Forza 5 is a blatant offence that I simply cannot deal with. In general, Gaming has never looked so unattractive to me with Microtransactions. I haven't gotten a next gen console yet, but this makes it really easy for me to simply hang it up.
You know what, I honestly had similar thoughts in the last few days.
I've been an active gamer for almost 20 years and I always knew I was wasting my time playing videogames but at least it was fun. It was escapism that let me forget the real world for a while.These days, the industry is doing everything it can to sour this experience. I increasingly feel I'm getting screwed in many ways by the industry and it severely impacts my enjoyment with this hobby in general. Nowadays practically all AAA games come with exclusive pre-order bullshit, exclusive content for more-expensive editions, day one DLC etc. and I was already getting sick of it all. All that stuff already made me skip certain games (Forza 4, for example, it was getting too ridiculous). And now they're infesting gaming with this pay2pay2play cancer.
It's just not fun anymore. My hobby has become a struggle against corporate interests and I'm tired. Witnessing how my favorite games are getting impacted as they become more popular is also just sad. Even Dark Souls 2 has now retailer-exlusive pre-order content. I wouldn't be surprised if the next Souls game will try to sell me Soul-packs or pieces of equipment.
Maybe now is the time for me to step away from gaming as a whole and invest more time into my other hobbies like playing the guitar. It's more useful and rewarding anyway, and it's not nearly as expensive.
I originally had plans to eventually buy both next-gen consoles. PS4 in 2014 and an Xbone when Forza Horizon 2 comes out. The Xbone, however, is completely taboo for me now and I will never touch another Forza game. And I will also wait with buying a PS4 and observe from the sidelines whether the p2p2p shit catches on there as well.
What I will do is buy a WiiU and the PC version of Rocksmith. Maybe I will stick with these two platforms (PC for the occasional indie game) for the years ahead and reduce the time I spend playing videogames in general. I'm disgusted by the direction my hobby is heading. Bravo, games industry!