I feel like Microsoft was their own enemy. They kept slicing off small portions of their market in pursuit of vendor lock-in. Now there is nobody left supporting them.
They ran off even their most loyal players one by one with their asinine moves. Lame games, vendor lockin, nickle and dining.
I was die hard for Xbox. Had every one, dozens of games, more probably. Have fond memories of lan parties and friends coming over to play split screen. I remember playing through halo 3 the night it dropped into the early morning, and getting the beta from Reach.
Then they killed off split screen. And lan gaming. You had to use Xbox live to play with your friend in the room. Oh no they don’t have Xbox live. Oh no there’s an update. Now they don’t have their password. They can’t join my party. The audio doesn’t work. It became a hassle to play with people
Valve really operates in a different market from Microsoft or Sony, but what hurt them was a couple of things:
Repeatedly skipping Gamescom essentially told Sony “Yeah, we don’t care about Europe.” And the sales numbers show it. Sony owns Europe.
No differential between console and PC. Launching the same game at the same time on PC and Xbox doesn’t incentivize people to a) buy games on Xbox or b) develop games on Xbox. Why bother if it’s on PC the same day?
Focusing on digital vs. physical takes games out of stores. On a recent trip to Target they had a nice big Playstation section and a nice big Switch section. Hey? Where are the Xbox games?
Yeah, and what I’m saying is that the original appeal of Xbox was that it brought a PC gaming experience to the living room.
Stuff like hard drives and online multiplayer, that was a PC thing.
Games like Halo, MechWarrior, and Fable—they were more culturally a PC thing. Then Microsoft made it a console thing.
In my opinion, what killed Xbox as a console is that PC gamers no longer felt a need to “go console”. And the only customers left for Xbox were dyed-in-the-wool console gamers.
Which you can’t really build a business off of since even in the best case scenario, consoles sell only 150M units per generation.
The Xbox One should have been a Windows box in a console shell.
I kinda had the opposite experience, I had been a PC gamer for years before the Xbox came out, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Aliens Total Conversion, Hexen, Rise of the Triad, Quake, Unreal…
By then I had kind of burned out on FPS, so when I heard about Halo I was like “I dunno… another FPS…”
Then I played a demo in the store and was like “Shut up and take my money!”
Re 2, I was and am angry about how MS handled the Xbox exclusives. They spent the 90s making games for the pc that were great, and then the Xbox drops and the pc market is ignored for years. “just buy the console” makes no sense when I have a far superior machine right here, and when multi-player is behind a subscription. I was gifted an Xbox a few years after launch, along with Midtown Madness 3, the only game I wanted - and never gave MS a cent of my own money. I stayed on Halo 1 for years, then when Halo 2 finally dropped for the pc, I got it and enjoyed my first playthrough on my computer. My first playthrough of H3, ODST, and 4 weren’t until the MCC dropped on steam. I got Forza bundled with the Xbox, but it wasn’t until Horizon 3 released on pc that I got into it.
I fucking despise the 15-year window where MS just abandoned their loyal customers on pc to milk people with their inferior box and subscription bullshit. The smartest move they have made was re-embrace the pc as a customer base. And 8 year-old me could have told those moronic C-suites in 2001. They isolated a core customer base for short-term profits, and they have earned nothing but resentment for it.
The Xbox should have always been a product for “I don’t understand computers, but I want to play games”, while the pc should have remained a “I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need a walled garden”. MS fucked up massively, and lost out on revenue trying to force their hand for a decade+. The fact that they release on both is nothing but positive, as they get customers from both camps, and they finally are undoing a bit of the hate and resentment they caused.
I hope things get moving in a positive direction for you on the 17th. Until then, I hope your cabin can take your mind off things a bit. Looking forward to the next time you’re able to write!
The GBA SP could not arrive soon enough. Idk how the hell we survived so long on those dim ass screens. Playing outside in broad daylight was the only option.
Just found this post coming from Bluesky. In a sea of AI-written dreck you are a god-send. I really appreciate that you put a ton of work into the article. I will now go read your other articles. :)
Please take care of yourself and get the medical support you need. I still look forward to seeing your contributions in the future.
Edit: forgot to mention that I got Revenge of the Savage Planet SteamWorld Build from the Steam Summer Sale (so far…)
Also Sable from Epic Games. Looking forward to playing them all.
I finally caved and bought Cyberpunk from GOG, to pay on my steam deck.
Might have been better off buying the steam version (same price, I wanted to support the devs and GOG), as I find it kind of hard to get running on my deck.
Installed it with Lutris, Installer downloaded 3 hours and then never finished.
And then I noticed that phantom Liberty is a dlc and not installed by default in the ultimate edition…
When I first started seeing these posts I wondered how long this would go on for. I hope you’re still having fun and I’m excited to see the streak hit a whole year! (Fingers crossed)
Camouflage detection becomes easier with high-contrast digital imaging. Subtle movements and inexpensive night vision heat differences are more noticeable, helping to uncover hidden enemies and providing an edge in jungle or desert terrains.
Thanks for the reminder to pick up Sable. I had already bought it on GOG when it came out and played on another type of handheld, the GPD Win Max and didn’t have any performance issues really. I loved the movement and exploration and obviously the visuals. To me it had the great feeling movement of BOTW, without the bad combat. Highly recommended.
Speaking of Playnite, that’s what I was using when I had the GPD Win Max as my game library manager and I really miss it. Now that I basically only play on Steam Deck, I miss its UI. I love the simplicity of remapping controls with the Steam Deck and it’s a much more comfortable device, but Steam is a worse client. I’m really looking forward to the Linux release so then I can use it on my laptop too.
On the topic of Steam Deck, how reliably do the GOG achievements and cloud saves work with Heroic Launcher? I’ve been using Non-Steam game launcher for Non-Steam games, but it doesn’t always add the game reliably to Steam so I’m stuck doing it manually.
Finally, I’ve just started buying games I already own and love on different store fronts, that way I give more money to developers I like and not feel like I’m missing out on the sale while at the same time not having to feel bad for buying new games I don’t have time to play. That said, I bought third copies of Tux and Fanny and Sumatra: The Fate of Yandi on GOG and picked up the Case & Consequence Collection Bundle on Humble Bundle for BROK the Investigator and Heavy Rain
On the topic of Steam Deck, how reliably do the GOG achievements and cloud saves work with Heroic Launcher? I’ve been using Non-Steam game launcher for Non-Steam games, but it doesn’t always add the game reliably to Steam so I’m stuck doing it manually.
I’ve had some bad blood with the ‘developer’ of NSL in the past. But that’s all ancient history. My main issue with NSL (still to this day) is that it has everything installed under one prefix. This is just insane to me, if one thing goes wrong…everything disappears. But, of course it’s all personal choice and lots of people enjoyed using it before NSL got kicked off Decky Loader, publicly denounced by Kyle (developer of Bazzite) added religious scripture to his work, generally proved themselves to be a shitty person.
Anyway! On to Heroic:
Achievements:
GOG achievements work flawlessly. My good friend imLinguin is in charge of the GOG integration on Heroic, and his work with Comet (how the achievements are logged) is amazing! There’s no on-screen pop up for the achievement, but it is logged on your profile on GOG’s site, as is your playtime.
Adding the game to Steam:
Its in the settings - automatically add the game to Steam, and it’ll do it for you! As well as populate the game with all the required artwork for the title (capsule, capsule wide, logo etc). It does require a restart however to add it to your Steam game library - under non Steam games tab!
Cloud Saves:
They’ve not failed me yet, but the team and imLinguin do warn that it is not finalized yet. It’s ‘experimental’ - that being said, it’s perfect for me. It ‘just works’. Once you set it in the game’s settings you can double-checl (if you like) on the GOG site: www.gog.com/account/cloud-saves/page/1 - you’ll see it listed once it is done and you know you’re safe!
^ Here’s an example of the last game I played via Heroic - TOEM, and the saves were uploaded and are sitting there nicely :)
Lastly if you’re super curious, my friend Gardiner has a server on Revolt where quite a few dev friends of mine, including imLinguin drop by now and then to share their news and work and chat. You could ask him in the server if you’ve any questions! Here’s the link to the Revolt server, if you’re wanting to see!
Just chill in the cabin with some chicken soup as much as needed, and comeback to your happily rambles whenever you feel like it. Btw, have you finished God of War by now?
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