This week, both Microsoft and EA embraced the rot economy, purposefully enshittifying Xbox Game Pass and Apex Legends’ battle pass, respectively, in hopes that some number somewhere will continue to go up. It’s grim stuff, but there’s a silver lining: This strategy has a breaking point, and it’s within our power to decide where it lies. On this week’s Aftermath Hours, we talk about that.
This time around, we discuss the progressive worsening of services both in and out of games, but also the fact that we don’t need all of these things – many of which are redundant – and that it can be freeing to cut yourself loose from them. People are getting fed up en masse; milking the whales for every last penny only works when there are still whales left to milk.
Then we talk about the sudden death of Kotaku Australia, a site which – contrary to popular belief – Luke does not and never has worked for. After that, we discuss some TV shows, one of which, The Boys, has really fallen off, and the other of which, The Acolyte, never really got going to begin with. Lastly: Cubes.
You can find this week's episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. If you like what you hear, make sure to leave a review so that more people can hear the good word of Aftermath, a subscription-based service that will shut down before it succumbs to enshittification, largely because we are not competent enough business people to enact such a scheme.
Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
Riley: In the comments under my blog, some people were discussing how we’re not really trapped in this and you don’t have to use these services. You can cancel Amazon Prime, a thing I constantly think of doing because I never use it. I wonder if there’s a critical mass [where that starts to have an impact]. Remember when Kash Hill wrote that article never trying to use Amazon products for Gizmodo? And it was impossible. Her whole life toppled over. I wonder if you cancel all your services and you never use Google and you just get away from every enshittified service, where does that lead?
Luke: Yeah, I canceled my Amazon the day after that ad thing came up [on Prime Video]. I was just like “Fuck it. I don’t need it anymore.” I just felt like, on principle, that it was really time to stop having this shit shoveled to me. And that’s why I talked about it as the straw that broke my back. Now that I’m talking about it out loud, this is like therapy. It was a much bigger deal than I thought at the time.
I used to be a Game Pass subscriber a long time ago, and I was like “There’s no value for me in this versus what I’m paying.” I used to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber. Same deal. There’s a cost of living crisis, or my mortgage has gone up, or my bills have gone up, and you’re trying to squeeze me for more money for less stuff for fucking video games? Absolutely not.
It feels good to do it. It feels… liberating is probably too strong a word, but you don’t have to use any of these services. That Amazon blog that you talked about, you don’t have to use Amazon. You don’t have to use anything. You don’t have to use Uber. Life has long existed without these services and will exist without them again at some point in the future.
Nathan: I think the only counterargument – and the sort of larger problem – is that those services destroyed what people were doing before. It’s much harder to find a taxi now because Uber showed up. It’s much harder to find reliable brick-and-mortar retailers because Amazon exists, and a lot of places have gone out of business.
Luke: Right, but here’s what I was getting to with that: If you extrapolate my breaking point to everybody else, everybody else is gonna have a breaking point. While these services have made life difficult – especially in the United States; I’ll grant that what I’m saying is tainted by my own experiences here [in Australia] where we have nowhere near that level of submission to these kinds of corporate elements – everybody is going to have a breaking point. This is what the whole “rot economy” is about: They can’t keep jacking up prices while offering less for everything, because everyone will break at some point. There will eventually be a point where you say “no.” That’s gonna come for all these services.
Is that exciting? Is it destructive? I don’t know. We’ve seen how destructive the slow inroads that Uber and Amazon and other huge line-goes-up corporations have made into our daily lives [are]. What happens when we stop using those, and they don’t work, but the things that they broke aren’t here anymore either? I don’t know.
But on a personal basis, I can’t vouch for it enough. It feels great to feel like you’re part of that move away, even if it’s the tiniest step. You sort of feel like “Well, it’s not just me. It’s not like I’m going vegan, and it’s an entirely personal decision.” It’s if everybody is making a decision that affects the bottom line of these companies, then eventually that does have an impact on them. I just wonder where everyone else’s breaking point will be. Is it when an Uber is $40 to go five minutes? Is it when Netflix costs $40 a month? I don’t know. But no one’s gonna keep paying more and more for everything, because that’s not how things work.
Nathan: I think an easy starting point also is recognizing that a lot of these services are entirely redundant. A few months ago, I canceled Hulu and then realized that I was barely ever using it anyway. Once it was out of my life, I was like “What was I doing with it in the first place? Why did I spend hundreds of dollars on this thing that I barely ever use?” Recently I did the same thing with Netflix, and then I realized that I hadn’t used Netflix in, like, six months for anything of real substance. Game Pass I hadn’t used since Starfield came out. These things are built in part to just sort of sit around and not be used by you, but still extract money from you.
There’s also just the simple matter that you don’t need a Netflix and a Hulu. There’s so much content on both of them. You only have so many hours in the day. I barely spend any of my time watching TV or playing games relative to everything else that I do, because life is full of activities and obligations. Really, you just need, like, one service, maybe. And then half the time, you’re just gonna end up scrolling on your phone anyway, so you won’t use that either.
