I think the switch did pretty well actually and I get why they made the decisions they made. As much as I love my steam deck, the thing takes up like twice as much space as my switch, for example. There is definitely room for improvement though.
I think it’s because most people play mobile games as a way to pass time, rather than to do something actually engaging. So, people don’t typically want to buy mobile games upfront, meaning devs gotta monetize in some other way, like p2w microtransactions.
Yup! You can make custom camos, custom decals, place crew members (in beta version), and fight in custom battles or missions. Some communities even have fun competitions.
I can’t think of a game that Valve has released just to make money except for Artifact which totally flopped.
From what I understand, Valve has a non-hierarchical internal personnel structure and projects are started because someone has an idea that other people at the company like and want to work on.
Half-Life 3 won’t get traction inside Valve unless it has something to push the envelope like the other main-line games had. Half-Life had unrivaled first person storytelling. Half-Life 2 has unrivaled physics to play with. Half-Life Alyx had an interactive environment unlike anything else that exists even still. My money says if Valve can’t think of something gameplay-wise that’s as enticing right now as any of the previous games had when they were released, they don’t care that the story is still on a cliffhanger.
Interesting, I adore my switch. I love my deck for its capabilities (e.g., modding) but I’ll usually buy a game on the switch if I have the option. For me, it’s much more comfortable to use for extended time whereas the deck is heavy enough that it’ll give me wrist pain for long sessions. The battery difference is underrated here too. It’s nice traveling or hell even on the couch to not have to worry much about battery on the switch.
The Sims 3 had interactive loading screens prior to 2015 when one of the first DLCs introduced them. They’re just “find the object” puzzles that earn you in-game points for the family you’re loading. They’re the only non-Namco game interactive loading screens I can think of that were around before the patent expired.
The first one I saw was by the patent holder, Namco, where you could play Galaga while Ridge Racer loaded. I always wanted to see it used more and was stoked when I read the news about the patent expiring.
They’re not interactive but Spec Ops: The Line’s loading screens stick out to be. They start out as pretty standard tips and lore info, but then starts giving you stuff like the definition of ptsd, a fun fact about increasing suicide rates in the military, or just telling you you’re not a good person. Occasionally the normal loading screen is entirely replaced with a ghostly image.
For me they have always sucked. The only one I liked a bit was “1112” (also known as Fade), BUT the developer actually cancelled the last episode because they didn’t feel like making it anymore 🤬 So yeah it also sucked big time.
Adventure games don’t sell too much, and four episodes are a lot if you make them separate purchases. Episode 2 would be purchased only by a fraction of episode 1 users, then episode 3 from a fraction of episode 2 and so on. And the longer the time between episodes, the smaller the chance it would generate new sales because existing users lost interest.
It’s instead much more remunerative to think a fun gameplay mechanic, then create a fake ad around it, buy some assets and create an idle game that plays by itself with the possibility to pay to get it faster. Use the fake ad with the fun gameplay to promote the completely different game and users are dumb won’t complain. Don’t worry if the assets you purchased for your asset flip are unrelated, it’s also allowed to be a completely different genre, for example evony (medieval and swords theme) is using zombies, tanks and machineguns in ads
And the longer the time between episodes, the smaller the chance it would generate new sales because existing users lost interest.
True, but with that particular game what didn’t help either was that there were many years between episodes, it was pretty awful. It’s one thing I really hate about episodic gaming. But Valve already proved it to be a failure, only Telltale And Dontnod still do it (and they do it consistently right, to be fair).
The rest of the gaming industry has gone on to “Early access” which is even more awful. Rather than buying the first part of the story for a lower fee, you now pay top dollar for a game which isn’t even finished and never might be because once you pay them there is no real incentive to actually finish it :)
But really, most categories of mobile games don’t interest me. Arcade and other simple crap like angry birds never interested me even in the 80s. Adventures yes but they’re few and far between on mobile and if they are they’re almost always desktop ports anyway. FPS really really sucks on mobile for me, the input is just too crappy and the screens too small.
“Nowadays” ? They’re just getting good! Did you mean to say, “why are mobile games that suck, so popular” ? It’s because they’re accessible and usually F2P .
Oh yeah. I get it. I guess that’s why I stopped playing those long ago 🙂
I’m a huge mobile gamer though. It’s amazing what we can play on our phones with an xbox controller. It’s better than the pc experience for me because I can map the controller how I want to and am not stuck with the defaults.
Tons of amazing games coming this year. ZZZ wuthering waves Azur Promelia Etc.
You can remap controllers on pc though, like at a system level if you use steam. I remember having to go through a whole rigamarole to customize controls for a mobile game that didn’t support controller, I had to use a weird third party tool that interpreted the controller input as virtual screen touches. It almost kinda worked lmao
I remember way back trying to play genshin on my pc and it wouldnt let me map the right button trigger to attack , like i like it and I was like, i’m just going back to mobile.
Disgaea 3 on the Vita had a loading screen with a prinny spinning like a ballerina. If you tilted the Vita the accelerometer would make him slide across the screen accordingly, like a spinning top
the worst kind of interactive loading screen is one that is fun on a game that loads quickly.
This is of course a problem that should only be complained about and never fixed, please don’t make your game load slower just so that i have enough time to press buttons
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