Community MetaSteam | January 2025 - Remember cloud, a great remake comes with great responsibility, kuppo.

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,763
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There is a very important thing to realize when talking about this industry: we as customers are responsible for both games failures and successes, there are no buts or ifs here
I didn't buy Dustborn, I'm not interested in that game and I really don't bother with discussing games I don't own (or plan to own), but here's the thing: the only difference between me and a random racist on twitter is that I don't spend my free time harrassing or mocking the developer. Maybe this gives me a "higher moral standing", but it doesn't change the fact I "helped" with that game failure just as them
Same for SW Outlaws, or Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, or Unknown 9 Awakening, or Concord. I didn't pick these titles at random, these are all games that were attacked by grifters/racists/chuds or whatever word you want to use to talk about them. These are also games I didn't buy or play in any way so far, and all of their developers suffered layoffs (or are close to suffering them). So those job losses are my responsibility too
But what can I do? Money doesn't grow on trees, and even if it did there is always going to be another game that interests me more. So it's impossible to "support" every game I want regardless of how many come out each month (if not week). It's an unsolvable issue: devs are free to make what they want, publishers are free to make what they think will make the most money, but in the end customers are also free to decide to spend their money elsewhere
Those games didn't fail because of the harrassment, those games failed because they had no market. I don't know if this thread is the place for it, but I think there is an interesting discussion to be had about the topic, or about which type of customer is more likely to spend money, or if the political climate means a game is more likely to fail if the protagonist has a certain skin color or a certain gender, but in the end it all goes back to money and how finite it is
Well you're not responsible for buying everything because you agree with the message if you dislike the actual product. Dustborn doesn't look like my thing and it would be just as any other flop something to pass over, I don't see why certain folks have to claim it failed because of its messaging or whatever they, without playing it either, want to push as their own agenda just as they wanna claim Stellar Blade succeeded because of its messaging too and somehow they pit them against each other when one is a mainstream action game and the other a more potentially niche offering (sounds visual novel-ish to me and I don't play such). Just some loudmouth pieces of shit online wanna make success and failure of everything fit their narrative nowadays. Like Concord would have been an amazingly successful GAAS if only it had replaced all its minority characters (or whatever folks hated?) with hot chicks or something, lol. So dumb.

Again, folks don't even know what they hate, like Sweet Baby, where they probably play (or hear about and go on message boards to rant regardless) various games they were involved in and so just arbitrarily decide how much they actually offered to the end product by how much they liked it and somehow believe this made up fantasy they're building is actual fact or something. I'd say confirmation bias and stuff but that's beyond that and into seek therapy tier.

Like oh you brought up some argument to something I said earlier but I cba so I'll mention this one game nobody else mentioned and go hahahahahaha it didn't sell to your face, that's totally enough to shut your arguments down and I'll mock you and not engage further. Very healthy approach indeed🤦‍♂️

Of course since I know the "type" sales totally don't prove better quality/superiority when it comes to other things like say, Wii or Switch vs their contemporary competitors, they too also only matter when they fit the chosen narrative and otherwise are meaningless/have (made up) reasons to not count this time.
 
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PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
3,845
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29
California
Oh god we're having a Retard Era moment. :surrenderblob:



Because it takes away creative freedom/agency for the sake of ticking arbitrary boxes?

Nobody likes "forced" anything where it isn't necessary. It often results in underbaked and ingenuine nonsense, that just leads to even more problems. See: current politics. Lefties biggest complaint? How ingenuine """""allies""""" often feel/become/reveal themselves to be.

How many more "milkshake ducks" until people wake the fuck up?

If you are making a character/story and your first and most important intention is not simply to make it good but rather to tick a box? It will show and it will fall flat. This has been proven over and over and over, and all anyone wants to do is circle the drain and point fingers at sides.

The VAST majority of people/consumers will not actually care about any of this shit as long as the game is good. Anyone else is simply an annoyingly vocal minority. And that also goes for both "sides."

See: The amount of people who complained about CDP Red/Cyberpunk's depiction of trans, but still bought and played it anyway. Or Hogwarts massive success. Or NieR/Stellar Blade selling gangbusters despite """""problematic""""" depictions of Women.

Also bookmark this post for when Witcher 4 comes out and sells millions with tons of fanfare and positive reviews, despite the complaints against Ciri right now.
Stellar Blade did not sell "gangbusters". It sold less than 2 million units. Is less than 2 million bad? No but for how much some people were hyping up the game and how it would be their "savior" it sure didn't sell that well. So I'm guessing people just didn't care and moved on. I haven't played it but from what people that have played the game have said is that one, it's an okay game, it's not terrible but it's also not amazing either. The second point is that it's being mentioned in post like this that detract from the game and make it less about the game itself and more about "look it waifus". Which in turn keeps people away from the game. Is it because it has waifus? No it's because those sane people don't won't to get involved in the basically this type of argument with you.
 

yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
2,831
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But it's a direct story sequel to a slightly unpopular (on PC) game, there's almost always a drop-off in this case, since a) people don't finish games and don't necessarily start the next one before wrapping up the first and b) people get turned off by the first game not being to their liking.
FF7R got 13k CCU, I can't see FF7R2 beating that 2x...
(Unless you're talking total launch sales... Hats off in this case, you're even more pessimistic than this old, weary Slav)
Doesn't help that Final Fantasy is dying IP with declining sales for every entry since XV.

Square needs to do something to make the brand mainstream again. Maybe a TV show or Movie.

Those things have helped Fallout and TLOU a lot.

Even fucking Sonic got a little bump with the movies.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,763
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Doesn't help that Final Fantasy is dying IP with declining sales for every entry since XV.

Square needs to do something to make the brand mainstream again. Maybe a TV show or Movie.

Those things have helped Fallout and TLOU a lot.

Even fucking Sonic got a little bump with the movies.
Just making better games would be enough. They manage with Dragon Quest so they can manage with FF if they stop trying to make it into other weird things instead of the JRPG it used to be (which doesn't mean it should stay as traditional as Dragon Quest is, though even Yakuza did great when it got DQfied, lol, and it shows you can have that sort of JRPG gameplay even if the world and other design aspects are totally unlike what those used to be like).
 
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Vantr

Junior Member
Feb 15, 2021
274
969
93
I don't know if this is worth a separate thread, but I can make one if required, but I was wondering if it would be interesting to guess what the peak CCU would be for the notable (imo) games coming out this month (and then one for next month as well). Thoughts?
This could be a fun thread. I would participate. Could have a ranking system.

I'd say Rebirth might be around 30-40k CCU? It isn't behind a year of EGS exclusivity and it is decently priced. I got it for almost the same price as I got Remake 1 year after the Steam release. It also was a contender for GOTY so that might get a few people to try it out. Then again KH was decently priced but it didn't have a lot of people playing it.

Not gonna waste my time arguing Idealism Vs. Reality. Compare the sales of the two games you just listed though? Make as many Dustborns as you want, The people who champion such games rarely show up to support them. So don't cry when your studio is shuttered, laid off, or struggles to make R.O.I. because it's a shit game even before you consider it's story/writing.
Compared the sales of two games with wildly different audience feels a bit unfair. I think it should be look at by how much their target audience enjoyed it. Considering it's sitting at around 70% positive on Steam and ignoring all the people who decided to pile on and review it negatively I'd say it was pretty successful at being a good experience for their target audience. Just as it seems like a lot of people who played Stellar Blade seemed to enjoy it.

It's fine for games to have "forced inclusivity" just as it is fine for games to have waifu bait. Let developers make whatever they want to make. There's so many fun games coming out and not enough time to play them all so why waste time arguing about it and if a game doesn't interest you just ignore it and let the other people who are interested enjoy it.

Except for EGS. I will not ignore EGS and will continue to enjoy any dunks on it.
 

Paul

MetaMember
Jan 26, 2019
579
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Here are my CCU Steam Peak guesses for upcoming notable videogames (notable meaning those that I know about/am potentially interested in):

FF7 Rebirth - 45K
Eternal Strands - 4K
SpiderMan 2 - 52K
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - 320K
Civilization 7 - 400K
Avowed - 65K
Monster Hunter Wilds - 850K
Assassin's Creed Shadows - 88K
Last of Us: Part 2 - 42K

It will be interesting to see how right/wrong I was.
 
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Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
3,045
11,499
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Here are my CCU Steam Peak guesses for upcoming notable videogames (notable meaning those that I know about/am potentially interested in):

FF7 Rebirth - 45K
Eternal Strands - 4K
SpiderMan 2 - 52K
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - 320K
Civilization 7 - 400K
Avowed - 65K
Monster Hunter Wilds - 850K
Assassin's Creed Shadows - 88K
Last of Us: Part 2 - 42K

It will be interesting to see how right/wrong I was.
Rebirth - 50k
Eternal Strands - :shrugblob:
Spider-Man 2 - 30k
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - 250k
Civ 7 - 300k
Avowed - 15k
Monster Hunter Wilds - 1 million
AC Shadows - 35k
TLOU 2 - 15k
 

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,467
91,518
113
Am I going crazy or did New Release Bot go missing?



How am I supposed to catch wind of cool new indies with zero marketing behind them?

I demand answers lashman!
it's briefly out of commission, apologies :( will be back soon, hopefully tomorrow, or on Sunday
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,920
16,056
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It is becoming a yearly tradition to have a MC member turn chud and explode in flight. How peculiar
:shrugblob:

Like Durante, I'm more put off by the useless aggressive tone. The take is nothing new.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,359
12,425
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I never understand why some people just flip like that when a few games try to bring a little colour into the medium and shock and horror do more than just pander to a white male audience.
Like, I personally do not care about diversity on its own very much, interesting art can do whatever it wants, and should follow the inner reflections of the artist, wherever they lead. Making it into check boxes is kinda dull too, though not quite as bad as just pandering to one group alone.

But anyone who unironically talks about DEI or wokeness is probably an idiot who isn't worth my time.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
4,155
14,479
113
Belgium
I'm planning to upgrade my pc since my 8700k is ready for retirement. I have two questions:

- Is it worth it to pick the 9800x3D over the (much cheaper) 7600X3D in combination with a 4070rtx and 1440p gaming? In most recent games, the gpu will probably be the bottleneck rather than the cpu. But I'm not sure a the faster 9800X3D will result in less frame drops or stuttering.

- For the main board, ASUS TUF Gaming B650-PLUS WIFI gets great reviews. I don't think pci-e will have a huge impact on gaming the next 5 years. But... I want to switch to Linux sooner or later. How can I check if the WiFi chip on this main board is supported by Linux?
 
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Eila

Junior Member
Jan 21, 2019
184
358
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Got a switch and have been playing it for the past couple days. This is my PC now:




Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is pretty good. Imagine if it wasn't locked to switch hardware! I did use yuzu previously but I have no idea what's the current emulator you should use and what not, and if it even plays the latest games.
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
2,790
7,797
113
Mt. Whatever
However, the actual issue here is the unnecessarily aggressive stance and personal attacks. Stop that please.
Sorry, I'm merely meeting this person on their level. I've had dealings with them on the discord before, and despite best efforts it devolved into personal attacks, borderline xenophobia against Chinese, and as i mentioned before, projection.

I'm not gonna waste time sugarcoating and walking on eggshells for someone like that.

It is becoming a yearly tradition to have a MC member turn chud and explode in flight. How peculiar
:shrugblob:

Like Durante, I'm more put off by the useless aggressive tone. The take is nothing new.
Pardon you? Don't confuse my stance on realism with personal politics. I'm so over the discourse around virtue signaling and how if you don't do it hard enough you're automatically a "Chud."

Unless you really think I laid undercover here for 7 years just to pop out one day and burn everything around me lol.

You've essentially hit the nail on the head. Many of these games do not have a market, or at least not one large enough to sustain themselves even in the AA tier. How other people co-opt this reality to fit their narrative is not my responsibility or interest.

What's ridiculous is that merely making note of this somehow automatically qualifies one as being anti-woke and a "Chud" within certain circles. People end up dancing around it and walking on eggshells instead because discourse has devolved into a constant "Us. Vs. Them."

It's annoying and I'm tired of it.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,920
16,056
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Pardon you? Don't confuse my stance on realism with personal politics. I'm so over the discourse around virtue signaling and how if you don't do it hard enough you're automatically a "Chud."

Unless you really think I laid undercover here for 7 years just to pop out one day and burn everything around me lol.
For the record, well, it happened before, but no, I don't think of you as a chud. Still, this realism take, at the time we live in, feels oddly timely.
But again, I'm not pro this or that, the overall feeling I have is sadness over the harsh and antagonistic tone.
 
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spindoctor

MetaMember
Jun 9, 2019
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Stellar Blade did not sell "gangbusters". It sold less than 2 million units. Is less than 2 million bad? No but for how much some people were hyping up the game and how it would be their "savior" it sure didn't sell that well. So I'm guessing people just didn't care and moved on. I haven't played it but from what people that have played the game have said is that one, it's an okay game, it's not terrible but it's also not amazing either. The second point is that it's being mentioned in post like this that detract from the game and make it less about the game itself and more about "look it waifus". Which in turn keeps people away from the game. Is it because it has waifus? No it's because those sane people don't won't to get involved in the basically this type of argument with you.
Two million is actually pretty good for a game that released on only one platform, is a brand new IP, came out just a few months ago and is the first AAA console release from the studio. It also probably didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make given it was developed in Asia. Even the studio seemed happy enough given that they gave out neat bonuses to all their employees. You accuse others of trying to push a narrative with this game and here you are downplaying it's success to push yours. And then you go on to say that 'sane' people didn't buy the game (with the unspoken implication of who did).

Ultimately this whole discussion is pointless. The market decides which games will succeed and which will fail. You cannot force people to buy a product they don't want nor can you force people to skip a product they do. It is up to developers, publishers and the game industry at large to make decisions to serve their audience. The industry is currently at 30,000+ layoffs and counting, so I'm not sure they're getting it right right now.
 

QFNS

Plays too many card games
Nov 18, 2018
1,322
3,200
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I think a lot of the issue regarding games being unable to find markets and unable to find audiences is due to the suite of "perma-games" that are consistently taking up tons of people's leisure time. League of Legends, Fortnite, Warzone, GTA Online, etc. Those games have essentially captured a HUGE segment of gamers and as a result those people are never looking for new or different media to consume. There's always more League or Fortnite to play. So games in the Indie and AA space get squeezed by virtue of less total people existing that even would consider any sort of game for entertainment time. People already have a game they play, no need to see another. So smaller games MUST expand their audience any way they can. By Increasing diversity, or making big titty waifus, or whatever else they can to get some eyes and some traction. Its just different approaches to the same issue.

It has less to do with what sorts of games get made and what genre they are, or if they have diversity or not. There just aren't enough people looking for ANY new game anymore to sustain the industry the way it was in the past. Hence the constant refrain of layoffs and closures-- the entire games industry is in a crisis of its own making here and all everything else is kind of a slideshow. Not that these things aren't important-- I believe diversity and inclusion are important, but they are symptoms of bigger issues not the source of problems.

I dunno what any of the correct moves are here, but I don't envy anyone working in games ATM.
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
2,790
7,797
113
Mt. Whatever
For the record, well, it happened before, but no, I don't think of you as a chud. Still, this realism take, at the time we live in, feels oddly timely.
But again, I'm not pro this or that, the overall feeling I have is sadness over the harsh and antagonistic tone.
The timing definitely plays a part, i understand. I've become extremely jaded and cynical post election. Hanging out in mostly left-leaning circles gave me false hope and a severely bad read on what people actually want / are like at large.

Circling back to jaded realism is how I've personally dealt with the sharp right turn the world is taking. And yeah, I get that makes me come off as an asshole sometimes, but i'm so over in dealing with idealism and how things could/should be.

Let me share with you some e-mail snippets I had with family circa Election day. (Personal stuff redacted.)


Is that the political view of a chud? I don't think so... But everyone is so quick to point fingers these days the moment you don't line up exactly on every line in the sand. :negative-blob:

Brother I'm just tired.
 

Stallion Free

I <3 Achievements
Apr 17, 2019
288
911
93
Maryland, USA
steamcommunity.com
I'm slowly working my way through the Doom 1+2 collection finishing off the expansions I never beat originally. I am about a third of the way through the new expansion (Legacy of Rust) and these enemy counts got me tired. Every time I reach a new level and check the map to see 100+ enemies its got me like

 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,920
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「Echo」 Then please excuse me. Honestly.
I was mostly joking about why each year someone seemed to go crazy, but it was inapropriate. Too simple. You are obviously hurting and dealing with it however you can.
Being in Europe, I’m less angry and more scared shitless of the years to come. And also, somewhat ressentful of this fateful choice American made, to be honest.

Everybody is still reeling, you have my best wishes.
 

Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
8,749
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Paris, France
lepertti.com
Yeah I’ll also add the worry about the state of the world. The way France is going, how Europe is going and who the world at large is going is very troublesome. And honestly I’m at that point where I don’t think anything can be done. It’s like a fever we have to ride out and just hope it will be a mild one. Because our previous fevers certainly haven’t been.

at least we have each other here to try keep each other sane.
 

STHX

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2021
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Italy
The second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic is someone named Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa, and has a bronze bust of his namesake in his house, which he proudly shows in interviews

 
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Cacher

MetaMember
Jun 3, 2020
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Yesterday I played FF16 demo after the update. My original intent was to test so skipped all the cutscenes, but I end up playing it till the end. Ghosting and flickering are much improved. No more missing head. Latency is still there but feels better. The eikon battle ran like a dream with a few (likely) baked-in stutter here and there.

This yellow duck is one of the best things you can get on steam. It's magical.
 

MonthOLDpickle

我會打敗你!!
Oct 31, 2018
1,756
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Taiwan

Yesterday I played FF16 demo after the update. My original intent was to test so skipped all the cutscenes, but I end up playing it till the end. Ghosting and flickering are much improved. No more missing head. Latency is still there but feels better. The eikon battle ran like a dream with a few (likely) baked-in stutter here and there.

This yellow duck is one of the best things you can get on steam. It's magical.
Is the new one they talking about an update or a new app that you need to buy?
 
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