Why is it though? - Spreads income and reduces the effects of sales spikes - allows more competition between manufacturers & between retailers - increases the customer population density - reduces the maximum customer investment size to one more proportional to earning So partly it's a business model that keeps a constant income, and partly it is psychological management of customers. I think what we are seeing at the moment is the impact of the [b]frequency[/b] of transactions that customers are being expected to pay. There must be some critical threshold between monetary value and frequency where customers are just happy enough to pay and manufacturers maintain their income. I think whatever pressures are on manufacturers at the moment are pushing them more towards this threshold - inevitably making their tactics more obvious and increasing the number of customers who become aware of the nature of their relationships with manufaturers. I remember massive outrage over BF4 and then still more when DICE said something like - "we're monitoring, but not seeing a major effect on sales" (serious paraphrasing)... which implies that they had yet to find the balance point between outrage and sales. I think Destiny is sailing closer to the wind - however their massive customer base most likely can support more outrage.