I bought them ages ago and let me tell you, crazy taxi without the offspring is just not the same. Borrowing the original versions for free from the internet is the only way to go.
I am pretty sure I picked up the Android version for free a few years ago and it had The Offspring but I installed it just now and it’s gone. It’s also now talking about ads and data collection so I assume the original build has been unavailable for a while.
Which is a bit ironic, considering all of these are in two compilation packs.
They’re probably going to have a new compilation pack that costs about the same price and has a few additional games…but they didn’t want to just sell DLC/standalone games for the Collections that already exist.
And actually, a lot of these games that are getting delisted can be purchased separately. And maybe even have ROMs that are easily extracted. So maybe they just want to lock things down into an all-or-nothing ROMs-hidden collection or 10.
Exactly, they announced earlier this year that they were working on reviving a bunch of licences, including Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and hinting at a longer list. We don’t know yet eactly how many titles that includes, and which of them will get remakes, remasters, or brand new games, but it was hinting brand new. Early dev footage was leaked at some point for Crazy Taxi and Shinobi.
They already did this with the classic Sonic games (Sonic Origins) and removed them from any new Steam copies of the Genesis/Mega Drive Classics collection. I doubt they’re working on all the games in their library, but it may be enough of them that they just decided to pull the whole collection rather than leave it so gutted out. Sucks, but yeah, that’s the way it goes. That said, Shining Force remaster please? That would be awesome.
I wonder if it's a licensing thing. I know a few of these games had heavy use of licensed music, like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxy. At least, the original versions did, I'm not sure if that's the case for the Steam ports.
It's likely just meaning new compilations coming down the line as there is zero cost and zero maintenance for them to keep the games up otherwise and is entirely passive income.
I'm talking purely about the work needed to be done on the Steam backend and such. Also in this case, most of these old games - minus Crazy Taxi and perhaps one or two other Dreamcast games - don't have licensed music.
No, you need to install them as well. It’ll work as long as it’s installed, but after they’re delisted, I don’t think steam can even distribute them.
I know I have at least one game “grid: race driver” that was delisted from steam, at some point I must have uninstalled it, and now I can’t download it, it doesn’t even show up in my library. I’ve been trying like hell to find a way to play it, but even pirated versions are being difficult.
Edit: judging from comments and downvotes, apparently this is rare? But it does definitely happen, I’m not making this example up. And I don’t know how you could predict whether a game will just be unavailable for purchase or totally disappear…
It’s extremely rare for a delisted game to be removed from your library, and they only do it in cases where, for instance, the game would literally be unplayable because the server isn’t there anymore. Often times they won’t remove the game from your library in that situation either. Having the game in your library is, in fact, enough.
This is not the case with the sega games we’re talking about. The announcement specifically mentions the games will still be available to download if you bought them before the delisting.
Removing games from player inventory is very rare; I’ve only seen it happen when malware is uploaded to Steam as a game.
I have a few games that can’t be played anymore, like Super Bomberman R Online and The Crew. I still can download their files from Steam; but I can’t play them.
But now I’m curious too, what could’ve happened that got that game removed from the people who bought the game
I’m a bit curious too. My theory is that it may have come down to licensing and trademark issue. Since the game used actual car brands and their logos and such, they may have had some agreement over their usage and perhaps the period of that agreement ended. It’s worth noting that the game was available from several different stores, and it became unavailable everywhere as far as I know.
Even when that agreement expires (see blur as a race game example), the game typically isn’t removed from libraries.
As for your game I think archive.org has a copy listed ( archive.org/details/race-driver-grid_202112 ), it says it’s a GOG copy so it shouldn’t give any issues, does it give any? (Do not click the spam comments, check the download options and pick either zip or torrent)
That’s the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Classics collection. I have it myself (bought several years ago). It’s just an official emulator/GUI wrapper (styled like a bedroom with a CRT) that comes with the games. If you have the collection you can find all the ROMs in the collection’s folder and play them with whatever emulator you want. If Steam ever threatens to take them away I strongly recommend backing that folder up somewhere.
That’s games that you can and do buy of Steam. Delisting changes nothing except that you won’t be able to give them money in exchange for not owning the games.
Sometimes they’re not on gog and I want to play them. Other times it’s 4$ on steam and 50$ on gog. I’ll buy it for 4 on steam so I can play it, then wait for the sale on gog down the road.
That piece of shit doesn’t have rules anymore. He bought a seat at the table, and he’s going to do whatever he pleases, and I’m betting the rest of us can get fucked if we don’t like it. I hate this America.
Yeah but the consoles still have to be cheap enough for people like me not making the jump to PC gaming.
So I’d say they have to be careful about the hardware price compared to a PC.
Nothing beats the ease of use of a console, but I can tell you that if prices starts getting close, I’d pribably buy a PC that I can use for way more than gaming and watching movies.
It seems the model of subsidized hardware is coming to an end.
New semiconductor fab nodes are becoming more and more expensive. And on the flip side improvements in graphics are becoming more computationally difficult while being less substantial compared to earlier console generations.
PC gaming has also somewhat revitalised over the past ~10 years and more and more PCs are benefiting from “good enough” iGPUs (10 years ago even top iGPUs could not be used for even more moderately demanding games).
Oh yeah, they will still have "cheap" ones, but they will make these "Pro" versions more and more expensive.
PCs are a lot easier to use than they used to be, you don't have to mess around like you used to, just the initial setup (which is done for you if you buy a prebuilt one anyway).
But yeah, the initial cost puts people off, even though the long term savings are incredible. Ignoring the cheaper cost of games, just from the console online subscriptions over 5 years, you are saving over $400 (and the last generation of consoles was 8 years, so that's well over $600 of savings).
I'd highly recommend anyone tries PC, you have so much more freedom than you do on a console. There's a reason the PC market share is growing so fast.
I’ve enjoyed how I can still play the games I first got on my PC were increased resolution and fps by just going to the settings instead of begging for devs to push an update. Also not being rendered unplayable on new hardware like on my older consoles. For longevity my PC games have aged really nicely compared to the games I got for consoles over the generations.
Yeah the subscription costs alone pay for the difference between the hardware for the PC and the console, they average 6 or 7 years between releases and the subscription cost is 70 a year, so That’s $420 over the six year period and when the console is $700 that means your budget for a PC would be 1,100, and that’s not including the fact that games very rarely go on sale on Console like they do in PC you don’t have the ability to do much gray Market side and you have no control over the system.
Myself for example, I spent between 1,100 and 1,200 on a PC back in 2016 that’s almost 10 years ago now I’ve upgraded my Hardware a few times, each time averaging about $200. But that was because I chose to I only really would need to have upgraded once and it would have been about a $400 upgrade, I’m spending less upgrading my system I would if I bought a console every time it released, and I have the capability of doing whatever the hell I want on my computer and I don’t have the financial drain of the subscription
Honestly I have to disagree with consoles being ease of use these days, especially if you like really long sessions.
I have to restart games or reboot the console way more often than I feel should be necessary at this point.
And installing from discs takes forever if you even do physical, but then you need the disc in to run it for whatever dumbfuck anti-piracy reason. I won’t pay for digital, at that point you might as well be on pc, it’s the same thing, and since this generation is probably the last with physical media, I’m out…
The hardware hasn’t been sold at a loss for years now though, the last console that they actually sold at a loss was the base ps3 which for 4 years even with accessory sales still didn’t break even, the PS4 had broken even by the 6-month Mark and the PS5 broke even by the 8th month mark
I assume with the PS5 Pro being $200 more, it’s going to break even by the two or three month mark
edit: added ps3 after base, apperently somehow deleted that
Considering that the standard PS5 is still selling for higher than its launch price 4 years later (despite still facing challenges building up an exclusive library to justify the cost), I’d say that people are just dumb and will pay any price to have their shiny gaming console.
arstechnica.com
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