This will fail. You don't start with step 1 being enshitification. That's like step 100 after something is already really good. Like if valve sold popup ads inside steam or some shit.

Coming straight out of the game with this bullshit is a dumb idea and it will fail. Not to mention, having to make your own OS is no small feat, even if you're forking a Linux OS.

[–] mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

I suspect they don’t even believe in this themselves, this is just a last ditch attempt at squeezing a little more cash out of dumb investors before declaring bankruptcy eventually. Seeing how one of their investors was Square Enix, that might even work.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Anyone who is even remotely involved in developing commercial software knows this.

Step 1 is growing a customer base,
Step 2 is making that customer base loyal,
Step 3 is and in ads, free tiers with more ads, bonus currency and other BS

Everyone knows that if you're ever going to charge money for your product you charge money for your product day one. You don't have a free alpha release or something and then expect everyone to pay later on, that sort of misdirect gets up people's noses. Star citizen is an absolute master class in how to do this well, not morally of course, but definitely done well.