I’m not even mad that we didn’t get the multiplanetary open world new-tech live-experience cooperative second coming. I’m mad we didn’t even get a simple, short singleplayer experience living off of the charm of the first one.
Although we still number consoles, in a lot of ways we did get our “tiered” console structure.
Take most people’s daily plays, and I’d say about 90% of them or more have an edition available on the prior gen console. And it makes sense when so many of those games have relatively basic graphics - and when game engines have gotten better at scalability.
So, those consoles are neatly serving as a low budget option for a lot of gamers that can’t follow all the latest and most expensive games. Yes, some newer releases will be fully excluded; but even then, getting a brand new or used Switch or PS4 can introduce someone to a huge number of games if they haven’t been exploring options.
I have been avoiding multiplayer Valve games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2, due to their in-game economies that have created an underage gambling gray market, which Valve has done little about. However, I am on Linux, and the choices for multiplayer shooters are few. Besides, my small boycott is not stopping...
I think your voice could actually be better than your wallet on this.
For one, these games are free. So, are you harming the world by playing them and just not buying loot boxes? Minimally, at best. I also advise people enacting boycotts to represent vocal action around them. For instance, I called Target directly about my boycott when they ended DEI hiring.
You can also help lobby politicians to make clear how you feel on the issue. That can put a lot more panic on publishers. Politicians don’t have a strong reason to defend them - often it only gets ignored because they don’t think voters find it a significant issue. Even if you don’t get a federal ban, sometimes you can get state laws like limiting physical advertising; which can also sometimes spread to other states.
Basically, boycotting as a form of inaction, especially when it makes your days boring, isn’t necessarily an effective approach.
I agree that, on paper, that is a reason for game prices to go up. However, I also think that on paper, there are reasons for it to go down at the same time.
For one, game budgets really should be controlled. A great many indie developers have put out superior products using the better technologies available. This often coincides with longer development time using a smaller team. You even see a disjointedness in AAA games now where it very much feels like 8 teams lumping their portions together.
Two, minimum wage has not gone up in the USA; and the reach of these games has expanded to many countries that (in part due to import laws) can’t even pay what were considered normal prices elsewhere. Many of these games they’re selling only hit viral growth when a lot of people are playing and talking about them, and we’re in real danger of big, expensive productions being completely out of people’s reach and thus dropping entirely off the radar.
You misunderstand the relation of minimum wage to game prices. Video games, compared to other things like theatre, cool cars, fancy restaurants, are relatively cheap and high-longevity entertainment to be consumed at all income brackets; even if that means a single mom buying a used PS4, and one 140-hour Assassin’s Creed game a year for her son.
So raising the price in a country with such a HUGE low-income population can price out far more people than you realize. Even if inflation has grown, the budget has not changed for many of these people. It’s a broken financial system, yes, but that’s the situation.
TL;DR: Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser discussed with Wired the impact of new tariffs on the Nintendo Switch 2, which may increase its price from $449 to $600. The tariffs affect manufacturing in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. Nintendo is assessing the situation, having already moved some production out of China.
Between trains and large ships, I love the feeling of operating large vehicles with multiple rooms. Bonus points if one large vehicle can carry a smaller vehicle.
Examples: Sea of Thieves, Subnautica, many JRPGs with airships, even something like The Last Express.
This whole thing has erupted on my radar in the past month ever since they abducted the girl from Tufts.
HOW does this genocidal state have such an insane stranglehold on our country?
Now I’m getting YouTube ads to demonize Hamas; apparently their effort to “pull people back” and get people sympathetic for October 7 hostages. I AM sympathetic to the hostages!…So why is Israel bombing them??
I know of that site, but in many ways I can’t stomach following trial-and-error debugging steps to try to get a perfect experience. Very rarely has it been one command line option and then the game runs as perfectly as Windows.
I mean, if they find actual artwork, audio, or code stolen, much of which goes into UI development, that would definitely make for a fair case. I’d presume that Schedule 1 devs would never do something so stupid though.
The game pricing argument goes back and forth for me. Yes, on paper, you could say that inflation suggests games should go up in price, especially considering how many more developers are needed to put out high-fidelity games. BUT, on the other hand, the minimum wage has not raised significantly in all of that time. As a result, a significant number of gamers genuinely can’t pay more for games than they could 20+ years ago. The reason these larger studios exist is because of gaming’s expanded reach in that time; and many of these new target territories similarly can’t pay for the equivalent of $80USD.
There’s maybe only about 1-2 games I’ve ever even paid the $70 price tag for.
120 and 4K are often claimed on console specs but are rarely achieved within games. At best it will be capable of that when playing Netflix or streaming.
I’m curious what other people’s main gripe is (likely emulation fights?) For my own, it’s when they enacted an assault on Garry’s Mod assets.
That domain never did anything to harm their brand and was a source for tons of fan content. Emulation has its murky arguments about capitalism, but going after GMod was just litigation and harm for its own sake.
This might be a dumb idea, but I may buy this game just to make up for all the baseless hate it’s been hit by. Maybe just to avoid shareholder claims of “See, people prefer historical accuracy. Hence black people are banned in all future games.”
I haven’t really even tracked much of Ubisoft games for a while, and I recognize usually they’re pretty mindless open world fun - personally I’m often fine with that.
I’ve even wanted to bring up Valve in some recent political discussions on corporate governance. With the blatant exception of CSGO child-focused gambling, it is otherwise the “shining ideal” of a good company: They invented a product that people like and enjoy, maintain it well to please their customers, and pay their employees well without growing excessively or finding ways to cheat customers out of their money.
From Jez Corden. Further supporting the idea that the next Xbox is just a PC with a custom shell, which is about the only way a new Xbox makes sense anyway....
If we got a Gyroscope on Xbox, then all major controllers would have it - allowing for the possibility of cross platform games where people can use gyro ironsights to aim. That would be awesome.
Common misconception. None of them want war. They want to show up, intimidate people into surrender, and fight no one. They’re dogs barking through a fence that blindly ignore the open gate.
Hence why all the mass firings were by email. Hence why Trump has twice caved to Canada and Mexico on tariffs. Hence why ICE has failed to force either Illinois or Boston to cooperate with their raids.
I understand the reasons people feel they have to be afraid, but miss that all of the fear is on the other foot.
There was a great video where someone dismantled an ultra-aggressive “we’re gonna destroy you liberals” claim video. He basically said “No, I know you’re not going to do that. Because you said it into a camera.”
You’ve renewed my idea for setting up a Discord server that literally bans zero-effort Twitch style chat messages. Each time someone hits enter, they must be conveying a human thought. Exceptions provided for reactions, which are a specific feature, but that’s it.
I’ve tried watching videos about it, but they are not analysing the reasons. Instead it’s just whining about the symptoms and hypocrisy of rich CEOs firing employees then buying a yacht. We all know it’s terrible, but my question is “why”. “herp derp, capitalism” and “omg, it’s the fucking CEOs” doesn’t...
I would really really encourage spreading this frustration past the edge of the gaming industry.
No one likes talking about politics, until it affects their lives. Well, the ruling of the gaming industry by shareholders and MBAs affects you now.
There’s also internet providers, food supply companies, energy companies, and all types that are inflating their value and mass firing workers to make the world terrible and their CEO pay higher. If you can suggest a better way to curb that than government regulation, I’m all for it, but until then, vote in people that will force accountability. I have my own thoughts on who that means but will end the soapbox there since I’m sure we’d rather be gaming.
I don’t know if this is the priority for many other users, but Epic Games is 40% owned by Tencent, a Chinese corporation. That in itself is an inappropriate level of CCP influence to me - sadly, Chinese companies don’t really get to divest themselves of government influence the way American corps do.
(That said, with Google changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name, I feel less sure of that last claim)
Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has criticised a fan, and “people like them”, for complaining about a returning character’s updated appearance.
The world has gone too long without game developers returning criticism to fans. Some game devs don’t serve their fans well and deserve a blasting, but that’s generally a minority. Most of the time, gamers in online spaces are the same sort of Karen at the register saying “The customer is always right” every single day, and they‘ve needed to take a step back for a long time.
Corollary: I play an online game that’s full of glitches. I’m upset at the dev about it, but also patient because I know programming is hard, and I’m sure they get frustrated at those bugs too.
Every time some incel wants to start a conversation about DA:V, I just point them to Baldur’s Gate 3.
That game is inclusive and diverse, and also fucks - both in the “adult content” sense, disproving their myths about diversity somehow siding together with censorship, and in the quality sense.
The dramatic fall in writing has happened across the industry and should be no surprise to anyone.
Check out “Aquaria”. Not quite the same thing, but a Metroidvania playing as a mermaid with song powers. Lots of boss fights! And you can even breech the surface when you get there!
Man, I think my playthrough of N:A was absolutely ruined by the RPG mechanics. I was lategame trying to get to this rumored “amazing story”, and something about my numbers wasn’t adding up because even switching to easy mode it was taking AGES to beat the bosses.
So yeah, I’m not even generally a fan of soulslikes, but S:B’s action-based difficulty was definitely more to my tastes.
They have a much better design than the blue shell.
In Mario, the guy in 8th place sends a bomb into the ether, and sends the guy in 1st place to 5th…while the guy in 8th stays there.
In Sonic, the guy in 8th sends a swarm of hornets, essentially a minefield. The guy in first CAN evade them skillfully, but has the most to deal with. As more people hit some, others will have fewer. The whole crowd gets slowed just a bit (and the person who threw it is unaffected when they reach them)
There’s a very good bill for achieving this result by a senator from my state, which requires companies to elect their board members through employees.
There’s an alternative, to make it popular with the American people. Republicans look bad to their constituents each time they vote against policies that would relieve the American people as a whole, such as net neutrality and healthcare for all.
Make some noise about it! Make it known that Democrats fight for everyone, and that a certain sect is very vocally rejecting that fight.
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...
As depressing as it is to ask, I feel I should kick off the brainstorm: Given that this personal information has been doxxed, is there anything that individuals could do to help the affected developers in any way?
The only people who can object against hating Nazis are Nazis themselves.
This was the key to his statement and I agree with him.
Video games need to generate acceptable targets. Aliens invading people’s homes, PMCs controlled by powerful men, thugs and looters looking to beat up whoever they find, etc.
But it’s ridiculous anyone would post “Hey! If aliens did come to our world to take control of our governments, they would be sorely offended by video games about killing them!” On one level because aliens don’t exist. On the other because if they were coming to take control of our governments, why would we want to protect or respect them?
Now, replace the little green men with discriminatory, media-controlling purveyors of hate speech. They exist. Everyone sane would rather they didn’t. That’s all.
I mean, I’ll bite: I enjoyed GP for a while, up until MS went firing-crazy and upped their prices.
Until then, I was very aware I rented games and might not get to play them later. Given that I was generally playing games that were new or sampling genres I don’t play much of, I wasn’t opposed to the time limitation, and the low price was reasonable.
Now that their price increased, I ended it. I am not locked into their ecosystem, and in fact swore off it pretty easily due to their changing circumstances.
I would agree the renting situation is poisonous when it comes to housing, because the model has driven the purchasing price of homes through the sky. But that is a situation with scarcity of goods. You can get video games anywhere.
That set of games in my library evaporated. I still have plenty of other games.
I’ll admit, if GP was someone’s entry into gaming and they never buy individual games, they would be a bit starved on unsubscribing except for any F2P games (which, tbf, is still a big set of options). But someone only able to spend that much a month on games is not going to have many options anyway; they’re the type that might buy a Ubisoft open world game just to get hundreds of hours through the year for their money.
But you’re also missing that this is very much the agreement and expectation: It is literally over a hundred video games, given the instant you pay them $15 (now I think $20) It is very fully understood to be on rental basis.
I’m trying to write a story, and I struggled with this, especially when confronting certain realities:
While fantasy, the story is meant to reflect some harsh political realities
Multiple villains are killed, but the heartfelt good guys live.
The ending has everything fixed and everyone’s happy.
I’m aware most stories don’t come anywhere close to a full happy ending like this. Every Batman story ends with Gotham still a miserable shithole. Every noir story ends with the case solved but everyone broken for it and the city still a dystopia. It generally has good reasoning, to reflect harshness of reality, but that’s a realm of fantasy I really want to venture into; one where things just work out.
As I understand it, there’s not currently a PSN restriction on Helldivers 2. Valve themselves blocked it because Sony was making no promises that it would continue to be a legal and playable purchase in outside countries.
I would guess Sony may still have to convince Valve to increase the game’s availability. To sell a product that will remain usable, Valve needs a better commitment/promise than “We’we so sowwy consumews, we pwomise we won’t do it again.” Probably some kind of contract.
You’re browsing Steam. You find “ULTIMATE Inchworm Arena”, a strange but fun-looking online multiplayer arena. You buy it, and download it. The game then says “Welcome to Inchworm Arena! To certify yourself for online play, you must provide One MoistCoin, a cryptocurrency obtainable only in the Republic of Kongo!” None of this was clear from the Steam store page. The developer support response is less than helpful.
Would you continue protesting the developers, or would you blame Valve for presenting this obvious worthless scam game as an offering on Steam? By putting it on their store, Steam asserts some level of responsibility that the game in question is actually playable, and doesn’t contain critical bugs; like failing to start up, or having a user license agreement that its lawyers did not think through.
When this happened for Helldivers, it was Valve that restricted their access because Sony didn’t even know what they were doing on the PC store, and hadn’t thought through that players had no legal avenue to play in some countries. Valve does not want to be put through more cases of user customer support complaining to them, and wants to ensure certain behavior from their game vendors to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Valve absolutely limits the sale of people’s games.
Usually, this would come in the case of “Hey, this game doesn’t work, we’re taking it out of sale everywhere.” But with Helldivers 2 being so popular and high profile, that wouldn’t have been a good look for Valve. Instead, they limited the zone of sale to prevent customer support complaints.
Sony was limiting where you could legally sign up for PSN and thus play the game, not where you could buy it off Steam. That was a conflict of their own mismanagement and inexperience selling on PCs. Had they been smarter, they would have restricted regions to begin with and there might have been less outcry, but poor planning caused Valve’s parental slap.
Fun resource management situation from a weird JRPG: Rather than Phoenix downs, each party member has “hearts”. Each time they are KO’d, they lose one heart for the rest of the (short) game. But, at low HP, they have a high chance of critical hits and resist some status effects.
So sometimes playing that risk when you have spare hearts late in the game lets you get a lot of benefit.
What's a cancelled game you really miss? angielski
Nintendo ‘warned to expect 145% tariff on Nintendo Switch 2’ (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Ex-PlayStation exec argues 'only the dog can hear' differences between consoles and gaming PCs: 'They're all quite similar' (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
18+ Games Media Can't Ignore BDS Xbox Boycott. (aftermath.site) angielski
BDS’ call to boycott Microsoft is a call to action for gamers, and an imperative for games media
Can't Afford A Nintendo Switch 2? Buy A Switch 1, Nintendo Says - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube controller is only compatible with GameCube games, Nintendo says (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Should we boycott games with loot boxes? angielski
I have been avoiding multiplayer Valve games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2, due to their in-game economies that have created an underage gambling gray market, which Valve has done little about. However, I am on Linux, and the choices for multiplayer shooters are few. Besides, my small boycott is not stopping...
Nintendo boss Doug Bowser explains the $80 price for ‘Mario Kart World’ - The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) angielski
web.archive.org/…/mario-kart-world-price-nintendo…...
Nintendo president responds to Switch 2 price increase fears amid Trump tariff fallout (www.tweaktown.com) angielski
TL;DR: Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser discussed with Wired the impact of new tariffs on the Nintendo Switch 2, which may increase its price from $449 to $600. The tariffs affect manufacturing in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. Nintendo is assessing the situation, having already moved some production out of China.
Quite a Ride: Official Reveal Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
Pacific Ride.
BDS calls for boycott of Microsoft and Xbox gaming products over alleged Israeli military connections (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/28202261...
6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? angielski
Drug Dealer Simulator publisher launches an investigation against Schedule 1 creator. The game is supposedly “violating company’s IP” (www.gamepressure.com) angielski
18+ The Switch 2 Rollout Was So Convoluted It Made Us Want A Steam Deck. (aftermath.site) angielski
Important information about compatibility of Nintendo Switch games with Nintendo Switch 2 (www.nintendo.com) angielski
TL;DR there seem to be some games that are not compatible including the Nintendo Labo VR kit. 99% of games seem fine.
Nintendo Switch 2 Launches on June 5th Worldwide; 1080p Screen With 120 FPS and HDR Support, Docked Mode 4K Resolution Support Confirmed (wccftech.com) angielski
The Switch 2 Nintendo Direct Will Be 60 Minutes Long, Nintendo Confirms (www.ign.com) angielski
Assassin's Creed Shadows | Review Thread angielski
Game Information...
Split Fiction Developer Already Started Working On Its Next Title, Calls It An "Exciting Thing" (pkinsight.com) angielski
Steam is a ticking time bomb. (www.spacebar.news) angielski
The decline of the Steam games platform is inevitable, and there are already warning signs.
Next Xbox Rumors Surface; No Devkits Available to Developers Yet (aiming for 2027); EDIT: And new handheld later this year (www.dualshockers.com) angielski
From Jez Corden. Further supporting the idea that the next Xbox is just a PC with a custom shell, which is about the only way a new Xbox makes sense anyway....
From the trailer of Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) angielski
Which is an incredible game, and is even more fun to play now than it was in 2014!
Gaming chat platform Discord in early talks with banks about public listing (www.ft.com) angielski
archive.is/…/4ab9efe7-36bc-44ff-b2cd-06eb2c38203a...
Is there an in depth analysis of what's going on in the gaming industry? angielski
I’ve tried watching videos about it, but they are not analysing the reasons. Instead it’s just whining about the symptoms and hypocrisy of rich CEOs firing employees then buying a yacht. We all know it’s terrible, but my question is “why”. “herp derp, capitalism” and “omg, it’s the fucking CEOs” doesn’t...
Steam Deck Gaming News #2 angielski
To start with:...
‘There will always be people like you’: Tekken boss blasts ‘disrespectful’ fan for criticising character’s new look (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has criticised a fan, and “people like them”, for complaining about a returning character’s updated appearance.
4 Months After Launch, Dragon Age: The Veilguard Headlines PlayStation Plus March 2025 Lineup (www.ign.com) angielski
Wow. Some people bought the game for full price recently and now it’s given away for free (with your PS+ subscription) early next month.
Games franchises that need metroidvania spinoffs? angielski
My picks:...
Stellar Blade is on Steam (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds - Announce Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Finally, a proper sequel Sonic Racing: Transformed
Valve ban advertising-based business models on Steam, no forced adverts like in mobile games (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
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
It looks like someone at Activision is leaking Slack screenshots to right-wing X users (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
What are your favorite games for killing nazis? angielski
The only good nazi is a dead nazi. What games are the best for taking them out?...
Game Pass sets quarterly revenue record, sees 30% growth in PC subscribers (xboxera.com) angielski
Cozy Games May Help Improve Players' Mental Health, Researchers Say (www.gamespot.com) angielski
Sony finally surrenders: PSN accounts will be 'optional' for games on Steam, but they'll give you free stuff if you sign up (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Pain (lemmy.world) angielski