I feel like you can already seen from the planets shown off that quite a few worlds are gonna be barren wastelands without much around to see or do beyond collect some resources and clear some outposts.
I'm still not convinced that Starfield is nearly as deep as it is being billed as.
Fanboys getting really desperate hoping this goes through.
Not hard to see Microsoft was hoping to have this deal wrapped up by now and have Activision-Blizzard's lineup supporting their own. Instead the back half of 2023 consists of two games that were supposed to have been out by now after getting delayed a year from 2022.
Sony and Nintendo are kicking the absolute crap out of Microsoft because Microsoft is terrible at managing their current studios and franchises.
Removing yet another North American publisher from the market is removing competition and leaving a huge chunk of third party publishing up for grabs to the likes of EA, Take-Two, and so forth which have proven time and time and time again they'll be as greedy as humanly possible.
Buying Activision-Blizzard isn't about establishing a monopoly either and trotting this out really shows how little you've paid attention to this the whole way through. It does however set the stage for Microsoft to control an unreasonable level of the market as streaming continues to grow and play a bigger role in video games.
And before you continue on about Microsoft being in last place per their own words they aren't in competition with Sony and Nintendo; they are competing with the likes of Google and Amazon.
Hey which two companies recently pulled out of the streaming games, shuttered their studios, and completely pivoted away from streaming due to a lack of meaningful software and support for their platforms?
Google and Amazon.
Per Microsoft's metrics they are in first place against their perceived competition. This is why console sales and such aren't announced anymore but rather subscriber count and active users instead. Microsoft wants to be a service subscription platform and not in the hardware business.
Right now we are at the stage of the game where Netflix was shipping DVDs directly to your home and the idea of streaming anything was still slowly being rolled out but DVDs were still the preferred way to watch.
According to Todd Howard the game at time hits 60fps (no platform named) but they wanted to cap it to keep performance consistent across the board. There is no 60fps support on consoles nor is there a planned update at this time for it. PC remains to be seen but with the modding community even if Bethesda can't be bothered it's likely only a matter of time.
Still this is disappointing news for the company that likes to toss around "most powerful console" when discussing the Series X.
It'll impact plenty of folks when servers don't function, go offline, earn rates get changed, and the game shuts down in a few years as the team moves onto the next game.
And if you don't think that will happen just remember Forza Motorsport 7 was delisted in September 2021. Barely made it four years on the market. But sure let's pretend like making the next Forza game always-online won't have any real issues for most people.
Meanwhile one of the top articles on the site is how Blizzard keeps screwing with Diablo IV earn rates and such because players are leveling up too fast. Gotta love always-online manipulation.
Comes down to car licensing fees. Microsoft gets the license for a limited time, typically about 5 years-ish depending, and then either has to renew those licenses or yank the product from store shelves.
Microsoft goes with yanking the product from store shelves and delisting it.
Even with Gran Turismo the older games you'll have a tough time finding but Sony does a much better job at maintaining the recent ones for each platform. Like Gran Turismo Sport released one month after Forza Motorsport 7 and is only on PS4 yet you can still purchase it digitally through PSN. Considering Gran Turismo 6 came out in December 2013 exclusively for PS3 shouldn't shock anyone that it isn't listed anymore.
But the last mainline Forza Motorsport hasn't been available for over two years by the time the sequel comes out. That's insane for a company that talks up backwards compatibility as much as Microsoft does.
Der derp! Servers never go offline! Derp derp!! Microsoft totally doesn't delist Forza games after a few years der derp derp!!! No way earn rates will be tinkered with because people find better ways to earn funds/car points derp derp derp derp derp DERP!!! And it totally isn't like always-online games stop existing when the servers go offline DERP DERP BLAH BLAH BLAH!!
Clearly every server will always function until the end of the time and nothing bad happens when a game can't be played fully offline! DDDDDDDDDDDUUUUUURRRRRR!!
But you go on about how you personally don't have internet problems like a total genius. Then you lords of mental superiority will be the first to cry you can't play day one because of server issues or that your favorite race set had earn rates tanked or your limited time to play at night was canceled because of server maintenance or something like that which has nothing to do with you not having access to the internet and everything to do with the game not having able to connect to the servers despite you spending $70 on the game... or if you're really a sucker you're on Game Pass hook, line, and sinker for monthly subs.
"People want to skip the boring grind to get to the end game content with high level play."
So let me get this straight... Blizzard needlessly makes Diablo IV more like an MMO and when people treat it like an MMO (skip the grind for end game content which is always much more fun and fulfilling) this is a problem and somehow an issue with the players wanting to play the content that interests them and not Blizzard needlessly changing the formula for a cash shop...
The only reason this is an "asshole move" is because of the system Blizzard designed and wants to keep people in which is strictly for Blizzard's benefit.
And if I lost a hardcore character due to a server shut down you better believe I'd be looking to cut corners like this.
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