Let’s be real though, they are only so expensive to produce because they have the notion that bigger and more expensive means better. Just look at what happened with Starfield. You can’t tell me that game wouldn’t be immensely better if there were just like 8 or even less planets. You don’t need to make things as massive and expensive as possible to make a successful game. You just need to have a good idea with a good execution. I’ll play a game like Deep Rock Galactic or RimWorld over and over again, but I got bored of Destiny within a year or so. Heck, I’ve probably put more hours into the Halo games over my life than I ever will in Destiny.

To be fair I don’t think I’ve seen good things about Micro$oft in years. I’m honestly not surprised.

Is Newegg shit now? It’s been a long time since I’ve used them. Probably the last time I built a new PC back in like 2018. Is this a situation like seeing an old friend from highschool only to find out they are a raging alcoholic? I’m just out of the loop and that seems stupidly low.

But everyone that’s an artist wants to make money from it. And contract work back then is more akin to an artist nowadays doing commissions. The problem with pleasing shareholders is that, in all honesty, they don’t give a shit about the art. All they care about is profit. If money was the only goal of the clients, then Michelangelo (or whomever he worked for) would have never been commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel. They would have just paid some schmuck to paint it grey or something to save on money.

Not trying to be confrontational, just trying to make my point more clear.

Laying off 17% of your staff right before a big DLC is released? I don’t need to tell you that it won’t be the employees getting a raise or bonus. That would be silly to pay the people that actually make the game more money.

Video games have, and always will be, a form of art. Even if you take an awful game made by a big company and pick it apart, you can find people passionate about what they do. People that want to share their ideas and expressions with the world. People that love working on games. People that are talented… People that give a shit.

If Leonardo da Vinci had to please stockholders instead of expressing himself, we’d have a thousand versions of the same painting instead of a collection of unique and individual paintings.

My general rule of thumb when it comes to this is that if they say “due to rising costs” within the first few sentences it usually means “not enough money for the important people.”

I’ve seen indie devs make more functional and graphically intensive games on a shoe string budget. And then go around and sell it for less than $60.

The fact that this is the first thing I have even heard of this movie and it’s bad news does not bode well. I’ll keep my expectations low, but I do hope they succeed in making a good movie.

I don’t mind it if the game was always free to play. They gotta make their money somehow if that’s the case. The problem I have with Overwatch and the microtransactions is that they went free to play after they already made a fuck ton of money off of loot boxes and the fact that you used to actually have to buy the game. It’s just a cash cow and gameplay (including matchmaking, like you said) has suffered considerably. Not only that but they charge as much money as entire games for skins. Games like Overwatch when it first came out.

I don’t mind microtransactions in free to play games, I really don’t. It’s just the method they are using is just blatantly greedy and targeted for whales that will pay anything for fear of missing out.

Well, they also sell weapon skins that cost as much as the entire game used to cost. So I’m sure they are just trying to do damage control while also not changing their monetization.

Can’t call it a crowded market when the vast majority of games under the “hero shooter” category are cheap at best and excessively greedy at worst. As a long time Overwatch and Apex Legends player I’ve been waiting years for a good replacement. I’m not saying Concord is that game to replace said hero shooters (And games like Valorant are in a category of their own.) I’m just saying that if there was an actual competitor to a fast paced game like Overwatch that isn’t as blatantly greedy, I would 100% play it.

The community is thirsty for a fresh take on the hero shooter and everyone I know that plays Overwatch and Apex Legends are in the same boat. It’s why games like Team Fortress 2 are having a resurgence. The only reason we play these games is because they are the best gameplay wise. At the same time, the bar is so low we’ll give any game that wants to put in the effort a try. I played the beta of Concord and enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s rough around the edges, don’t get me wrong. But that’s what betas are for. I paid $40 for Overwatch before it went free to play and they locked all cosmetics, old and new, behind a paywall. So if it’s decent I’ll pay $40 for Concord.

Honestly I haven’t heard any good news about Microsoft in like 10 years. They just keep making awful decisions.

It’s not review bombing. Review bombing would be if they were spamming negative reviews on Titanfall 2 because of what they did to Apex. This is just making a negative review because it’s justified.

If only it were that easy I totally would. Trust me I’ve tried looking into it before.

Where’s Jolly Roger? He’s the most famous of all of them!

Cool, my rent is still 70% of what I make in a month. It’s almost like it’s already too late, but I’m too poor and uneducated to be an expert. Got any other ideas?

Because I’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck. Even my parents did when I was a kid. My rent is 70% of my paycheck. What else ya want me to fucking do?

As someone that has played a fuck ton of Star Citizen and bought a few ships… Don’t. It used to be a game. Now it’s a marketplace without the game. Every time they update it they make things worse and break everything else. Nowadays I can’t even get into it for more than an hour before I realize it’s the same game as it’s ever been or worse. I’d rather just go play something else. But don’t worry, they’re more than happy to sell you a ship for $2,000 that’s been “in development” since you were in highschool.

I get your point. But at the same time the first step to convincing someone of your own opinions isn’t to be an asshole. I’ve known these people since long before Trump was even campaigning for the first time. Is he wrong and kind of an asshole? Yes he is. He used to make fun of me for wearing masks during the pandemic. But at the end of the day we still bullshit and play online video games together all the time and go camping every year.

I’m not going to be able to change anybody’s opinion by insulting them and making them feel stupid. I’m going to treat them like people. Misguided people, but still people.

My friends that are republican. They even voted for Trump. We just don’t talk about politics too much these days. At least until recently with this whole “Project 2025” because we both agree it’s fucking ridiculous.