On 4/16/2026 at 9:05 PM, Bartimaeus said:

the funny man i watched play half-life 15 years ago is speaking to EU parliament

good on you, ross

Will be interesting to see what specifics come out. I still maintain games deserve to die though.

What I've purchased is mine to keep.

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The Black Geyser developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign for another RTwP RPG in the setting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grapeocean/avaria-iron-rule

The game is not related to Avaria: Chains of Lust.

6 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

The Black Geyser developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign for another RTwP RPG in the setting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grapeocean/avaria-iron-rule

Just backed it.

On 4/18/2026 at 7:32 PM, Malcador said:

Will be interesting to see what specifics come out. I still maintain games deserve to die though.

They will, in good time - when the required hardware and software stop being easily usable and there's no-one left (publishers/developers with intent to continue to sell OR independent third parties willing to put their free time into fixing things) to support those games for anything newer, same as it has always been. Everything will die or disappear that way eventually, and some that nobody much cares about already has. But letting a publisher arbitrarily decide the when and where because of the way they've deliberately engineered their games to fail and be unusable? Well, it'd be in line with nobody owning their music, movies, or television anymore and how some things released only on streaming services can permanently disappear from them just for tax write-off or royalty avoidance purposes, I suppose...except for all the dread pirates ripping and distributing them as local files that anyone can own and do what they want with, of course.

Edited April 22Apr 22 by Bartimaeus

If there is still anyone, who missed this news, Sony added new DRM to PS4 and PS5 to newly purchased digital games. Seems like “license” for new digital games is valid only for 30 days. And I have already seen someone claiming with screenshot included, that the issue is also affecting new PS3 digital purchases. If this is the case, I would not be surprised, if this would also affect Vita as well.

Isn't Steam doing the same thing, though? At some point your token runs out and you will have to reconnect to the internet?

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

Isn't Steam doing the same thing, though? At some point your token runs out and you will have to reconnect to the internet?

Really no clue. I have three games on steam. On GOG, I do not have that kind of issue 🤷‍♂️

Freakout Over PlayStation DRM Was a Big Nothingburger

^ Who could've thought

Let's be real, who of us is not online at least once in 30+ days.

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

Let's be real, who of us is not online at least once in 30+ days.

Challenge accepted

On 4/30/2026 at 11:27 PM, Lexx said:

Let's be real, who of us is not online at least once in 30+ days.

My consoles were not connected online for last three months 🤷‍♂️ And my PC for month and half 🤷‍♂️

The issue is, that in the last 15 years, I was more often online than Playstation services 😄

Ok, but you could go online if you wanted to. People who complain about the thing, though, make it seem as if it's impossible for them to be online at least once in 30 days. Who's doing that? Even soldiers on a military base manage to get it done.

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

Ok, but you could go online if you wanted to. People who complain about the thing, though, make it seem as if it's impossible for them to be online at least once in 30 days. Who's doing that? Even soldiers on a military base manage to get it done.

Yes I could, that is correct, but to me it is kind of hassle to do it. And it will become more of a hassle, as the time goes on, as I still prefer playing on my PS4 and PS3 consoles. And I am still buying once in a while new games for them. But yes, that is an issue which I could solve if I had mood and time for that.

But, as we all have experienced last few years, it looks like that the world is slowly burning down, and being dependent on outside source to be able to access what I have purchased during another man made crisis, is IMHO not the smartest thing to do. For now it is still OK, but imagine, if people beyond the big pond will elect another MAGA muppet into the office in 2028, and the relationship between the USA and EU deteriorate even more. In worst case economic scenario, this could mean, that for US companies it would be extremely problematic to provide their services in EU. And all of the biggest players in providing these services, are based in USA, including SONY. In such a scenario it would be much more problematic to adhere to 30 day activation period.

That being said, the chance of all of that gloom and doom happening is pretty slim (at least for now), but this risk is currently much higher than 15-20 years ago, when Valve, Sony and MS went full steam ahead on transition to "fully digital future."

I find it deeply ironic to complain about the Obsidian distribution decisions on their official forums. Nonetheless, removing the better-optimised version is remarkably customer-unfriendly, even if I own it on GOG (and EGS) and there is nothing Obsidian/MS can do to mess it up. I remember thinking that it was great that Obsidian did not shove the "upgrade" bloat onto the original game's owners and I am sorry to see that it has changed now.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1920490/view/694259874864824927?l=english

Today we have news to share about an update coming to The Outer Worlds as well as changes being made to the store pages. Starting today we will be pushing a couple of updates to The Outer Worlds through the Spacer’s Choice Edition. Today’s update is to test our release pipeline and fix a few issues that are in the game. The second patch will be larger bringing performance fixes, lighting changes, a host of other quest and gameplay fixes, and bringing in a brand-new feature to the original game: grenades!

Along with the second patch, we have big store changes planned. Starting May 27th, the base game edition of The Outer Worlds will be delisted and the Spacer’s Choice Edition will be the single version of the game going forward. For those who already have the original version of the game in your libraries, it won’t be going anywhere. After May 27th, however, the only version of The Outer Worlds that will be available on most store pages will be the Spacer’s Choice Edition. The only platforms not affected by this are Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

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On a similar note, the Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) union calls to boycott the publisher whose actions led to the closer of one of its developers.

https://www.stjv.fr/en/2026/04/spiders-liquidation-a-tale-of-social-destruction/

Since being bought in 2019, the studio was the victim of financial arrangements in which Nacon was, at the same time, Spiders’ owner, president and single client. The studio wasn’t getting any royalties on the games it made after GreedFall, and all its income and liquid assets were de facto seized by the group. In fact, Spiders was an empty shell, its role reduced to being a department inside Nacon, but organised in such a way that it could be taken out at the whim of Nacon’s executives.

This is exactly what is happening today. Last year, when Nacon abruptly canceled production on project Dark, unilaterally and without concrete explanations, it started a countdown for the studio, which did not have any contract ensuring its survival after the release of GreedFall 2.

[...]

We refuse to see the group responsible for Spiders’ abrupt end pillaging the still-warm body of our jobs. Although we hope that our games will still be enjoyed, we would like players to avoid giving their money to Nacon, as it would reward the group for its actions.

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Regarding DRM, if the access to the software I have purchased can be cut off on some exec's whim, then my inclination to pay rapidly decreases.