Sometimes being logged out on YouTube has its perks. Long story short I went travelling through the default algorithm and stumbled upon some videos discussing the topic. It sparked a thought in my mind: Why would Microsoft etc. be charging so much in the current economy?

Are they perhaps in need of extra money to funnel into deepstate projects? Cash drying up so fleece the customers? I wonder what other sorts of products will be seeing unexpected price hikes.

Are videogames, especially digital purchases (aka no hard copy), another way to launder money? Like art? Get someone to buy 100 digital copies of a $100 game, you make $10,000 and no actual product was shipped anywhere...and let's not forget "micro-transactions" where you buy in-game content such as game currency, player skins, weapons etc. Sounds like a most excellent money laundering scheme to me.

1. Your 'guy' makes an account on whichever videogame.

2. He purchases $50,000 of in-game content. (not that hard, you can literally tick up the number to whatever you want)

3. Your high-level contact at Microsoft makes sure that a chunk of that money goes back to you or your project fund, and perhaps takes a bit for himself.

Money has been transferred without a trace, all through a videogame. The only witnesses are Microsoft and your guy. The bank only sees a large purchase from Microsoft. Ah, your guy is just a rich gamer nerd! Or maybe he did it through an educational NGO. Yeah, those students needed new laptops!

The more I think on it the more I'm convinced: Digital purchases are one of the best methods of laundering money. You could run this same script with software, online movie rentals, porn, digital music downloads, NFTs, you name it.