forbes.com

bc3114, do gaming w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

I thought texture sampler feedback could help mitigate the ram issue?

_sideffect, do games w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

The medium had split screen on the series s

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

The medium had split screen on the series s

The problem is that with split screen in BG3 the entire game, incl. all background calculations, need to run twice. Split screen is disabled on Steam Deck for that reason but can be enabled via command line and frame rate drops to under 10FPS: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyaeoUdc10A

EeeDawg101,

Geez. I wonder what the performance is like on the PS5 in split mode. It’ll obviously have some sort of performance hit. Maybe it’ll be a drop from 60 to 30fps? Have they confirmed if the main game will be 60?

_sideffect,

So why dont they disable it for the S as well? But keep it for the X?

WarmSoda,

The words under the picture tell you why.

lustyargonian,

And so would Baldur’s Gate 3 when it launches on Xbox, it just takes much more effort and dev time than Series X/PS5 would. It isn’t that it is impossible, but that it is a lot of work.

Veraxus, do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’
@Veraxus@kbin.social avatar

That article completely misses the forrest for the trees.

It’s a complete game. It was created with vision, passion, love, and complete creative freedom. It has a great story and interesting characters. It provides lots of player agency. It is unflinchingly candid, mature, and uncensored. Your choices, actions, and inaction ACTUALLY MATTERS. There is no DRM. There are no live service strings. You can play alone and/or with friends. There are no strangers or PvP to ruin your game. And yes, there are also no micro-transactions.

The lesson that BG3 offers isn’t just one thing… it’s a LOT of things. But the best way to sum it up is: it’s a great game and it treats players/customers with respect.

Pyr_Pressure,

I have avoided reading much about the game. I am loving it, but I have no idea at what point in the game that I currently am. It could end in the next ten minutes and I’ll be satisfied with my purchase, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another 10+ hours. This is what I was waiting for Bethesda to release as the next Skyrim successor if they hadn’t decided to milk that cow until troll cheese came out. It’s everything I want in a game. Story, gameplay, length, affordability, fun, and no microtransactions making my efforts feel worthless.

Perfide,

I legitimately have no idea how much more game I have. I finally got to the edge of Baldurs Gate and have been chilling here for like 10 hours, haven’t even gotten inside the city proper yet.

hh93,

I think the most important part is that it launched without DRM on GOG and was able to be pirated from day 1 and it STILL was a huge success because people knew that the game isn’t trying anything shady to get even more money from you

It’s just something people actually want to support and not like people feel like even if they buy the game they only have half an experience if they don’t spend more money later

I really hope the next financial report from Larian is making people think differently about the necessity of putting aggressive DRM in their games

People don’t pirate because they don’t want to pay - they pirate because they don’t trust the game to bit pull more shady shit later and not be worth it in the end

Annoyed_Crabby,

-800k concurent player on launch

-no drm and can be pirated on first day

-some exec: that could’ve been higher if you get Denuvo in it.

hierophant_nihilant,

Omfg, I’m 100% sure there are corporate cunts who are saying that

Souvlaki,

Same execs who think it’s such a waste not adding $15 outfit DLC to BG3

EremesZorn,

So far, every article I’ve seen about Baldur’s Gate 3’s effect on the gaming industry has been horse shit. Other studios and publishers are not “panicking,” they’re not going to rethink microtransactions, and they’re not going to be daunted by this release; some devs have said as much already along the lines of “Yeah don’t expect this breadth and scope from us going forward, because it doesn’t work for our games.”
This game is not the industry-spanning “gotcha” these writers have been trying to make it out to be. AAA devs or publishers are going to continue their nonsense because people will continue to buy their shit anyway, and they know it.
All that said, BG3 is the best game I’ve played in a number of years and hands-down the best cRPG I’ve ever played. It smokes Divinity, Icewind Dale, the previous BG games, NWN, etc. So if any studios do happen to have a positive takeaway from this, maybe we’ll see at least some of that polish in games down the line.

Steeve,

Not to mention it’s built on top of an already super popular brand

acastcandream,

It’s also a rare example of where a massive budget without restrictions (relatively speaking) can lead to amazing results.

Usually one of two things happens: the publisher is tired of dumping money into a project then force it to market too early, or scope creep happens and the developers bite off way more than they can chew and there’s nothing they can do past a certain point.

Larian managed to dodge both of these bullets. Not by luck, of course. But they dodged them nonetheless.

Gargleblaster, do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’
@Gargleblaster@kbin.social avatar

Baldur’s Gate 3 is certainly the latest and most prominent example, but Elden Ring, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The Witcher 3. The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. No cash shops, substantive DLC, if there is any.

And what do all those games have in common?

They're solo games.

It's PvP and MMOs where you can purchase an advantage, show off your bling, or purchase expansions to get a head start on the competition. That is where the microtransaction infestation occurs.

alternative_factor,
@alternative_factor@kbin.social avatar

Yup, this is why the last two Diablo games have been always online, no one is going to spend $25 on a skin macrotransaction when nobody else can even seen it.

NightOwl,

I have wondered what percentage of gamers don’t purchase any mtx in those type of games. We get revenue numbers, but I’ve wondered how many gamers avoid that aspect while playing the game.

Firemyth, (edited )

The problem is you only need a handful of whales to buy all the things for mtx to be profitable

NightOwl,

Oh yes. Well aware of that. Just more wondering how much of the userbase never actually spends money. Curious as to either how much of a majority or minority the active users who don’t buy any mtx is.

alternative_factor,
@alternative_factor@kbin.social avatar

I've been an MMO gamer for a VERY long time and I would say the whaling thing is a perfect analogy. I often pre-order expansions to MMOs like WoW and FFXIV but I have never bought cosmetics other than two race changes for FF, which would make me a "dolphin".

I noticed in WoW and FFXIV that if someone has one mount you can only get from the cash shop, they are VERY likely to have bought TONS of other cosmetics from the cash shop. If they don't have any cash shop mounts, they won't have any cosmetics from it either. It seems like most people are either "all in" or nothing, people like me are very rare.

frog,

I’m a lot like you as well. I’m one of those players who buys cosmetics from cash shops when I see something I really fall in love with, but I don’t feel the need to buy everything. I look at it as an occasional treat: sure I won’t own it when the game shuts down at some point in the future, but if I spent the money on, say, a takeaway meal or a night out, that lasts a couple hours and then it’s gone. I’m definitely a dolphin, not a whale.

But I wouldn’t spend a vast fortune on trying to get everything if I have to spend real money. In some MMOs I’ve bought cash shop cosmetics from the auction house, though. I think that can distort the impression of how much someone has spent in the cash shop, making it look like they’re “all in”, when in reality, they’ve just been playing for so long that they have more in-game currency than they know what to do with.

I reckon the “dolphins” are more common than you think.

Veraxus,
@Veraxus@kbin.social avatar

It’s a small percentage (10% on avg), but those who do spend, tend to be repeat spenders.

NightOwl,

Is there any actual concrete sources? It’s what I believe to be true too, but would be nice to see something concrete. It is fascinating how a small percentage of gamers change the landscape for a huge majority of gamers.

Rai,

D2R was fucking stellar.

…different studio, though.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

I don't want the lesson to be learned that devs should only make single player games either. Baldur's Gate 3 itself is co-op, for instance, and Elden Ring has substantial online components for multiplayer and otherwise.

iAmTheTot,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

That is where the microtransaction infestation occurs.

Horse armour has entered the chat.

worfamerryman,

I wonder if this is largely why I stopped playing online games?

I played overwatch1 a bunch and while it had dlc, it was nothing you could unlock on your own. I stopped playing overwatch 2 almost immediately.

irmoz,

Dude MTX are all over solo games too, what are you smoking

Yearly1845,

deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • EremesZorn, (edited )

    No, you’re right, it’s all of them. Ubisoft is one of the worst perpetrators of this shit actually. Far Cry games having an online shop is so unnecessary.
    Edit: In fact, they’re so bad they attempted to implement NFTs in Ghost Recon. Like… what?
    That didn’t last though.

    vanquesse,

    the nft implementation in breakpoint was so bad that it seemed like it was missing the point on purpose. It was just different serial numbers printed on a helmet and the rarer the helmet the more play time you had to have on your account to actually wear it. So the nfts were barely unique, didn’t look cool and you couldn’t just buy whatever to show it off. Respect to the devs that managed to pull this off when execs asked for nfts.

    Neato,
    @Neato@kbin.social avatar

    And...every single ubisoft game. And bethesda games. I could go on...

    And Baldur's Gate is multiplayer. You can easily play 4-player online co-op.

    whatisallthis, do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’

    The job of the AAA gaming company is to make money, not good games.

    For the same reason McDonalds is never going to serve filet mignon, big gaming companies are never going to release feature-compete passion projects.

    hagelslager,

    Indeed, the job of most AAA game studios is to get as much money as possible from the gamers to their shareholders.

    tonytins,
    @tonytins@pawb.social avatar

    Doesn’t mean people should accept their attempts to nickle and dime them.

    terminhell,

    Not exactly, though I see your point. I think it would be more accurate if McDonald’s charged for ketchup, mustard, salt, drink cups, lids, straws etc.

    AbsolutelyNotABot,

    The big difference with physical goods is that it’s much harder to steal a McDonald’s burger that it is to crack a single player, offline game. Furthermore, once you ate your burger, if you want more, you have to buy another because it’s a consumables.

    On the other hand games are prone to piracy, expecially on pc, you pay once but can play anytime while patched and updates require prolonged work after you purchase.

    It isn’t strange that developers look at dlc, microtransanction or game as a service with subscription, because they allow a stable flow of income that can support development, and it’s harder to avoid paying when the game is always online and stuff like that.

    Sordid,
    @Sordid@beehaw.org avatar

    Furthermore, once you ate your burger, if you want more, you have to buy another because it’s a consumables.

    The same goes for single-player offline games, though. There’s only so much entertainment you can get out of one before you’ve seen everything, get bored, and look for another one.

    you pay once but can play anytime while patched and updates require prolonged work after you purchase

    If a studio fails to budget for that and make sure those costs are included in the price of the game, it frankly deserves to go bust.

    AbsolutelyNotABot,

    There’s only so much entertainment you can get out of one before you’ve seen everything, get bored, and look for another one.

    You’re absolutely right, but that’s true from “your perspective”. For you the fame might last 50 hours and that’s all, but the developers still need to work on big patches, content and fixes even years after release.

    If a studio fails to budget for that and make sure those costs are included in the price of the game, it frankly deserves to go bust

    And this introduces another topic I think. Would the average consumer willing to spend more for a game with everything in it? AAA already cost 70$ at launch, would the average consumer accept further price increases, or would selling plummet in comparison with reduced price+dlc or free to play with microtransanction?

    At the end companies are not inherently “evil” they just look for what works and what doesn’t by trial and error

    Sordid, (edited )
    @Sordid@beehaw.org avatar

    the developers still need to work on big patches, content and fixes even years after release

    Why would they need to do that? If it’s years down the line, there shouldn’t be any bugs left to fix by that point. And offline single-player games don’t need regular content drops. Sure, an expansion or two might be nice, but those don’t come free. Only online games need to constantly feed their players new content in order to keep them hooked and coming back to buy more MTX.

    Would the average consumer willing to spend more for a game with everything in it? AAA already cost 70$ at launch, would the average consumer accept further price increases, or would selling plummet in comparison with reduced price+dlc or free to play with microtransanction?

    Oh sales would plummet for sure, but it would still make a profit, just not as much. If From Soft and Larian can do it, everyone can. They just don’t wanna. (see below)

    At the end companies are not inherently “evil” they just look for what works and what doesn’t by trial and error

    That really depends on your definition of “works”. Sure, it’s a business, but what’s the goal? To me there seems to be a noticeable difference between companies that want to make good games, for which the business side of things is just a means to an end, and companies that want to make as much money as possible, where the games are the means to that end. Is that latter category ‘evil’? Maybe not strictly speaking, but I have no concern for those companies whatsoever, they can go fuck themselves.

    Landrin201,
    @Landrin201@lemmy.ml avatar

    Movies and books exist and they are one time purchases that you use once and stop interacting with. Why do games get special excuses for being extremely exploitative and shitty to their players? I don’t have to pay for a book chapter by chapter or pay extra for a character to appear, but authors and filmmakers still make TONS of money.

    The game industry makes lots of excuses for it’s shitty behavior but none of them hold water.

    AbsolutelyNotABot,

    but authors and filmmakers still make TONS of money.

    This is an affirmation many writers would find offensive lol

    The editorial sector is in deep crisis, it’s really hard to live off as a writer unless you’re ridiculously famous.

    Same thing for the filmmaking industry, look at protest of screenwriters and actors, and to companies terrible financial sheets, and to movie theaters basically bankrupting as maybe their time is over. Also we both agree there’s been a shift from movies to tv series and one of the reason is that you “buy the product piece by piece”?

    Ps: funnily enough, period publication of chapters were a thing until not long ago, and still are in somewhere (for example manga in Japan)

    Euphoma,

    Webnovel sites in Korea and China sell books one chapter at a time, and some of their publishers are trying to break into the Western market with the same structure (ie Wattpad bought by naver, Webnovel.com owned by Qidian). They also like using virtual currency for buying chapters. Korean and Chinese web comics are also sold this way. Publishers really like the microtransaction money no matter the industry. If they could figure out how to sell microtransactions for movies I bet they would do it.

    Side note: I downloaded this chinese app for downloading region locked games on mobile and they somehow figured out how to put gacha in it. Publishers seem to do anything for money no matter how little sense it makes.

    erwan,

    The movies industry is no better, they too try to get as much money as possible and they do for example with product placement.

    If they could find a way to make you pay a few bucks more to see the protagonist on a unicorn instead of a horse you can bet they would.

    whatisallthis,

    Fun fact: In literally every single analogy that has ever and will ever exist, you can add things to it to make it even more analogous.

    MagicShel,

    What can we add to fun facts to make them even more fun? 🤔

    NightOwl,

    Lot of us have already heard most company justifications for the anti consumer moves they make. That is no new revelation.

    UlrikHD,

    Witcher 3, the Last of Us (ps3), Baldurs Gate 3, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Elden Ring, Read Dead Redemption 2 (offline), Zelda, etc…

    There are plenty of triple A games that were well received that didn’t involve gambling and mtx.

    NightOwl,

    Ones that weren’t well received like Cyberpunk 2077 did well too.

    Sina,

    Because they largely fixed it…

    whatisallthis,

    I don’t care how they were received. Give me a total revenue comparison.

    Nacktmull,

    You simply listed exceptions, thus proving the rule stated by @whatisallthis

    UlrikHD,

    How many exceptions do you need before it no longer being an exception, 50%?

    Nacktmull,

    But you listed less than 1 percent?

    UlrikHD,

    Sorry for not combing through every major release since tetris and making a perfectly objective list of every good game of which most them I’ve never even seen gameplay of.

    Nacktmull,

    Why so salty bro? Maybe go outside, meet some people. That usually helps me when I´m grumpy …

    UlrikHD,

    Salty? I listed a bunch of games that are clearly made by passionate developers and have been part of defining of defining the space in recent history. You are the one leaving a snarky comment that I listed less than 1 percent of games as if that proves anything.

    Nacktmull,

    We probably just did not understand each other well. Can we just agree to disagree and move on? I respect you and your opinion, have a nice day!

    style99, do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’
    @style99@kbin.social avatar

    Too bad game devs don't care. They make more farming rich morons using micros and FOMO than they could dream of making, otherwise.

    Poob,

    Hey, don’t blame us poor devs for the decisions that get forced upon us

    JonEFive,

    Hot take: mtx are a good thing as long as they don’t cause a significant imbalance in gameplay. There’s a reason the price of a AAA game has remained roughly $60 for nearly two decades in spite of increasing development costs and inflation.

    People who purchase in game add-ons subsidize those who don’t.

    Blackmist, (edited ) do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’

    Didn’t we also learn this from Tears of the Kingdom, or God of War, or Horizon Zero Dawn, or Dark Souls, or indeed hundreds of great selling AAA single player games?

    But we also learn from the repeated success of Call of Duty, FIFA, Fortnite or any successful multiplayer games that people fucking love microtransactions.

    Different players? Maybe, but I’d suggest there’s also a lot of overlap. I know lots of people that play both. People consume. Some games support the microtransaction model better than others, and those are typically the ones designed to be played in fits and starts all year, rather than completed and shelved.

    lolcatnip,

    I’m gonna say yes, different people, just based on my own play habits. I’ve played and enjoyed most of the big single-player franchises, but the multiplayer games don’t appeal to me much. I gave Overwatch a try because a bunch of my coworkers were raving about it, but the experience just felt shallow and hollow. They might be great if I was playing with friends in the same room (like back when I was in college), but playing with a bunch of strangers is no fun for me.

    Blackmist,

    I mean I stay away from the mtx games as well. But then I was raised in an age where you paid the price on the box and that was it.

    New gamers don’t know better. And kids especially have all the time and hardly any of the money, they’re happy to throw $10 pocket money at a “free” game they already enjoy for an outfit now, rather than save $70 for a new game they might not like in a few months.

    greenskye,

    I mean tears of the kingdom make $700 million + and Diablo Immortal made 525 million in it’s first year despite being almost universally rebuked online. Really seems like micro transactions have a really solid, if maybe not top tier return. Lots of companies try to make something like Horizon Zero Dawn and it totally flops instead.

    Blackmist,

    There’s a lot of games that go with the free with mtx model that flop as well. eFootball comes to mind. They had decades of experience with Pro Evo Soccer, their only real competitor costs $70 and is still laden with microtransactions, and it still couldn’t get off the ground.

    None of these games are cheap to make, and they’re certainly not cheap to market.

    bankimu,

    I have not heard of it yet. Sounded intriguing. But a quick search of “eFootball” took me to a mobile game, with in-app purchases - not looking good and I am staying the fuck away. If they really don’t have mtx then they are doing something very wrong.

    Blackmist,

    Not sure which part of my post lead you to think they don’t have mtx. They very much do.

    I was using it as an example of an expensive flop on that side of the spectrum.

    bankimu,

    Oh my bad then I read wrong in my sleep 🫣

    acastcandream,

    or indeed hundreds of great selling AAA single player games?

    It’s important to note that the amount of single player AAA games has greatly diminished overtime. Most of those “hundreds” you’re referring to are not in the last 10 years, and the big bucks have been in live service. So yeah BG3 did great but it was a huge, 6+ year gamble ultimately. I WANT those gambles, but businesses would rather push out cheaper games at a faster clip because they make money. People still buy them and they still pay for DLC/MTX like crazy. It’s hard to compete against that.

    spacedogroy, do gaming w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

    Honestly, it’s kind of on the developer. If they’d taken the Series S as the base line during development, they would have made life a lot easier for themselves. I think Microsoft are right to stick to their guns. It will seriously piss off their consumers if they can’t land good quality versions of equivalent games on PS5.

    I actually think it could be more beneficial for players across both console platforms to encourage developers to build games which scale reasonably, and at the low end target a 30 FPS minimum frame rate whilst the Series S/PS5 get 60 FPS+ or improved image quality, or both. Instead of it just being a race to the bottom on performance just so we can have a little bit of ray tracing.

    Also, as far as I’m aware, Baldurs Gate 3 hasn’t released on PS5 and is not due until September. I will be very interested to see how that goes, because I think the conclusion of this article is premature until we see that.

    rafoix, (edited )

    The baseline system is almost always the most popular system. No developers should be hamstrung by MS’s bad business decisions.

    I’m not sure that having BG3 run at 540p 30hz on the latest MS console will be good for Larian.

    spacedogroy,

    I find it hard to believe BG3 would run that poorly at that low quality but I guess time will tell. It’s up to Larian how much they want to release on Xbox

    Going back to the article, I think whether it hurts MS more to keep this promise over features or not depends a great deal on what the split is between Series S and Series X consoles. I would suggest it’s worse to sacrifice the Series S audience as there’s less sunk cost there compared to the Series X audience, who we might assume have more of an investment in the Xbox ecosystem from the previous generation, and therefore it’s harder for them to make the switch to PS5.

    Hypx,
    @Hypx@kbin.social avatar

    If they’d taken the Series S as the base line during development, they would have made life a lot easier for themselves.

    The problem is that the baseline is actually the PS5. It outsells both versions of the Xbox by a factor of 2. So the Xbox Series S is an afterthought, and always will be.

    spacedogroy,

    It would be to Microsoft’s advantage to change that perspective, which would reinforce why they might maintain their hard line of feature equivalence. I agree though, it appears to be the status quo.

    Hypx,
    @Hypx@kbin.social avatar

    Except that they can't. The only thing they can do is to give up on the Series S. Sure, that is a disaster as it means millions of Series S buyers are basically on a dead console. But they're headed in that direction anyways.

    vrighter,

    that doesn’t mean we get better games on the xss, but that we get worse games on xsx and ps5. I paid for that power, I want my games to use it. I don’t care that it doesn’t run as well on a lesser console I deliberately chose not to buy because of its lesser power

    stopthatgirl7,
    !deleted7120 avatar

    The issue here isn’t frame rate or graphics, it’s that with the memory issues on the series S, they can’t get split screen to run. It runs just fine on X, but won’t on S. Because Xbox demands parity, they can’t just disable the feature like they did for Steamdeck.

    Reddit_Is_Trash,

    If we take the series s as the baseline in development, we’ll get games that don’t take full advantage of the better hardware. They shouldn’t have to make their game run on potato grade hardware. I think they hit a great balance, it runs great on most modern gaming pc’s, and the series x and ps5 will have no issues running it either.

    Paterfamilias01, do gaming w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

    Well this is concerning. I’ve got a PS5 and was going to buy a XSX this week so I could pre-order Starfield, now I might wait and see how this plays out. What’s going to happen with Starfield & Elder Scrolls 6 (whenever it’s released)? The Series S is going to fuck up everything.

    Helvedeshunden,

    There’s a difference between targeting 3-4 console SKUs and targeting 2. If you know what’s going to be your baseline from day 1, you test against that and scale up rather than the other way around. With a first party studio, this is a given.

    red,

    Why do you think Halo never got split screen 💁‍♂️

    CMLVI,
    @CMLVI@kbin.social avatar

    Cause 343 is a bad studio. Lmao

    Both things are true tho.

    Defaced, do games w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

    The thing about the series s is that it’s a phenomenal 1080p game console. Anything higher than that and it’s going to struggle without some kind of upscaling technology. I bought one because I don’t have a 4k tv and it just made sense. I also have a PS5, it gets more attention but I mean come on, it’s a PlayStation and it’s a damn good one, but I can’t express how impressive it is that Microsoft packed so much power into that tiny box.

    Olap, do games w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

    It isn’t clear why here. I presume performance, in which case drop some polygons, reduce some particles, limit lighting bounces. It’s an RPG - gfx are secondary!

    BorgDrone,

    I bet the lower amount of RAM is a major issue.

    Olap,

    I’ll bet bandwidth more. Dynamic loading of assets isn’t an old technique - it’s ancient, but the more detailed everything becomes, the harder it is. Some of the textures are incredibly large in modern games dev now too. But shipping lower res versions can be prohibitive also with SSD space at a premium.

    But essentially if you want to target the current generation. Build it for the S first!

    echo64,

    Split screen open world games effectively have to be able to run two copies of the game at the same time. This isn’t a traditional split screen coop where two players are always within one “level” together, and thus all the game code can run just once for that “level”. All the physics, ai, memory, textures, all thr subsystems are running just once.

    If two people can be on oppsite ends of a world, that’s two totally different sets of physics, ai, memory, textures. Everything has to happen, twice.

    Basically, believe the smart person who made the game instead of dreaming up reasons you think they are wrong when they literally made the game and told you the problem.

    Olap,

    Wow, I’ve never had such a condescending reply - even on Reddit!

    The article is clearly lacking in details like you described. But did you know that we used to have open world RPGs like Balders Gate 2 run on what are now potatoes?

    Here’s another hint. World state will be measured in 100s of MB. Twice means there’s still loads of gigs left to play with. The S has loads of CPU too. This will be almost entirely a look problem

    echo64,

    wow they should hire you, you know what’s going on my man

    comic_zalgo_sans, (edited )

    deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • Olap,

    Looking like shit is fine if it still plays! Look at the success of BattleBit. A timely reminder for EA working on the next Battlefield

    Zoidsberg,
    @Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca avatar

    Damn dude, you should contact the devs. You solved the problem that their engineers couldn’t. Big brain.

    Olap,

    You think split screen is new? You think this hasn’t been done before? You think this is the first generation of consoles to bitch about one of them?

    Whinging about the S is a small brain reply to Microsoft who aren’t willing to compromise. And good for them. There is plenty of hardware in an S and devs if they want to sell more need to target it first. No use crying about a design decisions made years ago wrt the hardware envelope. Drop some shit, make it work, run some flamecharts, optimise some more

    Yurt_Owl, do gaming w ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared For 100,000 Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700,000
    @Yurt_Owl@hexbear.net avatar

    surprised how successful this was since it barely got a mention all the time it was in early access so thought it would have a relatively mild release but no the g*mers heard bear sex and everyone flooded in to buy it.

    Aryuproudomenowdaddy,
    @Aryuproudomenowdaddy@hexbear.net avatar

    the g*mers heard bear sex and everyone flooded in to buy it.

    side-eye-1 side-eye-2

    FuckYourselfEndless,
    @FuckYourselfEndless@hexbear.net avatar

    I think it’s more so that “bear sex” was just joke-worthy enough that people talked about the game that otherwise wouldn’t talk about it and news of the game spread beyond its usual corners of the internet. So more people heard of the game and I guess the openness that “bear sex” entails is pretty appealing for a CRPG.

    Commiejones,
    @Commiejones@hexbear.net avatar

    Could it be that the hard core Baldur’s Gate fans are OG/serious Gamers and have learned to not pre-order? BG 1 & 2 were released way before gaming was mainstream. Most of the casual gamers probably only care about BG3 due to hype from other gamers who would also be “Never Pre-order” folk.

    Yurt_Owl,
    @Yurt_Owl@hexbear.net avatar

    Its more that no one wanted to burn themselves out on early access before the real thing came out but actually it was the bear sex

    Ghost33313,
    @Ghost33313@kbin.social avatar

    My wife found out BG was out. Saw it was a full release price and was kind of like, "meh I can wait". I joked about everyone playing just wanted to edit their character's genitals and she immediately put it on top of her Wishlist.

    TXinTXe,
    @TXinTXe@lemmy.ml avatar

    2.5 million copies sold in EA, but barely got a mention? ok…

    cupcakezealot, do gaming w The Main Lesson From ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Should Be ‘People Hate Microtransactions’
    @cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Microtransactions are fine as long as they’re not required to proceed in the game, tbh.

    pleb_maximus,

    They never are and this Attitüde is what got us in this microtransaction hell in the first place.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@kbin.social avatar

    A ton of mtx are pay to win.

    Neato,
    @Neato@kbin.social avatar

    I'd prefer we stop calling these MTX. They are paid cheats.

    pleb_maximus,

    They never are and this attitude is what got us in this microtransaction hell in the first place.

    Riker_Maneuver,
    @Riker_Maneuver@startrek.website avatar

    Completely agree. Remember when people lost their shit over horse armor in Oblivion? That would be seen as reasonable now. They just kept forcing these things until it was normalized, and now we’ve had an entire generation grow up with MTX as the norm.

    NightOwl,

    It was interesting how quickly people fell in line with finding paying for online multiplayer normal too on the console side. Although some do try to hand wave it away by saying they aren’t paying for online, but to subscribe to game rentals.

    But, yeah lot of these things people complain about eventually become the norm, and those who complain about it get seen as cranky entitled gamers over the long run.

    Toribor,
    @Toribor@corndog.social avatar

    Games that sell things like XP boosts always swear the game is balanced around not requiring them but there is always some grindy shit. Just play all this boring filler content for 90 hours.

    HidingCat,

    Without them I wouldn't have gotten Warframe and Guild Wars 2, so I'm not so against all of them.

    all-knight-party,
    @all-knight-party@kbin.cafe avatar

    I'll agree with that. Guild Wars 2 still has a slight amount of "pay for convenience" stuff that makes me twinge considering how much I've already paid for the games and expansions, and I really wish you could unlock mount skins in more ways than just gems, but considering you can farm gold and swap it for gems it's acceptable enough.

    Especially because I wouldn't even play an MMO with a sub fee, so for that alone I respect GW2's approach.

    stappern,

    The Atomic bomb was fine because my great grandfather got the job…

    snowbell,
    @snowbell@beehaw.org avatar

    Nah, having to pay for cosmetics and stuff is just a tiny bit less bad than pay to win.

    Neato,
    @Neato@kbin.social avatar

    For full price games on release? No, they really aren't.

    People always says "cosmetics are fine". They aren't. Cosmetics are gameplay. Humans love looking cool. They NEED it a lot of the time. The entire fashion industry wouldn't exist if looking cool wasn't a major part of human psyche. These MTX wouldn't sell if it wasn't. Locking all or most of the interesting looks behind additional paywalls is bullshit. And it's not OK. I don't engage with games that do that. There's plenty to play that don't abuse their customers.

    HidingCat,

    Some microtransactions are fine for free-to-play games and MMOs; I don't really like seeing them in full-priced games, especially if I feel it's engineered in a way to make me pay to play. It's why I avoid mobile games in general, playing them feels very predatory.

    echo64, do games w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins

    They could turn the Xboxss into a streaming console, some games aren’t available on it but you can stream those games if you want for a cost of course.

    It’s a big middle finger to people who bought the xboxss, but they are gonna need to get their cloud streaming numbers up to justify the expense at some point, and people are too addicted to the ms office subsidized gamepass service to switch to anything else, as long as it stays cheap.

    danielbln,

    I bought an Xbox S and I wouldn’t mind, personally. To be fair, it’s mostly a streaming/Plex machine for me anyway.

    ampersandrew, do gaming w Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    I don't know, you may as well say the same thing about the Switch and every port it gets. The S has its strengths and shockingly few weaknesses given those strengths.

    conciselyverbose,

    The switch is a handheld and the ports it gets are for that reason. It wouldn't have sold enough to get basically anything third party if it was the same device without portability (see BOTW as a system seller when it literally already existed), and it still doesn't really get that many current gen demanding ports.

    The fact that there's a worse Xbox you're required to support when the Xbox already lacks some of the asset loading tricks of the PS5 and has less units sold on top of it isn't something developers can just ignore. BG3 really isn't all that demanding for a next gen open world game, and compromising your vision to force it onto a worse console isn't something people want to do.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    The Xbox Series S is a cheap lower-resolution Xbox, and the ports it gets are for that reason. The parity scales well for most games and reduces consumer confusion.

    BG3 really isn't all that demanding for a next gen open world game

    Most games these days, regrettably, don't bother with split-screen multiplayer, and definitely not with the worst-case scenarios of how far apart the two players can be in that world, which is their hurdle right now.

    conciselyverbose, (edited )

    Parity here isn't on a scale. It's a binary trait. Either they are the same or one is worse than the other. The shitty XBOX does not have CPU parity with the real one, and it's a serious limitation that effectively means that the "good" Xbox also has that worse CPU in terms of game design. It will obviously still get some games, but it's losing games that it would otherwise get because it has nothing in common with a next gen system.

    Split screen being the specific thing that BG3 is struggling to do isn't the point. It's merely a symptom. For a next gen open world game, split screen BG3 is still not that demanding. The fact that all the real action is turn based makes it far easier to make run than a similarly dense real time game with real time physics demands, and the fact that the Xbox S can't handle it is a very strong example that it's a piece of shit.

    ampersandrew, (edited )
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    Microsoft wouldn't have nearly the install base without the Series S, and developers can either target that platform or not, just like the Switch, because people bought it for its own strengths. If they want to scale their games up to a spec such that it runs on PlayStation but not Xbox, they're welcome to, but they lose access to a large pool of customers, like those who can stomach paying $300 for a console but not $500. There are plenty of other next gen open world games that work on Xbox.

    Also, your analysis on how it should perform isn't really based in reality. We can go to interviews where the Swen Vincke calls out the way their game does split-screen specifically. And besides, at this point, Xbox engineers are involved, and BG3 will run on Xbox, though likely just next year.

    conciselyverbose,

    It has no strengths, and the install base is shit.

    The switch only gets away with being a last gen console because it's a handheld. The Series S has all the performance benefits of a last gen console with the install base of one that released 5 minutes ago.

    There is no "the way they do split screen". BG3 while running split screen is not a game that should make a current gen console struggle in any way. It makes the S struggle because it's not a current gen worth of hardware.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    $300, access to Game Pass, and playing nearly every new game that comes out for far cheaper are its strengths.

    There is no "the way they do split screen".

    This is just a strange argument to make in the face of interviews and contradictory evidence of other modern games running on the Series S.

    ashamam,
    @ashamam@kbin.social avatar

    Its not the CPU that is the issue anyway. Its the memory both size and bandwidth. Microsoft addressed the size somewhat by making some more RAM available but that doesn't address the bandwidth. The issue is developers are hitting limits in shifting assets around as compared to the X. Its why you see significant texture differences and skipped RT in titles.

    I don't have a crystal ball for how it will play out in the second half of the generation but you would have to think it is more likely to become a bigger issue than not. Its also imho another reason why there won't be a Pro series console. More likely they sunset the generation faster instead and just go with a whole new generation that trumps the PS5 pro. Because at least they know that the existence of a PS5 pro extends out the Sony generation enough to give them a window to do this. Or, and this would be a massive shame, this is the last Xbox hardware generation. I don't think its likely but maybe enough generations of trailing marketshare means the bean counters give up on that aspect of it.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    We already saw through court documents that Pro-or-similar consoles are expected. The difference with Microsoft is if they stick to generations like they implied they wouldn't. You could get creative with you how you count Xbox consoles and say, "Here's the Xbox 6X and Xbox 6S", where 6 is a larger number than the PlayStation's 5, which we know is a strategy that works. Out of the gate, very few games would require that larger hardware, and unlike PlayStation, purchasing an Xbox game once gets you the upgraded version on new hardware. I imagined this is the direction they were headed in when this generation was designed, but 2020 sure did change the trajectory of all sorts of things even if I'm right. I also seriously doubt they're interested in leaving the console space given the acquisitions they've made in the past few years.

    maybe enough generations of trailing marketshare

    The 360/PS3 generation was extremely close, and they had the lead for most of it.

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • esport
  • muzyka
  • Pozytywnie
  • giereczkowo
  • Blogi
  • sport
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • rowery
  • krakow
  • tech
  • niusy
  • lieratura
  • Cyfryzacja
  • kino
  • LGBTQIAP
  • opowiadania
  • slask
  • Psychologia
  • motoryzacja
  • turystyka
  • MiddleEast
  • fediversum
  • zebynieucieklo
  • test1
  • Archiwum
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • NomadOffgrid
  • m0biTech
  • Wszystkie magazyny