nightcraw1er.488: Whilst I am sure there will be responses such as, it’s users who want it, and it’s better for the user (and to some degree that might even be the case)...
teceem: Some degree? I'd call it a very large degree. Companies can pray for all the Bentleys and Beverly Hills houses in the world; if "many" of their (potential) customers/consumers/users don't agree with their products/methods, it's all moot.
GOG has been a paradox from the beginning: more customers leads to more DRM-free games, but (and thus) also to more people (in total) not caring about DRM-free.
Can you explain EA then? They don’t listen to anyone, they don’t even make any attempt to, if anything they stick their fingers up to anyone who doesn’t agree, and what happens, truck loads of cash through the door every day. Simply put people are stupid, and follow a crowd. Unless a major crowd makes a dent in their fotunes, they won’t even acknowledge an issue. And it’s not even big companies, GOG do the same, not even acknowledged any issues, and yet profits grow. CDPR release cyberpunk, and still make money etc.
nightcraw1er.488: Whilst I am sure there will be responses such as, it’s users who want it, and it’s better for the user (and to some degree that might even be the case), it’s because first the user does not own anything (I.e perfect drm) and secondly they can market the data scrapped, collected, and in game. It’s win win for publishers and will become the only way to access content (film, tv, games, anything digital) very soon.
kai2: I think you are correct. Many online models don't require much AI development, the servers act as DRM, and data scraping is built-in.
Although I left my original question somewhat ambiguous, I have always been fascinated by how much data can be scraped out of play sessions... and who the ultimate buyers of that data tend to be. I imagine an entity could piece together multiple game data sets to stitch a basic psych profile. I'm sure consoles have done this for years.
With DRM-free being the exact opposite, GOG certainly developed Galaxy to try and get into the "real" business -- data.
I think most would be suprised what can be gleaned. Obviously what is being played, how long, at what times, with who, locations, adverts clicked, loot boxes/microtransaction, and as well, chat transcripts, linked Facebook/Twitter/Reddit/twitch platforms, which then links in other vast databases. Then link in any in app purchases to bank accounts and you are well away.
In terms of buyers, anyone really, advertisers, criminals, marketeers, other games companies, insurance companies (who doesn’t want to know about users off work, bad lifestyles etc.). Data is worth more than gold.