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iAmTheTot, do games w 'I want to acknowledge that we messed up': NZXT addresses concerns about its controversial Flex gaming PC rental program and commits to taking action

Never buying from NZXT ever again. Trust completely and utterly gone.

paddirn, do games w A Disco Elysium successor studio has been announced for the second time today, meaning there are now 4 companies battling for the title of ZA/UM's true inheritor

I hope they all make a Disco Elysium “sequel”, that was such an awesome game, it should spawn its own genre of gaming.

lemann, do gaming w "Valve is being sued in the UK for $843 million for 'overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position' with Steam"

“Abusing their dominant position” feels a bit far… the competition is just 💩 IMO. Just the fact that EGS practically gives out games for free, and still struggle to penetrate the market, should tell you all you need to know.

Steam provides discussion boards, workshop (mods), cloud saves, a whole console (deck), frequent games sales, achievements, best-in-class refund policy, regional CDNs for faster game downloads, and the list goes on. They even still support the Steam Link box which was discontinued several years ago.

They pretty much go above and beyond the current offerings of any other gaming platform, and have outlasted failed ones like Games For Windows. In the rare case that they do go out of business, there are steam emulators to run your games as long as they do not implement any additional DRM.

It says Valve “forces” game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms.

EGS exclusives are worse, locking a whole other platform out for an entire year. With Steam’s agreement surely you could just run the sale on both platforms at the same time? Anyway, Amazon is well known for doing this, why not take them to court instead?

enabled Steam to charge an “excessive commission of up to 30%”, making UK consumers pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content.

The 30% fee is a bit high, but looking at everything that it pays for, and the contributions to open source, I don’t think it’s too bad. Publishers are also the ones choosing to price their games high, and to create as many DLCs as possible to increase recurring revenue. The ones who want lower fees already sell on EGS IMO…

stickmanmeyhem,

I do think the 30% commission is high. But the problem I see now is, even if the gov’t gets involved and mandates their rev share be lower, game publishers will absolutely not lower their prices to coincide with that. Corps know people are already used to paying pretty exorbitant prices, so they’d happily have the government mandate they make more profit while valve makes less without having to do any work whatsoever.

Iheartcheese,
@Iheartcheese@lemmy.world avatar

Refund policy alone they win. Who else can you take a game back to and just say ‘shit fucking sucks yo’

woodenskewer,
@woodenskewer@lemmy.world avatar

Even going against their own policy and still refunding after the elapsed time has been met

Tyoda,

GOG. 30 days, no questions.

Most devs probably don’t want to sell DRM-free, so unlikely to get mainstream, but a good option when available.

FireTower, (edited )
@FireTower@lemmy.world avatar

From my understanding 30% was the industry standard rate for some time.

Baggie,

Still is to my understanding. I saw someone else point out in a different thread that if they were taking less of a margin, they would still be blamed for anti competitive behaviour for it, as other sites may not be able to support taking less of a percentage. The whole thing smells odd.

affiliate, do gaming w Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive is laying off 5% of its workforce and 'rationalizing its pipeline,' the latest skin-crawling corporate euphemism for people losing their jobs

i wonder how 5% of employees getting laid off will translate into executive bonuses. last year the top 2 guys made $72 million after laying off a bunch of people.

PowerCrazy, do gaming w Phil Spencer blames capitalism for games industry woes: 'I don't get [the] luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business'

I thought companies made money by selling a product to customers? Hmm, seems like there is some kind of contradiction here, perhaps Phil should look into that.

slaacaa,

Investors don’t care about that anymore. Line must go up more and right now. If not, they will replace you with someone who promises to do that.

The best ways to raise stock prices include downsizing, jacking up prices, and cutting product quality to save cost. None of these are even remotely beneficial to the customers.

intensely_human,

It’s like trying to win a rally by removing the brakes from the rally car.

Omega_Haxors, (edited )

It’s not a contradiction at all. Yes CEOs are the main beneficiary of the system but they’re still accountable to shareholders who run on pure capitalism. There’s plenty of examples of CEOs trying to do the right thing only to get sued by the shareholders then kicked out of their jobs. Nothing about corporations inherently needs to be done in a capitalist way, except the fact that publicly traded companies are legally required by law to run as capitalistically as possible, and if you don’t accept Venture Capital or go public, good luck getting anywhere in this system.

Hell, basically the entire premise of syndicalism is to put workers in control of the workplace and let things naturally evolve from there. Once you remove the core pillar holding capitalism up, everything will fall down one by one like dominos. If you want to see a fraction of how that works just look at places with high unionization compared to ones without and it’s like a completely different world.

Kushan,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

You make money by both selling more and spending less.

Think about it, you can have none money left over at the end of the month by working extra hours at your job or by spending less money on something - but what if you can’t work extra hours because there’s none available? And what if you need that extra cash at the end of the month? The only thing you can do is spend less.

Phil is kind of saying the same thing you’re saying here, but it’s not easy to just “sell more”, not when everyone else is struggling to have that extra cash to spend.

The games industry right now, as a whole, isn’t growing. That means companies are selling less. Phil end everyone else would love to sell more, by all means if you’ve got some solid ideas on how to do that then every games industry veteran out there will happily listen to you, but the sad and shitty reality is that sales are down and when you’re a business, if you can’t increase sales you’ve got to cut costs.

And that means job losses. It fucking sucks and we can have debates all day long about the merits of capitalism and all that, but that’s the reality of today. That’s the game. Phil is being honest and up front here, it’s a shitty game but he’s playing it and if he wasn’t playing it, someone else would.

darkphotonstudio,

No. Modern capitalism is about increasing value for shareholders. Customers, quality, morality, etc. aren’t relevant.

intensely_human,

Profit, selling games, and maximizing value for shareholders are all fully correlated, to the point of being the same thing at different stages of the process.

Modern capitalism moves away from all three by focusing instead on current-quarter profit.

intensely_human,

The perception of profit is a more powerful force than actual profit.

Markets select for profit by simply trimming away the things that don’t make profit.

Boards of directors select for the perception of profit by firing CEOs who don’t provide them with that perception.

These systems are both operating. The companies that don’t make a profit will still die. It’s just that under this system, a company that’s on track to making profit can be redirected by a Board onto a path where they aren’t, because of that second mechanism.

therealjcdenton, do games w [PCGamer] Helldivers 2 is the least I've felt pressured to spend money on a game in years, so of course I'm buying everything in the store

Why is there content in the game I paid for that I can’t access without paying even more?

okamiueru,

If you are genuinely asking, I can play Devil’s advocate:

Because then they can set the price at 40 USD, making it more affordable, and possibly make back the difference with some (mostly) cosmetic premium content.

This is not so easy to argue for games that are sold at 70 USD, and premium content is much more tied to gameplay, and all the FOMO dark patterns are turned to max.

Evotech,

Helldivers barely have enough content to justify 40 bucks. It makes up for it in presentation though

blegeg,

Why I think people are praising the helldivers2 monetization is that isn’t the case. The “premium currency” is earnable in game and at a reasonable. I haven’t bought any but still have the battlepass and a few of the premium armors.

You get it as part of the battlepass, and the gameplay loop guides you to the currency. You’ll be looking for ammo or in game currency, and there also happens to be premium currency sometimes. The battlepass not being timed and on a work at your own pace is great too.

It feels fair to me? Like the developer can still make a buck but not ruin the experience. I.e. the monetization lets people pay to instantly gratify if they want vs punish you for not spending.

therealjcdenton,

That fact that you have the option is the problem

BruceTwarzen, do games w You can buy this forgotten '90s shooter from its original website, which is a perfectly preserved time capsule of PC gaming's golden age

Who the fuck descided that this was the golden age of gaming?

torvusbogpod,

Yes I too look nostalgically look back on my games having nothing but beep audio because I didn’t have one of three sound cards my chosen game decided to support

lolcatnip,

Ok but that’s kind of on you for not noticing that everything supported Soundblaster.

ivanafterall,

That was the audio equivalent of RTX ON.

makingStuffForFun, do games w You can buy this forgotten '90s shooter from its original website, which is a perfectly preserved time capsule of PC gaming's golden age
@makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml avatar
kakes,

The “journalist” didn’t even try the demo before writing this. Thanks for the direct link, no point going through the article.

sigmaklimgrindset,

That’s PCGamer for ya

julianh, do gaming w Embracer exec says laying off hundreds of people was an 'agonising process,' but that restructuring is 'how we win'

“Some of you may die”

Redhotkurt,
@Redhotkurt@kbin.social avatar

I know, right? That is some frickin Lord Farquaad shit. What a dickhead!

Satiric_Weasel,

A fuckwad even.

RandoCalrandian,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

I’m totally adding that back into my vocab now 😂

Wish it could sound more like Farquaad, but maybe that on its own is a good enough one. Kinda rolls off the tongue

Renacles, do games w Todd Howard says Starfield was 'made to be played for a long time,' but a month after launch I'm already drifting away

How about we stop posting every clickbait article we find? This literally says nothing.

xT1TANx, do games w I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal

It would not be if most would stop buying pre-orders. However I am so far behind on my gaming library that I just use it to my advantage and wait.

don, do games w Young men are 'playing videogames all day' instead of getting jobs because they can mooch off of free healthcare, claims congressman
@don@lemmy.ca avatar

Another boomer fucking idiot saying idiot fucking boomer shit because idiot fucking boomers voted like boomer fucking idiots.

raynethackery,

He’s fucking Genx, my generation. I hate every GenXer that sold out. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, remember we are fighting class warfare. Don’t let them divide us along generational lines. My good friend is a Boomer and is as liberal as can be. My two coworkers are GenX and both voted for Trump.

don,
@don@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m also genx (xennial if it matters) and I’m referring to the boomer mindset, not the baby boomer generation. There are zoomers who voted for the current fascist regime and baby boomers who voted Harris. I hate generational warfare too, but “boomer” is a convenient term for an appalling mindset that can infect anyone, regardless of generation.

Biskii, do games w The emulator that lets you play NES games in 3D has left early access on Steam

I just gave it a download. Tested Mega Man 2, and now I’m playing Super Mario Bros. It’s really fucking cool

Buske, do games w Nexus Mods' new owners promise they won't monetise the site to death as users panic at the whiff of venture capital

Nexus is dead, Start making a new one.

lechekaflan,
@lechekaflan@lemmy.world avatar

Easy to say, yet so far most of the other modding sites seem to be content sitting on their butts right now.

Building an alternative would take time. And some money.

cybervseas, do games w The Baldur's Gate 3 cast got a new set of pre-painted minis and—oh, oh no, oh no no no

Reminds me of when people share pictures of fast food ads versus the actual food you get served.

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