Platform lock-in sucks, and it would be nice if a ruling on one of these became legal precedent so that console players also got a choice on their digital purchases.
How is Embracer group a decentralized studio model? When ever I look them up I don’t get much information. I just hear them buying studios then shutting them down.
Each publisher operates independently. So far, to my knowledge, they've shut down studios that were spun up to work that $2B deal that fell through; and Volition, who haven't made a hit game in a decade.
This is actually new. They very rarely shut down studios until last month.
When THQ fell apart a about a decade ago, they bought the trademark and were doing business as THQ Nordic for quite a while.
Changed their name to Embracer a few years ago for clarity because, confusingly, one of their publishing arms is THQ Nordic GmbH.
As THQ Nordic (and later Embracer), they’ve been buying up studios (and IPs) for years. Being a holding company meant they were relatively hands off when it comes to development.
Being bought by them actually majorly increased job security, because they tended to just let studios do their shit, and kind of “understood” that a lot of their studios focus on relatively niche audiences, so they didn’t mind taking a financial hit here and there.
All that really mattered was whether or not the IP in general was profitable.
Then they had some sort of deal fall through or something earlier this year and that’s when things got a little shaky. Basically, they lost a couple billion dollars and now need to make “cost-saving measures”.
Now the commercial failures and lack of interest in certain IPs means less job security than it did about a year ago.
This makes me worried about Eidos Montréal and Crystal Dynamics. Particularly Deus Ex, since it was looking like Eidos might eventually get to finish its Human Revolution/Mankind Divided trilogy.
Their strategy was always diversifying in ways that other big publishers stopped diversifying, buying old neglected and mismanaged IPs for pennies on the dollar. If this strategy doesn't work, then I weep for what video games could have been, because this lack of diversification is why I can't get a decent racing game or first person shooter anymore.
Yeah, I was really happy when they got Eidos and Crystal Dynamics out of Square’s hands. Deus Ex continuation finally looked like a possibility.
Losing Eidos would be especially bad for those of us who are fans of immersive sims.
And with Deep Silver, they excelled in giving us the great Eurojank RPGs we know and love (I’ll still die on the hill that Risen is an entertaining trilogy, probably because of the major tone shift after the first game).
I always treat Wikipedia as a first stop for a general overview under the caveat that not all information may be accurate or complete. From there, I typically use google to look up more info on specific events and such, or sometimes check the referenced sources if they’re available.
Screw anyone who says Stardew Valley is a cozy game. If I don’t water my plants they die! If I stay up too late I’ll lose money! I can’t get the fish I need unless I fish at 6pm in the mountain lake on a rainy Tuesday in winter! Abigail has once again dominated me at the egg hunt! Ahhhhh!
I say this with all the kindness in my heart. If stardew valley estresses you out, then the problem is not the videogame. Your perfectionism and minmaxing POV might be what’s causing the anxiety and you would feel anxious and estressed in most other activities as well.
I have had many thoughts along the lines of “how can I fully optimise my cellar” and “dino eggs are worth more money than dino mayo” and it just sucks all the wonder out of the game
We call those intrusive thoughts. The answers are literally meaningless. There’s no punishment or failure state on stardew valley, it cannot hurt you. Full optimization is not something that exist in or has any impact on the game at all.
To be honest, most of the games I’ve played in the past 5+ years since I’ve started to get back into the hobby are stressful in various ways. That doesn’t mean they aren’t “quelling” stress and anxiety for me, just that when I’m playing them, they stress me out and give me anxiety.
Take for instance my current game du jour: Doom 2016. When battles are going, I’m for sure sweating and amped up, stressed, anxious, and what have you. It’s anything but relaxing while playing. But still quite enjoyable.
So, perhaps the “quelling” comes after? A bit like a workout, where you’re hyped up and exerting yourself, but after the fact you mellow out and relax?
I go into a meditative, Zen-like Trance playing the Doom titles.
For reference, I’ve been playing Doom since it came out in 1993, arguably, I’ve played it for more hours than possibly anyone alive on the Internet at the present moment. Maybe over a solid 128,000 hours between D1/D2/D3/D2016/D:Eternal.
I still play it, various MegaWADS featured in the CacoAwards, and whatnot, but I digress.
My feeling with this is, as they’d say:
“Your judgement for the sin of wrath is an eternity in Hell”.
“Why are you smiling? It’s supposed to be a punishment.”
“No, adjudicator, I heard you perfectly. An eternity in paradise.”
If you like the stress of combat, and as much as you say “quelling”, I must recommend Warhammer 40k Darktide. Since the last big content patch in ~October that pretty much finally brought it to 1.0, it has essentially been the roguelite, frenetic FPS I’ve been searching for. High skill ceiling, skill-based movement system, target prioritization is paramount, tons of play styles with builds and classes. Give it a shot. Do some ripping and tearing for the emperor.
They’re playing less AAA games, yes. People are thinking much harder about the $60+ price tag as AAA studios repeatedly fail to live up to their promises. I feel like Nintendo is the only AAA company that doesn’t have a losing record for the past ~5 years
According to EA, people want more large open worlds, multiplayer, and existing IPs so they want to do double down on that. This is from the company who released immortal of averum and wild hearts which barely ran at launch and then they wonder why people don’t like any of their new IPs
And according to Ubisoft, people want always-on live-service AAAAAAA $99 deluxe edition games stuffed absolutely full of microtransactions, loot boxes, daily exclusive rewards, kermel level root kits DRM, Ubisoft connect exclusive, nightmare shitfests that you don’t really own anyway.
„Przede wszystkim Polska stoi dziś przed wyzwaniem związanym ze starzejącą się siecią energetyczną, a zwłaszcza z przestarzałą siecią przesyłową. To właśnie ona stanowi główną barierę dla szybkiego rozwoju zielonej energii i integracji nowych źródeł prosumenckich” – znów Magdalena Dziewguć. „Kluczowe jest więc wdrożenie warstwy danych i inteligentnego zarządzania, które pozwoli na bieżąco monitorować stan sieci i optymalizować jej działanie”.
To brzmi wręcz komicznie – rozwiązaniem na problem starzejącej się sieci przesyłowej nie jest jej rozbudowa, tylko… uruchomienie niezwykle energożernych usług po to, by tę sieć „zoptymalizować”?
Gdy ma się do dyspozycji tylko młotek, każdy problem wygląda jak gwóźdź – brzmi angielskie przysłowie. Google ma do pompowania bajerę AI, więc każdy problem musi mieć rozwiązanie w postaci AI.
„Dla Google’a to nie jest nowość. W ramach globalnej infrastruktury stworzyliśmy własną, zaawansowaną sieć energetyczną, dzięki której nasze usługi, takie jak YouTube, wyszukiwarka czy Mapy Google, są dostępne dla miliardów użytkowników na całym świecie bez zakłóceń” – kontynuuje swoją wypowiedź szefowa Google Cloud Polska. Niecałe pół roku po tym, gdy usługi Google Cloud doświadczyły poważnych zakłóceń w Europie.
reuters.com
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