Spam G in support.

Meow meow meow.

How exactly are you presuming to accurately estimate future sales that don’t exist yet? They increased their cost of operation substantially by relying solely on servers they themselves host, and tie the future viability of their product to hosting those servers. That means there’s a clock on how long it makes sense to make the game available to the public.

If they allowed for private servers, that small initial batch of players could potentially grow. Especially if they build in the extensibility of allowing players to mod the game. As it stands, the game now won’t make them any more money, and creating the opportunity for it to ever make them money had a continuous cost. There would be no incentive to shut down access to the game itself if it didn’t carry a cost to the company.

If they happened to be one of the few successful games in their genre, then sure, hosting their own servers exclusively is a potential means of revenue. But if they’re not? It makes much more sense to leave the thing out there for people to fool around with. You never know when one streamer with a following might pick up a game and decide they like it. Can’t happen if it doesn’t exist though.

These companies really need to learn the private server model. How is your game ever going to get up enough players to be popular when you’re financially incentivized to bail as soon as possible? Put up some public servers for players to hop on, put out a private server client, and let people do their own thing. You can still monetize DLCs or even go the route TF2 went and release paid items and loot crates.

People are still playing TF2 and still spending money in the item shop. They definitely wouldn’t be if Valve had bailed on it entirely the first time they had a slump in their playerbase.

So this means the UN will remove Israel’s status as a member nation and officially recognize Palestine, right? … Right?!?

Are they? Seems to me like they’re corporate leeches sucking the life out of every industry and offering nothing of value in return.

Tell that to the C-levels who literally are putting in orders.

Honestly, I think the bar for games these days is totally warped. People expect these cinematic masterpieces with ultra-realistic graphics in gigantic 3d landscapes with massive autonomy, extensive character creation options, full voice acting, juiced up complex mechanics, and zero bugs, and they want it yesterday. If it costs more than a full tank of gas they’ll say it’s too expensive, and if it isn’t fully patched on day 1 they’ll call it unfinished.

It seems almost obvious that simpler 2D games are a better and more satisfying alternative in this landscape. No wonder AAA studios seem like they’re racing to the bottom.

How are you supposed to get all that and also have a decent story or a sense of cohesion? We need to simplify.

You post so much that makes sense and seems rational and well thought out. I don’t understand how you can expect anyone can think you’re acting in good faith when you come out with this shit, though. It’s so willfully divorced from reality that it’s stunning. I literally don’t understand how you could come to these conclusions if you’re anything other than a state actor or someone being paid.

It confuses the hell out of me.

But I’ll be voting for Harris. I’ll be banging away at how terrible her stance on Israel is literally on November 3rd right next to you if it doesn’t change, but not until we make sure Trump doesn’t get the keys to our nuclear arsenal and to the White House.

But honestly? I’d be surprised if your account remains active at that point. It’s really, really hard for me to imagine that you might actually be a real person who cares about anything rather than just a character being played by someone so incredibly cynical that you don’t mind burning the entire world down for a few bucks.

That sounds like grounds for some kind of legal action. Antitrust? Class action? I don’t know the specifics of the best strategy for approaching it, but if Nintendo is showing a pattern of using their legal team to harass legally operating emulator developers that sounds like something that should be actionable.

Is the new one better than Tears of the Kingdom?

GTA Peace is kind of weirdly named for the content of the game. Maybe it’s meant to be ironic?

Having played Palworld a bit, some of the monsters are distinct from Pokemon, but some of them are incredibly obvious clones.

But like, looking back at some of the knock-off toys I remember seeing in the 80s and early 90s? It definitely seems like copyright has gotten more robust in its attempted overreach.

This is the problem with spending millions of dollars on games and focusing on profitability over actual quality or expression. Video games are fundamentally an art medium. You can choose to make some uninspired cash grabbing trash, and can even make a whole company built around that and make profit. But are you going to make a great game that way? Probably not.

You’d be better off with half a dozen people with passion and a comparatively minuscule budget. You might have to scale back from ultra realistic graphics and massive explorable areas with dozens of voice actors, but I don’t really think that makes games any better anyway. A little 2d rpg with really basic pixel graphics can put a big project to shame if it’s made with passion and emotion.

Moving blankets are a wonderful solution. Hang them over your windows and enjoy the quiet. Get thick ones. Uhaul has good ones.