Community MetaSteam | January 2024 - Let's get this year started!

[Arc]

It may be technically correct if you aren't including app stores in China (and I have no idea how that market works, but I'm basing that simply on how big it is). However, there's a chasm between #1 and #7. Heck, there's probably a chasm between #6 and #7. Palworld probably grossed 1/3-1/2 of Epic's entire third party spend in a week.

I was thinking their year in review would drop today, but maybe it'll be soon.

 

[C-Dub]

Sweeney's a prick, but putting his self-aggrandising bluster and stupid language about "Apple taxes" to one side, he's kind of right here.

Apple's implementation of side loading is garbage, designed to fleece developers by adding junk charges and making the whole thing unattractive. I think they're charging a 0.50 Euro charge on each app download once you go over 1m downloads on third party stores. That's some Unity-level dogshit designed to make sideloading as unattractive as they possibly could. Unless I'm reading it wrong, an app that has 1m free downloads (for example, an open source app barred from the App store but allowed on third party stores, like console emulators) will be charged half a million Euros or more if the number of free downloads passes 1m.

I don't think Apple could've been more hostile to developers wanting to sell on a non-Apple store. I'm sure their lawyers have maliciously complied with the letter of the law in the EU, but I think Apple are being intentionally provocative here. Apple clearly wants opening up of iOS to fail, lest customers outside the EU start demanding the same features.

I'm curious to see how the EU reacts, because this is some anti-competitive BS and is almost certainly not the outcome the EU wanted.

Edit: Looks like the 0.50 Euro charge is all "first time downloads" after the first million. Still bullshit if you're distributing a free app - you basically have to cap your downloads at 1m. Utterly insane.

 

[NarohDethan]

Sweeney's a prick, but putting his self-aggrandising bluster and stupid language about "Apple taxes" to one side, he's kind of right here.

Apple's implementation of side loading is garbage, designed to fleece developers by adding junk charges and making the whole thing unattractive. I think they're charging a 0.50 Euro charge on each app download once you go over 1m downloads on third party stores. That's some Unity-level dogshit designed to make sideloading as unattractive as they possibly could. Unless I'm reading it wrong, an app that has 1m free downloads (for example, an open source app barred from the App store but allowed on third party stores, like console emulators) will be charged half a million Euros or more if the number of free downloads passes 1m.

I don't think Apple could've been more hostile to developers wanting to sell on a non-Apple store. I'm sure their lawyers have maliciously complied with the letter of the law in the EU, but I think Apple are being intentionally provocative here. Apple clearly wants opening up of iOS to fail, lest customers outside the EU start demanding the same features.

I'm curious to see how the EU reacts, because this is some anti-competitive BS and is almost certainly not the outcome the EU wanted.

Edit: Looks like the 0.50 Euro charge is all "first time downloads" after the first million. Still bullshit if you're distributing a free app - you basically have to cap your downloads at 1m. Utterly insane.

 

[Dinjoralo]

Acquired. A very nice upgrade...

I really appreciate how the vsync you can enable in Nvidia's drivers actually works with DLSS frame gen, properly capping the actual framerate to half your refresh rate. It's very useful for the new Like a Dragon games, since they don't have a granular framerate cap option.

 

[fantomena]

Hoping everyone who cheered for the ABK acquisition just because of more game pass content aren't so high on themself right now.

 

[Madventure]

I mostly find it funny (In the irony kind of way) that in a single day Microsoft fired (1900~+) more people by a factor of two than Embracer (900-1000~+) did trying to maintain balance throughout an entire year from when they first started letting people go and closing studios

 

[madjoki]

I wonder where Apple could've gotten idea to charge per download/install...

 

[ZKenir]

i'm so tired i fell asleep on my keyboard earlier holy shit

 

[dex3108]

Hoping everyone who cheered for the ABK acquisition just because of more game pass content aren't so high on themself right now.

This would happen one way or another. No company will be spared unfortunately.

 

[Alextended]

Just fired Infinite Wealth up, looks pretty good, there are even split screen modes. I can enable frame generation FSR3 on my GTX10180?! Edit: yeah that makes it laggy as shit and desyncs the audio from the video and stuff, I'm sticking to FSR 3 Quality @ 1440p and mostly maxed settings which seems to get me 60fps.

 

[NarohDethan]

Tekken 8 preloaded and ready to go

 

[lashman]

Tekken 8 preloaded and ready to go

 

[QFNS]

I feel like most of the mainline Yakuza games have needed a patch or 2 on PC to get right anyway so I'm not rushing into getting Infinite Wealth even if I am excited to play it.

 

[lashman]

 

[Mivey]

i'm so tired i fell asleep on my keyboard earlier holy shit

might want to look into getting a mechanical keyboard with some nice linear switches and a gasket design, to maximise its comfort as a in-promptu pillow.

 

[BaoIzumi]

Former Stardew Valley developer announces city life simulation game Sunkissed City for consoles, PC

Arthur “Mr. Podunkian” Lee, who previously worked on Stardew Valley at ConcernedApe, has announced Sunkissed City, a new life simulation game set in the city. It will launch for PC via …

www.gematsu.com

 

[Cacher]

Out now

Instant bought. AA6 has more supernatural elements than most other AAs and I really love them. It's one of my favourite games in the series so can't wait to play through it again.

 

[Sobatronix]

I've bitched about this before but Bamco has all of their new games blocked in my country for some reason. Now Steam has this big ass Tekken 8 banner and I get excited thinking I can buy so I click on it, but nope, still blocked. WTF Steam, why are you teasing me like this?

 

[STHX]

I've bitched about this before but Bamco has all of their new games blocked in my country for some reason. Now Steam has this big ass Tekken 8 banner and I get excited thinking I can buy so I click on it, but nope, still blocked. WTF Steam, why are you teasing me like this?

I noticed this since Scarlet Nexus and I have no idea why it keeps happening. It's been almost 3 years and it was never fixed nor aknowledged
Anyway

And

 

[yuraya]

If it's true that Xbox will no longer produce physical games, then I'm afraid my time with Xbox has come to an end, I refuse to support a console that has no physical options.
I already have to deal with that shit on PC, don't need another DRM!

Seems like its just about Joever for physical games. I expect Sony to follow suit in the next couple years and Nintendo will as well before the end of the decade.

Gonna be a sad future when all the major platform holders have complete control over gaming libraries and distribution. Because you just know a lot of anticonsumer fuckery will ensue with always online, cloud, streaming etc. Expecting game prices to skyrocket and so will shareholders value. The next line of hardware in the coming decades will just be streaming sticks n shit. There will be so much dead and forgotten hardware/software

 

[NarohDethan]

Seems like its just about Joever for physical games. I expect Sony to follow suit in the next couple years and Nintendo will as well before the end of the decade.

Gonna be a sad future when all the major platform holders have complete control over gaming libraries and distribution. Because you just know a lot of anticonsumer fuckery will ensue with always online, cloud, streaming etc. Expecting game prices to skyrocket and so will shareholders value. The next line of hardware in the coming decades will just be streaming sticks n shit. There will be so much dead and forgotten hardware/software

I don't think Nintendo will stop to be honest. I'm sure they would get rid of the online shit if they could, actually.

 

[spindoctor]

Seems like its just about Joever for physical games. I expect Sony to follow suit in the next couple years and Nintendo will as well before the end of the decade.

Gonna be a sad future when all the major platform holders have complete control over gaming libraries and distribution. Because you just know a lot of anticonsumer fuckery will ensue with always online, cloud, streaming etc. Expecting game prices to skyrocket and so will shareholders value. The next line of hardware in the coming decades will just be streaming sticks n shit. There will be so much dead and forgotten hardware/software

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. The PC gaming market has been all digital for a long time now and the sky has not fallen (yet ). Plus, discs these days don't have complete games on them anyway. Day 1 patches are mandatory and in many cases the game won't even launch without them. Only Nintendo sometimes seems to ship complete games but even that's not a given anymore. The thing I would worry about now is how much you trust the digital account to which your purchases are tied.

Also, if it helps, all the things you worry about (always online, price increases etc.) will happen whether or not physical copies stick around.

 

[Kyougar]

Palworld is so successful that Blizzard looked at it and cancelled their own game they had been developing for 6 years.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

 

[「Echo」]

Seems like its just about Joever for physical games. I expect Sony to follow suit in the next couple years and Nintendo will as well before the end of the decade.

Gonna be a sad future when all the major platform holders have complete control over gaming libraries and distribution. Because you just know a lot of anticonsumer fuckery will ensue with always online, cloud, streaming etc. Expecting game prices to skyrocket and so will shareholders value. The next line of hardware in the coming decades will just be streaming sticks n shit. There will be so much dead and forgotten hardware/software

I think Sony will be a long-standing holdout, even more than Nintendo honestly. Let's not forget that Sony gets license fees from Blu-rays, is one of the last remaining BR players on the market, and has a movie division that loves to sell 4k UHD discs with a big profit margin.

 

[Ascheroth]

Blizzard Cancels Big New Game After Six Years of Development

This sounds like another complete managerial fuckup.

It started development in 2017, so it's been over 6 years.
They were hoping for a 2026 release at one point, but that would have only been possibly if they staffed up a lot and even then seemed overly optimistic to some devs.
That would have been 8-9 years at the earliest, realistically probably 10+ years. That's just insanity.

And why? Because they made dumb tech decisions (and arguably scope too).

They didn't think UnrealEngine was good enough to support their vision of big open maps with up to 100 players. At that point that might actually have been true, since it was only with PUBG and Fortnite popping off Epic invested into supporting that type of stuff. Those were also 2017 though, so one could say maybe they should have pivoted back from their chosen engine.
But they didn't and that engine turned out to be a hot mess too, so they were probably wose off.

 

[Madventure]

Just an FYI:

If you own Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader there's a free cosmetic DLC that won't be free past the 31st of January

 

[Morten88]

If anyone in here have played enshrouded, is it any good? Ive had it wishlisted for a long time, but i kinda got into palworld right now. Hoping to buy enshrouded next month if its good.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

If this is true then Palworld has over 4 million concurrent players on Xbox + PC.

EDIT: No 9 million announcement yet, so game is officially dead. Pack it up everyone, it's over

 

[Alextended]

Aw, I went to the arcade but I had wasted all my money (my OCD tells me to always buy at least 1 of every item in these games lol) so no Sega Bass Fishing yet.

Man, I adored 7 but I wasn't sure if they can pull it off again and yes they can, it's awesome and Ichiban is likable as ever and it starts off way better than either of the Gaiden demo bits too, with being at Isezaki Ijincho and messing around with the old cast. It's so good.

I wonder how they've optimized their cut scene making cos there's shit here that would be 100% skipped/glossed over in any other title I think. Like all the detail with the security job of a guy you help get hired in the beginning, you'll know when you play it, at first I was even ok this is too much exposition on something pointless, get on with it, but then it quickly reintroduced another member of the old cast so yeah, probably perfectly paced too.

 

[BaoIzumi]

Out now

 

[STHX]

Phantasy Star Online 2 but mecha
Wait, PSO is already mecha

 

[Arc]

More than Persona 4 Golden and not too far off from Persona 5 Royal. RGG Studio must be really happy.

 

[PC-tan]

If this is true then Palworld has over 4 million concurrent players on Xbox + PC.

EDIT: No 9 million announcement yet, so game is officially dead. Pack it up everyone, it's over

They seem to have stopped making announcements after the whole TPC announcement I believe.

The whole reason that TPC made that announcement was because people kept sending them inquires about if Palworld was even legal. And if they stopped announcing every milestone they would get harassed less (both TPC and Palworld)

 

[BaoIzumi]

New pickup Wild Legion | Core Devourer | Spellbook Demonslayers

Guess im collecting these now

 

[Lashley]

More than Persona 4 Golden and not too far off from Persona 5 Royal. RGG Studio must be really happy.

Square Enix just sat there wondering how this sorcery is possible

 

[Alextended]

So the bits be4 going to Hawaii are pretty sizable and involving it's not just a matter of how he got that letter so he goes there and by chance meets with Kiryu out on his mission. Although that's probably just ahead. Poor Ichiban, things go amazingly and then he gets his heart broken and gets kicked while down too...

 

[BaoIzumi]

 

[Arc]

Square Enix just sat there wondering how this sorcery is possible

 

[Censored]

https://steamdb.info/app/2674700/info/

this got banned from steam.
Seems Valve hired again another anti-VN reviewer.
The dev said on X it was supposed to be the all-ages version.

 

[ZKenir]

 

[yuraya]

Nintendo is doomed

 

[NarohDethan]

I thought Valve didn't allow explicit porn?

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I'm not sure what to buy right now. Animal Crossing for Switch is on sale right now for $40, Tekken 8 looks great, Enshrouded looks great, and I'm missing Palworld despite refunding it earlier in the week due to the controversy. Probably buy Animal Crossing since I've wanted that the longest and I haven't seen it on sale for a long time.

 

[Parsnip]

That's a respectable bump from T7.
Will be very interesting to see how it holds the playerbase in comparison to SF6, for example. SF6 is currently peaking at about 20K daily.
MK1 on the other hand is peaking at around 2K.

 

[NarohDethan]

That's a respectable bump from T7.
Will be very interesting to see how it holds the playerbase in comparison to SF6, for example. SF6 is currently peaking at about 20K daily.
MK1 on the other hand is peaking at around 2K.

MK games come out too quickly and with not a lot of changes, and I say this as someone who enjoys them

 

[Knurek]

https://steamdb.info/app/2674700/info/

this got banned from steam.
Seems Valve hired again another anti-VN reviewer.
The dev said on X it was supposed to be the all-ages version.

It can fuck off of Steam for all I care.

 

[Censored]

It can fuck off of Steam for all I care.

but dev released the all-ages version and all of those (hentai ones) are on Steam and them release every day.
Those are the tags from vndb.
I'm just curious why some are banned and some others (with the same tags or worse) are green lighted.

 

[Knurek]

but dev released the all-ages version and all of those (hentai ones) are on Steam and them release every day.
I'm just curious why some are banned and some others (with the same tags or worse) are green lighted.

I don't care if it has been sanitized for Steam or not, anything that maxes out the Straight Lolicon tag (and yes, 3.0 is as high as you can get on VNDB) can fuck off into the sun.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I'm really surprised that Suika Game was never ported from the Switch to PC/Steam (or any other platform):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suika_Game

Also, it's a bit funny how that game is a popular game (sold over 5 million units) that ripped off a popular Chinese browser game and the subgenre is filled with knockoffs that all look the same, but there's no major outcry about it.