Games still do it correctly. If you buy Spacewars you'll get patches and updates for a while, but you won't get Spacewars 2. Unfortunately, it is evident that

Games still do it correctly. If you buy Spacewars you'll get patches and updates for a while, but you won't get Spacewars 2. Unfortunately, it is evident that the pay-once monetization model has been corrupted too. Many AAA game companies sell pre-orders and otherwise bet on people buying their games mostly on marketing and promises. Over the last decade in the AAA industry, marketing has steadily pushed out quality game production as means to make money. The games are hyped beyond what publishers know will be delivered, and in some cases, far beyond what's possible to deliver within the release schedule. Now it's common for AAA publishers to mostly show "pre-alpha" footage (often this is a lie and at least beta footage is shown) or "not in-engine" cinematics before release. Demos are a thing of the past and gameplay from reviewers is embargoed until just before release. Sometimes embargo terms don't allow showing bugs. So, overall, everything related to monetization of software seems to be corrupted by psychological manipulation and greed. And not just in games or sold software packages, also with SaaS subscriptions and social media. It's not impossible that more and more consumers will give up dealing with this nonsense in the future. We already see large numbers of people choosing not to engage in social media due to the emotional manipulation and echo chambering to squeeze out more advertising revenue out of them. And because I am in the games industry, I see signs of players simply abandoning AAA games for these manipulative practices and returning to indies. Time will come for SaaS and manipulative software licenses. If consumer trust is further tarnished, the future will either involve returning to where we've been — clear and simple one time software fees and clear trial/demo periods, or it will involve something more insidious than what we have. In either case, the pricing models we have now are starting to tire consumers out.