Random video game news... Games are the most elevated form of investigation

[Wormerine]

5 hours ago, MrBrown said:

Maybe next year, they seem to be saying.

Well, games they said they won't add to gamepass (so CoD, Diablo4). I am pretty sure it's open season for all the other stuff. I absolutely expect that bunch of the stuff will get dropped, like it did with Bethesda.

[Mamoulian War]

On 10/13/2023 at 4:56 PM, uuuhhii said:

https://steamdb.info/app/1937780/charts/

 

total war pharaoh seem to have extremely low sale

 

On 10/13/2023 at 9:41 PM, Lexx said:

Steamdb sales statistics are highly unreliable. They depend on a formula based on how many reviews a game has. In my experience, sales can be more than 3 times as much than their estimate.

 

Everyone is talking about how bad this one is, so maybe this time it might not be much off.

[melkathi]

I don't know. Reviews can't be trusted, as too many groups of disgruntled gamers use them to "fight the man".

Pharaoh would get bad reviews just because people took offense the company may stop making Warhammer dlc if they see people aren't buying Warhammer dlc.

[Hawke64]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-gun-giant-remington-used-call-of-duty-to-promote-weapons-to-younger-players

Quote

Newly released documents have given us a rare inside look at how gun manufacturers have tried to use videogames to promote their wares to younger people - specifically, players of Activision's original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, released in 2009. The memos and emails in question are from now-defunct US gun company Remington Arms, which was once part of the conglomerate Freedom Group. They've been disclosed by a lawyer as part of legal proceedings launched by the parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people using a Remington-made AR15 rifle.

...

The US guns industry has often sought to scapegoat videogames as the cause of real-world gun violence, seeking to deflect calls for firearm regulation in the wake of the country's routine mass shootings. Back in 2012, the National Rifle Association's CEO Wayne LaPierre described the games business as a "corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its people".

[Mamoulian War]

7 hours ago, melkathi said:

I don't know. Reviews can't be trusted, as too many groups of disgruntled gamers use them to "fight the man".

Pharaoh would get bad reviews just because people took offense the company may stop making Warhammer dlc if they see people aren't buying Warhammer dlc.

well, they are saying exact the same since they got the WH licence, and they are still making these DLCs. And I can understand, that all of the people get sooner or later highly annoyed by this tactics, as DLCs for this game is dirt cheap to produce, and guaranteed sale

And I did not read Steam reviews. I have read some articles, and watched a guy, which I know, that he loves them despite these shenanigans, and I trust his reviews of TB content. But yeah, this does not mean, you or other people might not like it.

[Lexx]

I mean, "dirt cheap" is still quite expensive for DLCs. Depending on how many people are working on those and for how long.

[melkathi]

I just think gamers forget that from a financial standpoint, companies don't care that you play a game for years, unless they can sell you DLC. On the contrary, playing the same game for years means you the gamer may be out of the customer pool, not caring to spend money on new games.

[Keyrock]

5 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-gun-giant-remington-used-call-of-duty-to-promote-weapons-to-younger-players

Joke's on them. I own guns and I don't even play Call of Doody. Neither one is a Remington, though. I suppose had I played CoD I may have purchased a Remington instead... Probably not.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Keyrock

[Lexx]

Considering how lame shotguns are in CoD, I'm surprised if it doesn't reflect negatively on shotgun sales!

 

7 hours ago, melkathi said:

I just think gamers forget that from a financial standpoint, companies don't care that you play a game for years, unless they can sell you DLC. On the contrary, playing the same game for years means you the gamer may be out of the customer pool, not caring to spend money on new games.

Well yes, pretty much this. Also, keep in mind that you will never sell as much DLC as you made in game sales. Can't remember the stats right now, but I think if 30% of your players who bought the game are also buying your DLC, then that's a good number already. It gets worse the longer a games playtime is. Probably one of the reasons why CDPR rather works on a new Cyberpunk game than another DLC for CP2077 -- a new game release will bring them a crapton of more sales than another DLC.

[uuuhhii]

On 10/13/2023 at 6:23 PM, MrBrown said:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23796552/microsoft-activision-blizzard-cma-approval-uk

remember someone said

biggest game developing studio have grown so big and so overvalued the only way to make easy money is to sell studio to eachother

[Keyrock]

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is out in early access today.

[Mamoulian War]

21 hours ago, melkathi said:

I just think gamers forget that from a financial standpoint, companies don't care that you play a game for years, unless they can sell you DLC. On the contrary, playing the same game for years means you the gamer may be out of the customer pool, not caring to spend money on new games.

 

13 hours ago, Lexx said:

Well yes, pretty much this. Also, keep in mind that you will never sell as much DLC as you made in game sales. Can't remember the stats right now, but I think if 30% of your players who bought the game are also buying your DLC, then that's a good number already. It gets worse the longer a games playtime is. Probably one of the reasons why CDPR rather works on a new Cyberpunk game than another DLC for CP2077 -- a new game release will bring them a crapton of more sales than another DLC.

Nah, I know very well how that works, I am even willing to doubledip on some games. I get the game on release and GOTY after some time, if they offer a physical edition, and the game is exceptionally good. It's my personal way, how to reward the developers for their effort. I just loathe the Paradox way of DLC production, which Relic is a big fan of Myself I do not play their games, but I like to watch the let's plays. They do not sell it on GOG, so no sell for me.

The issue is that most of the games are designed solely from the financial aspect, and they are missing soul. That's why I lately rather play indie games, even if they are flawed, because you can feel the very souls of the team put into some of them. Unlike the Triple A's

[Lexx]

That makes you a very rare exception. Majority of players does not buy a game twice. Unless it's Skyrim, I guess. : >

[Hawke64]

59 minutes ago, Lexx said:

That makes you a very rare exception. Majority of players does not buy a game twice. Unless it's Skyrim, I guess. : >

I guess, if a game is really good and is available on GOG after Steam/EGS, I am likely to repurchase it*. So, I assume that some players might buy the same game for different platforms (such as consoles or mobile devices) and different editions (GOTY, etc.) as well.

*Also that one time when Obsidian messed up the critical path in PoEII (which is an important reminder about the control over the digital products/artworks we own and the lack of QoL features on Steam), so I repurchased it on GOG to have the access to the better version (which was the opposite of rewarding the good effort). Should've activated on GOG in the first place, though.

[Humanoid]

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

Majority of players does not buy a game twice. Unless it's Skyrim, I guess. : >

I'm stubbornly refusing to re-buy Skyrim and it's really awkward because I lack the Dawnguard DLC which is in itself uninteresting but is required for some key mods. Can't buy it anymore but I also can't justify buying the Anniversary/Special/whatever edition they have now.

4 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

I just loathe the Paradox way of DLC production

Speaking of which, Paradox and Harebrained Schemes have just divorced. Probably for the best, but boy Paradox doesn't seem to be in good shape lately.

[Lexx]

Funny, I'm currently playing some Skyrim again... with literally 2000+ mods. -> https://www.nolvus.net/

Crazy how different this game can look. Sadly it still won't fix the terrible quests and writing, and in part even makes it worse. I had to disable some mods in that package, because I just couldn't bear it. Sometimes less is more for sure, especially when it comes to... uh.. adult content.

I just started the Dawnguard dlc storyline. Can't remember much about it from back in the days, but I think it wasn't so bad. Also that Dragonborn DLC set in Morrowind was great. Probably the best writing and most interesting quests in the game.

/Edit: Honestly, I'm quite impressed with how you can visually change the game. It still looks janky, but Dark Souls-quality is almost possible. Here's my Lady Maria inspired character. Dynamically animated cloak + hair. Lots of clipping, naturally, but still looks so much better than vanilla.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Lexx

[Humanoid]

The ridiculous thing was that back in 2015, Amazon had Dawnguard and Dragonborn for $2.50 each, and Hearthfire for $1.25. So I bought Dragonborn and Hearthfire, but I decided to skip Dawnguard because I wasn't interested in vampires and besides, it received very lukewarm reviews.

Yeah that was a poor decision. But I still refuse to pay more than that for it today. Consequently I still haven't played any Skyrim for almost a decade now. Oh well.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Humanoid

[Lexx]

Well, today you should buy the Legendary Edition anyways. It has pretty much everything included, even the bazillion of creator club addons. I bought the update on steam for 10 bucks 2 days ago. Felt worth the risk, just because I wanted to check out some mods. (See, moddability is an important feature that makes people buy your stuff. IMO one of the main reasons why Skyrim and FNV still sell today, but The Outer World doesn't..)

Edited October 18, 2023 by Lexx

[Humanoid]

Yeah, if I ever get a real itch to play it, I'll buy it on GOG. Fortunately unlike the MS Store / Game Pass version, the GOG one is supported by SKSE.

[Zoraptor]

44 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Speaking of which, Paradox and Harebrained Schemes have just divorced. Probably for the best, but boy Paradox doesn't seem to be in good shape lately.

It's pretty much par for the course for Paradox. Their main studios tend to do well when they stay in their lane making the same strategy games over and over and their forays outside that are at best variable, results wise.

How many major hits have there been from non PDS studios either under Paradox directly or with them publishing (not just distributing, so no PoE or Mount and Blade)? Cities: Skylines and... that's it. Maybe Age of Wonders, if you stretch the definition a bit? Magicka maybe, a decade ago? Not many, in any case. They just don't seem to be very good at managing external projects.

[ShadySands]

59 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Speaking of which, Paradox and Harebrained Schemes have just divorced. Probably for the best, but boy Paradox doesn't seem to be in good shape lately.

Maybe they can get MS to hook them back up with Shadowrun. My dream is a Shadowrun game by Obs but that's never going to happen so gimme more Shadowrun Returns goodness.

[melkathi]

Not a shadowrun kart racing game with microtransactions and gatcha unlocked street samurai?

[uuuhhii]

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/55248/wotc-ending-prh-distribution-dungeons-dragons

 

wotc will try to do distribution themself

not sure how this will turn out after so many bad news since start of the year

[kanisatha]

17 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

 

Nah, I know very well how that works, I am even willing to doubledip on some games. I get the game on release and GOTY after some time, if they offer a physical edition, and the game is exceptionally good. It's my personal way, how to reward the developers for their effort. I just loathe the Paradox way of DLC production, which Relic is a big fan of Myself I do not play their games, but I like to watch the let's plays. They do not sell it on GOG, so no sell for me.

The issue is that most of the games are designed solely from the financial aspect, and they are missing soul. That's why I lately rather play indie games, even if they are flawed, because you can feel the very souls of the team put into some of them. Unlike the Triple A's

I'm pretty much the same, but would also add that I am also happy to pay full price for the games I like and don't wait on a sale to buy them.

And to add to previous discussion, I also never ever pay any attention to Steam's collective ratings of reviews (i.e. very positive, mostly positive, mixed, etc.).

[Gorth]

9 hours ago, kanisatha said:

I'm pretty much the same, but would also add that I am also happy to pay full price for the games I like and don't wait on a sale to buy them.

And to add to previous discussion, I also never ever pay any attention to Steam's collective ratings of reviews (i.e. very positive, mostly positive, mixed, etc.).

I've bought a few games twice... mostly when they were first on Steam and later became available on GOG. One thing I learned about Steam reviews is to actually *read* the negative reviews. If there is a pattern to the complaints, i.e. not just the usual this dev sucks and is greedy or overpriced stuff, but this game constantly crashes in max resolution, sound stutters constantly or this game has buggy save game feature etc. then I take that into account when I look at the price asked vs. whatever fun I expect(ed) to get out of it.

 

Edit: ...and I stay clear of "early access" games in general (no absolutes), as my life is too short to be a paying beta tester. I'm happy to pay more for the final product instead.