I’ve been thinking about how Sony, and others, are no longer planning to sell physical games, but fuck! What’s next? Next thing you know, they’ll be charging a subscription fee for using the software. I hope they don’t hear me say that, lest I give them the idea. https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/
#gamedev #gameaudio #news #opinion
I don’t. If they do something stupid I don’t buy it.
I don’t recall the last AAA games I paid for I mostly stick to indie games now days.
That being said indie devs do make bad decisions too. A recent example is Transport Fever 3 where they partnered with Paradox, that took the game off my wishlist and onto my ignored list. Their post announcing it got zero thumbs up when every other post has over 3K.
I’ve been sticking with indie games for the past few years now. Definitely the better choice, though a handful can get too attached to the games they make.
This past week, one indie dev got super pissed at me when I made a Steam review calling her game bad and going in-depth on why it’s so bad. I’ve reviewed a few hundred games now, and this is the first time an indie dev got that mad over my Steam review.
There’s another dev I support who felt disappointed over a reviewer with a large following bad-mouthing his game. Some fans offered to help defend the dev’s honor by commenting in that Steam review, but the dev talked them down.
Can’t say I blame such devs, though - quality indie games take a long time to make after all. A stranger calling your game bad after all that effort certainly could make an indie dev see red.
I’m with you. I think this whole past year I’ve only played games included in Gamepass, and during that period where they jacked up the price, I was on the cheap tier.
Yes, because still giving them money is what will fix things 🙄
It did. They raised the price and I immediately dropped to a plan that was cheaper than the one I had before. They lost money on me and I assume others, because they dialed back on the price change and brought it back into a reasonable range.
Sure, cancelling completely would have hurt them by an extra $10/mo, but then I’m stuck with a device that I can’t use at all, or I’m spending 50-100 times as much money to buy the same bullshit from someone else.
You’re acting like it’s the only option, but it’s not. You don’t need to lock yourself into a walled garden. You don’t need to buy into a sunk cost fallacy. Even participating a little perpetuates and reinforces the bullshit you’re complaining about, and they’re never gong to suddenly give in to the way things should be. Stop letting these companies hold what you want hostage, dictating how you view your options.
Do you use a smartphone?
You’re never going to change the world alone. There aren’t enough people with your attitude of “cut everything completely” to ever make a change. There has to be compromise somewhere, on both sides.
If someone bought a thing, they are entitled to use that thing. If the maker makes it unusable, then their options for use are limited. 99.9% of people aren’t going to learn how to reverse engineer a game console to figure out how to jailbreak it, and without AI assistance, that usually takes multiple years to figure out, which is usually promptly patched out in an automatic mandatory update. Most people aren’t going to even bother, so they will either pay more to keep the use, or throw it out. And for most people, they aren’t throwing it out.
Right, because the only alternative is reverse engineering professional hardware. /s That’s seriously what you think? No wonder you feel “compromise” is your best option. Good luck with that.
So, what would you propose instead?
I have a Series X that I bought when they first came out, 6 years ago. That’s it. No other consoles, no PC.
What’s your solution to “fight the man” that allows me to game on the weekends?
I’m still salty about Introversion selling Prison Architect to Paradox. It went from a stable, well-designed colony sim with everything included out-of-the-box to a buggy piece of crap with a dozen equally buggy DLC packs, half of which didn’t even fit the game’s theme.