IIRC, Lucasarts had a massive legacy reputation as a publisher, but toward the end of its life, the public perception of Lucasarts had soured after the cancellation of Star Wars Battlefront 3. According to the developer Free Radical, Lucasarts cancelled the game, didn't pay the developer for creating a "99% finished" game, the developer went bankrupt, and then all the assets fell into Lucasarts's hands since it was their IP. These assets were then repurposed to create Renegade Squadron for the PSP.
Wait a second, you can add on the Bluray drive to the slim PS5? Meaning you're not locked in to an all-digital console, but you can still upgrade later? That's a great idea, why is no one talking about this?
Sony finally gets to join the ranks of add-on-disc-player consoles: the Sega Megadrive, the N64DD, and this... thing.
They do at least make it available online. But I agree that the artificial scarcity is scummy.
If you don’t have plans to travel to Amsterdam any time soon, you will still have a chance to get in on the artsy action via the Pokémon Center online storefront.
A range of Pokémon x Van Gogh products, though not the entire collection, will go live on the Pokémon Center and be available for purchase while supplies last. This includes a number of art prints, figures, and more.
The Pikachu with Felt Hat promo card will be given out as a gift to users who purchase products from this collab collection—again, while supplies last. It is likely that you will only get one Pikachu promo per order as a way to send as many cards out to as many people as possible.
Can't help but feel like that was a missed opportunity. Exploration being risky could lead the player to make meaningful choices with meaningful consequences. It certainly seemed to have that effect in Dark Souls (yes I just invoked Dark Souls please don't dogpile me).
The problem is the game industry, in the meantime of never going beyond the $60 threshold, found a far far more lucrative way of making money than just raising the MSRP. In fact, they found multiple ways of making money: skinner boxes, loot boxes, micro transactions, season passes, FOMO storefronts, etc etc. And even though we may agree that the MSRP eventually has to increase, they won't suddenly give up on those anti-consumer, predatory practices.
From everything I can see, you did have to buy games on Stadia. They would give you a free game a month, but if that wasn't the game you wanted to play, you had to buy it. The base version of Stadia was free, but the Pro version gave you a discount on games - it did not make them free.
This is the official support forum and there are many Q&A's about purchasing games:
... If you have an Android device, you can also try via the Stadia app to purchase games (once purchased, you can play them everywhere, on mobile, TV or PC).