Between this and Remap continuing with essays & journalism… I am one happy dude. I’m hopeful that there is still a space for writing in the video game area.
404 Media (formerly Motherboard at Vice) are generally more “tech news” but they are similarly going down that road (and it sounds like they actually worked with the Remap (formerly Waypoint at Vice which worked closely with Motherboard at Vice and were in a similar org structure) crew to iterate on the model).
And what it will actually entail is unclear, but Gamers Nexus similarly brought back their written article website to provide more information on hardware reviews and so forth. Also sounds like it will be a venue for longer form pieces similar to their Artesian Builds video.
Remap is what Waypoint turned into. Waypoint was a video game vertical/section through Vice Media. It was Patrick Klepek, Rob Zacny, Ricardo Contreras, Renata Price, and Austin Walker at one point. Klepek, Zacny, & Contreras started Remap to carry on their brand of video game analysis (very thoughtful, far-left leaning, and often times focusing on smaller and older games).
Disagree. It takes very little time to pirate something. Anything.
Also, there are a lot of numbers between 0 and 60 that someone may be willing to pay to play a game. But for a modern game with DLC and stuff, more like 120.
Why support our play those games. There are developers and games out there that are far better than the AAA mess that gets delivered year after year. There are more games on itch than you could play on your lifetime but you’d rather waste time pirating games that you don’t like enough to pay for.
I used to do that a lot and realized that most of the games I played weren’t worth my time.
Also most games go on sale for at least half off. So if there is another price point you want, just wait. Actually support the developers.
It’s like the gamer equivalent of hatefucking. I don’t get it either.
Like, if you know you’re not going to enjoy something why the hell force yourself to do it, if it’s just going to end up with you complaining about it on the internet?
I should clarify, I haven’t pirated a game since prototype 1. At least a game that I could buy. I have pirated games I have emulated, but this is clearly a different thing.
You can also use pirating to send a message. If a company does something really bad, like loot boxes or micro transactions, you can pirate take money they likely got from someone who’s addicted to gambling.
I’m more against pirating and using excuses to justify it rather than what other people play. If it’s not worth paying for and supporting the developers it’s not worth your time to play.
Piracy is literally the only method by which a lot of media is preserved in the era of subscription services and abandoned properties. It’s a public service that ensures that some of the most significant art of the last century isn’t lost.
The archives of pirates are a digital museum for a culture that can’t be bothered to preserve its own legacy.
preserving it years to decades after release is vastly different than pirating and playing it the same year or 2 after release. Also when it comes to preserving it, nothing stops you from actually buying a copy and preserving it personally for yourself. If this conversation was about preserving the games it’d be very different but it’s not, it’s about taking a game without paying for it. In the end, you are just trying to justify stealing from artists.
You’re not buying a copy, but a license revocable at any moment, not to mention that you need a service to leverage that license, too, so when that service either dies or prevents you from accessing what you paid for, you can kiss goodbye to it, and your only option is to cash out again.
I’m actually not giving them shit because they’re salaried and have been (undner)compensated for their labor during the course of their employment. They’re not going to suddenly eat less if I simply don’t pay for the product - this is identical to watching a trailer of a game and then deciding that you’ll completely ignore the game; no purchase was made, yet no property was stolen, because the game is still intact. It’s not the same as coming to a store and stealing a copy, preventing others to pay for it and bring profits for the store.
Again more excuses. It all depends on the scale of the studio. Lots of studios give bonuses and profits to the workers for them taking a smaller salary. Getting it for free means you likely would pay for it on sale just to check it out. Lots of the games profits come from lower sale prices. You are stealing because you would have paid for it in some way otherwise. You might argue you wouldn’t but we both know that’s a huge lie, if it’s not then it’s not worth playing at all.
I’m sure you know better than I do what I’d spend money on to be so confident in your claim that’d I’d pick up on a sale Anyway. Not to mention that sometimes you just don’t have the option to purchase the digital product because the vendors aren’t selling it you, as is the case with some counties and companies.
Some practices also just don’t sit well with you and you’re basically voting with your wallet by not paying for the game.
As for the theft argument, let’s say you have an expectation that I should you give you a certain sum of money, but it’s just that, an expectation - like I promise to wire transfer you billions of dollars, plus some fees and taxes, but I never do; did I just steal from you? You have absolutely everything you had before, but didn’t receive the money you were expecting.
Or I made an identical copy of something you have and am now using it, too - you still have the original, though, you’re no worse off in any way because the original object is still cometely intact, and I would have never gotten it otherwise if it wasn’t for the identical copy that took you no effort. Did I take the original from you, i.e. stole anything from you?
Listen, you’re going to make all the excuses you can to protect your mental state. It’s fine. I used to pirate almost every game that came out and then I realized what I was doing. You might or might not one day figure it out for yourself but at this point, you aren’t engaging in good faith.
I’ll leave you with a simple video www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM2R5xV3bbY think of it in the same vain as pirating a video game and you might see how artists aren’t able to continue living off of the games they make.
Except I’m not profiting off the games I pirate, and neither does anybody else these days (hasn’t since 00s).
You don’t even see the dissonance in your arguments: you’re trying to tell me how bad it is and how nobody should pirate of they can’t or don’t want to pay, but the benefactors don’t get paid either way, but I case of the latter, we’re somehow not talking about ripping someone off; it’s a sale that’s not being made either way, and assuming that the people pirating the content would’ve bought it if it wasn’t for piracy is just wrong as evident by a lot of research done on the topic.
I still haven’t seen your arguments as to how exactly it hurts people outside not closing the deal that, again, wouldn’t have been closed anyway had piracy not been an option.
it’s a sale that’s not being made either way, and assuming that the people pirating the content would’ve bought it if it wasn’t for piracy is just wrong as evident by a lot of research done on the topic.
That’s not true at all, the only decent study to suggest that was a self-reported survey done by the EU that has since been debunked.
Determined to make an objective inquiry, the researchers looked at 25 studies on the subject. Nearly 90 percent of these studies (22 out of the 25) found a statistically significant, harmful impact of piracy on sales.
Except I’m not profiting off the games I pirate, and neither does anybody else these days (hasn’t since 00s).
So first that isn’t true, people pirate games and stream/create videos of them to gain views which converts to monetization. Second, we can both agree you gain something. Does money have to be the thing you gain to see it as wrong or does enjoyment count as well? Or are we in such a monetary society that we must have monetary gain from work you didn’t make for it to be wrong?
Overall, the end of it is 1) even if you pinky promise that you wouldn’t have bought the game (the fact you would play it says otherwise because if you would enjoy it then it’s really a dollar price argument, which is covered by sales but ignoring that obvious flaw in your argument…) you 2) still end up contributing to a culture that makes it easier for people to get games for free. You can’t speak for all pirates and there are clearly many (90% of) studies showing that these folks are reducing sales numbers. 3) as we have seen just copying something can hurt something. This is why trademarks and copyrights even exist. It’s why the courts don’t stop at monetary gain. If you break copyright even for personal use, legally the copyright holder can come after you. Sometimes pirating produces an inferior copy of the game. People going to the pirated game to even judge it to see if they should buy the full game means the developers are hoping that the pirates didn’t completely ruin the binary somehow. Demos exist for a lot of games out there since Steam started Next Fest which features demos of games. Steam has a 2-week or 2-hour of game-time refund policy. The excuse of “I just want to check it out” for pirating is debunked.
So as a game developer, pay for our games. If you can’t afford it, message us. Give us insight into what is fair. If your region is unfairly priced, let us know! That stuff is automatic on Steam and sometimes really unfair. Price points can be adjusted until you can feel happy with your purchase. A lot of indie devs simply want people to enjoy their games fairly. After all, we all still have to eat.
Oh, now that’s the real culprit! That honestly explains a lot in this conversation and makes me see you less of a corporate ally for absolutely no good.
As for the “piracy le hurts” reports, I’m really not surprised that you were able to find these, mostly debunking anything stating otherwise. As if we didn’t live in the massively lobbied society where corporations and money-turners have much more leverage than anything else to manipulate the popular opinion on anything that “hurts” them, be it anything legit or simply perceived.
So first that isn’t true, people pirate games and stream/create videos of them to gain views which converts to monetization.
I don’t really know where you got that from, as any content creator that has any worthwhile numbers to make their monetization off of pirated content a problem, in fact, never mentions anything positive above piracy. Following your logic, though, are these content creators supposed to share their revenue with you if their content is based on your game?
Second, we can both agree you gain something. Does money have to be the thing you gain to see it as wrong or does enjoyment count as well? Or are we in such a monetary society that we must have monetary gain from work you didn’t make for it to be wrong?
By that logic, I can’t share games with my friends and family, because while they get some fun time, they pay nothing for the game. I’m sure that’s an absurd idea even in your books - consider every pirate my friend and family, especially when it comes to distributors and publishers I have zero respect towards. Sometimes a game is made using and promoting damaging practices, and while the game is good in its own merits, I choose not to support the developers or decision-makers monetarily.
While I’m at it, you seem to think that I just don’t for any games, like, ever, which I assure is not the case - I have a massive Steam library and some games I bought in EGS and GOG, many of which I deliberately bought as a thank you and a sign of respect only after I’ve played/beaten their pirated copies.
Demos, though, are still a minority. Starfield doesn’t have a demo, neither does Cyberpunk 2077, nor most (if not all) games that have prices so high that people even consider piracy in the first place. You strike me as a smaller developer that I may actually find during Steam Next Fest (love these, by the way, barely skip any), and you may provide demos, for which I say thank you, and it may even earn a purchase from me specifically; however, it still is an exception more than it is a rule these days.
If you have any games on Steam, I’ll be happy to check 'em out, either during a Steam Next Fest or otherwise. Most likely, you’re not charging an absurd amount of money on a bunch of lies and predatory practices, and if that’s the case, I won’t think twice about paying for a digital revocable ticket that I can only access via a single gateway (being Steam), but you won’t suddenly find yourself with less money if I simply choose to ignore your game, and you certainly won’t start losing money from your bank account if I download multiple copies for free or even make multiple copies of a legally purchased one.
But if you’re Bethesda, telling me that I can do impressive rounds of exploring in your game for dozens or hundreds of hours, or even months, or even years, but I have to pay at least $60 to enjoy the game… only to find out that this massive selling piece was a lie and once I’ve seen one POI, I’ve basically seen every POI of that type, down to enemy, object, and loot placement, yet you’re still going to sell me DLC(s) and expect the community to patch the game for free, then sorry (not sorry), I’m not going to spend any money on your product and make you think that treating your customers like that is okay in any capacity. Is it possible that I enjoy the game despite such flaws? Yes, but it doesn’t mean it’s worth the money for me, not now, not later, because it’s a predatory marketing strategy built on deceiving your buyers, and if you believe that pirating games hurts the companies that are supposed to receive the money, then I’m happy to pirate their games thousands of times to punish them for being absolute dickheads.
The reports and courts supporting those with the big wallets in this regard is identical to how climate change is still a prevalent problem that’s being put on shoulders of people like you and me, while oil and gas and tech and other industries get subsidies, leverage, and bail-outs from the governments.
Oh, now that’s the real culprit! That honestly explains a lot in this conversation and makes me see you less of a corporate ally for absolutely no good.
I don’t really see anyone defending corporations for no reason. Everyone defends their own way of life or potential way of life.
As for the “piracy le hurts” reports, I’m really not surprised that you were able to find these, mostly debunking anything stating otherwise. As if we didn’t live in the massively lobbied society where corporations and money-turners have much more leverage than anything else to manipulate the popular opinion on anything that “hurts” them, be it anything legit or simply perceived.
I understand your point but that’s kind of a weak, non-factual way of debunking them which what I linked goes into details and facts.
I don’t really know where you got that from, as any content creator that has any worthwhile numbers to make their monetization off of pirated content a problem, in fact, never mentions anything positive above piracy. Following your logic, though, are these content creators supposed to share their revenue with you if their content is based on your game?
I’ve seen it with a few streamers, it’s uncommon but it happens. Now we are also seeing the rise of paid pirating platforms which are clearly making money off of others’ work as well.
By that logic, I can’t share games with my friends and family, because while they get some fun time, they pay nothing for the game. I’m sure that’s an absurd idea even in your books - consider every pirate my friend and family, especially when it comes to distributors and publishers I have zero respect towards. Sometimes a game is made using and promoting damaging practices, and while the game is good in its own merits, I choose not to support the developers or decision-makers monetarily.
Yeah, that’s absurd but the point is that clearly there is a line there and it’s not yours to draw. It’s the copyright holders. Some people offer Steam family sharing, being there physically or sharing a Steam account requires 1 copy of the game and can only be played by one device at a given time. That’s the line developers draw and it’s on us to determine how we want to share our artwork. I think that’s pretty fair. If I make something, I can determine how I share it, it’s not up to anyone else to take my creation from me, even if that means I don’t lose the original copy.
While I’m at it, you seem to think that I just don’t for any games, like, ever, which I assure is not the case - I have a massive Steam library and some games I bought in EGS and GOG, many of which I deliberately bought as a thank you and a sign of respect only after I’ve played/beaten their pirated copies.
To be honest, I’ve met a lot of pirates who don’t buy a single thing. There are certainly lots of pirates who do not buy anything for whatever reason.
Demos, though, are still a minority. Starfield doesn’t have a demo, neither does Cyberpunk 2077, nor most (if not all) games that have prices so high that people even consider piracy in the first place. You strike me as a smaller developer that I may actually find during Steam Next Fest (love these, by the way, barely skip any), and you may provide demos, for which I say thank you, and it may even earn a purchase from me specifically; however, it still is an exception more than it is a rule these days.
Price is relative. I’d also think that demos aren’t a minority anymore by count but by AAA release, you don’t see many demos because they don’t need a demo. Most people will watch the marketing or gameplay videos and decide from coverage. The smaller indie developers (yes, like myself, I tried AAA for a while and felt like a cog, go figure) need demos to prove their game is worthy of a purchase and thus they feel to me that they’ve become more common. Although most multiplayer games can’t really have demos.
If you have any games on Steam, I’ll be happy to check 'em out, either during a Steam Next Fest or otherwise. Most likely, you’re not charging an absurd amount of money on a bunch of lies and predatory practices, and if that’s the case, I won’t think twice about paying for a digital revocable ticket that I can only access via a single gateway (being Steam), but you won’t suddenly find yourself with less money if I simply choose to ignore your game, and you certainly won’t start losing money from your bank account if I download multiple copies for free or even make multiple copies of a legally purchased one.
www.underflowstudios.com/games These are the games I’ve worked on. The Away Team: Lost Exodus is the one that I’ve made within my own studio. It’s likely to be so small to not even have a pirated version. You can buy it on Steam or Itch, DRM-free and with the majority of the code for the missions, characters, and textures in loose files to allow for modification. It’s completely DRM-free and in theory, you can buy it on Itch, and get a Steam key. Both versions will provide you with a game that’s just raw files. I choose to draw my line around consumers having a lot of freedom but I also respect those who don’t.
But if you’re Bethesda, telling me that I can do impressive rounds of exploring in your game for dozens or hundreds of hours, or even months, or even years, but I have to pay at least $60 to enjoy the game… only to find out that this massive selling piece was a lie and once I’ve seen one POI, I’ve basically seen every POI of that type, down to enemy, object, and loot placement, yet you’re still going to sell me DLC(s) and expect the community to patch the game for free, then sorry (not sorry), I’m not going to spend any money on your product and make you think that treating your customers like that is okay in any capacity. Is it possible that I enjoy the game despite such flaws? Yes, but it doesn’t mean it’s worth the money for me, not now, not later, because it’s a predatory marketing strategy built on deceiving your buyers, and if you believe that pirating games hurts the companies that are supposed to receive the money, then I’m happy to pirate their games thousands of times to punish them for being absolute dickheads.
I mean at that point why play it though? I figured you’d just see the gameplay videos and move on. Maybe you want to go in entirely blank? Honestly, and controversially I feel the same about a recent purchase I made, Red Dead Redemption 2. I played 26 hours and feels like I barely played 2 hours worth of enjoyable content for myself. That said, my friend’s dog did the mo-cap for the dogs in the game and it’s nice to see.
The reports and courts supporting those with the big wallets in this regard is identical to how climate change is still a prevalent problem that’s being put on shoulders of people like you and me, while oil and gas and tech and other industries get subsidies, leverage, and bail-outs from the governments.
I can’t disagree. You should always look at these reports and rulings yourself and form your own opinions.
We’re getting really lengthy here, and while that was fun while it lasted, we’re clearly both set in our ways, so I’ll answer to only a few topics that don’t simply revolve our beliefs. I know we’re just going to back and forth, ultimately saying “I’m right, you’re wrong” anyway.
I mean at that point why play it though? I figured you’d just see the gameplay videos and move on. Maybe you want to go in entirely blank? Honestly, and controversially I feel the same about a recent purchase I made, Red Dead Redemption 2. I played 26 hours and feels like I barely played 2 hours worth of enjoyable content for myself. That said, my friend’s dog did the mo-cap for the dogs in the game and it’s nice to see.
You’ve proven my point by saying that despite having spent 26 hours playing the game, barely 2 of them were worth it, and no Steam refund is going to listen to your definition of the amount of hours that count for an actual refund. You had no demo to try, and no amount of gameplay videos is going to answer the questions like “How would I play the game?” and “How would I enjoy that?”; to a certain extent, demos don’t either, because they’re not a complete experience and complete experiences count, but they’ll definitely give you a much better feeling of whether you should spend your money on the game.
That’s one reason to pirate a AAA game: you know you might like it, but you don’t want to become a metric on another chart for the sharks to pat each other on the back and say “See? We did it! We were right! They bought the game!”, even if for a 0.001% of the original price.
Kudos for casting your dog there, though. Good boy/girl.
I’ve seen it with a few streamers, it’s uncommon but it happens. Now we are also seeing the rise of paid pirating platforms which are clearly making money off of others’ work as well.
Now, we all generally denounce people making money off any sort of pirated content, be it cinema, books, games, or anything else. It’s about a lot of things, really, but none of them is profit - certainly not these days.
Yeah, that’s absurd but the point is that clearly there is a line there and it’s not yours to draw. It’s the copyright holders. Some people offer Steam family sharing, being there physically or sharing a Steam account requires 1 copy of the game and can only be played by one device at a given time. That’s the line developers draw and it’s on us to determine how we want to share our artwork. I think that’s pretty fair. If I make something, I can determine how I share it, it’s not up to anyone else to take my creation from me, even if that means I don’t lose the original copy.
I buy a book you wrote. Would you insist that I don’t share that book with anyone else and instead tell them to go get their own copy? You’ll most likely say ‘no’ once again, that’s something we both agree on, and a game is no different. Nobody is taking your book away from you, it still is yours in every regard, but you don’t get to control whether people can lend it. It’s sharing, i.e. caring, and sharing often leads to increased sales and exposure through various channels.
You even said it yourself that “there is a line there and it’s not yours to draw”, yet in the same paragraph you say “If I make something, I can determine how I share it, it’s not up to anyone else to take my creation from me, even if that means I don’t lose the original copy.”
Make what you will of it, but you stumbling like that over there clearly shows how neither approach is universally correct and simple, especially given the amount of people and their individual circumstances involved in each case of sharing, piracy, or buying a single copy exclusively.
Games go on sale faster than any entertainment. All you really have to do is wait. Hell to play starfield is 10 dollars. That 10 dollars also gets you access to hundreds of other games.
For some, $10 is not a sum they can spend on non-essentials. Some don’t want to wait for various legitimate reasons. Some want to be able to try the game out before making up their mind on whether they’ll pay for it. Some just don’t care about giving money to a massive corporation that’s definitely not suffering from the lack of money, for one reason or another: one of them, a very prominent one, is to avoid supporting the greedy corporate practices with your wallet, such as the lack of proper optimization and control over the graphical fidelity wrapped up in the “Oh, we just wanna preserve the look for everybody” bullshit.
Lastly, if you really insist on defending paying against piracy, you should know that pirates either never pay in the first place, so it’s not like some poor big corp lost some sales, or they’re one of the most consistently paying customers for a given media, as has been the case for decades now.
As for whether $10 is a lot… it’s really not up to you to decide when someone can or cannot afford to spend their money on. Not to mention that there’s no reason to defend a company that has more money than you can imagine, ripping off its employees only because of greed rather than lack of funds, yet they still decide to outsource basically the entire game to a gazillion of other studios, resulting in a game that’s kinda good, but very flawed with massive inconsistencies and “play it safe” decisions coupled with good-for-nothing premium editions and confirmed upcoming DLCs only to squeeze more money out of their consumers.
If the game’s worth it and I can easily obtain it legally at a sensible price, the pirating the game isn’t my first urge for sure… Again, if I pirate something I was never going to buy in the first place for one reason or the other, there’s no theft to speak of.
Maybe I could transfer you several billion dollars right now, plus some change to cover up for the fees and taxes that may come up, but I just don’t - would you say I stole that money from you? You probably wouldn’t, because that was just a expectation and you never had the money in the first place, so there was no way for me to take it, and the fact that you expected to have more, didn’t get anything as a result, and did not actually lose anything does not constitute a theft.
Man I miss destiny but I can’t play it cause Bungie are paranoid blaming the wrong group (Linux users) as hackers so blocked us from using it, and even if I could I wouldn’t play it out of principle because of what they’ve done to it. It still has the best shooting out of any game I’ve played, but the stuff you shoot at isn’t interesting anymore
Looked at the store, man how much do you have to spend to get the content? $100 for light fall and the battle pass, then $30 for Gjallahorn, then another $30 for some other dungeon and new supers and then $100 more for the new expansion. That’s $260, it’s cheaper to pay for Final Fantasy XIV monthly and get a $60 expansion for a year. That’s not including all the past dlc either
Just because the studio shut down doesn’t necessarily mean they lost their jobs. Often (especially for a giant publisher like Embracer), talent gets moved to other studios since it’s easier and cheaper than hiring new people.
But when you’re part of a smaller studio, you have creative control and freedom you don’t get when you’re a cog in someone else’s machine. People who go into this industry typically are looking for that more than just a salary, especially since other non-game jobs usually pay better. Although, idk what Volition was like internally, so maybe it sucked to work there.
Man, I knew this day would come, but I hate now that it actually has a date. My 360 is still going strong, and I'm dreading the day it gives out. Yeah, I could just move everything over to my Xbox One, but I'm not even sure all the 360 games I own are backwards compatible.
Xbox emulation looks underdeveloped compared to PlayStation and Wii, but from what I can tell Xenia has come a long way in the last couple of years. If you’re willing to give it a go, you could try ripping the games off your discs and just play on PC
That definitely sounds like something I should look into, especially since I play on PC as well. Also sounds good for a couple older Xbox games I love that never got ported to PC. Thanks for the suggestion!
360s are in their golden age of cheapness right now. They’re outdated, but not yet retro. Buy a couple extras and toss them in the closet for when you need spare parts.
Flash games will work again? Moving away from NFTs? Well dang, I might just make a new neopets account! Lots of nostalgia there, it’d be cool to mess around with again after all these years.
How would it be? Unfortunately there are still a lot of consumer hostile practices going on that are completely legal in the EU. I‘m no expert of course so I‘m curious what EU law would regulate this exact practice.
EU made iPhone have proper USB C port, instead of proprietary stuff
It can probably do something about this too. I think USB C rule was only for phones so may not directly apply to Switch, but they can make Nintendo fix it.
This machine will be the same desktop-mode-not-required-but-allows-for-more-functionality thing that the Steam Deck is, but it will chew through battery faster in exchange for more compatibility.
Well, at least the base model Xbox Ally has essentially the same SoC as the Steam Deck. The Z2 A has 4 Zen 2 cores and 8 RDNA 2 CUs. It will be configurable up to 20 watts TDP instead of 15 on the Deck, but that’s it. So much for “long in the tooth technology wise”.
Sure, the Z2 Extreme variant will be more powerful, but it’ll also be in a different price category (800-900,-€).
And in terms of user-friendliness: the Xbox Ally will run Windows. It won’t launch into the regular desktop shell (by default), and it won’t have as many services running in the background which might help with performance and battery life, and you’ll probably be able to update drivers and Windows through it. Maybe it will have some preconfigured scripts/shortcuts to install Steam, Battle.net etc. But that’s it. Expect to fall back to the desktop mode (or open a browser, terminal and Explorer window in the new gaming mode) for anything more advanced like installing emulators.
In terms of pick up and play this won’t be much different to the Steam Deck, with the one exception being Game Pass - but even then don’t expect any of the more demanding titles to run well.
The ROG Ally X’s MSRP is 899,-€ and that’s what it currently costs here in Germany at least. It was as low as 799,-€ though recently, but now it’s back up. Considering this “Xbox Ally X” is the successor to it, I don’t think it’s unrealistic.
You’re good, no worries. We’re all just speculating anyway, there isn’t really a right or wrong.
I’d just be surprised if it’d come down in price one model to the next considering prices for tech in general. Maybe Microsoft made a special deal with ASUS, but I think the base model with the Z2 A is what they’ll use to rectify the price of the Z2 Extreme model.
Nintendo wiped the floor in the mobile gaming market for decades despite their competitors having beefier specs. The DS lasted for years before we ever got the Switch. Let the Steam Deck mature.
Even if you’re correct, it’s still too early, anyway. That’s my point.
The DS had a seven-year lifespan and the original Switch had eight. Even living room console have an average near decade long lifespan. So, of course Valve isn’t going to throw their money into a second generation.
The difference is that nobody’s releasing games specifically made for the Deck. Some are including optimizations to make their games run decently well on it, but it’s not a AAA machine. I bought one knowing this full well and am satisfied playing less demanding games on it, but it’s not going to be playing new demanding games, unlike with dedicated consoles.
I still use my Xbox One to play some Battlefield games. But I’m never buying a new console ever again. Fuck Microsfot. Fuck Sony. And you know what Nintendo fuck you too. Price gouging, greedy fucks the lot of them. PC+emulators is now the way to go, fuck all these greedy companies.
There has always been an inherent value to consoles but if that goes away then I can genuinely see them dying off. Personally I thinks the current gen is a huge disappointment anyway and this news just makes it even more ridiculous.
I’ve always been a console peasant for the convenience of having a dedicated gaming device hooked up to the TV that uses a controller as well as the ability to trade in games when I’m done with them, not to mention consoles are cheaper than comparable PCs. I do have a decent PC, but I find I rarely play through entire games when I have to sit at a desk to do so. With digital games looking like the only game in town in the future and consoles being walled gardens with no other places to buy games for them, that cost advantage will be gone and it will be cheaper in the long run to pay more up front for a PC and get games for less. I got a Steam Deck recently, and it’s been a great showcase for how a PC hooked up to the TV using only a controller can work. I had no idea Steam had such a robust system for remapping controllers and have been able to play games with them that would have been a huge hassle before.
If Sony does away with physical games like Nintendo is come the PS6, I’m definitely switching to PC gaming.
Considering consoles no longer go down in price and are even getting price hikes, not to mention mid-gen refreshes like the PS4 and PS5 Pro, I’d argue they’re no less susceptible to “extreme consumerism.” PCs do require more effort and research to get what you want at a price that makes sense, that’s true, but you don’t have to have the latest bleeding edge tech for everything, especially if you’re okay with running games at 1080p and 60fps like I am.
The lack of alternative places to buy games for consoles used to be mitigated by the second hand market. Without it, console games are just going to be too damn expensive for me, especially considering they’re nothing more than data. There is no reason they should cost this much other than pure greed.
It’s pretty funny how much the tone shifts if you play with the co-op mode they added in a later patch. Suddenly, sci-fi horror turns into Benny Hill in space.
I’m guessing that’s one feature they won’t include in the remaster, haha
Not including the multiplayer mode would be an immense L. I get the game for free since I backed the Remake of the original on Kickstarter, I wouldn’t even install the game if the multiplayer isn’t included.
You care nothing of freedoms do you? I don’t use either of these apps but I still think it is outrageous to strip people’s ability to choose their actions because politicians are worried they can’t control enough of the media.
Nvidia claims the 5070 will give 4090 performance. That’s a huge generation uplift if it’s true. Of course, we’ll have to wait for independent benchmarks to confirm that.
The best ray tracing games I’ve seen are applying it to older games, like Quake II or Minecraft.
They’ve already said it’s all because of DLSS 4. The 5070 needs the new 4x FG to match the 4090, although I don’t know if the 4090 has the “old” 2x FG enabled, probably not.
theverge.com
Ważne