Valve are the only ones confident enough in their systems to do that. Valve’s mindset seems to be that trying to lock people in is a losing strategy, long term. Instead they are just making sure that their offerings are better than anything else available. If done right, it has all the advantages of locking people in, with none of the downsides. It also combines with the perceived openness, which gains you a lot of credit with the geek community.
Microsoft are too reliant on lock-in to risk opening it up.
People pretty often completely understate the Vita’s popularity/lifespan. Less than the 3DS for sure, but early metrics were stupidly counting hardware sales when it was moving early to digital.
In Japan it stayed popular long after the USA stopped talking about it.
This is cool but I miss being able to grind for skins. Playing events and earning a bunch of loot boxes just for playing was great. I’m not giving them any money.
Instead of having to pay for the game’s premium battle pass or unlock that new hero through dozens of hours of gameplay, Blizzard will make Venture and all future heroes available to free for all players when they launch.
Wow, Blizzard actually taking a factually negative change back. No further modifications, no further rework, just a straight rollback of something that was a bad idea to begin with. That’s really a sign of the times changing, that always felt like something that is strictly forbidden at Blizzard! 😮
The new hero Venture is so/so though, IMO. Yeah their movement ability is awesome, but that weapon is so boring. And they hype it up so much, but it is just Sigma’s primary fire, including the ability to fire around corners and all. Unavoidable with so many heroes and not nearly enough niches for all of them that things will get doubled and tripled up, but it’s still disappointing to see something copied&pasted so directly.
I played the hell out of OW1. They turned off OW1 servers and required my actual real phone number to continue to play on OW2. Wouldn’t even let me use a VIP number. There is no time in this universe where I will want Blizzard/Activision or its advertising partners to have my real phone number. No interest in OW2.
It's a good change for sure, but the cynic in me can't help but think they're doing this solely because they believe it'll make them more money this way.
The actual reason is to hide the fact they’re probably not gonna have much if any pve content soonish. That’s the whole ‘reason’ behind ow2. They just layed off a bunch of staff too.
I don't see the correlation between those and making new heroes free. Maybe as a way to douse the community flames.
I think it's simply because people want to play the new content. While some cave and buy the battlepass, it doesn't offset the losses of the grind and paywall that stops people from coming back and investing to begin with.
The actual reason is to hide the fact they’re probably not gonna have much if any pve content soonish
They literally out right said multiple times that PvE content is mostly shelved and to not expect anything. This isn’t some sort of secret they are keeping
I barely touch my PC these days. Steam deck everywhere. Playing all the games I bought but never got around to. Crysis 2, mass effect, LA noire. Amazing piece of kit,
I miss my Deck so much, it’s the pinnacle of gaming technology. It went missing about a month ago, as if it disappeared off the face of the Earth. Turned my house upside-down methodically looking through every room and nothing. Never would’ve taken it out of the house without the case, it’s just gone, vanished. Waiting to see what happens with taxes before deciding if I want to buy a new one, assuming I get a refund.
I de-cased a samsung smart tag (basically an airtag) and stuck it in my deck so now I can ping it or track it if I ever lose it. Maybe consider something similar if you buy a new deck.
Already did, got an Airtag and have a stickie case for it I’ll be putting on to it should I ever find it again or get a new one. It never came up before because the Deck was only ever in two or three locations and I live with wife & kids, so it wasn’t a roommate who took it (unless somebody broke in without a trace and only stole that one thing). Kids would’ve left it somewhere in plain sight on the floor or somewhere stupid. Smaller things they can lose, but something that big is hard to lose.
Baldur’s Gate 3 - Better played on my 65" television through the PS5.
Vampire Survivors - I played the hell out of this… when it was called “Robotron 2084” in 1982, with better graphics. Alternately when it was a free, hidden game called Geometry Wars packed in with Project Gotham Racing 2 in 2003, also with better graphics.
I guess my major complaint is the graphics. I don’t suppose it can be re-skinned or anything?
Dave the Diver - Not really interested in indie games or sim games.
Hogwarts Legacy - Platinumed on PS5, GREAT game.
Elden Ring - Not masochistic enough for Souls games.
Palworld - Would literally rather open my wrists.
Cyberpunk 2077 - Again, 65" television, this one through the Xbox Series X.
Grand Theft Auto 5 - Never really been interested in the GTA games. 4 was OK, I guess.
Stardew Valley - Sim game. Meh.
Red Dead Redemption - Loved this game… in 2010… 2 never clicked for me. It was slow and the controls were super janky.
The steam deck isn’t really meant to replace your home consoles. I personally use mine when I travel or know it’ll be slow at work, or when I just can’t be assed to get out of bed.
Sounds like you already own all the consoles that a steam deck can emulate/replace. I’m on the other side of the spectrum where the deck allows me to experience a console life, with my pc library. Never owned a ps5, or Xbox or any of that, so a Steam deck offers me the experience of couch gaming, TV gaming, or mt favorite, sit in bed all day an watch TV on my deck!
I’m seeing many bugs on the steamdeck with bg3. It’s perfectly fine working, it’s mostly software bugs. Some were funny ( teleporting chars) but the latest one stopped my progression. Share trials, one of the orbs to continue…just doesn’t appear. I’ll have to get the game working on another machine in order to fix, but it sucks. I have over 60 hours in the game.
Nintendo: “Let’s force retro gamers to buy the Switch if they want to play our titles, by pressuring Steam to remove all Nintendo emulators, and by suing Switch emulators into oblivion.”
Also Nintendo: “Why don’t retro gamers want to buy our products anymore?”
You will just purchase rent your old Switch games on the New Switch 2 Eshop2. Then you can play up to 30 days so long as it is on your Home Wifi, and you do not have guests over.
If the Switch 2: Electric Boogaloo detects an emulator running on any device on the same network the Nintendo Security Devision will dispatch a crack team of lawyers to dispense justice immediately. This team is called … the N-Team!!
polygon.com
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