I understand it’s not just impacting US developers, as the price of these development kits is also going up across Europe and elsewhere. That’s likely because those “macroeconomic” conditions extend beyond just US tariffs, with currency fluctuations, production costs, and other elements impacting pricing.
I’m thinking they don’t sell that many dev kits so maybe the price is going up for Europe also simply because all of the kits ship from China to Redmond and get distributed to the rest of the world from there. Like, I kind of doubt they even build and sell enough in a year to fill a single shipping container.
My experience was only playing at friends’ houses who had Play Stations, but I never felt like one was better than the other. I appreciated the mechanic of upgrading items helped to give a different element to the game instead of it being the same thing Nintendo was doing but with different characters. What we really played a lot with friends, though, was Battle Mode on Mario Kart. I don’t think CTR had that, or else no one thought it was as good. It really hasn’t been as good in Mario Kart either since the Wii version I’d say.
Apple is trying to get games running on macOS, most obviously with the Game Porting Toolkit to make it easier for developers to release Mac versions, but they still face an uphill climb mostly because of the reputation that Macs can’t run games. Of course, Apple would also prefer that these games be sold on the App Store instead of Steam or the Epic Games Store, and I think a lot of developers aren’t too interested in that.
It would be funny if gaming on Linux ends up getting more traction than macOS because of Valve’s efforts with Proton despite the much larger macOS market share.
There’s a part of me that would be tempted to buy a Nintendo 64 if I ever found one, just for the authentic experience with Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, and a few others.
The classic tracks usually vary some in newer versions of Mario Kart. Typically I’d say it doesn’t make a difference, mostly cosmetic, but sometimes it’s significant. SNES Rainbow Road is one I’d say is dramatically easier in the remakes, and I’ve seen comparisons showing wholesale changes on others to the extent they’re hardly even the same track. It mostly seems to impact the SNES and GBA tracks, though. Not as many real differences in tracks that were already 3D models.
I saw something within the past year or so that looked like a new version of Paperboy and I got excited but then it turned out it wasn’t and I was disappointed.
Yeah, I’ve never played Madden online. That’s very much a couch game to me still. Not that I’ve played it much in years. I picked up my first copy in over a decade a couple years ago when it was on sale at the end of the season.
I haven’t seen it mentioned and feel like it should count, since it really just had a solo programmer working with a graphic designer and musician, but RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 took a big chunk of my gaming time.