That’s a popular quip, but it’s just not true. If it were, Unity would lay off most of its staff and only do bug fixes. That way they’d save a ton on salary, and they probably wouldn’t lose any customers for a couple years until they fall far enough behind, so their quarterly financials would look great for about a year until they started losing customers.
This isn’t that. This is just a classic example of the leadership not understanding the business they’re in and trying to maximize profit. I think they overestimate the value of their product and what their customers are willing to pay for.
This would harm not only us, but fellow game studios of all budgets and sizes. If this goes through, we’d delay content and features our players actually want to port our game elsewhere (as others are also considering). But many developers won’t have the time or means to do the same.
Stop it. Wtf?
HEY GAMERS!
Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they’ll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.
Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That’s right, it’s us and a lot of other developers.
That means Another Crab’s Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.
And that’s before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!
This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren’t rolled back, we’ll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we’ve accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we’d rather not do.
On behalf of the dev community, we’re calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product’s actual users.
I would love to see some GMing tools and the ability to do custom campaigns. Like I could imagine a group using BG3 to run an actual game of D&D in. It wouldn’t need to be incredibly complicated, just some sort of modular tiling and the ability to add objects/monsters, you don’t need dialogue (or keep it basic) or need to fuss with scripting or anything like that, just a basic scenario builder that’s easy enough for most GM’s to figure out. It’d still be more work than pen&paper, but a bit more approachable and it’d just look so beautiful.
They could also release a few campaigns that DMs could use to start from. That wouldn’t require much dev time aside from the DM tools (e.g. add a surprise if the team is doing to well in a battle, or hold back a surprise if they’re struggling).
I think a lot of people would buy story packs, even if there’s a way to make your own or get free community stories.
Planning DLCs before you’ve even launched the game should be illegal. So pretty much. They are planning to release an unfinished game where micropurchases rule supreme so everyone gets on the same content level.
Hey you bought the game? Cool. But if you wanna play with us you need this this and that DLC pack. It’s only an extra 40 bucks.
I mean even if they hadn’t announced, it’s Payday it was expected. Fuck it I even prefer this, I am surprised companies do this, now we know what is on it and what is coming and if is worth it buying it now or not. The alternative is finding out when you already bought the game.
I dont want to defend this kind of monetization, but pd2 probably had the best kind of approach, as only the host needed it start it, so if someone had it in your friend group had it you were good. Well exept for the weapon and perk decks, as you only got them if you had the dlc, but it didn’t split the playerbase. (also fuck the loot boxes)
I get triggered as a gamedev when people complain about dlc because if a game came out and it was $200 for all the content made you would probably scoff and pirate it. The harsh truth is nobody wants to front the actual production cost of games anymore. PS2 games were $40 back in 2003 when my old ass was entering high school and you could still find a decent slice of pizza for just over a dollar. It’s 2023 and it’s basically the same price now after 2 decades of insane inflation. You may find an outlier or two on steam but even AAA titles tend to stay 60 or under.
It’s honestly the best option. Just buy the base game then. By definition you don’t need anything else. You get what you afforded and you don’t get upset. Don’t forget the company that made Payday filed for bankruptcy not too long ago. This isn’t quite EA shitting out a Madden update with the same code and 3d models. They were restructured and probably have loans or investors to pay back. I’m just happy we got a payday 3.
go ahead and downvote, but just consider what I said with an open mind afterwards.
The problem with DLCs isn’t the DLC. It’s how it’s used. And your whole argument is total bullshit, proven wrong by so many great games who does not have to rely on predatory DLC requirements.
The problem here. Is that they’ve already started working on DLCs before the game has even launched. You don’t see a problem with that from a consumer standpoint?
And be real. They’re not implementing this DLC strategy because they have to, because funding is difficult for them. It’s because it’s proven to be the most profitable With PayDay2 as proof.
The problem here. Is that they’ve already started working on DLCs before the game has even launched. You don’t see a problem with that from a consumer standpoint?
Sort of a complicated scenario. Where do you draw the line for it being anti consumer? Say the people on the dev team who do: concept art, writing, modeling, etc. What should they be doing. At this stage most of the development going into the game is very final touches (if that) and bug squashing. I don’t think it’s out of line for those people to be working on future content. Seems a bit strange to hold them until the release date. It definitely is a tough line to find though, and can change depending on the context of when and how the dlc development started.
Likewise, there is a subscription model that allows you to maintain access to the title and is divided into two types: Centurion (€12.22 per month or €134 per year) and Imperator (€24.44 per month or €268 per year). The Imperator offers, unlike the Centurion, exclusive events and an allocation of in-game money per month to rent ships and weapons.
Some pretty sloppy work here. The subscription options have nothing to do with playing the game; it’s a buy once product with no subscription system at all. The Centurion and Imperator subscriptions are better thought of as a kind of “backstage pass”, they mostly just give you patreon style content and extra in game flair items. Are they worth the money? Unless you’re a die hard fan, absolutely not. But it’s not like you have to pay up “maintain access” as the article puts it.
God I wish I loved this game as much as I love the headlines it makes, but my max CHA archfey warlock failing every other persuasion roll just left a bad taste in my mouth.
It took me til halfway through Act 2 to realize you’re supposed to click on roll bonuses like Guidance before rolling in order for them to be added to your total
To be fair, even with the bonuses, and karmic dice enabled, you can still end up rolling a 1 multiple times in a row.
That’s why I save on the roll screen before I toss the die. Go through inspiration/tools first. Then reload if I get fucked over. Because it just sucks failing a DC10 when you can only fail on a 1, since the game does not let you just take a 10.
I mean even then, its odd but I don't see a problem if modders aren't selling the mod as a "expansion" to users. Ai voices are iffy but they can bring so much cool things to the modding scene. The biggest problem is when large corporations like Rockstar/Take two/etc start using them to replace actual voice actors. A modder isn't going to have the money to pay an A list voice actor to voice act in their mod
Edit: I do think it does cross a bit of a line if said mod is a sex mod but realistically that isn't a logical difference between that and a normal mod but it does feel like its crossing a line.
I'm in other topics arguing that training on copyrighted content is not infringement in any way, but I think using someone's likeness is different and probably not legal, because there are separate laws there.
You can usually get away with it if you have deniability, but I don't think straight up adding lines to characters gives you any way to argue that.
Its iffy isn't it? Like we have to remember video game mods are a whole can of worms and they are plainly in a gray area for many regions. Say for instance you have a mod where you have a party member who was modded in who was something like John Wick, Indiana Jones, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Macho man Randy Savage, etc. Some of these mods would likely rip audio from other source material or they can be impersonation but you are taking someone's "likeness" in a similar fashion. Is it just a step too far because we are copying a voice? I'm 100% for modding but we have to be aware it is on pretty shakey ground. Its also hard since some voice actors do have a ton of range and would it really count as "stealing" someone's likeness if you are copying a voice of a character they have played but you aren't copying their regular speaking voice
I understand why people fear AI but I just think when its being used by hobbyists its a bit different compared to a company doing it especially when the hobbyist isn't doing it for commercial gain. Like the recent outrage about a fan animation of scooby doo using AI voices where an actual voice actor sent a hate mob and trying to blacklist the person for daring to have a shoestring budget and make a silly non serious fan episode of scooby doo.
Edit: It seems crazy to see someone dismiss a person's hard work just because 1 element isn't up to snuff. I don't agree with people hating the concept of "AI art" but this person did a full 10 minute 3d rendered retro style felt/puppet animation but the voice acting is the massive hang up and seeing their work dismisses because of it is infuriating.
If they are not making money on the mod, it’s possible you might be able to get away under a fair use argument, especially if the character skills were some sort of parody.
Although that’s definitely not a legal battle I would want against Disney’s lawyers.
That is quite the fucking interesting take. I guess props for being consistent but those style of mods are typically seen as one of the best type of mods. Massive overhauls that bring one game into another universe take a ton of work and have worked as a basis to work from. Hell Total Warhammer may not have existed without the Call of Warhammer from Medieval 2. I just fundamentally think the world is a far better place when fans who aren't making money can work on projects that would never get the go ahead to continue in a commercial setting.
Exactly what I was thinking. I’m still running on the fumes of gfe+moonlight while thats still working. Hopefully Steam RP has taken cues from all the recent competition.
But as with all RP options it’s probably still gonna be a ymmv situation.
One plus of remote play is that I can set the controller bindings via Steam Input. On moonlight I wasn’t able to do the same since it just seemed to emulate an xbox controller.
Well that’s just painful to read. I wonder how political a conference could be named before he thinks even showing up is no longer the neutrality he thinks he is showing. “BasedCon” is by its definition a political name, and simply showing up shows you are at least receptive to the message, or willing to ignore it.
I do get that he might be wanting to disassociate the Con from the craft, but if I take it further, would he go to PolPotCon? I doubt he would, even if the interest aligned.
reportedly enforcing uncompensated overtime, allegedly trying to pay staff below minimum wage, and a toxic work environment cultivated by an alleged abusive leadership
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