Given that the power to support the game is literally the only power we have, there is no moral issue - I agree. I don’t, however, understand what’s wrong with wishing for a system that gives consumers and workers more options.

will be rewarded by being laid off. Not buying it only punishes the shithead management

While I agree with the sentiment, that’s a gross oversimplification.

• While I’m sure the studio will likely downsize and lay off staff, many will stay on.
• Passion and care inevitably went into the game, to some degree. I would be surprised if devs and artists were indifferent to its success, whether they kept their jobs or not.
• It’s hugely different to be laid off after a hit game vs a failure of a game, when it comes to finding new work.
• The art itself, if it was of any quality, is wasted.

Again, I’m not advocating people buy it. I just wish we had the power to fight some other way. I won’t be buying it, but I wouldn’t have bought it anyway. It will also very likely sell like hotcakes, regardless of our posturing.

Not that I personally give a fuck about GTA generally, but it does make me upset that one of the few methods we have to “police” these companies as consumers is to not buy the game. To take a massive project that consumed however many years of work by however many developers and artists just and make it a commercial failure just to… stick it to their bosses? It’s like refusing to buy a musician’s CD because you don’t like the record company they made a deal with. Nobody gets to enjoy the music and the musician makes less money. This system sucks.

Nobody needs any entertainment, but some people enjoy hobbies like gaming.

no company has ever responded to more sales with lower prices

Prices are going up rapidly thanks to AI data centers exploding demand by orders of magnitude more than retail customers. There is no end in sight to the price increases.

If you want a gaming device, buy it sooner rather than later. That’s all I am saying.

Honestly, the way shit is going, get what you can while you can. Gaming is only going to get worse and more expensive by the week.