This isn’t new, but maybe it’s been forgotten since online matchmaking. The original Starcraft could be installed as the full version which required a CD and a CD key to run, or as a version that didn’t require a CD or a key and could only by used to join multiplayer games.
I remember the DS had a similar feature. You could connect to people nearby and they could download the game and play with you. It was super cool, and I hope this becomes more common.
Yup, me and my sister did occasional Pokemon battles/trading and Mario Kart races with each other using the Download Play or whatever it was called. I think even 3DS had it, or something similar to that effect. I just wish I had enough friends who actually played Pokemon back then, cause at my elementary school only one friend had a 3DS and played Pokemon. Everyone else was too busy trying to be “cool” and play GTA and CoD 😮💨
The baffling thing about RoP is that they had a budget multiple times greater than the Jackson movies and still made substantially worse looking armor and weapons.
Like, forget the scripting issues, how do you not just hire as many of the same companies as you can find?
I thought the first season had its moments but some of those armors… Oof.
That wasn’t the case. In 2023 dollars, the LotR trilogy had a budget of around $513 million, eventually resulting in about 12 hours of finished product. RoP has a budget of about $150m for around 9 hours. So the trilogy spent $42m per hour compared to RoP’s $16m per hour.
It’s very simple, really. The meteoric rise of the gaming industry is unparalleled in entertainment so of course it quickly attracted an entourage of greedy finance people with dollar bills in their eyes who wouldn‘t even think of touching a controller or even watch a game trailer. They‘re in it for the money and think in numbers and spreadsheets. That‘s the root of many problems plaguing AAA studios today.
You would think a game journalist would at least have heard of Luna though. Even when it was dead on arrival.
the problem is, they see the market like its a brand recognition situation, which pc gamers it isnt exactly that. PC gamers are very incentive based buyers and will opt for something else if the incentive is “worth it” for them. the problem is, most platforms are really terrible at generating this incentive for consumers. GOG does with drm. free content, and to a lesser extent, epic does it with free games and tight unreal integration.
I’ll give an example that wont happen because someone looking at the numbers wont let it happen. Amazon for example could easily develop a propietary media reader, and invest in a physical media printing line, and basically become the defacto publisher for physical pc releases if they wanted to, giving PC players a HUGE incentive on buying on their platform (enabling the buying, selling, and trading of used games on pc), and could easoly also be the platform that buy/sells used copies. we all just know they wont because they dont want any of the risk and cost associated on doing so.
If Gaben wasn’t in it for the money, he wouldn’t be able to afford a fleet of 6 mega yatchs worth 1 billion and costing him 100 million per year just to maintain. He grabs 30% and enjoys his soft monopoly just like every other big videogame store.
A lot of that 30% goes to things other digital stores aren’t even close to offering. Also, if your game does well enough the cut Steam takes is lowered, albeit this only really happens for very successful games.
It seems he wasn’t banned from Fortnite, just from participating in tournaments. So he may very well cheat in fortnite again, as his account wasn’t banned.
Being said, nice of them to donate the winnings to charity, half expected them to just keep the money.
I’m all for competition and against forced DRM. But the PC gaming service ʀᴇᴅᴀᴄᴛᴇᴅ that you’re referring to offers genuinely good services on top of just accessing games - social platform, (voice) chat, remote play (together), streaming video to friends, communities, easy access to mods, linux support, makes multiplayer easy, etc…
So are most services and then at some point do some type of rug pull with BS EULA changes, etc. that change the functionality of what you’re using. This is prevailant in everything now a days. I’d say with Steam the writing is on the walls. They have so much power in the PC gaming market (like with the examples you gave) it’s only a matter of time.
I do see how useful and user friendly those services you mentioned are
GOG has no DRM. Once purchased you can download the files and own it. You could even write your games to CDs if you wanted and play like the old days.
Edit. I was setting up a new laptop for my Dad. I remembered we used to play an old fighter jet game when I was young. I looked it up and found out it was Falcon 3. I then found GoG sells it. So I purchased it on my account and loaded it onto his computer with no reference to GoG, no clients, etc. It was a surprise for him when he got his new computer.
I own a lot of games on GoG, but I fail to see the practical difference. If GoG were to go under, there’s not going to be any free service hosting all your data and the games for download. It all disappears, just like if Steam were to go under.
The difference is that if you have your files you still can play the games if GoG goes under, while steam games will be unplayable because they need to communicate to steam (or have steam offline on your PC). I heard that steam drm is easy to remove but I don’t have much knowledge in that regard
If steam goes under, a significant portion of your steam games won’t launch anymore, period. If GOG goes under, you can still use 100% of their installers, provided you still have them backed up. No, they are not going to be able to do that step for you. Did the store you bought physical games from put your discs in storage for you, so they wouldn’t clog up your basement? Did they give you a new copy if you lost or threw out your disc and then changed your mind?
The vast majority of digital purchases are licenses, this isn’t something new or unique to Steam. Digital purchases where you actually own the product are more the exception than the rule.
So what do you suggest? Gog is not a contender for me unless they add equivalent regional pricing (in my region), payment options, Linux support (proton), mod workshop, easy multiplayer connectivity, community pages like guides, friend list with messaging and voice chat, etc. Would love to get things on gog but the only thing it has going is DRM free and a ton more negatives. If steam were to rug pull or whatever then I would just go back to the seas.
That’s unfortunate to hear. I doubt anything will compete with Steam with all the things you want. People need to choose to put value where it really matters and have some inconveniences. Pirating certainly won’t get you what you want. Supporting DRM free services (and the games devs) will do more good. You could download your GoG games through the Heroic launcher and it’ll use wine proton (or whatever it’s called). Also Nexus mods has a new mod manager that’ll work on Linux but it’s only in alpha stage currently.
I don’t mind the lack of launcher too much as I already use heroic and have a couple of free gog and epic games there. The biggest blocker for me rn is the payment options and not so great regional pricing compared to steam. It seems to have improved but still not enough so maybe they it will get better in a couple years.
Edit: One more thing. It’s not that I don’t want to support gog but I actually want to support steam for what they did for Linux and still be relatively consumer friendly. I wouldn’t even be using Linux right now if it wasn’t for proton.
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