As wary as I am at the thought of government regulation, at this point its very hard to say that it isn't needed given the lengths that such companies have been going as of late with signs of how they'll go even further.  While I do fear for the future of video games with regulation, the possible futures without it hardly look to be as appealing.  Yes, self-regulation is definitely the best path, but as companies such as EA, Activision, TakeTwo, Epic, and others have proven, they have no interest in regulating themselves.  The thought probably hasn't - and still hasn't - occurred to them, even though they themselves have been confronted with bill after bill and yet they still continued to divulge in whatever practices and outright swindling they can do for the sake of money with the mistaken belief that, eventually, their scheming and outright cheating of customers wouldn't eventually give people purchase for the regulation that we and they dread for differing reasons.  They, for the restriction of money, and we for the smothering of creativity and other limitations that we risk seeing with these regulations for good video games.<br><br>I'd very much like government regulation to be a last resort, but when imagining how these video game companies will only continue going further with their practices without some kind of wake up call....something needs to be done.  It may not be something we want, but continuing as we are now with companies believing that they can sell you incomplete products, drop any development or work when they don't sell, and then shove mobile game-like microtransactions in your $60-in-progress-game when they do sell.<br><br>As sad as I am to say, a kick in the ass, especially with their golden geese of yearly cashgrabbing - Sports Games -, may be what is needed.  Then, hopefully, compromises and agreements can be made with the more sensible gaming companies while those such as EA and Activision are weeded out for their lack of willingness to actually make good, complete products.<br><br>That is my hoped for path, anyway.  Its a very treacherous, risky path as who knows how  heavy government regulation will land and how the video game industry will be reeling in the face of it, but there is still a chance for a better future rather than letting the status quo continue as it is now.