Every copyright is a monopoly on a very specific niche. People arent looking for just some game, they want "that experience they loved from the first game, set in their favorite science fantasy universe" or whatever. They can't get it elsewhere, and thus the publisher can do some pretty abusive things to extract money from the fans. In this case, trying to push people gambling addictions they can exploit for profit.

Its sounding like youre trying to start opening a line of debate of:

"If content is part of the national identity or popular outside its initial entertainment function, there should be limitations on the governmental exclusivity(copyright) so that others may use."

This is why copyright used to be for a reasonably limited term.

In a way, it is - who else is making a Star Wars game like this?

If you want to play a sim sports game (not a sports management sim though there's tons of those) or a Star Wars game EA is pretty much the only option because they have the licenses.

And they end up buying the indie studios and such. Really hard to avoid them.

Because some of their games are actually good. I hate their business practices, but I still want to play Battlefront 2.

And they ARE a monopoly. They own the rights to a lot of my favorite franchises. If I want a Star Wars game (which I definitely do), it's EA or nothing.

If it genuinely is a monopoly, then that is terrible, and hopefully something can happen to change the situation. I guess it's hard for me to picture because it's not my bag.

It's not a real monopoly, but it acts like one. They obviously aren't the only gaming company out there, but they own the rights to several beloved franchises. Like, as I mentioned, Star Wars. Also most popular sports.

They don't. It only seems that way due to a self-selection bias that occurs in internet forums. Negative opinions get overwhelmingly upvoted. Typically a user that just got disappointed by a game will upvote any submission or comment that also criticizes said game.

> It's not like Time Warner, with a monopoly you can't avoid.

What monopoly? Time Warner has many different businesses and products, so you need to be specific.

They happen to make good games.

Disney has exclusive right on SW stuff. Every copyright is a monopoly.