Should be a very final ruling.

But more importantly, is anyone other than the AI bubble going to be able to buy any of it?

Improvise. The CEOs don’t hesitate when deciding how to fuck us next.

Because fuck you, I want those extra pennies for my next yacht, that’s why - almost every CEO and investor on the planet, probably.

Because that makes frequent 20% alright? “Oh, everything else is going up in price so they might as well do it too.” Fuck off with their lame excuses. You’re only fighting against yourself.

Which they aren’t going to succeed in doing when they keep raising the price too.

I’m starting to think Sony is too dense to make money at this point.

You’re conflating. While I don’t disagree that Valve is soaking up money, and when it fleet-of-yachts money, it’s just as sickening as when any-and-everyone else does it. Where there’s a difference is in the ‘How’. While I have my problems with Steam, generally speaking, they offer a good service. They provide servers and bandwidth while selling games far cheaper than their closest competitors, by one means or another.

There’s also how they’re using that money as a company. Right now, I can think of three different lawsuits Valve is involved in just off the top of my head, all of which are fighting to worsen the hobby for gamers and Valve is opposing. Obviously, it’s in Valve’s interest as a game’s marketplace to keep gamers throwing money at them, but the ‘Why’ matters a lot less in this circumstance that the ‘What’. Even if it’s not the express purpose, Valve is the only company I know of that’s putting in any amount of effort to defend consumer rights in the gaming space. Everyone else with money comparable to what Valve has are too busy trying to exploit the market or diminish Valve’s share while providing nothing as close to as good as Steam.

News that has come out since your comment involving Valve includes an agreement with Facepunch Studios to make Source 2 available to public without any licensing fee under the name of s&box. While it’s obviously in Valve’s interest to increase the possible amount of games that will be sold on their platform, and Facepunch have done a significant amount of heavy lifting in making Source 2 both available and useful to the masses, that’s still Valve doing their part to make the gaming community a better place and provide an alternative to the (in some people’s opinions) over-used Unreal and (horribly untrustworthy) Unity.

As Zorque has said before me, Valve aren’t angles, but I truly believe Valve is bringing a net positive to the market, unlike any other company with comparable bank balances.

Not that odd. Valve doesn’t have mass layoffs because they don’t over-hire. Beyond that, it’s salt in the wound towards Sweeney’s inability to compete.

Seems they have a tendency of leaving important details for the last minute.

Opera were nice enough to port spyware to Linux? How sweet of them.

Hmmm… Wonder why…

Fair enough. I also assumed the worst of your ambiguous wording, this being the internet and all.

They really are desperate to get rid of Steam, huh?

Your problem with me is that I value free speech? An interesting hill to die on.

Corpos engaging in shady behaviour? Never would have seen that coming.

That game was AAAAwful

Yeah, it all smells of them never having cared about the players in the first place.

Same can be said for any entertainment media in a way. Tiktok (for those people) YT or even films. They’re all ways to spend one’s time, even if they aren’t direct competitors. For those who choose a balanced approached between all of them, there’s really only time left in a person’s day for one or two of these kinds of games, let alone their dwindling funds for everything else that is increasing in price.

I know, I’ve seen it. JM8 already said ages back on Windbreaker that the MMO market is only sustainable for a limited number of games. The amount of games that have flooded the market over the past half decade or so speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of the market potential.

The pitiable coughs of the GaaS market slowly realising the audience doesn’t have time for 1500 ‘forever games’.

I don’t like all the Checkpoint Charlie bullshit and got fed up with the side content before the main story was over, but the world in Tsushima was so well made that I had a good time in it - far better than AC: Shadows (that I didn’t pay to play, for the record) - and the combat system was fun. Yotei has a character that isn’t forced into the peg hole of a samurai and has a greater selection of weapons so it looks like it’ll be a fun time.

“CEOs continue to ride the skills of others into oblivion while making a profit from doing nothing.”

This one actually bothers me because I was looking forward to Ghost of Yotei, but if Sony are still so allergic to making money, I guess I won’t give them any. Barely a handful of games from an entire generation is certainly not enough to make me buy an overpriced console.

“Scum company fires more people while pretending everything is okay”

The only acceptable option: don’t fucking bother.

Consider me old fashioned.

write the same sorts of things on game boxes

Don’t be ridiculous. You’re describing criminal property damage. Of course that’s neither okay, nor the same.

I’m sorry you feel the need to be dramatic about this issue, but Steam have provided adequate tools for the userbase to handle the problem, in my eyes.

Maybe so, but the values of free speech apply to wrong opinions too. Hit the “unhelpful” button and move on. Their bullshit isn’t worth the time.

Sorry, Pete, I don’t believe you feel that way.

This is developers who don’t like criticism whining. Yes, there is some bigotry and such in the market, but it’s not as big as they’re making it sound.

These people want Steam to step into a role of world gaming police, even though Steam have provided the necessary tools for users on the platform to vote incorrect information down into oblivion. Going further than that is asking for censorship and is as effective as paid reviews.

If you can’t cope with your product taking criticism, valid or otherwise, don’t waste your time peddling what you’ve made. We’ve seen time and time again that games find their audience, even with BS ‘criticisms’. Those who are interested will look further than the basic complaints. If there’s only those complaints, maybe you just didn’t make a very good game.

Seems more and more companies are competing for this most prestigious award.

What’s your buy-in cost at this point? Have you already got a powerful xomputer that can game and run OBS? Mic and headset? You don’t have to bother with a facecam if you don’t want to, but if you want to, you can use something like iVcam to use your phone as a webcam. If you don’t have a mic, I recommend Tenor’s line of products. I bought a good quality condenser mic with adjustable boom arm for ~$40. If it’s something you definitely want to do, there are ways to try relatively cheaply and possibly upgrade your equipment if you find it’s a good fit.

I have no doubt you know what I was getting at, but just in case, I meant the established art of making up a reason to sell a game twice.

Oh good, the Pokemon treatment.

Good point.

I know the quote. Sadly, I’m not sure how to convey the joke meaning in text.

Piracy is a service provider. That’s how that quote goes, right? /s

Edit: Joke clarification.

Agefield High. Looking forward to getting my Bully on. That or Nivalis

Check with your local munitions dealer.