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The story
A thread titled “Who would you call the cancer cells of the game industry?” appeared on 5ch’s Hardware & Industry (“Geha”) board, and it quickly filled up with complaints about the business decisions of major publishers like Microsoft, Sony, and Square Enix. The biggest targets were Microsoft’s ongoing spree of studio closures, subscription-based sales models like Xbox Game Pass, and the trend of Japanese RPGs becoming overly movie-like. Depending on who was posting, the definition of “cancer” shifted wildly — PC versus console, whether Vtuber-driven marketing actually works — and the debate sprawled on without ever converging on a single answer.
What people said
Quite the fondness for talking about yourself there.
Normal people wouldn't even come up with that idea.
I'm a PC gamer, so I already sold off my PlayStation ages ago.
I'm just stating the realistic facts.
In other words, to qualify you need to:
1. Have once been normal, but mutated
2. Act with total disregard for the game industry
3. Multiply uncontrollably and eat away at the industry
It has to meet all three of these.
https://x.com/rgt_85/status/2067293383379263745?s=61
Translated, it's basically: "What's the most irritating thing about game-related fan communities on Twitter?"
Sounds like the type to say "I feel like working makes you a loser" (a famous NEET meme line).
Compared to how they killed Japanese RPGs by turning them movie-obsessed, whatever's in Re: #1 is small potatoes.
That's a terrible move if the goal is cutting ad costs.
It just becomes superchat bait — it's not like it actually makes anyone buy the game.
Harassment isn't okay anywhere, period.
Do I really need to spell that out every time?
So basically, nobody needs a place to vent, huh? 🎵
Correct, Microsoft is the final boss.
Or rather, it's Big Tech as a whole — Microsoft included — plus the military-industrial complex, and the nations and investors tied to them.
In gaming specifically, Microsoft and the Chinese conglomerates are the root of the chaos.
They're dragging games away from their essence as play, and they're increasingly becoming tools for politics and corporate power struggles.
Just misguided will to power riding the big wave of runaway capitalism.
Games don't need anything besides consoles.
There's no way the game industry could survive on consoles alone.
Most indie games come from PC in the first place.
Just fold the PC crowd into consoles and there's no problem.
Then developers wouldn't have to waste resources on unnecessary porting work either.
No way that works.
Things like the Switch 2 have garbage specs and market size next to PC — there's no way you could fold it into the console camp.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
In recent years, the game industry has seen a steady stream of studio closures and layoffs driven by major publishers. Microsoft shut down several studios in 2024, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, while Sony dissolved its former Japan Studio back in 2021 — corporate restructuring at the top has gone hand in hand with a shrinking development scene. Developers themselves have pointed out that subscription-based sales models like Xbox Game Pass eat into individual game sales, and the thread’s observation that “games which take a long time to finish don’t mix well with a play-it-for-free model” follows that same logic. Meanwhile, the debate over whether Vtuber-driven promotion is worthwhile, or over whether PC or consoles are what really keeps the industry afloat, is a classic staple of 5ch’s notorious “geha” (hardware wars) arguments — not the kind of topic that ever gets settled objectively. The thread also contained plenty of insults and personal attacks against specific companies, and those posts have been left out of this article.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware & Industry, “Geha”) thread “Who would you call the cancer cells of the game industry?“
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