Yeah, I was just trying to get the point across and didn’t really have other recent metrics. Just checked and it grew to 1k avg users per day after the most recent update and is now 15x less active than FH5, if that paints a more accurate picture.
It may be, and I feel for Turn10, but they really dropped the ball with the latest motorsport. It only has like a few hundred players on steam, after two years of essentially live service game. Of course the game itself is fine, it’s the “update trickles” and “grind to own” philosophies that are at fault and those were probably decisions also pushed by MS, but here we are. I really hope that Playground doesn’t screw up their next Forza, because rhey might meet the same fate. Then again these days success doesn’t guarantee you’re not getting the axe.
Boy, they really are pulling all the stops in trying to make the game shit, aren’t they?
I don’t know about Kojima making the best games. All I know is Death Stranding 1 was a jumbled mess of barely coherent and oddly paced plots and I loved every minute of it. I must have more! When PC Kojima???
I was worried Subnautica 2 would be just a sloppy cashgrab, but seeing that dev-vlog with the awkward devs describing their work actually gave me hope that they’re actually putting some soul in this game.
I think the initiative just ran out of steam. I remember seeeing it everywhere for the first month or so, and then nothing, and it plateaued around where it is now. Maybe the vast majority of EU gamers just can’t be arsed to read and sign a petition like this. I mean most can’t even vote with their wallet when a shit game releases. And of course it’s fun to blame thor/pirateguy for this ( and they probably did have their share of fault ) but in the end it looks like 500k is the amount of gamers that actually give a fuck about the state of things.
Lack of innovation: checked. Locking users into their ecosystem: checked. Chasing only shareholder value : checked.
The only thing diferentianting them from Apple now is the pricing, which hasn’t reached outrageous levels ( yet ).
I used to respect them for doing their own thing - sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but in the end still innovating. Apparently not the case anymore.
Narrator: It wasn’t.
At the very least the entity that bought it will not rely on donations and revenue from upgraded download speeds, so it will definitely enshittify further to some degree.
The problem is not capitalism, it’s really us expecting shit to be free and rewarding good development and maintenance effort with thoughts and prayers.
Holy shit - Septerra Core. That is a name I haven’t heard in a looong time. Glad to see it still exists
Deliver At All Costs - fun game, but I swear the plot is just an excuse to feature those wonderful destruction mechanics.
Robocop - Actually not bad! I haven"t seen or played anything Robocop related in 30ish years, but I’ll be damned if this game doesn’t make you feel exactly like him ( for better or worse )
Pacific Drive - finally managed to finish this one after starting and abandoning it twice because it’s just terrifying to me. ( I just had to start it again after reading Roadside Picnic and thinking “hey, this reads familiar” ). It’s still terrifying, but absolutely great game.
Now I’m playing Kingdoms&Castles and Starbound again to calm the fuck down.
Fuckin’ finally. This could actually help people trying to run fortnites and apexes and whatnot on steam decks.
1800 did not have that nimby mechanic. Actually can’t remember if any anno game had it ( maybe 1701 ). 1800 also did away with the separation between campaign and endless and just mooshed them together in what was one of the very few downsides of the game.
To me this one looks less like an anno and more like a contemporary Impressions city builder, but the potential is there. Fingers crossed that ubi doesn’t stuff it full of anti-features.
Smartphones are common targets for thieves because they contain valuable personal data and fetch high prices on second-hand markets. To protect this data, Android includes theft protection features that lock down a stolen phone. While thieves might try wiping phones they intend to sell, Android already has robust protections against unauthorized factory resets. Google announced today that these factory reset protections will become even more powerful later this year.
Self-contradicting much?
These justifications are pointless anyway, everybody knows that google and only google has the right to rummage through your data.
“We will not allow you to reset the data until we can confirm that the data is yours”
So now can we please get the other games that were supposed to launch in autumn?
Ooh, I’m getting this. Everspace 2 was a great game and in my mind a true spiritual succesor to Freelancer.
Yes, I’m sure they’re the first and this is totally not a paid article.
I know it’s cool to hate on this game, especially with it being so mediocre, but to me the number is fairly meaningless by itself. I wonder how that 2 million budget compares to other large releases ( say Starfield, since it’s pretty clear that bethesda also pumped a lot of money into the “gaming press”)
Isn’t this the rule with every civ launch? They’re all somewhat half-baked on launch (although 7 admittedly looks quite a bit less baked than the others).
That said, I feel Civ formula seems to be in decline. To me Call To Power was peak civ ( yeah, fight me ), but while 3,4 and 5 were great “second-bests”, I couldn’t really get into 6 and I’m not really planning on playing 7 ( not with this 3-age format anyway ).
This is so strange. Wasn’t it not long ago that studios were crowding into very specific release windows ( usually november iirc ) so they could maximize initial sales? Maybe the digital release era has changed things. I mean, I get it if your game was in the same niche or smth, but “companies might tank” seems a little much.
Either way, if this is true, eoy 2025 is in for a dry spell when it comes to new games.
Edit: Also I find it hilarious how all these “industry analysts” keep popping up suggesting ominous things despite Rockstar not saying a peep about the game besides the trailer. Almost as if they were paid to do it.
This is a great interview, thank you! It (sadly) confirms some stuff I’ve been suspecting for a while about the piracy scene: that repackers are a very rare bunch, repacking is getting more complex and liveservice/streamed games would truly be the end for piracy.