It's crazy how far micro-transactions and monetizing games have come since Bethesda charged $2.50 for cosmetic armor to put on your horse. If you'd told someone back then that one day an in-game mount would cost more than the game itself they would have laughed you out of the room.
I mean, I am going to miss the regular videos, but I'm glad he's getting to step away on his own terms. So many youtubers burn out, stop uploading, and then just disappear. Or they turn into a brand that they have to manage instead of creating what they want to. Not many get to fly off into the sunset under a helicopter, so that's nice. Plus, he's not stepping away from creating stuff entirely so there's that.
They're charging people higher prices and refusing to allow them to keep their digital content? They're basically just handing out the pirate hats and eye patches at this point.
Having trouble giving Sony the benefit of the doubt these days, but this move just seems odd. I imagine destroying unsold merchandise is fairly common when an agreement ends, but merchandise that was sold, but not shipped? From the letter, it seems like their agreement with Sony was suddenly terminated, which usually doesn't happen without cause. If it was just a normal case of the license expiring you would think Gaming Heads would be aware of that in advance. Also, sending disgruntled customers after a Sony employee who may or may not have signed off on the decision doesn't look like a good move. Definitely curious to see if more comes out about this.
"Hello, fellow kids. Fortnite sure is lit, huh? You know what else is lit? Our burning planet. Brought to you by Shell."
I mean, yeah America's rightward spiral is depressing, especially if you live there. But it's not exactly an American-exclusive phenomenon. Italy elected a far-right party, France might in their next Presidential election, and even Germany's far-right party is surging in the polls. Honestly, I'm struggling to think of a country that hasn't seen a massive rightward surge over the last few years.
I mean it's not surprising that Capcom is complaining about people modding nude characters into their games, but this still reads like some Capcom executive just learned what mods were and what they could do.
Honestly, this is about what I expect from Google nowadays. It's surprising when they manage to live up to the "Don't be Evil" motto they used to have.
So there's a very good chance that a few generations from now this will just be an expensive paperweight? Like I've accepted that most games need online connections these days, and so do the consoles, but now we even need it for the add-ons?
Being owned my Embracer must feel like a death sentence at this point. I mean even if your studio has been spared cuts or closures so far how safe can you really feel with the higher-ups desperately throwing everyone overboard to stop the ship from going under.
On the one hand I'm always excited for more Witcher. On the other hand Cyberpunk 2077. More seriously, I hope they make a great game and it that lives up to the expectations people are going to have for a new Witcher game, but I'm keeping my expectations in check until I see the finished product.
Painful for who? I highly doubt any of the CEOs and investors interviewed are going to suffer all that much compared to the artists, programmers, and other employees that are going to be laid off because their company wants to be leaner, more dynamic, or whatever the latest buzzword is.
Honestly? Yeah, I probably would have stuck around. I think if they had given more notice then the protest would have been a lot more muted and you wouldn't have seen as many people jump ship for the fediverse. Although, it's not really anger or spite that's been keeping me on the fediverse and away from Reddit. When I learned RIF was shutting down I was more annoyed than anything else. But every action Reddit has taken since then has convinced me that it's just going to become a worse platform as time goes on. Yes, the fediverse is hard to navigate at first and a lot of sites are struggling under a user base that was never expected to grow so rapidly. Still, I appreciate the smaller communities here and I've been more active here in a week than I was during how many years I've been on Reddit. There's a novelty to figuring things out that I never really had with Reddit.
Unity really just keeps stepping on rakes right now huh? Can't wait to see how they manage to make this situation even worse before it's over.
It's a shame that people are being laid off, especially when it seems like it's retaliation for complaining about working conditions. Still, I don't think I'd ever be able to buy anything from ZA/UM after they kicked most of the creators out of the company and took control of the IP.
Sony finally remembered that Bloodborne existed at the worst possible time. Still, at least the game isn't being outright canceled and judging from the Micolash redesign, it looks like the creator is making the best of it. I do wonder if there's a possibility the creator could sell the game now, since it's now a legally distinct gothic kart racing game and not a Bloodborne fan game.
I see Sean Murray has learned nothing from the No Man's Sky hype cycle. I don't want grandiose promises about the scope and scale of the world, I want to know what exactly I'll be doing in it. They're promising role-playing depth, but the whole part about "building, survival, and exploration" just makes me feel like it will be another survival sandbox game with some RPG elements.
Cautiously optimistic about this. Obviously there is a good chance that none of these games will end up being good, but at least Sega is trying to do something new with their old IPs rather than just letting them gather just until they decide to do another "greatest hits" collection.
Honestly, the fact that Gameshark is coming back feels like a bigger surprise than the fact that we might be getting a Switch successor this year.
Good. Not every studio needs to be snatched up by a massive corporation. Embracer's yearlong meltdown is a great example of how that can end badly.
This court case with the FTC is really just the gift that keeps on giving. Struggling to think of the last time a gaming company just leaked all this kind of stuff by accident. The mid-gen refresh is surprising given how vocal Spencer has been about not needing one, but it makes sense, especially if they want to push people to go digital only. The talk about buying Nintendo and Valve is concerning. Still, I have a really hard time imagining Nintendo would ever sell out to any company and Valve's current leadership seems against anything like that. Of course, these things can change and Microsoft certainly seems willing to play the long game when it comes to acquisitions like this.
Disappointing, but not surprising given how poorly received the last Saints Row game was and how Embracer made it clear they were going to be closing studios once their Saudi deal fell through. Hopefully, some of the studio can land on their feet, but still, thirty years in the industry just to get shut down like that.
Sure it is, Yves. If any game would qualify as quadruple A it's the Black Flag spinoff that's been in development hell for years. Genuinely curious how long this game lasts, even if it does get good reviews and finds an audience. Feels like Ubisoft would have cancelled this ages ago if the government of Singapore hadn't been providing subsidies to help fund the project.
It's always a shame when layoffs like this happen, but not surprising given the game's lukewarm reception. Hopefully, the laid-off employees can find other work and the studio can recover.
Good. I'm sure the chatbot will be back up and running soon, but anything that reminds companies there are risks to replacing humans with "AI-enhanced" chatbots is good. Unfortunately, I'm sure the lesson companies are going to take away from this is to include a disclaimer that the chatbot isn't always correct. Which kind of defeats the whole point of using a chatbot to me. Why would I want to use something to try and solve a problem that you just told me could give me inaccurate information?
Once again fans are stepping up to help Bethesda patch up their latest release. Still, the fact that there are no city maps is just kind of baffling. I could understand a bad map or a confusing map, but just a bunch of icons in blank space? It still feels like it should be a glitch even though it is apparently completely intended.
Good riddance. Shame he's probably walking away with a massive payout for all his incompetence and negligence.
I mean it's not like Sony doesn't have a history of failing to support their peripherals with first-party titles. Then again adding PC support feels like they recognize there aren't enough first-party titles and are trying to pad the library of games out. At least it means the VR2 is less likely to just sit around collecting dust.
Ah yes, nothing like a refreshing bottle of Spripe when I'm thirsty. Coco-Cola might not be terrible though. Certainly better than Peepi.
Game looks cool, but I always have mixed feelings about articles like this. On the one hand it helps raise awareness about the game to the people who want to play it, but it also helps raise awareness about the game to the people who are going to send the cease-and-desist letter.
Not surprising given Take-Two's history when it comes to trademark disputes. I'm pretty sure they went after the developers of It Takes Two because of the name, plus any random business that has Rockstar in the name.
That's strange. Especially since it's still for sale on places like GOG and on sale at that. Hopefully this is just an error on 2K or Valve's end and it will be back up. If not then I don't really know why. I mean it's an anti-war third person shooter from 2012. Its not exactly the most controversial game anymore. Unless there's some license that expired that 2K doesn't want to pay to extend.
This is something I've noticed for a while now, but haven't been able to really describe. This shift away from clickbait headlines towards cryptic headlines that just refuse to tell you what they're talking about. Like The Best Part of Alan Wake Is Now On Youtube or The Best Soulslike Of 2023 Just Got Easier. And those are just a few that I've seen today. Maybe it will fade away like the worst clickbait headlines did or they'll just keep getting so cryptic and opaque that one day the headlines will be: Something Just Happened.
This is what happens when you wish for the resurrection of a beloved IP. Another finger on the monkey's paw curls. The idea of a Crazy Taxi live service game is weird enough, but it's just bizarre that they are using Fortnight as a major inspiration for the Jet Set Radio reboot. I guess at the very least we are getting proper remakes of these games alongside the live service reboots. It will be interesting to see how the games do head to head, especially with the difficulties live service games have been having lately.
I love hearing about stuff like this. Besides the time and dedication, it's impressive that everything looks authentic to Skyrim while being made entirely from AOE2 assets.
The more I read about this the more baffling the move seems. It's not going to end cheating. It might inconvenience cheaters, if even that and it's only going to create negative PR for Microsoft, especially since this is impacting people who use modified controllers for accessibility issues. It's especially weird given how carefully Microsoft has tried to craft an image of being "pro-consumer" this console generation. Then again I imagine the executives who make these decisions rarely think these things through. At the very least it is a good reminder that there is no such thing as a pro-consumer for-profit corporation.
Generally, I like using achievements to figure out where people called it quits on a game. Like Saints Row the Third. 90% of people cleared the first mission, but the percentages drop with each successive story achievement until you've got the achievement for the last mission which only 27.9% of players bothered to finish. Or you have Hades where around 50% of players just never finished a run of the game and only 25.6% completed enough runs to see the main ending.
Not surprising that DC is pushing back on this, although I'm not sure if there is anything they can do if Willingham is right and he can put his characters and world in the public domain. Although I suppose they could just send out cease-and-desist notices to anyone trying to use the property and hope no one challenges it.
Well. That's impressively bad. Like genuinely impressive that they managed to make a game bad enough to give Gollum some competition as the worst game of the year.
Well, that's not a good sign for Starfield's modding future. Honestly, it feels like post-Skyrim Bethesda just assumes their games will have a robust modding community. Except that for a game to garner that kind of community it has to be, you know, good. Maybe Bethesda hopes paid modding will be the carrot that brings modders to Starfield, but even if that becomes the standard I don't expect many people will want to make mods for a game they don't even enjoy playing.