While I'd like to see this shit canned, as another reply worded it, I would not take Phil at his word on this.
Plenty of times in the past companies have made denials when plans have leaked out, then just go ahead and do exactly what they denied (policy change, product launch, etc.).
We'll see what eventually happens.
This is what I thought when micro transactions in paid games started around 10 years ago. I was wrong.
Ubi will pull the classic pretwnt it was an accident, then in two years slowly roll it out. People will kick and scream, but still buy their shit. Then it'll become normalized and slowly get worse. Next gen of kids growing up used to this won't know what the big deal is when we complain.
Same cycle over and over with all kinds of stuff over the past 20 years.
I'm not sure they'll be as successful. Media can be pirates from their platforms, so just by making or posting the content they are supplying the pirate market with good quality copies.
Viewers just aren't the same type of captive audience that they were with cable many years ago. Price it too high, and and a few years subscribers will drop, but people will still have access to the content
We'll see how it goes though. I could be wrong, normies can be pretty weak willed.
This was my exact journey.
Patiently waiting for us to be able to get AI to make this whole movie for us, just by promoting it with this title and image.