I DO KNOW how much it takes to keep a company afloat. And I DO KNOW (in general terms, due the company where I work now) how much money it takes to release a software aimed to an international market. And I DO know that near 50% of what we all pay never arrives to SCS before they even start to pay all their costs. Just to mention three relevant things among several others in which I base my opinion. What are yours?
I'm not saying they are battling to scratch a penny; would that be the situation the company would had been closed time ago. But they aren't either swimming in champagne pools; you could be sure of that. And you can be sure, on the contrary of what you say, that they ARE sweating every day to keep their company alive, even if they would not be poor. If you think in the current economy you can sustain a company like SCS without sweating hard every day, you are plainly wrong. And it's not a question of being "overprotective". It's a question that, after a day of hard and stressful work, it piss me a lot that the first I read was (once again) people that don't have a clue about how the world is talking about others having to gift them with their work.
And yes, I've said more than once they COULD had raised prices and I would had find it fair price. It's not hard to understand that a DLC that has DOUBLE the content than previous ones (like happened with Iberia) and keep the same price than those previous DLC is a bargain. Whatever, those are OPINIONS; we are all free to say ours and to be wrong. But I don't REQUEST them to raise prices, still less REQUEST them nothing for free. The difference is far from subtle. And when you REQUEST somebody to work in exchange for nothing, when you expect that it had to happen because it seems you feel you deserve it, then you are treating that worker like your slave. Don't even pretend me to believe you would like at all that somebody would come to your workplace and demand you to work for him in exchange of nothing. Though its exactly the kind of comment that can be found in those forums EVERY DAY.
If they want to keep prices low or if they want to give us free updates, good for us. But they will be THEIR decision when THEY want and can. They are not gifts, it's an investment in improve their game to keep having an appealing product. If we can profit of that, fantastic. If SCS decides to don't do it anymore, shit happens. All of us still would had all for what we payed and more.
I don't pointed your (alleged) age as an insult. I pointed it because in case it's true; you have not lived long enough to have passed for lots of things that would give you understanding on the implications of that kind of demands. It was not a despise, it was a fact you most probably (and luckily) had not been in that position. Plain and simple.
Regards
