I think comparing it to a console is the wrong mindset. It’s a computer first that can also be a console. It’s also a pre built Linux based computer you can have a higher degree of confidence that things just work even after updates. It’s a legitimate competitor for a new windows PC as much as it is a console competitor.
Digital ownership is probably going to happen, but it’s going to take a generation of politicians to die off. Once we get more people that understand computers and digital goods aren’t magic, there can be change.
The big subs were full of bots, but for some it didn’t really matter. It a post was a bit but it was still funny on memes or funny then it’s fine. I don’t care if karma farming bots were the majority of posts so long as it’s still good content. The content does seem to be significantly worse now though.
It’s absolutely a generic open world game, bit that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The formula is fun if it’s done well, which I think it is for Horizon Zero Dawn. The combat style is also uncommon and provides a satisfying loop of stealth and bullet time mechanics.
It think it has to be 2007 just because there are games that didn’t crack the top 10 that year that would be goty in other years. It’s also a huge year for multiple platforms, pratically every major franchise had a good release that year.
Valve has one for the few lootbox systems that you can actually get value back out of outside the game. While they deserve all the same criticism of every lootbox game, they probably also deserve some praise for that.
Indie games are overrated, it’s still mostly crap. I don’t blame people for waiting for absurd popularity to bring actually good titles to the surface. It’s still the same general problem, I have a the time for maybe 5 games per year, and that has to compete with my existing backlog, favorites and new titles. I’m not risking that time on Indie or AAA titles without some good evidence it’s worth it.
It is to a very high standard. There’s been 14k games released this year alone which would be a .01% miss rate for malware games. If you compare against all games to account for updates that add malware after submission it’s basically 0 at .000001%
Malware creation and detection are billion dollar industries playing an eternal cat and mouse game with each other. These programs don’t just instantly try to steal every file the second they run.
Steam does scan for malware, which is why this is news. It’s notable that a game got through that was malware. You haven’t heard about other stores because it’s not worth the effort in targeting them. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most stores use the same vendor for malware scanning.