This is an excellent point. An organisation the size of Sony is simply incapable of not attempting a live service hit as long as they have the resources to do so.
A smaller player can pursue a strategy where they gain profits from their (somewhat specialized) segement of the market. Sony lacks that flexibility due to their size.
I don’t think Jacobs is a scammer like Chris Roberts with Store Citizen, but you got to agree the 12 year history of CU does not inspire confidence.
I say this as someone who enjoyed Darkfall and can’t stand pure themepark MMOs. I tried to get into DAOC, but the UI/UX is simply too old school for someone who hasn’t played it back in the day.
I never backed (I only back single player games on Kickstarter). Just wanted to share with others the saga of this 12 years in-development indie crowdfunded MMO.
As someone who doesn’t play on consoles, the first time I encountered Kingdom Hearts, I thought this was a satirical piece. As if the gaming site made up a fake game. Goofy, Donald Duck and the Final Fantasy fellow together sounded like a teen fanfic.
No disrespect intended. I am genuinely happy if KH brings entertainment to people. Just sharing my literal “first impression”.
I get it that it’s probably easier to setup a Discord server, than to run your own forum, but you can always get a managed solution or use reddit (I would prefer if Lemmy was used, but I am also realistic).
Tried out the demo in late 2024. I really like the concept. It didn’t feel like all those "[retail store type] simulator] UE5 asset flips that are all over Steam. It has it’s own visual style and IMO has more refined core gameplay mechanics. Sure, some of the gamplay is similar (and can be very addicting), but you can see that thought was put into the gameplay mechanics.
If the 1st person store simulator concept seems intriguing, but you are looking for something beyond a quick UE5 asset flip, I would recommend to check this out.
I am surprised that it was released for free. I briefly interacted with the dev in late 2024 and I was under the impression that there would be a commercial release in 1H 2025.
That’s a fucking wild bill if you are not from the US. One would almost think you are being scammed (I am talking about the deceptive structure of the bill, not the values).