I’m a little surprised either of them have such a strong opinion about something EU related anyway, given it doesn’t affect them directly. Well I guess Louis is just really passionate about that stuff so it’s not all that surprising. As for Thor, maybe he’s using his online presence to kickstart a live service game himself? Obviously regulations are scary in that case. It’s a wild guess from my side but I think that would be on brand for him.
The industry’s effort to be more inclusive and diverse mostly comes from indie games, though. Of course AAA has long realized the potential to boost their image by copying some mechanics and ideas but let’s not pretend any of those CEOs on their high horses actually cares about inclusion. They’ll drop any efforts the very moment it doesn’t benefit them directly. But there will always be passionate indie developers pushing boundaries to actually help more people enjoy games.
Let’s not pretend like Blizz or Bethesda will see the end of this decade anyway. Their fate was sealed when they got bought. Still, unionizing was the best thing employees could hope for. Good for them!
I remember being very excited for the first one just to find it a little lackluster in the end and too cluttered with DLCs. Since then Frontier really has made a name for themselves as Paradox‘s little brother that litters their game with DLCs. Even as a fan of park sims, I‘ll pass on this one right away.
Fuckin Japan man. They just love their giga corporations way too much. Can‘t even have a single very successful indie studio in peace without throwing themselves at Sony.
This really does not sound healthy. The game is released, for a certain amount of money. If people don’t like what they get for their money, they simply should not buy it....
Manor Lords is early access. At least one patch is to be expected. And of course the publisher is absolutely right. If my memory serves me well one dev developed the game all on his own so far and the challenge of meeting expectations after being a massive success is huge. Hiring more people to get developments going is likely necessary but expanding takes time. Some players have unrealistic expectations in general but even more so when it comes to small indie productions.
Article textNewly-restructured Swedish conglomerate, Embracer Group, will leverage AI models to bolster game production. As noted in Embracer’s annual report, the company has adopted a new AI policy package it claims has the capability to “massively enhance” its production process by “increasing resource efficiency,...
There already are a small number of games utilizing LLMs. Yes it‘s immersion breaking from time to time but the worst part is the credit system many of them use to pay for the API. If you go past your conversation limit, you‘ve got to pay extra.
At least I don‘t have to worry about Microsoft closing this studio soon. And not because I don’t think they wouldn’t do it. They absolutely would. It’s just that I wouldn’t care a bit.
They didn‘t show any of that so unless there‘s been an interview with more info, a new region and new pals and gear is pretty much all we know for sure. It also seems like they scrapped the dark comedy bits that put it on the map in the first place and go the „epic fantasy“ route instead like most anime style games. Just judging by the trailer and it‘s tone, I think they take this thing too seriously now.
What do you usually do when you don’t remember information that is freely available? I am talking about the very DLC featured on the Steam page. The one with an item bag that gives you more dialog options. The one that Larian made a big deal about not existing. Guess it worked considering there‘s even gaslit superfans in here refusing to admit it exists because it‘s somehow such a world shattering deal to them.
What a terrible unnecessary and emotionally loaded strawman argument. I actually own the DLC and love BG3 just as I love Larian‘s other recent games. You‘re wrong about it being just cosmetics too. And it was Larian who made a HUGE deal about not tolerating any additional, paywalled content when the game had it from day 1. And so you now make a huge deal about how it somehow doesn‘t count because Larian is based or something. Just accept that they lied there just like they lie about shareholders and enjoy the video game like everyone else without treating the devs like your holy absolute.
Anyone who played Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League could probably guess that something went terribly wrong during development. Bloomberg now reports that the multiplayer bomb from a studio beloved for its single-player Batman: Arkham games was plagued by several issues leading up to its repeatedly delayed launch....
Most of the execs never tried their hands on a game including this one. They genuinely have no idea about the industry and thought they had a hit game on their hands based on a trailer or something. It‘s truly baffling yet so typical.
Competitive online games have been Valve‘s focus for well over a decade so it‘s in line with their portfolio. If anything, Alyx was an outlier they only did because they have a headset to sell it with. I think they know what they‘re doing. Sucks for you to not be their target audience though because they are pretty good at making games.
I get that record sessions are a huge hassle and simply paying VAs per AI-generated voice line is easier for everyone, but it somehow makes Paradox look a little careless to me.
Stories like these also set a precident. This is what voice ‘acting’ will be like for a moment before it becomes effectively eliminated because voice libraries will become diverse enough quickly and there will be no need for a single more voice actor to be included. It seems like VAs are basically forced to sell their voice to AI companies quickly to at least make a quick buck before they never get a job again.
There’s probably no stopping it, but that made this read all the more frustrating to me.
You forgot to mention they sold 30% stake of the company to the world‘s largest game conglomerate Tencent. They‘re also working on a supposedly much larger game than BG3 now and plan to release it within the next 4 years which means they will have to at least double their staff. Honestly, judging a developer entirely by a recent success isn‘t a good practice even when it‘s as massive as BG3. Most people who talk about Larian have a very warped impression. Even when their games are great recently, the tides can change rapidly in this industry.
Going by MS‘s track record the last couple decades, it‘s all business as usual. It‘s expected from them to eventually close everything down they incorporate into their ecosystem. Sometimes after draining it or letting it rot away, and sometimes sooner than later.
That makes much more sense now. I was also wondering why people didn‘t pick up on it earlier given the incredible popularity of this game. So of course people noticed it, but it just didn‘t make much sense. I can see why someone would shrug it off a messy bit of text that probably wasn‘t supposed to be there and will be removed or edited or something. Well edited it was… just not as expected I guess.
I‘m starting to get the impression people build them up precisely to watch them fall and kick them down. It‘s in our DNA, I‘m afraid. I mean the praise they get for the most mundane claims (and often they are just that) is ridiculous to the point they‘re becoming the developer version of the life of Brian. And deep down we‘re already anticipating to watch them bleed out at a cross.
To most of us, this is probably just a summary of events over the past year or so. But, it’s good to know that this sort of news is reaching non-gaming channels.
The „gamer“ label has become sort of redundant given the industry is much bigger than movies and music combined now. They‘re just consumers and no matter what silly decisions some of them make, they need protection from certain practices for the good of all of us. Just blaming a small portion of them doesn‘t help us out of any mess.
I’m not hopeful at all. If Bethesda or Blizzard are anything to go by, they can keep messing up big time for years, maybe decades to come and consumers will keep coming back, begging to be disappointed once more. You’ll have more luck looking for alternatives out there in the ocean of indie games.
Your argument has nothing to do with UE5‘s or Godot‘s strengths and weaknesses. You could literally flip it and it would make just as much (or little) sense: Give me one good asset library game in UE5, rather than 100 custom asset containing $80 micro-transaction infested always online Godot games. See? The argument doesn‘t actually say much about the engines, just about monetization which you can handle completely independently from the software. If your project makes a million or less, UE5 is free to use for anyone. That makes it pretty good for tiny indie devs and hobbyists actually.
On one hand even the Nintendo Switch is just a modified Nvidia shield so this task would be a simple one for most states. On the other hand: Sanctions and insane corruption. I‘d be surprised if they manage to release anything that could keep up with Consoles from 2 generations ago.
Yes, despite what Larian wants you to believe, 30% of the company was sold to Tencent years ago to raise more money for BG3. Afaik Danny O’Dwyer dug that up from the irish business register because Larian never even made a statement about it. Instead they keep pointing out how privately owned they are and that there is nothing to worry about.
BG3 was a massive success, but I wonder how much of that cake is left after 450 employees, Bioware, WotC and Tencent got their pieces of that. If they really want to release a much bigger game in half the time, they’ll need to tripple their employees which will absolutely explode spendings. They have nothing else in the works until then, no mobile game cash cow or big merch sales to keep them afloat. The only way to generate more money when production costs will inevitably exceed expectations is… to sell more of themselves.
Just read an article about how their publisher offered to take care of a PC port only to be turned down. The stigma against PC games in Japan still prevails in some parts despite their steady rise and Sony‘s and Capcom‘s massive success on the PC lately. These people will likely go bankrupt before making financially wise decisions at this point.
Worth noting that BG3 was Larian‘s effort through and through. They took the initiative and asked for permission from Bioware to make another Baldur‘s Gate game and as far as I know that wasn‘t even the first time they asked. So finally after they got permission, they also had to compensate Bioware and WotC generously for the use of their IPs. It‘s kind of a rights nightmare where Larian took several big risks while WotC could just lean back and watch. And of course after BG3’s massive success, Hasbro think they struck gold when their own official DnD game is the complete opposite of BG3 in terms of monetization, popularity and critical acclaim.
So, everything considered we shouldn‘t expect greatness from this. Honestly I would be surprised if we ever actually get official announcements with working titles from half of these games before they get shut down early in production and I would be more surprised to see even a quarter of them come to life.
Few people do because Larian keeps lying about it. Part of me understands you don‘t go around telling people a Chinese government asset has big money in your company, given the ongoing genocide and all (speaking of toxic work environment eh) but it‘s publicly accessible information anyway. They‘ve been so consistently dishonest about it that I can‘t take them all that serious about anything anymore. Because alternatively to lying they could just… shut up and keep making great games. They don‘t need that sugar coating.
It’s so irritating to see how eager people come to defend Larian on their lies every time someone calls it out. You’re acting like I said Tencent has Larian on the leash. I mean you’re not even disagreeing with anything I said. Tencent holds shares. They are shareholders, as the article states. Maybe read it again? Do you also claim Larian didn’t receive funding from Tencent? Because Larian was very vocal about not receiving any funding, playing dumb when people wondered how Larian even made such a huge game.
Rumors have it Hasbro’s gonna sell D&D and Tencent is the most likely buyer. We’ll see how much of Larian’s soul will be left when they get approached to make a huge D&D mobile gacha or whatever Tencent comes up with.
No, I am saying Larian will do it on their own accord rather than losing out on money in the end. It‘s a tale as old as the gaming industry. We‘ve seen so many downfalls that parallel this pattern and if they‘re already this dishonest at their peak, then I‘m really worried how bad it will be when they‘re at the bottom. Even CDPR didn‘t show nearly as many red flags prior to the Cyberpunk debacle.
Oh yeah if Habro says so it must be true… boy oh boy.
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Possible minor FF7 remake spoilers ahead if you want to play knowing nothing about it!
So I have tried to finish FF7 Remake, which has been really enjoyable until it stumbled and smashed it‘s teeth on the pavement literally 3 steps away from the finish line. That last chapter is an utter mess with too many boss phases, bosses, unskippable cutscenes, confusing restart messages and lack of save options. How did the game do so much right just to be so utterly frustrating in the very end? It also seems so forced story wise but that’s a different topic. I have no clue what drove the devs to such madness but I ended up watching the final cutscene on Youtube after hours of painful repetition.
Of course I was wondering if I‘m the only one feeling this way so I looked up what others have to say and… yeah Square Enix really just messed up there after doing almost everything else right. Baffling.
What online multiplayer games play well over wifi/higher latency?
I'm thinking turn-based games may work okay in this respect, but which of those might you recommend besides Civ? Also what other types of games work better over wifi/higher latency than you might expect?
I know ideally you'd simply wire up your system to not have to fuss with either, but it's not always an option in some circumstances.
It’s depressing and hilarious because the execs who decided this most likely have no idea about Palworld (yet) because they’re completely ootl while the dev team most definitely did at the time. Oh well maybe the team can stick together and form a Pocketpair US division as a cherry ontop.
What do you mean start over? Palworld is up and running and the team has plenty expertise in survival games. Microsoft got nothing to do with it. And of course I was partly joking because A) the logistics to find the team a proper office in the area as a small indie dev are close to impossible. B) Microsoft/Blizzard being the piece of shit companies that they are would claim the team uses work that belongs to MS even when they don‘t and give them a lawsuit and C) US employees are pretty expensive. A new division on another continent has huge benefits for game testing purposes, but there are cheaper places to do that.
It looks pretty good and I’ll most definitely try it once it’s out of early access. It kind of feels like the Renaissance of survival games or something. Especially since Blizzard just axed theirs. They’re the type of company who would completely stumble and break an ankle over a trend like this one.
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Ah this reminds me of my Divinity OS2 experience. It was so tough but sooo rewarding. What I recommend is to look up some basic build guides. Trust me you’ll have have plenty opportunity to make creative decisions regardless. No need to make it unnecessarily frustrating for oneself. You’ll get the hang of combat eventually and still not see half of all the possible ways to deal with enemies.
I really had to look up some D&D lore for BG3 though. Had no idea what was going on during the first act so I‘m ending up spending even more time reading lore and watching videos about it despite growing up reading Drizzt Do’Urden stories and playing BG1. It‘s a very complex universe and challenging to follow as a non-D&D player I have to say.
To say it’s been a bad week for Unity is the understatement of 2023. First they announced a terrible new Pricing scheme, then their customers revolted, as the week goes on though, it gets worse and worse for Unity, from threats from an employee shutting down their offices, to more studios threatening to leave, to scummy secret...
One gripe I have with this video is that he said the situation at the unity office - namely the supposed death threat by an employee against their employer - was “understandable”. It absolutely isn’t understandable. No matter how shitty your tech CEO is, unless they happily throw puppies into a wood chipper in the office, death threats are definitely not understandable.
The tale of producers dumbing down plot and dialogue for greater main stream appeal is as old as show business. And from my experience said producers are almost always wrong. Sorry pal, but you can’t blame social media for something your peers have always been doing.
Louis Rossmann's response to harsh criticism of "Stop Killing Games" from Thor of @PirateSoftware (www.youtube.com) angielski
Overwatch 2 is finally bringing back 6v6 with tests to decide OW’s future (www.dexerto.com) angielski
Lol. After all these years they’re thinking of rolling back the 5v5 changes. To quote someone from Reddit:...
NCSoft president: "The games industry's evolution towards acceptance and diversity is ongoing" (www.gamesindustry.biz) angielski
From the article:...
Blizzard's World of Warcraft team has unionized (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Planet Coaster 2 : Announcement Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
Launch in Autumn this year. Gameplay trailer on the 31. July....
Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Aniplex, and Pocketpair jointly establish Palworld Entertainment (www.gematsu.com) angielski
Devs should not be "forced to run on a treadmill until their mental or physical health breaks", says publisher of Manor Lords, citing how gamers seem to be trained to expect endless content work now (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
This really does not sound healthy. The game is released, for a certain amount of money. If people don’t like what they get for their money, they simply should not buy it....
Embracer rolls out new AI policy to 'massively enhance game development' | Game Developer (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Article textNewly-restructured Swedish conglomerate, Embracer Group, will leverage AI models to bolster game production. As noted in Embracer’s annual report, the company has adopted a new AI policy package it claims has the capability to “massively enhance” its production process by “increasing resource efficiency,...
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Announcement Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
Paradox Interactive has completely cancelled "Life By You" (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
Very surprising. The game looked like it had a lot of potential and could’ve been the most popular sims alternative, but it’s suddenly been cancelled.
Starfield's latest update draws player ire by sticking a bounty hunting quest behind the Creation Club paywall (www.vg247.com) angielski
Palworld | Sakurajima Update Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Saints and Sinners Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Report: Warner Bros. Execs Thought Suicide Squad Would Make A Ton Of Money Despite Development Woes (kotaku.com) angielski
Anyone who played Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League could probably guess that something went terribly wrong during development. Bloomberg now reports that the multiplayer bomb from a studio beloved for its single-player Batman: Arkham games was plagued by several issues leading up to its repeatedly delayed launch....
Ikea is now hiring: Make an hourly wage at its Roblox store (www.digitaltrends.com) angielski
I don’t qualify to play but seems like a smart tactic to get some real virtual world experience and possibly a job.
Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Though the way the leaker describes it makes it sound more like a 3rd person MOBA than a hero shooter....
Stellaris gets a DLC about AI that features AI-created voices, director insists it's 'ethical' and 'we're pretty good at exploring dystopian sci-fi and don't want to end up there ourselves' (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda (www.ign.com) angielski
Affected devs:...
BREAKING: Microsoft has closed Redfall's Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush's Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda. | IGN (twitter.com) angielski
Helldivers 2 Players Express Frustration On Steam As It Will Soon Require A PSN Account (www.gameinformer.com) angielski
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/14764738...
The Divinity: Original Sin board game took 6 years to make because Larian was determined to do right by the series (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
How Greed Ruined Gaming (www.youtube.com) angielski
To most of us, this is probably just a summary of events over the past year or so. But, it’s good to know that this sort of news is reaching non-gaming channels.
The Way Forward, an update from the team behind Cities: Skylines (forum.paradoxplaza.com) angielski
TL;DR:...
Slay the Spire devs followed through on abandoning Unity (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Unity’s Runtime Fee debacle cost it the trust of several indie developers, and led to Slay the Spire 2 being made in Godot.
Putin Orders Russian Tech Companies To Somehow Make Competitive Game Console In 3 Months (www.techdirt.com) angielski
Content Warning Blows Up on Steam With Free-to-Keep Promotion for First 24 Hours (www.ign.com) angielski
Unfortunately the article came a bit late, the promotion is already over. The game seems really good however.
Baldur's Gate 4 Isn't Next For Larian; Something Bigger Is Coming | Spot On | Gamespot (www.youtube.com) angielski
This is a really good interview. tl;dw is…...
Vanillaware ran out of money for Unicorn Overlord’s development (as they did for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim) (automaton-media.com) angielski
Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have "about 40" video game projects in the works (www.gamefile.news) angielski
If there’s that many, one of them better damn well be another Shandalar game.
'We don't have shareholders, but we also don't think about them,' Larian Studios uses its stage time at the DICE Awards to speak out against a brutal industry climate (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion (lemmy.world) angielski
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!...
Blizzard have cancelled their in-development survival game alongside today's layoffs (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition comes to PC on March 21 (blog.playstation.com) angielski
Enshrouded - Official Early Access Launch Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Looks interesting. Anybody pick this up?
The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion (lemmy.world) angielski
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!...
Unity ...It Just Keeps Get Worse (youtu.be) angielski
To say it’s been a bad week for Unity is the understatement of 2023. First they announced a terrible new Pricing scheme, then their customers revolted, as the week goes on though, it gets worse and worse for Unity, from threats from an employee shutting down their offices, to more studios threatening to leave, to scummy secret...
The Witcher producer blames Americans and social media for Netflix series' simplified plot (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
The executive producer on Netflix's The Witcher has blamed American audiences and social media sites such as TikTok for…