Community MetaSteam | July 2023 - This one will turn you into a furry

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yuraya

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May 4, 2019
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Im curious how I will be tacking the next weeks with games. Baldurs Gate 3, Starfield and Alan Wake 2 are already ordered (have had BG3 in my Steam library since early access launch), then I bought a bunch of good looking games on the Steam sale, still not done with Diablo 4, only played a few hours of ToTK, not touched my copy off FFXVI.

And then ther's all those other games. Super Mario Wonder, Oxenfree 2, AC Mirage, Viewfinder, Remnant 2, Disney Illusion Island, Sea of Stars, Armored Core, Lies of P.
Gonna go down as one of the best fall release lineups in a long while. I can't remember the last time 2nd half of the year was this busy with big releases. There is gonna be something for everyone to play. And this past spring and summer now were very strong too. Been a great gaming year.

I'm a bit concerned how I am gonna play some of this stuff too. I plan on doing BG3 --> ACVI---> Starfield -----> MGS collection. August through Nov is booked.

But I play games very slow and at my own pace so I worry I'm not gonna be able to see some of these to conclusion before the next game releases :anguished-face:
 

BaoLunia

Indie games
Nov 25, 2022
1,057
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Norway
threads.net

OG source comes from a PDF on the Nexon IR site.

I can attest the game is awesome. Pretty much the only thing I've played since I finished Final Fantasy XVI.
This is nice. But it bothers me how this is officially tagged as Indie game by the dev on Steam when its fully owned by Nexon.
Anyways i should check it out.
 
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Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,246
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My Razer mouse has been good so far. Their software is ass but since I can store the mouse profile onboard the mouse, at least I only needed to use it very briefly and then stop it from starting with Windows.

Too bad about that data breach though, but what even is Razer Gold?
 
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toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
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So I guess the Activision/MS merger was approved. Blizzard games on Steam when?

Never really had an issue with Battle.net but I could be convinced to repurchase/replay StarCraft II and Diablo 3...
 

Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
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Im curious how I will be tacking the next weeks with games.


Right now I'm primarily focused on Shadow Gambit and Book of Hours, ironically releasing on the same day (sigh).

I know BG3 & Starfield will be in my Fall rotation for sure, but I have no idea which I will tackle first, or if I'll simply way for the hardware upgrade I have loosely planned for holiday season.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,282
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The FTC argued that the merger would be detrimental to Sony, not once thinking about how it would be or wouldn't be bad for the Consumer
Sony argued that losing Call of Duty would be detrimental to their cash influx, so MS made a commitment for 10 years of call of duty on Playstation. No-one talked about the other 100 IP'S from Actiblizzard

So, now Sony lost all Activision-Blizzard games apart from Call of Duty, because they and the FTC only cared about CoD, :steam_pig_crylaughing:
 

CommodoreKong

Mercenary in the Badlands
Jun 15, 2019
756
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The whole FTC argument (or at least what I saw of it) was honestly quite terrible. I'm not generally a fan of consolidation, but if that is the best they can do they deserve to lose.
Yeah I would occasionally check the thread on Resetera and the FTCs arguments always seemed really bad. Not surprising they lost.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
4,127
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Belgium
I am surprised to see so many people being happy about Microsoft buying Blizzard. I mean, we have seen several times already how annoying and arrogant that company can be once they have a successful product.

Yes, Spencer is a cool guy and yes, MS' games are on Steam. But I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in the future once their Xbox stuff on PC gains enough traction.

An independent publisher will release games where the gamers are. This is by far the best situation for us.
 

toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
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I am surprised to see so many people being happy about Microsoft buying Blizzard.
I wouldn't say I'm happy about it. Short-term, I'd be lying if I said I'm not getting some schadenfreude seeing Sony getting a taste of their own medicine. But yeah, Microsoft is being cool with Steam releases right now, but I don't expect that to remain the case forever. They'll 100% try pushing their own store again at some point in the future. They'll also start shutting down some of these studios eventually when some of them inevitably fail to deliver. It's going to suck but there's really nothing I can do about it so I'm just going to enjoy things while I still can. :shrugblob:
 

yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
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So who does Microsoft buy next?

I think Larian is getting acquired next for sure. Both MS and Sony are gonna throw money at them but I think they'll go with MS.

I wonder at what point Xbox becomes too big. Just managing and coordinating with so many dev teams will be a nightmare.

Gamepass is definitely gonna become the Netflix of gaming in the coming years. Their aim for 4 big releases per year should be more than attainable. The next Xbox console is shaping up to be a really good living room device too and actually give the PS6 a run for its money.
 

manchego obfuscator

MetaMember
Jan 23, 2020
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The whole FTC argument (or at least what I saw of it) was honestly quite terrible. I'm not generally a fan of consolidation, but if that is the best they can do they deserve to lose.
really don't understand why they chose to focus so much on harm to Sony, given their commanding lead in the console market and the difficulty of proving that Microsoft was likely to break its agreements to keep COD on PlayStation
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,282
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I am surprised to see so many people being happy about Microsoft buying Blizzard. I mean, we have seen several times already how annoying and arrogant that company can be once they have a successful product.

Yes, Spencer is a cool guy and yes, MS' games are on Steam. But I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in the future once their Xbox stuff on PC gains enough traction.

An independent publisher will release games where the gamers are. This is by far the best situation for us.
Actiblizzard will be a better publisher under Microsoft and will be a better workplace under the guidance of Microsoft. Anything is better than Kotick.

Activision and Blizzard had nothing positive to contribute to the gaming industry in the last 10 to 15 years, it can only get better.
They were not some beloved developer that loses its "identity" with a new owner, it was a capitalistic hellhole that treated their staff (except their "superstars") like garbage.

From 2000 to 2018, I would have just shrugged and told myself that one asshole buys another asshole.
But Microsoft changed (outwardly) to be better and I can at least hope that, individually for the workers, and creatively for us gamers, that Microsoft will make a better actiblizz.
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,246
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113
Finland
I am surprised to see so many people being happy about Microsoft buying Blizzard. I mean, we have seen several times already how annoying and arrogant that company can be once they have a successful product.

Yes, Spencer is a cool guy and yes, MS' games are on Steam. But I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in the future once their Xbox stuff on PC gains enough traction.

An independent publisher will release games where the gamers are. This is by far the best situation for us.
I'm generally indifferent about it. Big corpo buying another big corpo. Nothing I can do one way or another, just enjoying the popcorn.
 

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
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Kotick wants out, so who is gonna buy them?

You've got a tossup of only a handful of companies that can actually afford them and would be interested in buying them.

Microsoft, Tencent, Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, Nintendo, Sony.

And if Microsoft is blocked from buying them, they'll move heaven and earth to stop Nintendo or Sony from getting them.

So that just leaves us Tencent and House of Saud. Throw in Elon Musk as a wildcard because that man spends money to be an Internet troll.

Pick your poison, basically.
 

inky

🤔
Apr 17, 2019
999
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really don't understand why they chose to focus so much on harm to Sony, given their commanding lead in the console market and the difficulty of proving that Microsoft was likely to break its agreements to keep COD on PlayStation
That's the crux of it, isn't it?

Big Tech running unchecked, buying startups and established players in order to gatekeep content left and right is a big problem. From Epic to Adobe, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and whomever else.

There are unlikely to be any legalization efforts on this front, something that could actually scrutinize these companies and how they already do business, let alone nascent markets like AI and Cloud. With all this bullshit going on, the FTC and CMA can't competently put together a case that shows harm to consumers and instead spend all their efforts on basically how losing Call of Duty could harm Sony (and I guess Sony-only gamers)?

Is that really the best they could do? And while this is happening, the same FTC and CMA are not contesting egregious purchases like Microsoft gobbling up AI companies, or Amazon buying up the smart-vacuum segment for themselves, and even regulators using those as an example of how they are fine with Big Tech gobbling up as many pieces of other segments they obviously don't understand, as long as it isn't $70B worth at a time.

Regulators obviously don't understand the industry, but worse yet, they really couldn't give a shit about consumers either and it showed. Where are the protection efforts on pricing, foreclosing other segments through cutthroat exclusive deals, gambling addiction and its focus on minors, etc. Instead they are worried if Playstation losing Call of Duty might be a problem for Sony...

The reality is I was never bothered with the MS acquisition of Acti/Blizz because I care about few of their games, I only play on PC, but most importantly I feel like most gaming IP is easily replaceable. OK, sometimes not that easily in cases like CoD, granted- but at least side-stepped; see all the indie success stories in the PC space, like Battlebit vs Battlefield, but even other examples like new "it" games like PUBG, Fortnite, Apex, Destiny, etc. that could come out of anywhere really.

The other reason is that Activision and Blizzard were well on their way to fucking up their own efforts just fine. That's part of the reason Microsoft saw the discounted price and did the math. People act mad about Activision IP being gobbled up and I ask... what fucking IP? They basically have all their studios on CoD, and regularly kill all their efforts on whatever other IP someone is passionate about.

In general, in places like ERA and elsewhere there is a lot of handwringing and unwillingness to accept those reactions they are having are as much genuine concern for "consumers", as they are just a feeling of loss when their unhealthy emotional attachment to the Sony brand is being threatened. That any change to the status quo is scary. These are some of the same people that argue incessantly how Sony games coming to Steam cheaper is bad for the platform and Sony themselves (so much concern for consumers and the industry, right?).

It's not surprising that in other spaces, like the PC space where we've seen everything from big publishers declaring the platform dead, to all sorts of IPs leaving en masse to them come crawling back and all sorts of fuckery in between, there's a more indifferent feeling towards what it means for Sony and whom should they buy next to "retaliate" to not be left behind (the 2:1 market leader of the console industry), and more actual focus on long term repercussions, both postive and negative.

Let's be clear. A world where Microsoft is the dominant force on gaming and by extension PC is not something anyone wants. And the fact that the double whammy of Starfield having a good showing, and the acquisition clearing some hurdles has emboldened them to start raising prices, changing Game Pass back-end stacking, and even more fuckery on the regional pricing front should have us all wary of what it could actually be if they were on top. But for now, I've seen enough Microsoft to know they are just as likely to mess it up, billions and all.

And gaming will be fine.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,045
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I am surprised to see so many people being happy about Microsoft buying Blizzard. I mean, we have seen several times already how annoying and arrogant that company can be once they have a successful product.

Yes, Spencer is a cool guy and yes, MS' games are on Steam. But I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in the future once their Xbox stuff on PC gains enough traction.

An independent publisher will release games where the gamers are. This is by far the best situation for us.
I agree with everything you said. However, there is one complication: ActiBlizz was clearly looking to sell. If they hadn't sold to Microsoft they'd have sold to someone else, and that might well be worse.

... and now I just saw that C-Dub already posted the same thing.
 

yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
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Xbox fell behind so far in the console wars they really didn't have a choice. It was either go on a shopping spree or get out of the console business. And gaming has gotten so big in the past 5-10 years there was no way they exit the business. You can't really blame them for doing it.

Minecraft, Bethesda and Activision is a drop in the bucket for them but now they are an actual competitor with the other platform holders. Plus they get all the cloud and mobile shit that comes with owning all this ip/tech.

Don Mattrick was both the best and worst thing to ever happen to them. They got wrecked by Sony and lost marketing share to the PS4. But as a result they opened their warchest and made gamepass because of it. As long as they don't hire shitty people to work at the top again that put in a bunch of anticonsumer shit I think it will be fine. They made all these promises to bring games to more people and platforms so its good that it will be accessible. People joke about COD on Switch but the next Switch will at least be as powerful as the Deck so COD should run just fine on it at playable settings.

Sony will eventually get the short end of the stick for everything that isn't COD related so they need to be ready and plan around it. All the big future Blizzard games and other Activision games will probably skip PS5/PS6. But Xbox will support PC and Switch 2 so I think people won't really give a shit about Playstation owners complaining. Sony will retaliate with big moves of their own. I think they will pick up a big publisher like Square or Ubisoft. That is probably the most they will be able to afford but they will have to do it so its gonna be interesting how the dominoes fall.
 

Paul

MetaMember
Jan 26, 2019
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I think Larian is getting acquired next for sure. Both MS and Sony are gonna throw money at them but I think they'll go with MS.
Super doubtful, Larian is a private company and I am 99% certain that Swen will want to remain independent for as long as he breaths. Like CD Projekt (although CDP is public, so acquiring them is potentially possible, although they did put some safeguards in place).
 

Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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I think Humankind was the last game I preordered, because I thought it was a slam dunk. I didn't generally preorder anyway, but I think I'm gonna end up doing it with Cities: Skylines II and Baldur's Gate 3. What they've shown of CS2 already is enough of an upgrade from CS1 for me, and I'm not worried about what the map size changes actually are like I know some are. And BG3 certainly has some pedigree behind it, hard to imagine it goes from good early access to a turd upon release
 
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