Paradox still has the best model in my opinion. The DLC cost is wild if you're buying it outside of a steam sale as a new player, but I bought Victoria 3 as soon as I could at $50. It was a flawed foundation that I saw immense potential in. I've bought all the $20~ major DLCs since while avoiding the cosmetic ones. I know they're going to refine it into a near-perfect grand strategy game for about 10 years if I spend $20-40 per year on those major DLCs. Half-assed weekly updates don't benefit me at all compared to the difference between 1.7-1.8 Victoria 3 happening months apart.
The nice thing about that model is that you can pick and choose which expansions to get. Stellaris is my "gap game" that I play when there's nothing new that I'm interested in, so I return to it every couple of months. There have generally been a few new DLCs released between my runs through it; some of them are interesting to me, and some aren't. I get what's interesting, and even if there's nothing new that I want, I still benefit from new versions and mechanical updates. Making the DLCs a la carte like that means that they have to deliver enough new content to make them look worth it. I can't imagine just paying a flat monthly fee to mostly get cosmetics and dogshit new "missions" or whatever.
Paradox still has the best model in my opinion. The DLC cost is wild if you're buying it outside of a steam sale as a new player, but I bought Victoria 3 as soon as I could at $50. It was a flawed foundation that I saw immense potential in. I've bought all the $20~ major DLCs since while avoiding the cosmetic ones. I know they're going to refine it into a near-perfect grand strategy game for about 10 years if I spend $20-40 per year on those major DLCs. Half-assed weekly updates don't benefit me at all compared to the difference between 1.7-1.8 Victoria 3 happening months apart.
The nice thing about that model is that you can pick and choose which expansions to get. Stellaris is my "gap game" that I play when there's nothing new that I'm interested in, so I return to it every couple of months. There have generally been a few new DLCs released between my runs through it; some of them are interesting to me, and some aren't. I get what's interesting, and even if there's nothing new that I want, I still benefit from new versions and mechanical updates. Making the DLCs a la carte like that means that they have to deliver enough new content to make them look worth it. I can't imagine just paying a flat monthly fee to mostly get cosmetics and dogshit new "missions" or whatever.