The Free Market is Non-existent with middle-men services that legally kidnap IPs
This is a problem that is omnipresent, but at the same time it is widely ignored. Intellectual Properties are being kidnapped legally, to force consumers to purchase multiple service subscriptions/purchase multiple products across multiple services. Effectively making the drawing part of these platforms the content they have purchased the rights too or purchased the licenses too, and not their own innovative practices. This perpetuates stagnation and forces consumers to spread themselves thin to have access to everything, not because they believe these platforms are all great, but because they're a part of a dangerous pissing contest.
Ask yourself, why do you have Netflix, Hulu and/or Amazon Prime? Why did you buy an Xbox, Playstation and/or Nintendo Switch? Why do you have accounts on Steam, UPlay, Origin and/or Epic Games?
If the answer was anything other then, "I Like both/all platforms equally for their services and innovative design that improves my quality of life" or "I only have one of these platforms, and I have no desire to get a competing one because the platform I have is the best for my needs". You're being scammed, and unfortunately it's all legal. I Bought a Nintendo Switch to Play Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2, the platform's unique features came second. I Bought an Xbox One for Spyro Reignited Trilogy and The Rare Replay Collection. Again, the platform's unique features came second. If I had my choice, I would have stuck to PC alone and played BotW, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and the Rare Replay Collection on there. The PC, to me, is the superior platform with the best features. But I bought these other platforms to play games they had, because they had them, there was no competition. These platforms weren't competing, they were putting a paywall in front of games I wanted to play, despite the fact they all could have worked on PC just as well.
These are legally kidnapped IPs. They aren't selling me these platforms because their platforms are superior, but because they have this one property no one else has, and that's detrimental to the entire gaming market. These properties don't have an exclusive value to these platforms in the sense, they could only function on these platforms. All of the Nintendo IPs could function on PC, swapping the motion controls out for mouse controls. Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Rare Replay Collection could both easily run on the PC without any major functions or features being lost.
This may be legal, but it is detrimental. The worst part is, this isn't exclusive to gaming. Movies, Tv Shows and even game stores on PC all do this. This is leaving these companies in a situation of stagnance, where no newcomer can come in, and only the people already present can """Compete""". This """competition""" isn't won through innovation, or creative ideas, it's simply a game of who has the most money, and the more money you have, the more IPs you buy, the more IPs you buy, the more money you have, until you reach a point where you have limited or almost no competition.
These are monopolies in disguise of competing platforms and services. This is a major problem.
/discuss
