn the packs in the game than they ever did last year.
I've spent $0 and I'm essentially just missing the Chase pack cards at this point. If you want to put in the time, you should be able to get essentially everything. Which is how it should be!
I doubt many people put as much time into the grind as I do. And this year I don't have close to all of the cards.
Flipping was WAY easier last year. I would routinely clear 30-50K per hour last year. Now I can maybe 5 whole packs for an hour of grinding.
If you really think last year was worse than this year, you are definitely in the minority.
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@The_Joneser_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I find it absolutely astonishing that people have become so entitled and selfish that they feel a company needs to "publicly defend" themselves for recouping costs and actually generating a profit.
Is it actually a reasonable position to expect a company to put out a base game in March, sell it for $70, and then continue to pay their staff to update it weekly and release new content to keep it fresh and new for the next seven or eight months without charging its players anything further? The amazing thing is that the system they've put in place actually allows for that; they put cards in packs and design it so that people who want the best and newest things right away have to pay stubs for them; it's essentially a donation system. They have still allowed a path for people to earn every single card in this game without dropping an additional dime... that the option for that exists at all is a gift. So what if it takes an astonishingly long grind... if you want free [censored], you should expect to go to some lengths for it. If you want things fast, you should expect to pay for it.
I play this game a lot, about 200 hours or so at this point, and while not everyone plays that much, I would assume that the people who enjoy it enough to spend their time writing about it in forums while not playing it squeeze quite a bit out of it. How far should $70 go? On what planet do people live if they expect one $70 purchase to bring them hundreds of hours of newly refreshed entertainment over the course of several months? I was not so lucky at the Monterey Bay Aquarium last weekend, and there was no NMS option to just sleep there and not leave, enjoying the exhibits for many days to come...
I don't drop a lot of money on this game, but I have spent about $75 since I bought the game at launch--and I was happy to do so. I like this game (I'd be absolutely masochistic to spend so much time on something I didn't like), so I contribute. I don't need the stubs, but I enjoy using new cards when they're released, so I supplement and feel good about it. I also throw some money at Fangraphs, from time-to-time, and contribute to some causes I support. Support comes with benefits (perhaps the entitled aren't familiar with mutually beneficial arrangements and prefer to be parasitic), and it should; the benefits here are the "best" cards without much wait.
I get that some people are by choice or necessity NMS, but that group is not who is first in mind when a for-profit company commits money and resources to adding new content. That's delusional thinking. While there is certainly no shame in being NMS, it is not some exalted status; if you have to do it, fine, and if you choose to do it, okay, but to think of it as some state of being that deserves special treatment is to misunderstand what it really is... you're the person who orders a mocha at Starbucks at 10am and hangs out until closing, using free internet, using their bathrooms, lounging around and studying or meeting friends over the course of many hours, but only giving Starbucks $6.
Maybe that mocha was overpriced and not as good as you'd hoped or expected, but you're still getting over on them. Not the other way around.
Wow. You would be welcomed with open arms by hedge fund managers., CEOs and...no regular people
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@dbub_PSN said in Have SDS/Sony Tried To Publicly Defend Their Obvious and Systematic Increase In Monetization?:
I doubt many people put as much time into the grind as I do. And this year I don't have close to all of the cards.
Flipping was WAY easier last year. I would routinely clear 30-50K per hour last year. Now I can maybe 5 whole packs for an hour of grinding.That is a true statement and THE problem in itself. 2024 was a joke. I had roundabout 30M stubs at the end of the year AND all cards.
It is harder this year, also true.
And the problem is: 2024 is and should not be the baseline on what a „worthful grind“ or „stubmaking“ should be.
DD is a constant grind for better cards. It is clearly not meant to be that 20% of the player base should have all-the-cards available by playing a mode for half an hour or flip cards for another half an hour (yes, it was that easy in 2024). If you want the game to be that way, then you have your problem right on your hand.And I say it again: It is your thumbs that matter, not cards. As the year goes on, you will earn plenty of stubs to have plenty of cards. If you want to have every card with little effort, then go ahead and create dozens of these threads doing useless complaining.
