Video Game News and Miscellany
- Thread starter figmentPez
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Ars Technica have been laboriously collecting Steam user data to create a semi-accurate chart of the best selling and played games on Steam. What this chart tells me? Companies that don't port to PC are missing the fuck out. Oh, and Civ 5 has done INCREDIBLY well.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/steam-gauge-addressing-your-questions-and-concerns/2/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/steam-gauge-addressing-your-questions-and-concerns/2/
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AoE II HD over one million sold? Just goes to show an "old" game with a mild graphics update (oh who am I kidding, I own it myself 
) can still do great. There's a market in between "5 men in a shed" indie games and AAA++ games of 100M+ budgets.
I know, these days a lot of "indies" are becoming fairly big and are far from the old stereotype, but I dislike calling those "indies".
Anyway, medium-budget games, especially in genres where graphics are important but not the end-all be-all, have a viable market. We should get more of those. Definitely.
And err, those numbers for DOTA and Team Fortress are off. I own both, but have installed or played neither. Any game where owners = players is off, I'm sure.
) can still do great. There's a market in between "5 men in a shed" indie games and AAA++ games of 100M+ budgets.I know, these days a lot of "indies" are becoming fairly big and are far from the old stereotype, but I dislike calling those "indies".
Anyway, medium-budget games, especially in genres where graphics are important but not the end-all be-all, have a viable market. We should get more of those. Definitely.
And err, those numbers for DOTA and Team Fortress are off. I own both, but have installed or played neither. Any game where owners = players is off, I'm sure.
I think F2P games throw off their method of collecting data.AoE II HD over one million sold? Just goes to show an "old" game with a mild graphics update (oh who am I kidding, I own it myself
I know, these days a lot of "indies" are becoming fairly big and are far from the old stereotype, but I dislike calling those "indies".
Anyway, medium-budget games, especially in genres where graphics are important but not the end-all be-all, have a viable market. We should get more of those. Definitely.
And err, those numbers for DOTA and Team Fortress are off. I own both, but have installed or played neither. Any game where owners = players is off, I'm sure.
That's because they're free, everyone owns them, whether they want it or play it. So the only way to show owners is to show players.AoE II HD over one million sold? Just goes to show an "old" game with a mild graphics update (oh who am I kidding, I own it myself
I know, these days a lot of "indies" are becoming fairly big and are far from the old stereotype, but I dislike calling those "indies".
Anyway, medium-budget games, especially in genres where graphics are important but not the end-all be-all, have a viable market. We should get more of those. Definitely.
And err, those numbers for DOTA and Team Fortress are off. I own both, but have installed or played neither. Any game where owners = players is off, I'm sure.
http://kotaku.com/theyre-trying-to-put-ultima-online-and-dark-age-of-came-1564175510
That's pretty cool. Sadly UO isn't even close to the amazing game it started off as, but maybe it'll get a breath of fresh players with this.
That's pretty cool. Sadly UO isn't even close to the amazing game it started off as, but maybe it'll get a breath of fresh players with this.
There's also something to be said for gameplay that'd engaging and has plenty of replay, too.an "old" game with a mild graphics update (oh who am I kidding, I own it myself
Actually, that's probably most of it.
--Patrick
Well, yes. But investing in gameplay is so hard. Much easier to put the money in blingmapping and supergraphics and whatnot. Loks better in trailers and promo videos, too. *sigh*
It's pretty unsurprising that the top 15 in that list are mostly populated with Valve games. Whether it's because it's their distribution platform, that they're all great games, or that they tend to always have huge discounts every time a sale rolls around, I don't know. Maybe a combination of all three.
It's funny seeing the numbers for some that have a LOT more owners than players. Over 3 million people own but haven't played Portal. Over TEN million people for Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (#36). 3 million for Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (#49) and Ep. 2 (#54). Bioshock Infinite (#47) is a bit surprising, with close to a million.
The Half-Life episodes are the most surprising, honestly. I would've thought a lot more people played those. And they're both such small numbers compared to HL 2.
It's funny seeing the numbers for some that have a LOT more owners than players. Over 3 million people own but haven't played Portal. Over TEN million people for Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (#36). 3 million for Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (#49) and Ep. 2 (#54). Bioshock Infinite (#47) is a bit surprising, with close to a million.
The Half-Life episodes are the most surprising, honestly. I would've thought a lot more people played those. And they're both such small numbers compared to HL 2.
Jim Sterling played this Early Access piece of garbage recently. It got the game on many people's radar.
What's even more interesting (or damning) is the amount of censorship the developer is trying to do on the game's Steam forum: deleting and editing comments, having friends (or maybe alt accounts) post positive things about the game. The backlash this "game" is getting is hilarious.
What's even more interesting (or damning) is the amount of censorship the developer is trying to do on the game's Steam forum: deleting and editing comments, having friends (or maybe alt accounts) post positive things about the game. The backlash this "game" is getting is hilarious.
GasBandit
Staff member
I started kinda feeling the same way after Warhammer Online. I've got enough of a backlog now that I'm not chomping on the bit for every new thing to hurry up and come out... I'll play it when it's finished and maybe even patched a few times, thanks.
Of course my one glaring exception to this rule has been Gnomoria, which I still recommend despite its early access/beta status.
Probably people who picked it up for free - I played it for a while but since moving from a desktop to a laptop, FPSes are harder to deal with. Of course, if I had a dedicated space for my laptop that I could set up a full keyboard/etc instead of sitting at my couch when I'm on it I'd probably play more of those style games.
Yeah, I mentioned this a page or so back. My friend was on the verge of getting hired there but then they had the cuts at the start of the year... after that, it was basically assured that everyone in Atlanta would lose their jobs.
Yeah, about 60 people were let go, and the remainder were moved to EVE.
The latest Jimquisition discusses something that I had a small hand in. I've been following the Steam forums on this game since Jim posted a let's play video last week. And been sending a couple of tweets to Jim about it. Thanks to the developer trying to wipe the forums, Jim couldn't get the screenshot of a hilarious thing the dev had said...so he used my tweet to him, instead! I get a millisecond walk with fame! Woo!
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9075-Salt-Of-The-Earth-A-Steam-Fail-Story
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9075-Salt-Of-The-Earth-A-Steam-Fail-Story
I totally saw your steam post!
AND my tweet! The one that quotes the dev saying "I don't know who Jim Sterling is so I don't care." That was his downfall.
What the fuck is going on with Steam? The front store page is a complete disaster now. It's all either EARLY ACCESS or it's page after page of newly dumped trash games that were given out in cereal boxes 10 years ago or were previously sold for less than a dollar on Apple devices (now 9.99-19.99!).
Steam has become a Wii-like pit of shovelware in a matter of months.
Trash like this is a new release:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292410
This is a trash PS2 game from 10 God damn years ago.
Fuck Valve, get your fucking shit together.
Steam has become a Wii-like pit of shovelware in a matter of months.
Trash like this is a new release:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292410
This is a trash PS2 game from 10 God damn years ago.
Fuck Valve, get your fucking shit together.
They've been adding all sorts of weird stuff lately, most of which seems to be old games re-released. There was a time that it was a moderate trickle of things like old Genesis and DOS games, but now it seems like this wave of random as shit XBox/PS2/and like mid/late 90's games. It's just weird.
Also, a large stable of converted-from-tablet and we-made-this-in-RPG-Maker-2 games, which is just disappointing.
Also, a large stable of converted-from-tablet and we-made-this-in-RPG-Maker-2 games, which is just disappointing.
It's because Steam changed the way they present games, allowing publishers and developers more autonomy to be able to put up deals and releases themselves. This has lead to a lack of cultivation, with shit just being shoveled out in a shady fashion in an attempt to make a quick buck. Steam really needs to get on it and do some quality control.
I was having this same conversation with several gaming friends of mine.
At first some STRONG projects came into the light which wasn't an issue. Now it's EVERYWHERE. On Steam, I cannot distinguish an Early Access game to a real one. There's a DLC modifier. There should be one for incomplete games. Tags are helpful but the main page is saturated with incomplete games at various stages of development. It's ridiculous and it turns me off from checking their website for sales and whatnot.
I backed 20 Kickstarter projects. Some have released since I backed them most of them have not. Some have been in Alpha hell for over a year... some even two. Alpha 1, Alpha 2... Alpha 3. I used to play them when I had access but now no more. I got burnt out by it. So I wait till they are fully released. Some excellent ones are going to release soon (Divinity / Wasteland 2) and I won't touch them till they are DONE.
They really need to fix that shit and fix it soon. Many people are quite annoyed by this.
At first some STRONG projects came into the light which wasn't an issue. Now it's EVERYWHERE. On Steam, I cannot distinguish an Early Access game to a real one. There's a DLC modifier. There should be one for incomplete games. Tags are helpful but the main page is saturated with incomplete games at various stages of development. It's ridiculous and it turns me off from checking their website for sales and whatnot.
I backed 20 Kickstarter projects. Some have released since I backed them most of them have not. Some have been in Alpha hell for over a year... some even two. Alpha 1, Alpha 2... Alpha 3. I used to play them when I had access but now no more. I got burnt out by it. So I wait till they are fully released. Some excellent ones are going to release soon (Divinity / Wasteland 2) and I won't touch them till they are DONE.
They really need to fix that shit and fix it soon. Many people are quite annoyed by this.
Yeah, I bought Grim Dawn. It's really rough around the edges and I'm pretty disappointed in it. Not going to get another Early Access again.
But it was never confirmed until now.
I think part of it is also that Steam looked at GoG, said, "hmm, apparently some people do want old games" and just decided to ask all associated publishers for all of their back catalogs, and they're dumping them as fast as they can. Gog's a lot smaller than Steam, obviously, but since it's branched out to newer and indie games, it's been directly competing - which it didn't, really, before.
I do agree though - one of the benefits of Steam was having less shovelware and astorefront you could actually find your way in. They need to separate anything not officially released (alpha/beta/early access/stress test/whatever) and full releases. Whether or not they should separate A(AA) from indie is another matter.
I do agree though - one of the benefits of Steam was having less shovelware and astorefront you could actually find your way in. They need to separate anything not officially released (alpha/beta/early access/stress test/whatever) and full releases. Whether or not they should separate A(AA) from indie is another matter.
figmentPez
Staff member
I want someone to photoshop the Atari landfill with Steam logos and all the crapware games that they've got on their storefront.
Gamestop as we know it appears to be dying. They'll be closing a large amount of their stores and switching to selling cell phones and other mobile devices.
http://gamesided.com/2014/04/24/gamestop-closing-120-stores-focusing-mobile/
http://gamesided.com/2014/04/24/gamestop-closing-120-stores-focusing-mobile/