Community MetaSteam | March 2023 - You know, Wo Leon, we really are the last of March

[Parsnip]

Ghost Trick having new and freshly arranged music is surprising but welcome.

Hope they release a soundtrack for that stuff.

speaking of square , Forspoken got big update

New Forspoken update available now: here’s what’s included | Square Enix Blog

The latest update to the game adds refined visuals, reworked targeting and quality of life improvements galore. Find out more here.

www.square-enix-games.com

That lighting and AO difference is striking and it's tough to believe they shipped the game the way it was.

 

[Kyougar]

SE does that too it's just not really known about. Remember around forspoken's launch there was that one twitch streamer who tried to raise a stink about not getting a lot of money for streaming it? Everyone's takeaway from that story was shock that SE would even bother with someone who had like a thousand subs at most. But with smaller games this comes back to marketing as many of these streamers want to be paid to play games and thus it circles back to the overall marketing debate and how much is it worth giving games like harvestella or star ocean a push while avoiding going over budget.

This is really why AA games died out in general. Budgets kept going up and sales weren't so most companies just stopped doing them. I know SE isn't helping matters by dumping 10 games out at once but my point was it really doesn't matter on the amount or schedule, people ultimately don't really want these games. Octopath 2 is set to sell quite a bit less than the last did and the only way to maybe avoid that is pump more money into expensive marketing campaigns, which likely erases any gains the extra sales would get anyway as ultimately the game is still a SNES inspired turn based jrpg and the amount of people who want that is limited. The answer isn't as simple as "make good games get good sales" or "space things out better" because it often doesn't matter even if you do those things.

Dumping a promotion to random small influencers rarely works for smaller games.
Paradox understands that you need influencers who play(ed) your games for years, who have a direct communication channel to your company, who maybe even make separate videos for your patch notes, etc.
Paradox understands the need to ... understand their influencers and their audience. They understand that someone who is into EUIV and CK3 but rarely played HOI4 doesn't need or sometimes even want anything promotion related to HOI4.

 

[lashman]

 

[MegaApple]

Hottest of hot takes - I think Square Enix should fix its horrible regional pricing.

I won't know the quality of the game if I can't buy it.

 

[Li Kao]

I also would say that, without aiming to be mean, Square still act and take decisions like a big shot company while their importance on the market is not what it was. Game prices for example, maybe a big project or some major players can price their games like sociopaths, but Square isn't one of them. Mayyybe FF16, but even then I'm not sure it wouldn't do the game a disservice.
Square 2023 has not the market weight it had 10-20 years ago.

 

[Kyougar]

Being in the shoes of Square Enix

 

[lashman]

I think Square Enix should fix its horrible regional pricing.

... and Capcpom, and SEGA, and Kecmo, and EA, and Activision, and Ubi, and ... etc. etc. etc. etc.

 

[lashman]

 

[fantomena]

RE4 demo ran beautifully on my PC and game looks gorgeus.

Bless you CapCom.

 

[dex3108]

 

[OSatan]

Next Steam Sale is Spring right? maybe end of month?

 

[LEANIJA]

Next Steam Sale is Spring right? maybe end of month?

March 16-23

 

[OSatan]

Thanks!
Yay even closer, I hope Project Diva doesn't Go below 50%..

 

[Censored]

I tried to play RE4 demo on Steam Deck but there're a lot of graphic glitches everywhere with default options.

You can clearly see those black macroblocks on my pic.
I hope it gets fixed at some point because it looks promising.
I know many people won't care but as a spaniard I miss southamerican voices. Now it's fully castilian/spanish dubbed.
Detrás de ti imbécil, Morir es vivir and some other lines were so mythical on spanish forums xD.

 

[lashman]

 

[LEANIJA]

I tried to play RE4 demo on Steam Deck but there're a lot of graphic glitches everywhere with default options.


You can clearly see those black macroblocks on my pic.
I hope it gets fixed at some point becasue it looks promising.
I know many people won't care but as a spaniard I miss southamerican voices. Now it's fully castilian/spanish dubbed.
Detrás de ti imbécil, Morir es vivir and some other lines were so mythical on spanish forums xD.

 

[lashman]

 

[Deku]

Historical low, even cheaper if you already own the first game

 

[lashman]

 

[Stevey]

Anyone else getting disconnected from STEAM group chats all the time?

Happens to me in or out the Beta

 

[fantomena]

People on FB are very negative to Tim Sweeneys Steam comments. Very happy with the comments section there.

PC Gamer

PC Gamer. 3,708,594 likes · 21,426 talking about this. PC Gamer is the global authority on PC games. Join us online at https://www.pcgamer.com/, or in print worldwide.

www.facebook.com

Scroll down to the article with title "Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says Valve's Steamworks API has "created a real problem for the industry."

 

[lashman]

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

lashman , there is really no need for you to increase the size of my.....wishlist, all day every day. IT IS UNCALLED FOR

 

[lashman]

lashman , there is really no need for you to increase the size of my.....wishlist, all day every day. IT IS UNCALLED FOR

sorry

 

[lashman]

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

sorry

You are FORGIVEN!





....................but you are not FORSPOKEN

 

[STHX]

And doesn't seem like they're gonna get better any time soon...

From the same report where they said that the fall releases were below expectations:

https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/23q3outline.pdf

Can't wait

Spoiler

 

[dex3108]

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Square Enix release strategies just suck

That's how Square decides when they will release their games.

 

[lashman]

DO NOT miss out on this one, it's a real gem!

 

[yuraya]

Reached Dracula in Dead Cells. Had him down to basically no health. Seconds away and out of nowhere kills me with some stupid grab move. So much bs in that fight.

Pissed asf right now. It was like a 40 minute run too. fuck

 

[lashman]

 

[PC-tan]

Hot take DQ > FF

 

[Alextended]

Small new post on Aeon Genesis site in exactly two years, yay they aren't dead.

Aeon Genesis ~ News

aeongenesis.net

 

[jads653]

Got the flu so I am just chilling and catching up on some stuff. I thought The Last of us on HBO would just be a poormans copy of the Walking Dead. Holy shit Ellie and Joel are not good people.

How much does this stray from the source material?

 

[Paul]

speaking of square , Forspoken got big update

New Forspoken update available now: here’s what’s included | Square Enix Blog

The latest update to the game adds refined visuals, reworked targeting and quality of life improvements galore. Find out more here.

www.square-enix-games.com

I gotta say, as much as I think Forspoken is bad unsalvageable game, this blog post is kinda fantastic - I wish every patch for games would get a post by its developers that would describe what exactly it does and even show it in videos! Often we are lucky if we even get sparse patch notes.

 

[bobnowhere]

Got the flu so I am just chilling and catching up on some stuff. I thought The Last of us on HBO would just be a poormans copy of the Walking Dead. Holy shit Ellie and Joel are not good people.

How much does this stray from the source material?

There are some changes here and there, bits skipped and bits elaborated, but the main parts are the same. Only the method of infection is very different. So far....

 

[Ge0force]

People on FB are very negative to Tim Sweeneys Steam comments. Very happy with the comments section there.

I've seen mostly similar negative reactions on Reddit and comment sections of (local) game sites. Many people tolerate money hatting when it's used to help small studio's. But only going for the big hits is just anticompetitive behavior.

 

[prudis]

DO NOT miss out on this one, it's a real gem!

looks nice for sure

 

[lashman]

 

[C-Dub]

I've seen mostly similar negative reactions on Reddit and comment sections of (local) game sites. Many people tolerate money hatting when it's used to help small studio's. But only going for the big hits is just anticompetitive behavior.

The idea of the “struggling indie” is romanticised a lot. While Epic did indeed moneyhat some indies out of a dire situation, I think on the most part the games they bought exclusivity for were AAAs and games from indie studios doing well for themselves.

But regardless, it’s good to see people speaking negatively about this. You get a few trolls and “it’s just another launcher” types, but on the most part I think EGS has been a failure, despite Epic’s best efforts.

The big downside to EGS has, ironically, been to competition. Epic made such a terrible product that no one wants to use, but at the same time have sucked all the oxygen out of the space by buying up exclusives.

No one else can get a foot in the door because if your store is not called “Steam”, big and small publishers won’t even bother with your platform unless you’re writing them a cheque or giving them an unsustainable revenue share.

 

[Kal1m3r0]

What are your predictions on Resident Evil 4 vs The Last of Us on Steam? Which one's gonna have the higher CCU?

 

[lashman]

Stadia’s pivot to a cloud service has also been shut down

After Stadia’s commercial failure, the pivot to Immersive Stream for Games is dead, too.

arstechnica.com

 

[lashman]

 

[C-Dub]

Stadia’s pivot to a cloud service has also been shut down

After Stadia’s commercial failure, the pivot to Immersive Stream for Games is dead, too.

arstechnica.com

For a platform that was based on the premise of ditching hardware, it’s ironic that the only vestige of Stadia left is the controller people are using on their dedicated hardware.

Fair play, it’s a good controller.

 

[Knurek]

What are your predictions on Resident Evil 4 vs The Last of Us on Steam? Which one's gonna have the higher CCU?

Resi 4 by ratio of 3:1

 

[Mor]

What are your predictions on Resident Evil 4 vs The Last of Us on Steam? Which one's gonna have the higher CCU?

Resident Evil 4 will have a bigger CCU for sure.

I'm betting:

Tlou part 1 will have between 15k and 20k CCU due TV show popularity and boost.Potentially over Spiderman Miles Morales but under Days Gone.
Resident Evil 4 Remake will likely have 70k to 100k given their latest Resident Evil releases on Steam.

 

[Hektor]

What are your predictions on Resident Evil 4 vs The Last of Us on Steam? Which one's gonna have the higher CCU?

 

[Cacher]

I couldn't get over how good Babymetal was at the First Take. Man, what a day. WHAT A DAY

 

[Arc]

Resident Evil 4 will have a bigger CCU for sure.

I'm betting:

Tlou part 1 will have between 15k and 20k CCU due TV show popularity and boost.Potentially over Spiderman Miles Morales but under Days Gone.
Resident Evil 4 Remake will likely have 70k to 100k given their latest Resident Evil releases on Steam.

Your TLOU prediction seems reasonable, but I think you're underestimating RE4.

The RE4 demo had the highest CCU for any RE demo on Steam (36k) compared to RE3 (19k), RE8 (18k), RE2 (10.8k) and RE7 (3,900). The all time peak for an RE game on Steam is RE8 with 106k. RE4 can be in the 125-150k range, especially with the nostalgia factor.