Gaming News

recyclops

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Compare that to We Happy Few, anounced in FEB 2015, and didn't launch until AUG 18, three and a half years later. By the time it launched it's genera was mostly winding down!

I loved the marketing for this looked right up my street, never played it as it became too much and by the time it released I was bored.

I've a feeling these new consoles will take a while to wow us, faster loading times/no loading times will just become the norm a month after having either of them and then it's all down to games.

Which neither have announce

ERG89

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Compare that to We Happy Few, anounced in FEB 2015, and didn't launch until AUG 18, three and a half years later. By the time it launched it's genera was mostly winding down!

I think at first some people expected that game to be something akin to a BioShock level of standard as when it was revealed it looked well polished but what was released looked like it was pushed out the door kicking and screaming.

pixelburp

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Compare that to We Happy Few, anounced in FEB 2015, and didn't launch until AUG 18, three and a half years later. By the time it launched it's genera was mostly winding down!

I dunno, that game basically completely switched track mid-development IIRC? Seem to recall it got turned into a half-assed survival game from the original "bioshock" esque linear experience of the original announcement. Certainly remember myself going from "hell yeah" to "uh, no thanks" once that genre gearchange happened...

Markitron

ERG89 wrote: »

I think at first some people expected that game to be something akin to a BioShock level of standard as when it was revealed it looked well polished but what was released looked like it was pushed out the door kicking and screaming.

Was that an early access or kickstarter game or something? I don't know much about it but I feel like it was around for ages.

Retr0gamer

'Rumours' of bloodborne coming to PC and PS5 are out. Rumours in inverted commas as it's from a youtuber with 800 subscribers that had a source tell him.

If it's true will be out by the end of the year and have a 60 FPS cap.

BloodBath

Probably been posted already but gonna stick it up for anyone who missed.

The new total war game, Troy Total War, is free today only on the epic games store.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/a-total-war-saga-troy/home?sessionInvalidated=true

johnny_ultimate

Epic has started a mini corporate war with Apple over App Store payments:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-08-13-fortnite-adds-cheaper-mobile-payment-option-to-circumvent-apple-google-fees

Nakedly cynical move as far as I’m concerned, and I’m saying that as someone who would love to see Apple move away from its walled garden approach. Epic clearly just wants to make even more of all the money, and this is very clearly all a carefully orchestrated stunt. Hugely manipulative to try to weaponise the Fortnite fan base against one wildly successful corporation in the name of more profit for another wildly successful corporation.

There’s a worthwhile discussion here about where who should take what cut of a sale on a platform (and I’ve been very vocal in support of Epic’s smaller share in favour of developers on their own store). But by god it’s a shame it’s happening in the context of this cynical game of hyper-corporate chicken.

ERG89

Are Apple only doing this because of Apple Arcade?

johnny_ultimate

ERG89 wrote: »

Are Apple only doing this because of Apple Arcade?

Nope! From what I understand any in-app purchases have to be done via Apple’s own systems, so they get a cut of the sale - similar to buying something on any gaming storefront. What Epic has done is tried to bypass that by adding their own dedicated payment option - basically daring Apple to ban them in the process.

I’d fully support a major overhaul of Apple’s rules when it comes to these things: see also the XCloud dispute recently, which is utterly preposterous on Apple’s side. But Epic certainly isn’t doing this out of the goodness of their heart or ‘for the consumer’... even if they want it to look that way,

Varik

Epic tried to convince google to give them a discount and google were happy enough to just not have fortnite on the store at the time so I'd say there will just be a repeat of that.

marcbrophy

Google have removed it from the Play Store now also

https://www.xda-developers.com/fortnite-circumvents-google-play-fees-direct-payment-option/

Varik

"In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices"
Sure they've gone out of their way to single out you, and it's not because you broke the contract you agreed to when having it on their store.

Personally fine with it, Google have their OS and their store but don't force anyone to use their store with Android for whatever device it finds it's way onto but Apple on the other hand own the whole lot from front to back and it sells as it's an apple product.

Epic proved when they released on Android first that it's not about free access or big bad google/Apple's, they want to be on those stores and just not pay or pay substantially less.

J. Marston

Off both app stores and there's a new colourful battle royal hotness in town with Fall Guys. Epic won't like that.

quokula

J. Marston wrote: »

Off both app stores and there's a new colourful battle royal hotness in town with Fall Guys. Epic won't like that.

Epic planned it. They knew there was no way the platform holders wouldn’t remove them for blatantly breaking the rules. They had a lawsuit ready to go the moment it happened. It must be the first lawsuit in history that even came with a launch trailer.

Fall Guys is a fun game but it’s made by a relatively small developer and it’s not likely going to be a juggernaut. If it was a threat to fortnite Epic could just buy it pretty easily.

Epic are trying to throw their weight around and take money out of platform holders pockets. Will be interesting to see if they go after Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo next as the exact same conditions apply on consoles.

Sonics2k

Epic have intentionally done this, they even prepared an ad taking a shot at Apple and getting the lawsuit ready in advance.

I'm not a fan of Apples system, but Epic are just intentionally taking the piss here.

quokula

Apple charge you 30% but for that you get them hosting all of your download data, you get a store listing, you're searchable in their rankings, they handle all the payment processing, currency conversion and the international taxation details for you, they review and do basic quality assurance on your app, and the tooling to build your app is of a very high standard and supplied for free (if you already own a mac)

Google charge the same and are mostly similar, though they don't have the same level of quality control and their tools are better at some things and worse at others. Steam, Sony, Xbox, Nintendo will all take similar cuts on their platforms, and have more barriers to entry.

Personally I don't find it unreasonable. It's never been cheaper or easier for developers to put games in front of an audience and the App Store and Google Play Store have helped that along. Their cut could be lower, but if it was then maybe they wouldn't be able to justify investing so much in the tools and services they provide.

Epic's actions have little to do with the cut taken from Fortnite, and are all about planting the seed for forcing the Epic Store onto mobile devices, so they get to take a cut of other developer's games instead of the platform holders.

Shiminay

quokula wrote: »

Apple charge you 30% but for that you get them hosting all of your download data, you get a store listing, you're searchable in their rankings, they handle all the payment processing, currency conversion and the international taxation details for you, they review and do basic quality assurance on your app, and the tooling to build your app is of a very high standard and supplied for free (if you already own a mac)

Google charge the same and are mostly similar, though they don't have the same level of quality control and their tools are better at some things and worse at others. Steam, Sony, Xbox, Nintendo will all take similar cuts on their platforms, and have more barriers to entry.

Personally I don't find it unreasonable. It's never been cheaper or easier for developers to put games in front of an audience and the App Store and Google Play Store have helped that along. Their cut could be lower, but if it was then maybe they wouldn't be able to justify investing so much in the tools and services they provide.

Epic's actions have little to do with the cut taken from Fortnite, and are all about planting the seed for forcing the Epic Store onto mobile devices, so they get to take a cut of other developer's games instead of the platform holders.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here friend. 30% is a lot, but there's a lot on offer for it. We've often heard for years that Valve takes 30% too, so it seems to be something of an industry standard. This does read very much like a push to move into more mobile devices. They'll then farm that dataset and grow from there

Cordell

I think both are greedy bstards.
Apple because charging 30% of the app price can be justified by providing the store, however, charging the same for in app purchases is a totally different thing, there is no reason to charge more than paypal. And Epic because they don't want to share the money they make by selling nothing at all, and by portraying themselves as the victims here.

Penn

https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-rockstar-lazlow-jones-dj-radio-writer-leaves-company?sf126797746=1

Lazlow has left Rockstar Games. Regardless of his work behind the scenes on the GTA games, not hearing him on a GTA6 radio station will be weird.

pixelburp

The Epic / Apple thing certainly feels like a good example of the tagline that whoever wins, we lose. Though presumably the pre-teen demographic hooked on Fortnite will take their side.

The Raging Bile Duct

Penn wrote: »

https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-rockstar-lazlow-jones-dj-radio-writer-leaves-company?sf126797746=1

Lazlow has left Rockstar Games. Regardless of his work behind the scenes on the GTA games, not hearing him on a GTA6 radio station will be weird.

If they're planning on bringing GTA5 to next gen consoles in the second half of 2021, it sounds like it's going to be a long time before you hear a GTA6 radio station.

quokula

pixelburp wrote: »

The Epic / Apple thing certainly feels like a good example of the tagline that whoever wins, we lose. Though presumably the pre-teen demographic hooked on Fortnite will take their side.

Whatever about the business practices, I find it very distasteful that Epic seem to be using their in game and social media channels to spread the message and get the backing of their mostly impressionable young player base in what is ultimately a financial dispute between huge corporations.

Although it was slightly amusing to read all the confused responses to their 1984 video on Twitter that went way over most of their fan's heads.

Cordell

pixelburp wrote: »

The Epic / Apple thing certainly feels like a good example of the tagline that whoever wins, we lose. Though presumably the pre-teen demographic hooked on Fortnite will take their side.

No, I'd say if Epic wins it's a small win for us, consumers. The absolute monopoly Apple and others have over the app distribution and in app purchases is anything but in our interest. I would rather see an Epic store (and Steam and whatever else) store apps on all relevant platforms, including PS and XB.

marcbrophy

Penn wrote: »

https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-rockstar-lazlow-jones-dj-radio-writer-leaves-company?sf126797746=1

Lazlow has left Rockstar Games. Regardless of his work behind the scenes on the GTA games, not hearing him on a GTA6 radio station will be weird.

Losing a man like Lazlow is bad news for R*.
I knew when Benzies left, it was the beginning of the new guard for the company.
Whether that'll be great new games going forward, or just new cars for GTA Online, we've yet to see

PopePalpatine

I'd say the latter, the new DLC has a Karenwagon which costs GTA$1.22 million, or at least 2.5 hours of grinding heists. :rolleyes:

ERG89

Not many will chance it despite the overabundance of open world games out there being made but I think there is a real gap in the market for a GTA style open world game the last few years. There hasn't been a new GTA this entire console lifecycle and yet nobody tried filling the blank left by Saints Row which sold pretty well when it was around. You had Watch Dogs and Mafia 3 but neither is really like GTA or Saints Row in terms of their approach.

Penn

marcbrophy wrote: »

Losing a man like Lazlow is bad news for R*.
I knew when Benzies left, it was the beginning of the new guard for the company.
Whether that'll be great new games going forward, or just new cars for GTA Online, we've yet to see

I dunno, I kind of feel like a lot of the writing and humour in GTA has gotten a bit stale, so maybe big changes in the writing/producing for the next game might be a good thing.

Mr Crispy

Ashraf Ismail has now been fired from Ubisoft. From a company-wide memo;

Following an investigation by an external firm, it was determined that Ashraf’s employment with Ubisoft had to be terminated.

From Kotaku.

pixelburp

Cordell wrote: »

No, I'd say if Epic wins it's a small win for us, consumers. The absolute monopoly Apple and others have over the app distribution and in app purchases is anything but in our interest. I would rather see an Epic store (and Steam and whatever else) store apps on all relevant platforms, including PS and XB.

I prefer "us" being customers rather than consumers but that's another matter
I'm all for the reduction in monopolies, but the manner in which Epic is trying to play the Good Guy with some cynical manipulation of its fanbase is a bit distasteful. Their 1984 pastiche video trying to claim this as some kind of Good Fight is a bit off to me.

chrislad

One thing I hope that changes is that I can buy my Kindle books from the Amazon app instead of having to go through the site. A minor inconvenience, but one I got used to not having to deal with on Android!