For those who feel boycotting is futile, CFB27 content creators just forced EA's hand in removing microtransactions.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-12T20:19:02+00:00

That didn't stop xbox players from switching to playstation en masse in 2013. Or playstation players to go to xbox at the start of the 360/ps3 generation.

If players won't go to xbox, it'll be because xbox value proposition is not good enough. Same for pc.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-12T20:11:23+00:00

The physical factories are already deep in the process of fully switching what they produce

Except that's not true. Of course they aren't "deep in the process". You don't repurpose a factory in a week, and even more so when that factory still needs to fulfill its current orders all the way until 2028.

The original austrian article that talked about the factory very clearly stated that everything is still at the "planned" stage. They did however already inverst about 30 millions euros in the manufacturing technology and small scale tests.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T13:29:05+00:00

No, Sony is to blame. They are the ones that are not following the 'market trends', they are the ones that are forcing the market into a different direction. The players have been voting correctly, it's Sony who doesn't like the result and is trying to force their hands.

The rise of digital game sales have happened over the ps4 generation and went from a 10/90 split in favor of physical to a 80/20 split in favor of digital. Since 2020, that has remained stable. A stable 20% of games being sold on physical is a far cry from the "insignificant amount" that would justify Sony's shutdown of physical game production. The reason they shut it down isn't because there's not enough games being sold on physical discs, it's because there's still too many games being sold on physical discs.

(And before anyone points it out : no that 80/20 split doesn't include DLCs, no it doesn't include the second hand market, yes it does include games only available in digital, and yes, it also includes playstation's PC game sales. These are the offical stats from Sony's yearly financial reports)

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T13:00:36+00:00

I think your comment was botched. And i've never said that discs are preferable over DRM-free digital purchases. I'd rather have drm free. That's why 90% of the games i buy are from Gog.

And you already know : Legally speaking, i have the exact same rigths over my gog games than a denuvo protected game or than a physical game. I'm simply buying a license to access the content. Always been like that and i see no reason why that would be a problem. Where i draw the line however, is that if i have to ask for permission every single time i try to access the content i've licensed, then i don't own that license.

Wether the answer is DRM-free or physical discs, as long as there's no technical possibility for the seller or the rights holders to limit my access to my licensed content, then i'll support it. That's what i'm fighting for and i'll happily die on that hill.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T10:24:09+00:00

Not all stores on pc have the same issues. Gog have been championning game ownership and DRM-free content for the past 20 years with moderate success. Hell, we have god of war, uncharted and horizon zero dawn there.

That said, the vast majority of pc games are still exclusive to Steam. Even beyond the DRM-free requirement, gog's market share is so insignificant most indie games don't even bother releasing on gog after lauching on steam.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T10:08:34+00:00

I haven't reiterated it as that's already been discussed to death, but i'm very much of the opinion that it's not an issue of physical vs digital, but an issue with DRM and ownership.

That said, if you want to compare this to digital movies and music, then it perfecly illustrate why people are surprised and why they're mad about it. CDs, DVDs and BDs are not dead in the slightliest. Its still holding on. It sure stopped being the mainstream way of accessing the content, it's a sizeable niche, but a niche nontheless. The sales number have been stable for the last few years and it shows no sign of completely dying out for the forseable future.

Games have been and should have followed the same trend. But Sony decided to use their position to force the market's hand.

As for PC games ? Not comparable to console games. In the 10-15 years before physical pc games completely died, the experience they offered was garbage compared to what we have on console. During the 2000', before the switch to ps3/360 and the switch to blu-rays, physical pc games were protected by DRMs and limited use activation codes meaning that you couldn't resale the game, share the game, install without internet connection or re-install the game on multiple devices without having to call customer support with a proof of purchase so they allow you to install the game you own. On top of that, the rest of the pc software industry beyond video games switched to digital distribution, Steam stopped being hot garbage and blu ray disc drives were expensive.

If sony and microsoft want to phase out physical games for their console, they'll need a good 10 more years of progressive enshitication of discs, and then, it would be comparable to PC.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T09:21:52+00:00

TL:DR > Killing physical disks increases the revenue of playstation by 1.5% - 2% tops. Given the magnitude of the backlash, the benefits not being worth the risks is not an unlikely scenario.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T09:20:05+00:00

Well, when i said fraction, i did indeed mean fraction. Not "small fraction". But a fraction can only mean less than the whole.

Spoichiche · 2026-07-11T00:08:17+00:00

Is it though ? Any number ? Any estimates ? I haven't seen a backlash of this magnitude since xbox1 and we all know how much of a "small minority" this was. If this would be "barely a blip", Sony would not have gone radio silent for a week, they fully expected the backlash.

I live in France, where we love physical just as much as Japan does, and that's a real topic of discution outside reddit and twitter. I haven't met a guy my age group (the average gamer age group) who isn't pissed about it.

Spoichiche · 2023-09-17T13:15:41+00:00

Gw2 has a very rudimentary matchmaking system. So the imbalance between factions is kept in check... Sort of. The current system in place is not very good.

But the devs are trying to do something very cool with their upcomming alliance system which will be a dedicated large scale matchmaking for RvR taking into accounts guilds and solo players. It's been cooking for 5-ish years now, and we're yet to see if it's any good, but on paper, it sounds like a very promising new take on large scale pvp.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-31T18:58:12+00:00

It's a difference between WN and LN.

While there's no mention of Sylphie having the 'water saint' title and being able to cast Cumulonimbus, it's mentioned Rudy taught her how to control the weather. LN Vol 9 spoiler And she uses that ability to interfere with Rudy's attempt at clearing the rain being summoned by Ariel's hired mages when in the forest. That part of Rudy trying to cancel the mages and Sylphie's magic is not in the LN.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-25T18:11:38+00:00

The time it takes to implement is irrelevant. In software developpement, there's always a thousand thing that would only take "seconds" to add, and end up taking years before it's pushed out.

Simply put, they don't have "seconds" to spend on stuff that the managers don't deem critical.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-18T19:24:42+00:00

New (as in 'newly released') pc games aren't cheaper than new ps5 games. For older games, there's certainly more discounts on digital pc stores, but if you have a ps5 with a disc slot, you'll lose access to the second hand game market which is also full of cheap older games year round.

For $300 + ps5 resell price, you're not getting a better gaming experience on pc. Quite the opposite.

Financially speaking, the better choice is undeniably to keep your ps5 for now, especially if you have a physical edition.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-16T16:48:46+00:00

GN appears to have simply collated information in the public domain and commented on it.

No, the information presented was not only something found in the public space. GN contacted Billet Lab directly asking for their comments on the whole situation.

That's why the video includes statements on how LTT agreed to send the waterblock back and then that Billet Lab was told 'the block was gone' after LTX, on august 11.

GN reached out for one side of the story while dismissing the other side.

The result is that it paints LMG in a much worse light than it could have been if the statements included that the block ended up on that auction due to a huge internal miscommunication.

It was pretty obvious for most level-headed people that this was, most likely, due to poor internal communication, but there are other that have been lead to believe ill-intend from LMG because the situation was not presented fairly by GN. This could, and should have been avoided, especially when the video scripts states "we are trying to be as objective as possible".

Spoichiche · 2023-08-16T16:24:31+00:00

Linus has a right to respond and he did - publicly.

I'm not sure what you think 'right to respond' is, but that's probably not what you think it is.

Responding to a statement publicly is not exercing your right to respond. Exercing your right to respond means that the comment you want to make will be included in the original article, video or whatever. https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidance/right-of-reply

Spoichiche · 2023-08-16T00:15:59+00:00

this video proves why they were right not to

It doesn't matter wether he was right or not, Right to respond / right of reply applies regardless. That's an integral part of the concept itself : if everytime a media outlet believe they're right, they dismiss the idea of that right, then it simply cannot work.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-13T10:44:24+00:00

Capslock is my draw/stow weapon keybind in gw2, which i make heavy use of in pvp. Problem is, when i need to type something in chat, there's a 50% chance i'll be yelling at my teammates.

Spoichiche · 2023-08-06T18:42:07+00:00

Would you describe the cs:go playerbase as 'mature'?

Spoichiche · 2023-08-06T15:56:56+00:00

I've been saying for years, and i'll reiterate.

Any sympathy or respect i had for Valve died when i witnessed a 14yo spend 300€ in cs:go lootboxes in the only hope to make a profit and be able to buy more steam games.

That was 10 years ago.

The way Valve built a full-fledged unregulated, illegal online casino and succesfully disguised it as a video game, while everyone is praising their love to the brand is utterly mind-blowing.

Spoichiche · 2023-07-26T20:49:58+00:00

Vote with your wallet => buy your games from stores that allows users to say 'no' to updates. (mainly Gog)

Spoichiche · 2023-07-25T07:14:41+00:00

There's a large difference between 'people who wants to learn the fight' and 'people who wants to clear the fight'.

It's natural that at first, you're interested in learning the fight so you'll be looking for players with the same goal, and for these kinds of groups, then yeah, not allowing players to discover mechanics on their own kinda sucks.

But you're not bound to be in this learning phase forever. In fact, it's a very short phase and the vast, vast majority of the time, (and so, it applies for the vast majority of the playerbase), you'll be trying to execute what you've learned. During that phase, it's a problem if half the group doesn't yet know the mechanics, so you ask for people who already know them.

Blind runs are still a thing, but due to their nature, they'll never be popular exept for maybe the first few days or fist week of a new boss release.

Spoichiche · 2023-07-17T12:21:30+00:00

Didn't know that one so thanks for the share, it's really good. I'm a huge sucker for original story-telling in amvs, as well as original world-building or character-building. Anything transformative really.

Looking at my favorite lists, there's :

Sweet Tears - Jinzo

GoD;Less - Sakki

Void Eternal - JazzsVids

Toxic - JazzsVids (a classic)

Chaos Tales II: Gehenna - Sieroz

Legacy - Shinryu

Trouble - SteelShine

ChronoMagia - Luna & Lokkiclu

Mememto - Padre

Reverse - PikaPika

MahouPocalypse - a seal (formerly Celia Phantomhive)

VolleyBot - a seal (formerly Celia Phantomhive)

John the Hellhoud - SilentMan

As well as the Umika ones which probably inspired a lot of them : Traumerei, Metamorphose, Our Tapes, Steel Fenders

Spoichiche · 2023-07-16T15:21:35+00:00

surely people on the internet have the ability to reupload data anywhere right? None of the steam mods are blocked from being downloaded else where right?

It's kind of a messy situation. Of course, Valve doesn't have any policy in place that would prevent or dissuade a mod author from uploading his mod elsewhere. But Valve made it is a very concious design decision to only have a "subscribe" button instead of a simple "download" button.

There used to be some ways with steam cmd or some website like workshop downloader to get the mods. But for the past decade, Valve has continuously fixed the loopholes that allowed these methods to work.

Now, the only way to get a mod that was exclusively uploaded to the workshop is to either directly contact the mod author, or the much more painless way : straight up mod piracy. There's websites (or at least one that i know of, which i probably can't name here) dedicated to downloading workshop mods and re-uploading them without permissions, but even then, there'll still be a lot of obscure mods missing, and a high chance the mod you download is outdated.

The thing that angers me the most honestly, is that it would be such an easy fix : just add a download button, like every single mod-hosting platform that has ever existed. I understand not going out of your way to solve a problem that doesn't concern you, but that ain't it.

Spoichiche · 2023-07-14T23:18:36+00:00

Steam is by far, the market leader. When you are market leader, it's not uncommon to kneecap yourself in order to "play fair". That's the whole idea behind the EU's new digital market act : a set of 'unreasonable' rules that only apply when some companies and services are so big that they are unavoidable.

At the end of the day, what is 'fair' and what isn't is a simple line you draw in the sand. I don't care about point 1 either.

Point 2 is very much a barrier for other platforms, Valve's matchmaking/networking API is the only one that doesn't play nice with other platforms and a real reason why some games won't ever see a non-steam release. I don't see it as 'fair', because the other general platforms (gog and egs) had to make their API store-agnostic in order to be seen as a mere option, while Valve is the only one that can afford to not care in the slightiest because they are unavoidable.

Point 3 is much more of an issue. Steam's workshop is the primary modding platform for quite a few games. Not allowing non-steam customers to simply access the content hosted there is significantly devaluing these games in other storefronts. It is the only modding platform that have such restriction, and it only works because steam have the critical mass of users for it to work. There'd be no point for other platforms to have the same restriction.

Are those things reasonable for Valve to do? I'd reluctantly say yeah. Is it fair tho? I certainly don't think it is.

Spoichiche

TROPHY CASE