The Microsoft Store and how to redeem games is so mind-numbly stupid. GamePass wowed me with their library and the subscription service. But how they do everything, from DRMing their games in a absolute mindfuckery app folder, to locking it into your Microsoft account and ecosystem, was so frustrating. Modding? Eat a Microdick. Hell, save files don’t even transfer between Steam and Microsoft GamePass games because FUCK YOU PLAYERS.
I’m glad Steam was extremely proactive at moving off of Windows.
Well large corporations are at least 50% dead weight by volume, weighted overwhelmingly in management and at the executive level. So naturally it’s the ones doing all the ACTUAL work who get terminated whenever the line isn’t going up hard enough. Capitalism folks, it’s doomed us all and there’s no way we can fix it and those who could never will.
It becomes even more confusing when you think about the fact that the Xbox One is not the Xbox 1, which was just the Xbox. And that the Xbox One X, the souped up version of the Xbox One, can be abbreviated as the XBOX, which again, is not the original Xbox.
Not really. If you were going to buy an xbox, you would either just buy the cheaper version, the more expensive version assuming its just better, or look up the difference.
“Starting with Studios, the $400 million+ year-over-year decline during Q1 was primarily due to the very tough comp we faced in games against the success of Hogwart’s Legacy last year in the first quarter, in conjunction with the disappointing Suicide Squad release this past quarter, which we impaired, leading to a $200 million impact to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) during the first quarter,” CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during the investor call after the report was published.
This doesn't line up at all with what Insider Gaming wrote. I don't think they know how to interpret company financials.
Costing revenue itself is a questionable phrase. A game can miss its revenue target, but that's not the same thing. Here it looks like earnings were lower by $200M due in part to more than $400M lower revenue comparing to a Q1 2023, which had the Hogwarts Legacy release.
So basically the single player offline game made bank, but they keep pushing this live service crap thinking it’s going to be the next GTA online and not what 90% of the live service crap ends up being.
This is a very good point. It also shows the delusion of the executives, thinking that their next shitty looter shooter will become the new Fortnite, not understanding the oversaturation of the market. People have limited hours to play per day, the only way they can play your game is if they stop playing something else.
That’s the thought process, and it’s also what’s going to bring a lot of these companies down. Their shitty game isn’t going to beat the odds when all the other shitty games are also being pushed. Their chance of success and potential return figures are likely off by a large margin.
Edit: For example, Overwatch, which has actually hit the mainstream and has a fairly large player base, I think still isn’t profitable.
Yeah, I think the first few years were profitable (excluding Overwatch League), but OW2 for sure hasn’t been. I don’t think OW1 was by the end either. They had no way to make more money and it was a one time purchase. The switch to OW2 sucks, and it was exploitative as fuck and full of lies, but they did need some form of continuous revenue stream. It just wasn’t the greedy way they went about it, pushing everyone away.
Good demonstration of the current quality of journalism. “Cost X in revenue” doesn’t make any sense, as cost and revenue are the exact opposite things, the difference of which (if I simplify) make up the EBITDA that the quote from the company actually referenced for the 200 M USD negative impact.
I’m not expecting a game journalist be an ACCA certified accountant, but should be at least able to write an accurate title based on the available quotes and information.
Also to promote a sense of community and close cooperation we’re moving to an open office plan. (I.e. packed in like sardines to glorified picnic tables with hot seating and noise everywhere.)
How is nobody talking about this, from the article?
It was also referenced that this will be the case for Jet Set Radio, which will also receive a remake of its own before securing a live service reboot. In an exclusive reveal, Midori claimed that the reboot will feature ‘shooting elements’ and will be like Fortnite in its design. It’ll reportedly feature an open-world ‘concept’ with a solid focus on exploration as an all-new story unravels.
So Jet Set Radio is going to get the same treatment? Wow. It’s hard to imagine my excitement for either game being killed so efficiently and instantly. Those MBAs sure got it all figured out.
Why would they put any kind of combat in Jet Set? The originals didn’t have any combat, other than shoving down cops and spraying them with paint. The same thing is true for BRC which came out last August.
Apparently, it’s like Smash Bros in the Ubisoft universe, except it’s a first-person shooter.
So, you got different factions from Far Cry, Splinter Cell etc. with which you can play…
If nothing else, it is kind of fun that they’ve merged universes a bit.
In Watch Dogs Legion, DedSec is contacted by the Assassin Order who needs their help taking down Templars that are working with Albion - basically merging protagonists/villains of both series.
Ghost Recon has also previously guest starred Sam Fisher and operators from Siege.
It sounds a little novel if nothing else, I hope it picks up :-)
Man, all business/capitalism/personality-politics stuff aside, it must suck to be a developer, artist, writer, actor etc on something for years, pour your heart into it for a solid percentage chunk of your remaining lifespan on this Earth, and then have it fall flat.
Especially if it’s not so much the thing you made, but stuff outside of your control that’s holding it back. Lacklustre marketing for example - I hadn’t even heard of this.
Yeah, I had to figure out what it really is from Wikipedia and my two reactions were:
Ubisoft has a ‘universe’? Huh, I guess, they do have a few franchises there.
That actually sounds reasonably interesting. At least it’s not just yet another uninspired shooter.
And like, yeah, lacklustre marketing puts it quite well. I had heard of XDefiant before, but all I got from that was that it’s a shooter, which made me fall asleep immediately.
Had they sold it as “You ever wanted to pit the Splinter Cell guy against the Far Cry bandits?”, I would have at least remembered it.
But to be fair, a lot of games are currently coming out. It is difficult to be seen for pretty much all titles…
Ubisoft’s free version of COD. I tried it as a friend was raving about it, tbh it’s a fine game if somebody likes this style. The character’s from the Ubi universe are just a gimmick, most play the same
My hope, though I'm keeping my expectations low, is that since these supposed live-service games will be supposedly releasing alongside remakes of the original games the IP is based on, that if the remakes sell significantly better than the live service games it might hopefully inform better decision-making around them.
While they haven't been controversy-free in terms of their monetization practices, Sega has released a slew of back-to-back AAA games: Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Sonic Frontiers, that have generally been complete, single-purchase packages (with a few questionable omissions from base game moved to DLC that I'd consider "regular bad", but not anywhere near the level of egregious monetization seen in most live-service games).
In the string of images uploaded online, we get a look at file repositories, a rough map of the proposed Moon location, and shots of some early conceptual images and set pieces. As the story goes, CDPR originally intended for the Moon to be a featured location in the base game but recognised that it was too ambitious a goal, so they cut the content and instead decided to use it for an expansion – which ultimately never surfaced.
Cyberpunk 2077’s development has officially ended, so there’s no chance this will ever see the light of day.
The title suggests that there are files for an actual expansion, half-finished and unpublished.
Because that's exactly what this is. Click through to the source linked in the article, which is a 4chan thread. It's quite a bit more than just concept art, there are actual world map files that were extracted. The files, themselves, aren't made available, but the OP of the thread posted several screenshots of these assets rendered in-engine with a dev build of the game. There appears to have been quite a significant amount of development that was put into this unused area of the game.
Those are still what I would consider “sketches”. Just not the two-dimensional kind.
There are a couple more detailed assets, but tubes and boxes laying out locations, interiors and buildings is something you do when still exploring ideas and don’t want to lock anything down.
The written material suggests the writers got the furthest into it. But this is very much planning, not production.
It also says that they might have planned a second expansion featuring it. Doesn’t really say when the content was made, just that it would have been DLC.
This seems suspiciously like a “save game” feature. Many games even auto-save which functions suspiciously like what they are describing as a “trigger point”.
While I am sure this is new and innovative, it still reminds me of when pyramid schemes mostly converted to MLM terminology. I had a friend that tried to convince me that MLM wasn’t a pyramid. So, I had him draw their sales hierarchy on a sheet of paper for me…
Yes. And this description gives me Alone in the Dark (2007) vibes: they explicitly stylized chapters and subchapters as episodes on dvd. Would they make something original to build a game around this idea? Would it be linear-only, for games like TLOU with limited choices? Or it’s just about patenting everything that’s not nailed down?
I think it would only stand out if you would be able to rewind and passively watch the in-engine recording of your whole previous gameplay (like in cybersports, or clip editors in some games), with an option to jump in at some sections. But it’s a little too much to implement smoothly, having no reason.
By pure chance, I am watching Edge of Tomorrow as we type. (It’s a Tom Cruise time loop movie, if you haven’t seen it.)
A game with a story line built around that concept would be very interesting, for sure. However, the old Sierra adventure games came to mind, specifically Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, where you just had to keep trying different things until you didn’t die. It was fun back in the day, but it got old really quick.
Implemention in a sports game is a cool idea, though.
The author is basing this claim on feedback from FIVE people who have been playing the game. If Bethseda are only expecting a similar number to play it once it’s released, then this is a useful metric. Otherwise it’s meaningless.
During this hearing, it was revealed by psychiatrist Dr Claudia Camden-Smith that during an assessment, Kurtaj had stated his intention to return to his life of crime upon being released.
Whatever happened to psychiatrist-patient privacy and all that?
This isn't "his doctor". It's an independent doctor making an evaluation for the purpose of determining if he's competent to stand trial. It's not private.
You can’t learn something if you don’t ask. Never put someone down for seeking information. That’s how you get people who are too self-conscious to ask basic questions, go through their lives knowing nothing and being mistaken for idiots.
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