I doubt it. Wow is still a massive cash cow. The other franchises also haven’t been mined of all potential value either.

You can sell keys, but it’s still part of the steam ecosystem, so you can’t sell in game purchases without using steam as the processor.

It’s still the steam ecosystem when you sell steam keys. Why should a game be able to use steam to distribute their game that they sell for a free or reduced price then sell micro transactions without paying steam? If you don’t want to pay steam a cut don’t use their store or distribution.

I think I’d still say 3 is overall better than 1. The gameplay is just so clunky in 1 that even with the mediocre story, the gameplay of 3 puts it ahead.

That was still some of the best multiplayer gaming I’ve ever played. While it was loot crate based, it was far more customer friendly than the modern equivalent.

By what definition is the 30% cut high? It’s the same percentage for Apple, Google, and Steam. Brick and mortar is generally around 50%. Amazon is a large range, but 30% is roughly average or even low. eBay charges less, but doesn’t do anything other than facilitate the transaction. Epic charges less to small developers, but that’s also mostly marketing.

It’s not about the epic store being a success. It’s about getting fortnite on steam with little to no fees being paid to steam. Just like the lawsuit against apple.

The real killer feature was not having to manage cd keys to install games on new computers or just reinstall them.

Shootas Blood and Teef. A 40k themed side scrolling shooter with very heavy stylized graphics. If you like 40k it’s a good insight in how orks see themselves. If you don’t like 40k it’s still a mechanically solid game and it doesn’t really have the same grimdarkness that is common in 40k games.

Halo infinite is technically cross platform between steam and MS, but the integration sucks for managing friends on steam.

The actual rules aren’t too terrible, plenty of these garbage patents would be invalidated with any real scrutiny applied to them. The problem is that it’s often cheaper to pay the settlement than the legal bill to fight, which is a more widespread problem that the legal system is too expensive and slow to be accessible to the vast majority of people. There’s also a secondary issue that patent officers are too generous in granting patents, and reform would be great. The problem is they are overworked so they can’t properly evaluate and research applications, and are encouraged to be overly permissive in granting patents.

At a minimum it should be popular enough to be a good reference machine for indie and AA developers to ensure good performance.

There’s plenty of games that you could say the same about that didn’t get the traction. It’s still a hit based industry. It’s not a knock against the game, it’s a reality of the industry.

The starter edition bundle is 11.99 us and the ultimate is 104.80 in USD. There’s basically 2 different types of DLCs in the paradox model. The core expansion type that is released every year or so and adds or fleshes out an area of the game, these are generally must haves and reasonably priced if you have played the game for a year(s) to mix it up. The second is smaller focused packs that add a faction or some extra flavor to a more minor mechanic. These are relatively expensive for what they offer, but aren’t always intended for everyone to buy.

If you are a hardcore completionist this model is bad for you, but if you can live with not having everything then it’s not terrible.

I think the big studios lost reality with what the gaming market is. It’s a hit based business, you need a level of volume that they’ve been backing off on. It’s not that the expedition 33 devs were so much better, they just happened to be the lucky ones that put out a solid game that got traction.

EA is great for small and medium sized studios to get games out that might be a bit more ambitious than they could manage with traditional models. The point of AAA is that they have the money to do big impressive things. They can already do focus groups and closed betas to get community feedback. The thing that might attract AAA attention is you could make a good amount without actually releasing anything.

Early access is more about getting revenue during development and some limited QA potential. There shouldn’t be any surprises in the feedback, that would be a sign of major problems. EA also generally comes with a discount for the player which is anathema to the AAA crowd.

There’s plenty of constraints still, they aren’t technical though. It’s about making a game good despite the monetization requirements.

I think it’s also that there aren’t crazy discounts on anything remotely new. There used to be 1-2 games that made headlines.

It’s a mildly amusing board game.

So far just dlc for games I already own. Maybe I’ll get Slime Rancher.

My initial thoughts are these sales are somehow getting even less exciting every time. It is clear that games should only be purchased on sale now as prices don’t seem to drop otherwise.

It’s more the hierarchy of having super bad that can get bonuses based on your actions.

I’d expect it to be ok, but a second game coming out before the first ever really got fully fixed.

WB hasn’t used the nemesis system since 2017, and likely won’t use it again at this point. By the time the patent expires it might be a lost system.

Playing a giant melee on super Smash Brothers Melee with super mushrooms on high spawn while using the biggest characters on the game and watch level is fun. I think it breaks the core game enough to qualify as unintended.

It’s becoming nearly impossible to write code in a corporate environment without AI. Everyone has AI auto complete at the minimum, and AI code generation is at a point where it’s at least even with an entry level dev.

I don’t have the time anymore, the price isn’t really the factor. Anything new has to compete with my existing library and backlog, and other things on my wishlist. It’s a problem that’s only going to get worse, games aren’t really aging out of relevance at the rate they used to.

Wet. The reviews were pretty harsh due to the length and number of loading screens, but the gameplay was extremely fun. It does end with a cinematic and quick time events which was a bit disappointing, but it’s one of the few games I’ve played through multiple times.

Haven’t played HFW yet so I can’t really compare, it is on my wishlist though. That said I didn’t find GoW to be that great. It’s a significant departure from the style of earlier games. It feels more like a different game that was reskinned to be GoW. If you haven’t played the originals maybe that isn’t a factor.

The EU is working it’s way towards digital ownership. Gdpr and dma are steps in reducing corporate power and granting ownership over identity.

A product sold at a loss to attract customers who hopefully buy other products with higher margins that result in a net profit for the retailer.

I think comparing it to a console is the wrong mindset. It’s a computer first that can also be a console. It’s also a pre built Linux based computer you can have a higher degree of confidence that things just work even after updates. It’s a legitimate competitor for a new windows PC as much as it is a console competitor.

Digital ownership is probably going to happen, but it’s going to take a generation of politicians to die off. Once we get more people that understand computers and digital goods aren’t magic, there can be change.

The big difference is the compatibility is actually there now. Also, controller support is a lot more common for PC games now.

Most criticism of valve on Lemmy reads like blatant shilling.

This list is a bit old so many games aren’t supported on the latest android versions, but there are no micro transactions for any game on it. https://nobsgames.stavros.io/android/

That would require real ownership which is unlikely to ever happen. Company failures more likely just means loss of any library from them.

There’s no way a game that people have been waiting over a decade for is ever going to live up to the hype.

Honestly 20 different companies would probably suck for the consumer. That’s 20 different storefronts to compare, 20 different libraries to manage, potentially 20 different sets of logins, 20 sources of data breaches. It’s unlikely they would adopt an open standard to allow a shared library. Maybe you have a 21st company that makes a product like heroic launcher. You’d likely run into regionality issues where a particular store is unavailable, so you may not be able to play purchased games. You would have all sorts of odd exclusive dlc and pre order bonuses so a cosmetic item you like could be locked to a store you haven’t used. Multiplayer likely wouldn’t be global cross play between all companies, you likely get some set of 20 companies working together for multiplayer. Some games may develop a good scene available to a single store, requiring a game to be repurchased. Exclusives or timed exclusives would be annoying to track, as each store would likely have different catalogs.