I disagree. I mean, as a gamer I'd almost welcome a crash and rebirth but unfortunately I think we're seeing a paradigm shift instead of a death spiral. Game company stock is more affected by the general market because games are a luxury, yet still TTWO (Bethesda) stock is near their all-time high and ATVI (Activision Blizzard) stock is still outperforming what it was doing two years ago. See, the FO76 controversies wouldn't exist if there weren't people buying the products in the first place. The canvas bag fiasco existed only because people were shelling out $200 on a pre-order for a game. The Nuka Dark fiasco exists only because people are willing to shell out $85 on a game-related item. Atomic Shop items are predatory only because people are willing to drop money on it in the first place. Face it, this is simply the new normal for AAA games and while people love to complain about it, they also love to fork over their money for it. <br><br>As a gamer, it saddens me. A lot. Like, a ton. Its easy to see why this is happening, though: there is a huge demographic shift in gaming going on as we speak. More games are played on phones these days, and by a much different audience. The audience for phone games is much, much more diverse and much more willing to spend money on microtransactions. This is not the core gamer community that is used to throwing down $60 on a game one time. This is a new community that is used to throwing down $60 on a game one dollar at a time. The experience is not rich or robust. It is not based on immersion, but on cost leadership ($1 for a solid two hours of gaming enjoyment vs $60 for ~ 80 hours of gaming enjoyment ... mobile games are cheaper entertainment with much less risk for the gamer). <br><br>You can compare it to a shift from high-end retailers that catered to specialized customers vs Walmart. Walmart is the future of gaming --- low cost, low quality, and tons of customers. Walmart isn't going to go out of business from poor quality or bad products, and neither is Bethesda or Activision. People will still be lining up to shell out $2 here and there for Atoms or $25 for a WoW mount. The only difference is in the future people will stop complaining so much and it'll become much more "normal".