Recently I asked a question about the relationship between video game companies and "content creators." Now I'm curious about the relationship between those companies and their consumers.

Someone made the good observation that gamers are a populist bunch — at least on the Internet — and tend to become outraged at companies for perceived overreaches of their market power. Some targets of this outrage include preorder bonus, timed exclusivity, season passes, and microtransactions. I was curious whether you think these outrages are justified, or if they're just trying to cover greater costs of modern gaming without upping the basic price, like I suspect.