You used to be able to type in an IP address whether or not the official server is running. Sometimes you still can, but seeing as Baldur’s Gate 3 has LAN and direct IP connection on PC but not on PlayStation, it sure seems like Sony is asking them to specifically remove the feature if they wanted it in the first place.
Then beyond that, you’ve got a mismatch behind what your money is actually for. It used to be for paying for their servers, but you often don’t even connect to Sony’s servers anymore. Plenty of games behind that same paywall have their own servers, like Call of Duty for instance, but Call of Duty’s multiplayer is behind the same paywall as Helldivers 2, which is running servers on Sony’s dime. And beyond that…the reason multiplayer is free on PC is because your purchases are funding them. The majority of game sales on consoles are now digital, just like Steam, and that is a trend that’s accelerating. Meanwhile, the subscription fee compared to free online on PC is probably one of a multitude of reasons that people are leaving consoles for PC.
I’m pretty sure PlayStation requires games with certain types of multiplayer to authenticate with them as part of the agreement to publish on the platform so that’s restrictive.
It sounds like that requirement is just a bad deal for the consumer. And they charge you for it. And they can’t guarantee uptime.
Cloud saves that are free on PC, and they don’t block your access to transfer saves without it like consoles do. Playing online on PC is free, and we know exactly how to make it free on consoles, but they’re not interested in doing so. No one can guarantee 100% uptime, which is why it’s a bad deal to make the subscription for that stuff mandatory instead of allowing things like direct IP connections.
consoles are walled gardens that consumers pay to be in
Less and less as time goes on, is my point, for the reasons we’ve discussed. Maybe any one or two of those reasons aren’t doing it on their own, but in the aggregate, it appears consumers are slowly deciding not to put up with the downsides anymore.
I’m not mixing anything up. If they allowed for things like direct IP connections, you could still play Baldur’s Gate 3, online, regardless of this downtime. It wasn’t organically that we arrived here. It’s objectively worse.
It would help people who wanted to have a functioning video game. Then you could ask your friend (or someone on Discord) what their IP address is and play with them.
I’ll bet that number is significantly higher than zero, but as per reporting some months ago, much like with Redfall, Rocksteady saw a significant exodus during Suicide Squad, since the studio was tasked with building a game they did not want to make.
You can listen at 1.5x speed and not miss a thing, with the speed this guy speaks. Probably none of this is new information to many of us here, but I thought the way it was collated was good analysis.
It is not completely struck down, as Ross points out on his channel. There is still value in signing if you live in the UK, especially as they once again did not understand the petition.
I miss when Rainbow Six was Rainbow Six. The first version of this game felt like Rainbow Six with a few oddities to it, like healing someone by throwing a syringe at them. Now it’s some wacky version of GI Joe.
They do a lot of support work, but now and then they get out a project of their own. Rumbleverse was well regarded by its audience, but it was also like the 90th battle royale to come out, and it never stood a chance.
It was a competitive mainstay for years. Like with MvC2, they could probably charge for this one game what they’re going to charge for the whole collection, and people would pay it.
What’s the multiplayer situation like for these games? They don’t list LAN in the features for the first game, but there’s mention of it in the Steam forums, and I’m not sure if it was removed or something. Presumably no split screen?
I’m pretty sure you already know it, but I’ll post it here anyways, IO-Interactive (The creators of the Hitman franchise) are working on a new game, which will be a James Bond 007 game...
According to Circana, the physical market has halved in the past three years, and potential US tariffs on Mexico aren’t going to help the physical game market. The longer it takes Sony to release a PS6, the less likely it is that it will have a disc drive.
This is near and dear to me, and I’d say it goes beyond just co-op. We used to get “the whole package” with a game. Arguably Call of Duty is one of the few still offering it. We used to have games with campaigns and multiplayer. Story mode and challenge rooms. Other modes of play sitting alongside the main event to round out the package. Now developers look at any data point to see how many people are using it, and if the number isn’t high enough, they cut it. But that’s a mistake. Most people might only dip their toes into these side features, but they can usually be implemented relatively cheaply (because of asset reuse), and they can add a ton of value even if most players don’t spend a lot of time in them. Co-op is one of those things.
The games that used to offer these co-op modes tended to stop getting attention from their publishers. Then once they’ve got a multiplayer mode, they try to make it a live service and monetize it instead of just letting it be. I was screaming at my monitor when I read that Naughty Dog open letter about canceling the Last of Us multiplayer game that said they had two choices and neither of them was making a multiplayer game that they just sold for a box price and didn’t manage as a live service; the possibility, seemingly, had never even crossed their minds. Co-op games can’t just be a campaign you play through once with a friend; they have to be PVE grinds where you play the same content over and over until the next pack of it comes out in a few weeks. The likes of a Baldur’s Gate 3 or an It Takes Two feel rare by comparison.
Really? Because there are plenty of reviews that captured the state of that game at release, and they’re generally better at articulating it than the guy who has 1000 hours in a game and calls it “literally unplayable” in a Steam review.
“This employee took screenshots of ABK wide discussions about the safety of our protected information (like name changes and visa statuses) and sent them to an an extremely racist, sexist, and transphobic individual on Twitter who has over a 100 thousand followers,” they added.
For me personally, I find it really easy to add “hours” to a game’s runtime, and I’d sooner pay more for a higher quality experience and a shorter runtime. I’ve spent about a fifth of that 1000 mark in both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, and they’d have been worth $100 to me. Indiana Jones was worth every bit of the $70 I paid, and it took me under 20 hours.
It’s a number that divides easily into 120, which mattered more for old TVs, and it’s far enough over the threshold to trick our minds into seeing a bunch of still frames as a moving thing.
It makes a lot of sense to at least ask the question if you should split this game into two parts when each part has a very different pool of customers. I don’t think they’ll do it, because they want people in the online component to be present for multiplayer in the first place, but it makes sense to ask the question.
If this game is going to have issues running at 60 FPS on the PS5, I don’t think 30 FPS is for the benefit of the Switch 2. Even if it was, Switch 2 is a platform that people will want to play GTA on. The tech that Rockstar is trying to push forward comes at the cost of frame rate. That’s not making it shittier; it’s making different trade-offs.
I think yes, people will stop buying video games (at that price). There are very few games that carry the demand that GTA does, and customers have shown with the likes of Suicide Squad that they won’t just buy anything that marketing tells them to. Meanwhile, customers are very aware of the options available to them for free.
People like what they like, and the core of CoD hasn’t changed enough to dissuade people, in general, yet it still has bad years where it doesn’t do as well as it did this year.
Jeff Grubb has said that, based on what he’s hearing from sources, do not get your hopes up for this to mean anything official is happening for Bloodborne.
Jeff “Metroid Prime Remastered coming this year” Grubb, but plans changed after he heard of them, yes. It’s really not a good way to try to discredit someone because they don’t literally have a crystal ball.
I played it in the “open beta” two years ago. Sad that it’s come to this, the game had a lot going for it but… having all characters locked on start then weirdly shutting the game down for an extended time then coming back with everything somehow worse… everyone saw this coming....
It’s the way Multiversus went, and it’s the way 2XKO will likely go. You need to put your thumbs on certain scales to make the math work out for free to play.
It’s not that it’s hard. It’s that they see it as interfering with their business model. Not only would that remove the likelihood of you seeing other people’s new skins, it also removes a dependence on them, where they can create forced obsolescence. Plus I suspect that they fear more piracy.
At that point, you go to Discord, either with friends or the game’s community. It’s pretty much mathematically impossible to sustain the kinds of populations you find at a game’s launch.
PSN Is Still Down After 14 Hours And No One Knows Why (www.forbes.com) angielski
(18 now actually)
Rocksteady is back working on a single-player Batman game, it’s claimed | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Wonder Woman Game is "Years Away From Release" As Warner Bros. Gaming Division Struggles (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Actually investigating "Gaming is Dying" [Never Knows Best] (youtu.be) angielski
You can listen at 1.5x speed and not miss a thing, with the speed this guy speaks. Probably none of this is new information to many of us here, but I thought the way it was collated was good analysis.
UK Shoots Down 'Stop Destroying Videogames' Petition (www.dualshockers.com) angielski
Rainbow Six Siege 2 Reportedly in the Works with Major Engine Overhaul and Visual Upgrades (thegamepost.com) angielski
Iron Galaxy lays off 66 developers in 'last resort' lifesaving effort (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Live service taking its toll on yet another studio.
Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - Pre-Order Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Get ready for a smashing time as Wreckfest 2 comes to Early Access in March (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
The Sims Turned Players Into Gods. And Farmers. And Vampires. And Landlords. (www.nytimes.com) angielski
A NYTimes piece on Will Wright, as well as talking about some of the themes in the Sims that got overlooked or lost in its massive success.
James Bond Game by IO-Interactive (lemmy.world) angielski
I’m pretty sure you already know it, but I’ll post it here anyways, IO-Interactive (The creators of the Hitman franchise) are working on a new game, which will be a James Bond 007 game...
Former Sony Exec Believes PlayStation 6 Will Retain Optical Disc Support (www.techpowerup.com) angielski
Co-op campaigns are a rarity these days, and that should change (pdx.su) angielski
Sid Meier's Civilization VII | Review Thread angielski
Game Information...
It looks like someone at Activision is leaking Slack screenshots to right-wing X users (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Grand Theft Auto VI and Grand Theft Auto Online Could Be Sold Separately; Rockstar Is Targeting Solid 30 FPS on Consoles, According to Former Animator (wccftech.com) angielski
Creator of Bloodborne 60fps Patch Says Sony Has Sent Him a DMCA Takedown — but Why Now? (www.ign.com) angielski
Oh thank god, there had to keep the bloodborne remastered rumors going before january ends.
The Sims & The Sims 2 Legacy Collections - Official Reveal Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
EA...
Multiversus ends updates, will close servers on May 30 (but will remain playable in Singleplayer) (multiversus.com) angielski
I played it in the “open beta” two years ago. Sad that it’s come to this, the game had a lot going for it but… having all characters locked on start then weirdly shutting the game down for an extended time then coming back with everything somehow worse… everyone saw this coming....