I legit haven’t bought a game anywhere but steam in over a decade. I simply do not trust the motives or responsibility of any other publisher. And at this point, I’m too afraid of them yoinking their game after I’ve paid for it that I’ll likely never change.
GOG is good too.
As soon as GOG has linux support at least 80% as good as steam, I’ll jump right over. I used to always prefer GOG over Steam but I’ve really felt that they don’t care about supporting my platform at all unless that’s changed in recent times so I’m happier giving Valve my cut.
We all should be hitting GOG up more often if we want the legit ONLY good competition for steam to not die out one day. They are as good as steam in many ways.
I just wish they’d support Linux like Valve have
I mean, they host Linux versions of games, it’s close. I get what you mean though, a native Linux program like they have for Windows and MacOS would be great.
GOG is fantastic but Steam keeps getting my business because of all the extras I really depend on like cloud saves, game library sharing, proton, Big picture and controller mapping.
Ubisoft has been trash for a long time now. It’s a shame that they control some good IP, but the company’s too far gone to ever be trustworthy. Save your time and money and just play something else imo.
If they die, other companies will buy that IP
Here’s a neat tip:
You can go to most publisher or developer pages on Steam and “ignore” them to prevent Steam from ever showing your their slop again.
Example:
- Go to: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Ubisoft
- Click the “Settings” cog.
- “Ignore this creator”
You can do the same with EA, 2K, etc. Don’t even give these parasites microseconds of your time when they release their next slop title.
Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to apply to publishers or developers that don’t have a landing page
LEMMY GOLD!!! 😳
Any company that tells you to ‘get used’ to something has massively overstepped the mark.
People you buy things from are not your boss.
Unless you are addicted to them, in which case they are.
Meanwhile someone somewhere is having issues with steam taking too much profit. Do note that even if a game is DELISTED from steam, you still can download the game on steam. Of course it is a different story with license revocation and that is a whole different can of worms. I don’t even know if steam allows the publisher to revoke a license for a game that the player already paid for just because the game is not supported anymore (a different case with breaking ToS/EULA).
Steam requires others to keep the game downloadable if its in your library, but they can’t do anything if ubisoft decides to shut the servers down. You keep your license but it’s useless.
Well, yeah for multiplayer only games. Hence why I don’t get the appeal of paid multiplayer only games without dedicated server software available.
All this has done is taught me not to BUY Ubisoft games.
I learnt that over a decade ago.
Don’t buy a Ubisoft, EA, or frankly any big publisher game.
Good on ya. Don’t BUY them.
I wouldn’t trust CDPR so easily yet after how diabolical the launch of CP2077 was.
The launch was terrible, but there are some things that keep them apart from the rest of terrible launches.
Cyberpunk 2077 was a really ambitious game, with a lot of new mechanics and incredible graphics. Beasts like that are really difficult to optimize for a large range of computers with different specs, so at first it ran poorly on some.
The most notably buggy release was the PS4 one. And rightfully so. They were trying to run a truly next gen game on a console which was more than a decade old. They not only had to optimize the game, but they basically made a completely different game, with different assets and engines, which was really difficult to do. Still, it was too much for the console, especially old PS4s that were full of dust or had old fans and were overheating.
Another important fact is that users were also pressuring CDPR into releasing Cyberpunk 2077. It was delayed at least once (maybe twice, I don’t remember), and people wanted to play the game. They probably had to choose between delaying it another time or releasing it without polishing it that much.
I believe it was Cyberpunk 2077 that started the trend of “release now fix later” games. However, I don’t think they really did it on purpose. The game was too ambitious for its own good, and having to develop, optimize and test two basically different versions of it was too big of a task for a studio that in today’s terms wasn’t even that big. The rest of the AAA producers just realized that CDPR still won loads of money at launch, and decided to release incomplete games on purpose, after seeing that CDPR could make profits that way.
But must importantly, CDPR did an amazing job at fixing the game, unlike many other studios releasing broken AAAs. They optimized the code, fixed most of the bugs, improved the AI massively and made the game really stable, to the point where I’ve seen it running at 40 FPS on 10+ year old overheating laptops. Even though it took a while, they still delivered the game they promised to their buyers.
I would argue No Man’s Sky started the trend of “release now fix later” but I suppose they are not a big AAA studio. I suppose CDPR wasn’t really considered as AAA until the release of Witcher 3.
You guys don’t have good long-term memory.
Thanks for providing a lot of insight to the conversation.
I believe it was Cyberpunk 2077 that started the trend of “release now fix later” games.
Hardly. That’s been a thing for a while now.
Decades
I think release then fix became common as soon as internet distribution became practical
Back when everything was on physical media the releases were more polished
Cyberpunk 2077 was a really ambitious game, with a lot of new mechanics and incredible graphics. Beasts like that are really difficult to optimize for a large range of computers with different specs, so at first it ran poorly on some.
What about all the other “Ambitious games” that we’ve had over the years that come out just fine? A game being ambitious does not excuse a company releasing the game in what is blatantly an unfinished state. This isn’t the case of a game having a few performance hiccups here and there but rather egregious bugs and severe performance issues across the board. This is stuff that is all over youtube, reddit, twitter and so on. It’s pretty well documented how bad the game was.
The most notably buggy release was the PS4 one. And rightfully so. They were trying to run a truly next gen game on a console which was more than a decade old. They not only had to optimize the game, but they basically made a completely different game, with different assets and engines, which was really difficult to do. Still, it was too much for the console, especially old PS4s that were full of dust or had old fans and were overheating.
Again, this really isn’t an excuse. They had the power the can the next gen versions of the game if it was so difficult to pull off. They also had the power to delay the game in order to make sure that it was ready for launch. They could have done so many things such that the last gen versions of the day would either never see the light of day or be ready for launch. CDPR are a big enough studio to pull something like this off. They’re not a small indie studio.
Another important fact is that users were also pressuring CDPR into releasing Cyberpunk 2077. It was delayed at least once (maybe twice, I don’t remember), and people wanted to play the game. They probably had to choose between delaying it another time or releasing it without polishing it that much.
Yes, there may have been pressure. But no, the consumer base does not have anywhere near enough power over corporations like you’re trying to imply. Games aren’t just released early because “Oh no the consumers are getting angy”. Though once again this was their fault due to them giving the consumer a completely unrealistic initial release date that they obviously could not hit, considering the absolute state of the game at launch.
The most likely explanation is that they were simply trying to get the game out as soon as possible to cash in and they absolutely did not want to miss a major sales period such as Christmas. They were simply trying to drop a minimal viable product with plans to fix it later. Turns out they dropped a less than minimally viable product in their rush to make some dosh. Knowingly too if you look into the allegations that I’ll link later.
I believe it was Cyberpunk 2077 that started the trend of “release now fix later” games.
No. “Release broken fix later” has been a thing for maybe the last decade. Do people not remember shitshows like AC:Unity? Cyberpunk is most definitely not the first game to be “Release broken, fix later”.
However, I don’t think they really did it on purpose.
I don’t think it was dropped broken on purpose. But I do think it was an attempt to drop the usual bare minimum product. Just so happens that they miscalculated and dropped something less than minimal. It’s still gross incompetence and shows the consumer they’re more than willing to drop something bare minimum with the promise of fixing it later. Rather than dropping a complete game.
The game was too ambitious for its own good, and having to develop, optimize and test two basically different versions of it was too big of a task for a studio that in today’s terms wasn’t even that big.
Again, not an excuse. They’re a massive studio, big enough to have people that know how to plan a project like this, people that understand their limitations and what is or isn’t achievable. It’s standard project planning practice.
But even then there are allegations that people in the company were aware that the game was not ready to launch.
And yet they still dropped the game.
There is no excuse for the launch of CP2077.
The rest of the AAA producers just realized that CDPR still won loads of money at launch, and decided to release incomplete games on purpose, after seeing that CDPR could make profits that way.
The industry learned this about a decade ago. We’ve been plagued by half baked launched for so long at this point that you don’t have to go far to find out about it.
But must importantly, CDPR did an amazing job at fixing the game, unlike many other studios releasing broken AAAs.
In this case I think it’s less fixing the game and more finishing the development of the game, all things considered. The thing they should have done before releasing the game as if it was a finished product when, in fact, it clearly wasn’t.
There’s fixing a game and there’s what CDPR had to do to CP2077.
Yes, a lot of companies don’t fix their games. But at the same time most of these companies don’t release their games in such a state that they start getting into legal trouble over the launch of their game.
https://www.nme.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-investigated-polish-consumer-protection-agency-2855205
Cyberpunk was such a massive disaster that they didn’t really have much choice other than to finish working on their game. To repair the massive hit to their PR as well as other issues such as the class action and the whole debacle with Sony kicking the game of the PS Store.
Even though it took a while, they still delivered the game they promised to their buyers.
Yes, it’s good that they stuck with the game and did more than the bare minimum to bring it to a better state. But it’s not exactly something to praise them over. It took them ~2 years to bring the game to a state that it should have been in at launch. Instead of launching the game in a finished state, they knowingly dropped the game in an unfinished state. They also put out a review embargo preventing reviewers from informing the consumer about said issues, they actively worked to mislead the consumer about the state of their game.
What CDPR did is absolutely not excusable under any circumstances.
Their next projects should absolutely be scrutinised until they prove that they have learned from their mistakes.
I wish more people would buy stuff on GOG, although some games there still have some sort of DRM, Kalypso published games come to mind.
Still, way, way better in terms of ownership than what other platforms offer.
I thought they had on several occasions dropped games from the store because they had DRM. Which DRM titles does GOG still have?
Last game I paid good money for was on GOG. Everything added to my steam account in the last few years has either been part of a humble bundle or a freebie from somewhere.
GOG sometimes fails to keep some offline installers up to date with what Galaxy installs, some people consider that a DRM, I consider it a service failure.
You can also find some reports checking this thread - the post in question says Beat Hazard 2 won’t run after a clean offline install on a computer without internet. Not DRM per se, as that check only happens once and it creates a savefile
They just need to come out and “lease” the game.
“Buy” should no longer be on any selection as far as live service games go, or any game dependent on developer servers to operate.
I wonder how long it’d take until they take down STEEP. I suppose it’s even less popular than The Crew, but I liked it that much I’d pay once more if someone would keep it alive after Ubi does the Ubi thing. Extreme sports are rarely portrayed in games, and for me it would be a huge loss even though I feel like I enjoyed every penny I spent at least thrice.
Right now? Brother, they’ve been on my shit list for over a decade.
i hate them because they remove anything that makes their games unique and make all their games have the same features until they’re all completely interchangable gray sludge.
The depressing thing is that this grey sludge is exactly what most people want. It’s the same for any form of entertainment. Pandering to the lowest common denominator is what’s most profitable.
Ubisoft is the CBS of the game industry.
Yeah, the problem is that game publishers are trying to reach the broadest audience possible, which means niche games with unique features and gameplay are dying out. Why bother spending millions of dollars on developing a unique game which might not sell well, when you can churn out another open world lite-RPG with grassy stealth spots and counter/parry based combat which you know will sell well.
Wish someone cracked the game with modded p2p online servers.
That does happen sometimes, but doesn’t fix the underlying problem.
Okay.
(Work in progress)
https://discord.com/invite/gUczTkphGEWow this is great! There is similar online server emulator for this old amazing game, Blur.
2010 blur? You can play it using pseudo lan network softwares. Me and my mates still play it.
Yeah I used to play via RadminVPN.
Which lan software do you use though?
Also, check out online emulator for Blur here: https://amax-emu.com/
Oh shit, I gotta find a copy of BLUR. That game was my.jam on 360.
Blur had got discontinued, so you can get it from these discord servers.
Blur discord: https://discord.gg/blur-community-537045170743541781
Blur Amax Emulator discord: https://discord.gg/pbt6DzQPGY
Or from this archive link: https://archive.org/details/blur-2010-video-game
This is probably a big reason I don’t buy/play newer multiplayer games, especially ones that are mp only, and a big reason why I buy everything on steam and avoid other platforms.
I’ve heard of games being dropped by steam, but those that already own it, still own it and can access it on steam as normal. In the situations I’m aware of, those games eventually returned to steam later, but still.
I prefer games that are either peer to peer mp, or you can self host a server for mp. I’m not saying that I’ll always self host, but if the option is there, then I’ll never lose the ability to play the game with friends, since I only need to set up a server to play on. Since I have a homelab, setting something like that up is trivial for me, and I can shut down and delete the server afterwards when it’s no longer wanted or needed.
Everyone going crazy for the latest version of whatever battle Royale type game, laying down premium money to play on day one, and spending a lot to get buffs and cosmetics… It just seems stupid to me. No thanks.
Free to play multiplayer with the option to buy cosmetics is less bad, but still not great. You can play, enjoy some time with friends while playing the game and if it goes offline tomorrow, who cares? You didn’t pay anything for it and I’m certain there’s other options in the same vein. As long as you’re having fun, enjoy.
If I’m paying for a game, it’s probably because of the single player experience. Anything multiplayer is icing on the cake, but not motivation to buy it.
Would you play mp-focused opensource game?
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Very yes. Thanks.
And lots of gamers praise Microsoft for GamePass, because it’s cheap. When Microsoft’s goal with GamePass is the same as Ubisoft’s. Ms would love that you rent your games from them indefinitely. Wouldn’t surprise me that in 10-15 years you can’t buy the games made by Microsoft anymore only rent through GamePass and the subscription fee would be five times higher than now
The single most problematic thing where you should start to notice how bad gamepass can be is when you unsubscribe and decide to buy one of the games you’ve played only to have your savegames in gamepass gulag.
Is that true? PC, Xbox, or both?
It was on Xbox. See my other reply for the specifics. Very shitty experience and the dealbreaker around game pass since I’ve managed not finish multiple games before they dropped out of the service.
You are really making a mountain of a mole hill, to get my save from Outer Worlds gamepass to use on steam’s version was as easy as just copy pasting the files in another folder
They absolutely are not and you are lucky you were able to get your save game out. The majority of games have their config and save files encrypted and are completely unusable as far as any other platform goes.
There are some exceptions, mainly games that have official mod support tend to have areas you can access but the majority of others won’t.
I really don’t know what to say, I did this both with Outer Worlds and Code Vein. Just went to PCgamingwiki’s entries of the 2 games, saw where the save folders are, and dropped each from the microsoft one to the steam one.
Ah, PC Gaming Wiki, what a fantastic resource. Made realize how many games in my libraries are actually DRM-free
Well it might depend on specific games, but for like a dragon it did not work out in the end.
You can’t move the files?
I tried to get the save game for yakuza like a dragon and first I had to hack myself into getting permission to access the specific folders ON MY PC. When I managed that I saw that the are in some weird format that supposedly doesn’t transfer to steam for example.
I’m confused. You tell me you had to “hack into your own PC” for the files (which makes absolute no sense at all), while telling someone else this was all on Xbox. Lol which is it?
Sorry it got mixed up, it was in PC. It’s the xboxapps folder or something like that, which windows locks down as a system folder.
I really hope you’re being sarcastic.
If you’re not, and you seriously are this unable to (checking notes) move files from one folder to another… You should probably stay on that Xbox you’re now saying you don’t have.
Make it 5 years.
I mean depending on your gaming style it might be cheaper.
If you play a game for a few hours and then buy the next new shiny 3A game then the game pass is cheaper.
If you buy one game and then send thousands of hours into it then obviously it is not cheap
I hear about people getting Minecraft on game pass. Those people don’t play Minecraft like I play Minecraft
It’s already becoming low quality crap. The GamePass model doesn’t work well with expensive games since they are going for quantity. Hi Fi Rush’s devs have been taken down along with a couple more studios. I wonder if that will make a difference, though. Gamers want it cheap, companies want max profit. I’m imagining shovelware in 5 years and many games taken off of it.
I don’t mind paying full price for a game, as long as I own it in the end and that the game is not ridiculously short.
Paying 70 euros for a game with less than 7hrs of playtime to get to the end, and artificially padded with collectibles around a open world is a ripoff especially when the game requires licensing servers to be online to play, even for single-player.
Fully agree with it, but they’re still extremely popular, and people will gladly keep handing over their money.
For me, I say “Ok” to them wanting us to get used to not owning our content - followed with “Then I’ll pay rental prices. Which means I’m not buying at $60+ dollars, if all I get to do is rent it then I’ll pay <$15 going forward.”
Alternatively: 🏴☠️
Do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate! ☠
