The censorship they’re talking about in the interview is payment providers kicking up a fuss about stores selling games with content they don’t like.

The Commandos 2 HD censorship is different because it was done willingly by the developers of that version of that specific game. Still censorship of the original vision, but not the same situation.

“Typically, when a customer purchases a hacked console or the circumvention services, Defendant preinstalls on the console a portfolio of ready-to-play pirated games, including some of Nintendo’s most popular titles such as its Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games.”

Yeah, that’ll bring the hammer down every time.

We can argue about the legality and morality of mod chips all day long, but building a business on distributing pirated software (and software that’s still being actively sold, at that) is a legal slam dunk.

It is, per the article

I recently finished Dragon Age Inquisition, and then started Powerslave: Exhumed.

I never played any of the original versions so it’s a completely new experience for me. Enjoyable so far - it’s an interesting historical link between classic metroidvania and 90s FPS, like a proto-Metroid Prime in some ways.

I do wish they’d added a quick save button to this modern version, though.

In a world where people require money to survive, copyright protections ensure writing and other arts remain a realistic (if rarely profitable) activity for those without the luxury of complete financial independence and a wealth of spare time.

Feels like we’re a few moments away from someone unironically suggesting Steam start allowing people to just mail them cash.

I can’t imagine a way of remaking DA:O for modern audiences without losing what made it special to begin with.

While I agree that the current state of SKG is painfully light on ideas for practical implementation, it is at least focused on a single issue.

A plan could be arrived at.

Trying to tack on tangentially-related stuff like workers’ rights is only going to get the whole thing bogged down in conflicting discussions.

UFO 50 was a big hit with critics & players - surprised it took this long to be ported to console.

Because the loan fraud involved his audio production company and his reputation is now marred?

It’s a commonly-used figure of speech

This isn’t about you, America.

No they didn’t. It was delisted from stores. The game still works if you own it, or even if you go out today and buy a used physical copy. Same goes for all of the delisted FH games.

Delistings are not what SKG is about and I wish people would stop pretending it is.

I’m struggling to get my head around someone who just got into Star Trek starting with Picard.

I mean, fine - if you enjoyed it that’s great! But it’s a show explicitly about exploring the later life of a franchise figurehead. If you didn’t watch any of the earlier series or movies first you’re missing 90%+ of the context for what’s happening, surely?

Absolutely not the same.

The key defining characteristic of a game is interactivity: the ability to affect the outcome in some way. Some games allow for less freedom than others in that respect, but watching someone else play and make those decisions for you is always going to be fundamentally different to playing it yourself.

Not to diminish the value of streams, especially if you find enjoyment in watching them, but you should understand that it’s not a comparable experience.

This has nothing to do with SKG.

The games aren’t being disabled, they’re being pulled from sale due to a legal/rights dispute. That’s not what SKG is about.

The definition of indie is always contentious, but there are definitely studios out there who are independent (as in not owned by a larger company) but work with a publisher for funding, marketing, and other support.

Even beyond that bit of semantics, many indies rely on funding from investors of one sort or another, be that angel investors, startup funds, or even just small business loans.

Many of those investors have lost their appetite for games, making it extremely difficult to pay the bills unless you’ve already got a sizeable cash reserve to cover costs.

Tell that to all the smaller studios that have already been decimated and forced to close because of their publishing/funding deals falling through over the last couple of years.

You don’t hear much about it because they’re smaller and/or working on things that hadn’t released yet, vs the occasional big media splashes from companies like MS doing more layoffs, but indies and AA are being gutted too.

It’s comforting to believe that only the biggest companies are struggling, but the industry as a whole is currently in active collapse from the inside out.

I wish that was true, but funding has dried up across the entire sector and that affects the viability of smaller studios more than it does the mega corps with bottomless warchests.

Founded in 1985, Rare is one of the UK’s most historic game developers, best known for Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, and Banjo-Kazooie.

Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, and it has since gone on to create titles such as Kameo, Viva Piñata, Kinect Sports, and Sea of Thieves under the Xbox banner.

Says it all, really. Rare has been mismanaged into the ground for the past 20+ years.

Agreed. Permanent hardware bans have been a thing since the PS3/360 era.

I’m not saying it’s a good thing that they can unilaterally disable hardware you purchased (although I certainly understand the reasoning wrt cheaters and pirates) but the author here is acting like the idea is some completely new scheme from the diabolical industry villains du jour.

It’s disingenuous at best.

No, I mean the completely unfounded claim that discord’s typing indicators are somehow a tool for analysing users’ writing styles and selling that on to data brokers.

It’s so bizarrely specific that it comes across as an unhinged conspiracy theory, especially when it’s delivered as part of a link salad.

It’s kind of impressive that you managed to squeeze in so many links to references but without including any that actually back up the accusation you’re making.

There’s more than one argument against generative AI being used in games, and they don’t all apply to proc gen content. It’s an apples to oranges comparison in most cases.

From the article:

Danilov posited that the mistake was either the work of a “careless translator taking shortcuts”, or it was “done by someone on the dev/publisher side who couldn’t be arsed sending last-minute missing lines for translation and decided to throw them in a random LLM without oversight”.

Handong Ryu, who handled the Korean translation for the game, replied: "I was responsible for translating the vast majority of the Korean version of The Alters. Unfortunately, the same issue exists in the Korean version as well, which makes it more likely that the second scenario you mentioned is closer to the truth.

Sounds like this text was either added late in development or simply overlooked until after the last set of translation work had been completed, so the devs decided to let an LLM do it rather than getting billed for another batch of localisation.

Very dumb, especially as this puts them in direct violation of the Steam AI disclosure policy, but given the context I guess they figured no one would notice.

Sadly (at the time of writing) you’re just getting downvoted, because Lemmy’s hateboner for Nintendo is more important than context

Have you tried Blue Prince?

I’m sure there are lots of examples for me, but I guess one that comes to mind is 007: The World Is Not Enough for PS1.

Reading/hearing about it as an adult, not only is it seen as a poor follow up to Goldeneye, but also the PS1 version is the worse of the two releases, with the general consensus being that the N64 version is better.

Back in the day, though, I didn’t know any better and I loved it. I expect most people have games like that.

Yes, same as in the original release.

I’d say the only caveat is that I would not recommend multiplayer for a first-time playthrough. It completely undercuts the tension and horror aspects and turns the game into a comedy. Still fun, but absolutely not the intended experience, so it’s better saved for a second run through (IMO).

Because hours of play has no direct relationship with completion. Playing for 100+ hours doesn’t mean you’ve finished the game.

It’s well known that video games today are disposable pieces of slop.

Kicking off an article with such a provably incorrect and inflammatory statement is certainly a choice.

Are they not archived in Flashpoint?

I’ve been wrapping up my first ever proper playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins (and Awakening).

I bounced off it hard back in the day, but this time around I’ve been really loving it! Looking forward to continuing through the series in the future.

Wii U too!

Vampire Survivors

Nothing out of the ordinary for Nintendo, unfortunately. Even the blockbuster Wii Sports was an aberration that they had to be convinced about.

[Reggie] Fils-Aimé pushed for [Wii Sports to be bundled free with the Wii], and initially company President Satoru Iwata turned the proposal down: “Nintendo does not give away precious content for free.”

The approach isn’t what became a joke, it was the absolutely unhinged way in which it was presented in that famous Ballmer stage appearance.

Gabe Newell?

‘Shoots back up’ seems like a bit of an overreaction to a rise of less than 1%.