I did some of my gaming for like 2 years for basically free thanks to Google’s refund, and got free gaming hardware (controllers)… call me an idiot or call me a genius, but, that was a heck of a deal.
Honestly I really like Play Pass on android. Mostly because it’s only 3usd here thanks to regional pricing and there’s a lot of great value! My issue is that Google generally sucks at keeping things going so I’d never invest anything beyond that with them.
My Steam account from 2006 is still going, all of the games work, it’s mostly the same platform but better. I don’t think Google can match that.
This. Valve is doing a lot of good. People can claim they are doing a lot of bad as well but I can’t mention many companies with purity from top to bottom.
Another article mentioned that this guy is now working for Tencent (announced in 2022). Before becoming yet another Galactus in the industry, Tencent is originally an online service provider and (mostly) an ad company.
What about barbarians trying to ruin the glorious video game empire now?
Funny how this small detail doesn’t show up in that article, where he’s only “ex-Sony boss”.
I left the living room window open for 5 minutes for fresh air.. Fucken ten cent was sat on the sofa enjoying my coffee, petting my fucken dogs be time I came back.
In gaming? Netflix is definitely at the gate with the current options they have. Apple as well with their Arcade service. Google and Amazon keep coming back but never stay long, I’m not even sure they should be in the conversation.
Tencent has been in gaming for a long time now, they’ve owned Riot since 2011. They’ve had their hand in other gaming companies many times since then. They’re well past the gate, it’s not even in their rear view anymore.
“Or”? I’d rather have the consoles makers and game developers working independently so that we don’t have to wait twenty years for Crash Bandicoot to become available on Nintendo. Fuck Amazon but Sony isn’t looking out for the gamer when they make Spider-Man a PS exclusive.
The main problem is that its not enough to be competitive with Steam at this point... you need to put out something so good that it give people enough of a reason to leave the comfort of Steam... you need Steam and then another layer of goodness on top of Steam.
This is the same issue that a lot of MMOs had when trying to become a WoW killer. You not only needed to have pretty much everything Blizzard put into the game, but more on top because otherwise why would anyone bother to leave the comforts of Azeroth to play something that is maybe marginally better, or a possibly worse experience?
Yeah... A new store would need to have a handful of killer apps and significant feature superiority over Steam, all on release, just to have a chance at being a successful competitor. And it would probably need to maintain that momentum for a decent amount of time, and it would probably also need a fuckup on Valve's part.
Freakin EA didn't achieve it, freakin Sony didn't bother trying it, Epic dropped a fuckton of cash just to barely move the needle. I can't imagine what it would take.
Well, maybe? A Steam competitor could try what Epic did and offer better deals. This time to publishers and players if they actually want customers. Or they could try to offer things Steam doesn't. Or they could just try for parity and see if it works? We haven't seen a platform with parity yet so maybe people would want a new option?
The thing is Amazon dosent exatcly need to be competetive.heck they could make it basicaly a Amazon prime semi-exclusive platform for games basicaly competing with xbox game pass instead of steam or with both of them at once
My guess it’s just an internal name to boost morale, inside joke sort of thing. Many software projects do that. Would be funny if that was the name though
They already have one where the put most of the prime games called “Amazon Games App”. So if “Vapor” is something new it is more of another another launcher.
If they however just update the game app to also be a store front, it be fine I guess. I’m not thrilled about everyone needing there own launcher, but Amazon already has one, so can’t really blame them for spicing it up a bit, to be at they other launchers level.
The only way they can actually disrupt gaming is by putting out something people want. Once upon a time, Microsoft and Sony seemed like “Bizarrely unfamiliar foreign invaders of gaming” but slowly settled into understanding what their customers wanted.
As the article points out, tone-deaf or imperfect offerings have really bounced off. Heck, this is an age where many of Sony and Microsoft’s signature ventures have failed.
Gamers don’t know what they want half the time. On one hand, posts like these seem to elicit the idea that gamers are united against predatory, bad publisher fuckery. But we aren’t. Activision Blizzard still make the most money in the entire industry shitting out garbage. People line up in droves to play the latest Assassins Creed. And mobile games have never been more popular. Many people play games simply because it’s in front of their face, not because they understand the nuances of game design or have any investment in the industry itself.
And Microsoft isn’t too far behind either of them. Apple makes a lot of money for sure, but it’s not the most, and it’s definitely not orders of magnitude more.
Decrease grinds. I want to play the fucken game not do chores. I drop games nowadays as soon as I have to grind. Grinds aren’t fun, they are methods of artificially increasing playtime and engagement. That doesn’t mean hand everything out, it means make the things you do for stuff varied. I didn’t think this would be so hard but over the last 20 years grinds have gotten worse not better. We should be doing away with them in favor of engaging mechanics. Instead everything is more or less the same game with different flavor texts and models. But they all have grinds.
A grind is a lapse in content. A grind is a hamster wheel in place of interesting mechanics. To grind is to toil, all in the name of throwing it away next season to start it again. If I’m purchasing entertainment, I expect to be entertained and not simply convinced I am entertained. It is not a problem that it is possible to do in a game, that much is fine if you wish. It is a problem when the developers expect you to grind hours to achieve something. It equates to nothing but a long days work at the long day factory.
Example: AC6: Fires of Rubicon allows you to purchase mech pieces in a shop for credits. These credits are handed out at mission end. You can grind “The Wall” mission in under a minute to recieve a hefty sum. Or you can just play through the story again. Thats fine within the context of the game and I can choose to grind if I want.
Diablo on the other hand expects us to literally restart every 3-4 months and do everything all over again (except the campaign itself). Which in itself is alright cause the “Immortal Realm” exists. But that effectively turns each season into a massive grind. So if you want to participate, you have no choice but to grind. Its just a little upsetting I bought a grinder and not a game.
Yeah I played for 2 hours this season, saw that I have to unlock every waypoint and do a lot of the side quests and fortresses and whatnot. On top of having to get back to certain levels so I could actually start playing the game on T3… I kinda just noped outta there
Isnt this the end they did on D3 and it made it just a flood of huge numbers and nothing was fun, nothing was this one drop can break the game for your build. If everything gets you there, getting there isnt a challenge. I mean I like ARPGs and I like when they have those moments like can I make it thru this fight. This dosent sound like that. But it also sounds like they are not dealing with the grind issue, that I thought a lot of their players were complaining of. And the grind here was for leveling not for gear (if I understand correctly).
I think the D3 model is fun. I was actually disappointed at how different D4 is, once I got through the storyline. I do agree that the grind is too great. I basically stopped playing after I finished the storyline. I tried a couple of different builds after increasing the world tier, ran out of gold and got stuck with a build I didn’t enjoy, and quit logging on. It’s worth noting that I’m just a casual player who would create a new character each season in D3, get to GR100ish, and then get bored and stop until the next season.
Well if you could fix it what would you wanna see? I figure you are the demo they are trying to get a hold of for the longest, the hardcore players some times can be whales, but the mtx on the everyday nerds brings in the good seasonal money. I think that the grind shouldnt be there at all, yeah the leveling should slow but the rates I saw were wow levels of grind for no real gains, sure you could place a node or two but I didnt see those being build defining (yet?), I play for the gear, sets or what ever, when I can finally spec out that uber break the fricken game build and then maybe farm up some gold for trading.
The MMO side of this game kinda makes tainting the world areas hard but they could offer dungeons that go odd places or something like candy on the map that you see once or twice in 8 hours. But for real, what would you like to see?
I watched two of the three, and really enjoyed them. Sure, I'd much rather see more gameplay, and they didn't do anything to sell me on the game itself, but they were enjoyable nonetheless
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