Yes exactly. A large number of their older titles exist on other platforms like the Switch and of course, the PC, where gamepass lets people play those titles for a very affordable price.

All the more reason then to make games like Starfield and Halo infinite the absolute best games they could be

Halo Infinite - failed
Starfield - failed
Forza Motorsport - terrible launch
Redfall - failed

Out of curiosity, I googled exclusives for Xbox series exclusives. They’ve got things like Forza Horizon 5, sunset overdrive and Ori. Like, sure, but you can’t say proudly that your console is being held aloft by 4+ year old titles when the competition is releasing banger after banger!

They just missed the mark. You can spend billions on R&D and marketing for a new console, billions on buying up game studios to make new games, but if your games suck on launch, people won’t play on your console.

What XBox has done this generation is borderline suicide.

The right answer in this case

Can you imagine your own mind having unskippable ads?

Can you imagine buying products you don’t want because you’re suddenly compelled to do so and you have no idea why.

Neuralink is going to be hell, purely because the person in charge of it is Elon Musk.

From this link:

"I do not want the administrative workload that comes with donations. I do not want the project to become in need of funding in any way: no dedicated home page + no forum = no cost = no need for financial support. I want to be free to move on to something else if ever I get tired of working on these projects (no donations = no expectations).

Have a thought for the maintainers of the various lists. These lists are everything. I can not emphasize this enough."

While the developer doesn’t accept donations, they do encourage donating to the people maintaining the block lists. I’ve contributed in the past and would happily keep doing so.

It would be a shame if the devs maintaining the block lists stop doing what they’re doing because it’s not sustainable enough for them.

I’m holding out hope!

I’m going to disable all automatic updates in the event that it happens!

Unfortunately LGTV’s can’t be jailbroken unless you were lucky enough to jailbreak it back before they patched it.

I got mine last year and had no idea the security on it was so tight. I’m just hoping smarter minds than mine can figure out new exploits for the LGTV now that there’s demand with the ability to jailbreak PS4s

I tried to download a music video on limewire once. I was pretty computer illiterate back then and around 13 years old at the time when a friend at school showed me how to download things.

That music video turned out to be a woman being murdered at point blank range. It was ~5 seconds of my life but that video has never left my mind. It was far too early for video editing and far too ‘amateur’ to be a movie production. The way she begged for the guy to stop before he pulled the trigger, it was definitely real.

Humans have 10 thumbs though…

Apparently they review the second screen via the camera. Any attempts to hide/block/hack/break the second screen would result in a breach of contract, which results in a charge for the full price of the TV and extra on top for damages/breach of terms etc.

You’re made to sign a few documents before you receive your TV. I suspect they’ve covered all angles

There’s a company which will give you a >40in LCD smart TV to keep, for as long as you want it, with the catch that the second screen that comes with the TV (it’s a screen that is a couple of inches tall and spans the width of the device) is on at all times and only plays ads.

There’s also a camera that actively films you and records your audio, video. It’s also on all the time.

The company makes it clear that they’re giving you a free, very well specced TV with all the amenities, and in return they’ll collect your data. It’s surprising how many people (who otherwise can’t afford a TV) said yes.

Found it

A more sinister example was Repo Men. In that movie, the tech still worked, but people were no longer able to keep up with the extortionate payments that came with the implant.

He went up against tech industries by getting the right to repair into law.

Now that the train is fully in motion, he’s turned his attention to other shitty things that corporations are doing to inform, educate and sometimes fix.

It’s a public service and I’d rather have more of him then internet shills who sell their souls for more ad revenue (advocating for dodgy/bad products which in some cases are outright scams, inflating video lengths to 9 mins so they can get extra revenue etc).

Brujah sounds like Hulk Hogan with a speech impediment saying “brother”…

OMG.

The feeling when you’ve forgotten one of your favourites from when you were a kid and you read the name and think “that… feels familiar and exciting…” And then Google it to confirm it’s the very game you were hoping it to be!

Thanks! I’m getting it immediately!!

MAGMA

Yes yes we all know that big companies are going to do bad things, you aren’t revealing new information here.

You’re finding it extremely hard to understand the concepts of this conversation and still have the gall to be sarcastic and patronising. It’s surprising when you’re clearly misinformed.

We don’t really like this whole “big companies do bad things and we should expect that and not say anything about it” thing. should we just never talk about anything because big companies are big, so do what they want.

No one’s said you can’t talk about it? How are you so confused? I’ll break it down for you since you’re obviously struggling:

Companies sell products. Companies like Sony have a tighter control on their third party hardware. Companies like Microsoft are much more lenient, but it causes cheap knockoffs to flood the market and reduce their brand value and first-party profits. Microsoft will now implement a check to control third party hardware. People on Lemmy get upset. It’s hypocrisy.

You’re either upset with the whole system or none of it. Getting upset the moment Microsoft does it makes no sense. At no point is anyone saying that you can’t talk about it.

Dude, my personal stance is irrelevant here.

I’m not saying that that’s my stance. I’m saying Microsoft is one of the largest companies in the world. You’re not going to change their mind by saying “I don’t like it”.

All I’m saying is “this is how businesses work”. If we don’t like it, we need to protest, vote with our wallets.

If you must know, my personal stance is the same as everyone else’s: it sucks that they’re forcing us to pay for first party/verified third party hardware which usually comes with a price rise.

But I thought I’d inform people what Microsoft’s position is in all this. They’re not going to stop taking massive losses just because some people on Lemmy said “that’s not nice”. Reality is that every company wants to make a profit and retain a positive brand image, especially now that Microsoft spent 69 billion dollars on Activision -Blizzard.

Absolutely! Who wouldn’t want to look at it purely from a consumer’s point of view?

It’s easy to just look at it from the consumer’s POV but the best plan is to check Microsoft when it’s actually being scummy, and not when it’s trying to just keep in line with every other company.

Sony issued takedowns of companies trying to sell PS5 faceplates, because they wanted to sell theirs at a premium. Apple is insanely notorious for proprietary hardware, to the point where the latest iPhone 15 even has its back glass fitted with a ribbon wire, so your iPhone won’t even start unless you’re using an iPhone certified back glass and it’s fitted by an iPhone tech that can enable the flag that lets your back glass work.

In a world like that, it makes no sense for Microsoft to put up with cheap knockoffs of its products especially if those products suck and are ruining its brand image.

Capitalism sucks but it is what it is. What we should do as consumers is vote with our money and not buy any accessories like this until these companies allow more third party developers to sell their parts. It just doesn’t work that way though. People keep buying this stuff no matter how high the prices go