cryware: Great thread and I agree with all of you. A few additions to the already said:
-Stop marketing unreal features/dates
-No DRM/telemetry. Please respect me as a client
-Offline installers
-Smart downloads: localization stuff (voice), Hi resolution textures.
-Stop DLCs (chopped games)
-Stop loot boxes/grinding practices
-Stop countless versions of the same game (The other day my curiosity on Ubisoft's store died instantly when I saw gold, director's, platinum, final editions...)
-More co-op games please! (second player)
-Optimized resources (hdd, sys reqs, bandwidth)
-Focus on Immersion: Localization, voices, remap controls, skip/fforward/rewind... all of them are welcomed
-Manuals/Tutorials/How2s: Please be inventive... not just throw a pdf to me (if I am lucky)
-Multi platform
-Cross play
-Advanced configuration menu (A nerds menu: a real black hole where any obscure/rare setting you can think of fits)
-Advanced subtitles menu (font, size, position)
Is it gonna be expensive & difficult? Yes, probably sure. But this can be diluted in several key players:
-All those standard game engines could take care/responsibility on some points
-Other tasks could be even attended by the fans (e.g translate subtitles) -if and only if- the game/developers would use/implement open standards...
-And finally, when unavoidable, they will simply fall into the final asking price...