Was hoping to get Capt Falcon in Mario Kart to go with the Blue Falcon kart, especially since I also refuse to get a subscription, but alas. Still, it’s nice to see any new F-zero for the first time in… wow, 20 years.
Because I find it insulting to have to pay for services that are free on PC, especially when we’re talking about being able to play multiplayer games using a peer to peer connection or the ability to play some older games (amongst other things).
Reasonable people can debate how the pricing should be structured, especially when it comes to online functionality that doesn’t even take a penny of Nintendo’s server budget…
But I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect zero cost at all, when:
Console manufacturers have an unavoidable incentive to sell hardware at a loss (even without factoring in the platforming costs+risks) and make up for it in software sales and add-on services
…and they suffer the reputation hit if any of their offerings are not up to par, in a way that e.g. Windows does not, so they have an unavoidable interest in monitoring and triaging issues with games
…and networked components tend to be the most sensitive and most traceable part of any software system
…and scaling issues tend to be a cross-cutting concern that a third-party vendor who isn’t intimately familiar with the client codebase can affordably help with
It’s just part of the deal you make when you sign up for a walled garden. You get certain guarantees, but only if you pay for the relevant package. You can’t have it both ways – getting the benefit of first-party backing while enjoying the freedom of a purely third-party environment. It’s like a cruise ship that doesn’t let you bring your own alcohol.
Windows doesn’t offer the service that connects Counter Strike players together, Valve does, and they do it for free and they offer it for first and third party games and they suffer the reputation hit if the service doesn’t work (possibly even worse because at least with consoles you potentially have a physical copy as a backup to play with, which isn’t a possibility with always online games on Steam).
Nintendo gets a cut on all software sold on their consoles, they get all profits from first party software, they don’t tend to be the manufacturer that sells at the biggest loss (if at a loss at all), but people are still defending their choice to lock basic functionalities behind a paywall…
Weird mindset… you consider that it’s ok because it’s cheap? At what price is it not ok anymore?
It’s unacceptable to me that we have to pay for services that should be free and that we can’t own certain games because they’re locked behind a paywall.
On the other hand your could consider it paying for Fzero and just ignore the rest of the network. If that works for you then the problem is solved.
On the other hand if you are worried that you will never “own” the battle Royale game: that was never going to happen, it will die when the serves go dark no matter how they monitize. You might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Welp, I didn’t say it was a good deal. Nonetheless it’s a better deal then getting ow2 coins for buying rtx 4000 gpus. And some later buyers got Diablo 4…
Man Starfield’s nowhere near as bad as Jedi Survivor, let’s be honest. At least it runs well on my Steam Deck and doesn’t stutter every 3 seconds like it does in Koboh in Jedi Survivor.
Even that transcript was a bit too long, so here’s a < 150 word summary by ChatGPT:
Unity Technologies, known for its Unity game engine, has been facing severe backlash for its recent decisions. Unity adjusted its fee structure, now charging game developers per install with retroactive terms of service changes. This move is expected to negatively impact numerous game projects. In addition, Unity removed their transparency GitHub repo and reversed previous community-centric commitments, leading to widespread industry anger. The CEO’s past decisions to maximize revenue raise eyebrows. Unity rejected a $20 billion acquisition offer from AppLovin in favor of a $4.4 billion merger with Iron Source, a mobile game development monetization company. Tomar Bar Ziv, CEO of Iron Source and a Unity board member, has notably sold around $20 million in Unity stock following the merger. Recent aggressive pricing models seem to mirror those adopted by Twitter and Reddit. Unity’s shift seems aimed at promoting Iron Source’s Level Play service and could significantly harm developers, especially in the mobile sector. Companies like Azur, Voodoo, and Century Games have retaliated by disabling Unity and Iron Source ad monetization. Unity’s recent closure of two offices due to threats from its own employee underscores the depth of its internal and external crises.
They’ve been all in for about half a decade. If you don’t work in mobile, or play a lot of mobile games, you might not have noticed - but basically the most played games on planet earth are made in Unity, and are on mobile.
It’s sad to say this, but their actions this past week have kind of shown us that the folk at Unity don’t even seem to care about other platforms anymore; to the point that they did not even consider them on a basic level while working on their new pricing policies.
They should just either rebrand to a mobile first company, or at least split their products such that those making pc/console games can argue for their own price points and features.
Ridiculous to lump indie devs and mobile companies like hyper casual devs (who can have 5 million+ installs a game, thanks to their low CPIs and marketing optimizations) into the same category.
Unity top leaders selling stock before the announcement
they proposing “special” deal to not get the per install fee applied if the devs opt in to use only Unity’s advertising plaform in order to kill competition.
I can’t wait till the threats turn into promises. I’m so sick and fucking tired of the “elites” getting away with doing whatever they want. I’m hungry; let’s eat.
If it’s own employees are giving death threats, chances are high that it’s aiming up. Unless their CEO is threatening to kill those below him to save a buck?
I wasn’t sold on it when it was first revealed, but looking at it now, I kinda dig it. Seems to embrace the platformer elements a lot more than I originally thought, which I really like, and movement/combat seems very fluid.
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