Infinite growth is impossible, so they switched to squeezing something until it breaks, then identifying the next thing to squeeze.
Eventually, they run out of things to squeeze, and switch to squeezing the people directly.
And it started with convincing console gamers it is necessary to pay for multiplayer. Whole ecosystem has been about trying to squeeze consumers for all the money they have. Even the locked proprietary hardware feeds into it of normalizing lack of control over hardware.
But, it is Microsoft at the top so not surprising.
Infinite growth is impossible, so they switched to squeezing something until it breaks, then identifying the next thing to squeeze. Eventually, they run out of things to squeeze, and switch to squeezing the people directly.
And it started with convincing console gamers it is necessary to pay for multiplayer. Whole ecosystem has been about trying to squeeze consumers for all the money they have. Even the locked proprietary hardware feeds into it of normalizing lack of control over hardware.
But, it is Microsoft at the top so not surprising.