You ever have those moments where you see something so outrageous that you can’t help but go on some long-winded tirade about why it’s awful and how you simply can’t believe why someone would ever allow it to happen? If you have, congratulations! You’re a normal human being, and you’re exercising your right to complain. There’s generally nothing wrong with doing that, especially in the cases of expressing grief or accusing someone of doing something wrong.

Well today, I’ve got a complaint, and it’s about the video game industry. While the main topic of this post is centered around one game and its publishers’ bizarre decisions regarding its content, I feel that greed in general has taken over the industry. It’s no secret that the average corporation cares only about profit and finding ways to maximize it, and while there are many ways to do that which aren’t specifically underhanded, I cannot find any defense for what Sega has done with Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Some quick history before I get into what the problem is. Like A Dragon (formerly known as Yakuza by most), is one of the biggest currently running series in gaming, and is one of Sega’s most acclaimed IPs outside of Sonic the Hedgehog and Total War. The series has seen an explosion in popularity in North America over the last few years due to internet memes and recommendations from popular influencers. I have talked about these games before in a previous post, where I discussed the concept of burnout. It’s one of my favorite series of all time, and one that I could talk about for hours on end. In the interest of time, I’m not going to do that.

Infinite Wealth (or Yakuza 8), which released a little over 2 weeks ago, has received largely positive reviews for its improved gameplay over the last entry, a very solid story, and the massive swath of side content that can be found by exploring the game’s very large maps set in both Japan and Hawaii. However, there is one issue that has been highlighted by several reviewers and players as being everything from highly questionable to downright disgusting. The issue in question is Sega locking New Game+, which is the ability to replay the game after beating it the first time with all previously acquired upgrades and items, behind a package of extra content which you either need to buy separately or in a bundle with the base game.

There are many reasons for why this is a stupid decision, but in order to make things simple, I’ll give my own opinion. New Game+ is generally accepted to be part of the full package whenever you buy a game, especially when it comes to RPGs and action-adventure titles. The Like A Dragon/Yakuza series has always had New Game+ as part of the base game experience, with it being one of the more enjoyable iterations of that idea, in my opinion. The way I see it, when you buy a game, you expect to get your money’s worth, as well as all of the content that is generally expected to be included. This is how it worked roughly 10-12 years ago, but we aren’t living in the early 2010s anymore. This is 2024, and we’re living in a time where you can buy most of a product for $80, and then the rest of it for upwards of $30.

In Infinite Wealth’s case, the base game is $93.49 on Steam in Canada, which is already way more than I’m used to seeing. And then, to get the ability to play New Game+, I either need to buy it separately for $26.99, or fork over $113.49 in total to get the Deluxe Edition, which includes the base game, as well as New Game+, previously locked achievements, and an entire dungeon… which should be in the base game to begin with as well. There is also the Ultimate Edition, which includes everything I just mentioned plus extra cosmetics for the characters and the entire soundtrack. That is, quite frankly, way too much money to be spending on one video game. I could buy up to 7 different games with $113 during a sale, but in order to enjoy this particular game to the fullest extent, I have to already pay over $90, plus even more to have access to a feature which should never be locked behind extra money. It’s beyond lunacy.

The description of this post states that it’s about “the increasing greed in the gaming industry”, and I think everything I’ve outlined so far is evidence of that. Companies are not only beginning to lock basic features behind lots of dollars, there is also a pretty noticeable uptick in the prices of said features. While some could argue that it’s partially due to economic inflation and instability, I think it can be more easily explained by what consumers have been saying about these companies for years.

Want some examples? Look no further. Microtransactions have continued to skyrocket, especially in free-to-play games. Publishers continue to milk gamers’ wallets by jacking up the prices of their games, as I showed above. And worst of all (depending on who you ask of course), games continue to be released in bug-ridden, unoptimized states. These things used to work when we got them without complaint, and now it seems like over half of these big releases keep having inexplicable issues with performance and whatnot. All of these things are becoming far too common, and I’m afraid that what Sega has done with Infinite Wealth may be a sign of even worse things to come. Thankfully, the New Game+ debacle has been rightly called out by many consumers and reviewers, as well as several major gaming sites. Sega lost a lot of goodwill from the gaming community by doing this, and I hope that they, unlike many of their counterparts in North America, learn a lesson from this.

As for me, I’m going to wait until a sale happens before I purchase Infinite Wealth. Even though I feel very strongly about what I’ve been saying here, I’m still going to buy it. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a while, and I don’t intend to let this issue impact my overall enjoyment of it. This is an indictment on Sega, not Infinite Wealth. The game itself looks very good, and I’m sure it is.

That’s all for now, have a good day.