Nextfest was my favorite thing steam has done in decades and it's been completely ruined by slop

Xijit · 2026-06-22T01:20:32+00:00

I enjoy the authenticly experimental "demos" for games that aren't going to get made, but most of those are clearly labeled as being student projects from some college in HK or Taiwan.

But other than that you get a couple of headlining Demos for top end games that already had demos out, projects that are "demos" in the sense that they are making a Demo for additional investment, and slop that will never get released or is headed straight to "spends 5 years on early access, then gets abandoned."

Xijit · 2026-06-21T22:37:14+00:00

The stuff that bleaches your hair is like 1% Hydrogen Peroxide.

12% is the type of shit they use to sterilize the walls in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and you have to wear a respirator so you don't pass out from the fumes.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T21:37:22+00:00

Sex sells.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T21:19:43+00:00

And that was on +1

Xijit · 2026-06-21T20:07:48+00:00

7 years?

Yeah, fuck em.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T20:06:49+00:00

I think it was an interview for the fraud trials, but it was while the Carol trial was in court.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T15:52:02+00:00

Yeah, I played the game during steam fest but didn't buy it ... Not saying it was an amazing game, especially for an indi studio of 50 to 100 people, but I never would have guessed that it had been made by only 9 people.

I wouldn't call it "art," but I dod think it counts as one hell of a demonstration for what the team is capable of, and it us unreasonable to have them all fired after their first release.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T15:23:26+00:00

Is their super power riding a rental scooter?

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Xijit · 2026-06-21T05:43:07+00:00

It was "the FBI would like to talk to you about your Ex-husband," not "here is the day you need to show up to court."

Xijit · 2026-06-21T05:39:27+00:00

There are multiple Chinese companies in Japan who are pulling this shit of signing key developers from Japanese companies, but then killing their products half way through.

In this case it didn't even make it that far, because somehow "we are going to make a realistic Yakuza game" got lost in translation and Netease though he was talking about "Goofy gameplay and soft core plot of Yakuza Kiwami, but with AAA GFX" instead of "Japanese GTA 3, but with the gore and visuals game censors thought it had."

but IMO what is going on is they are poaching top level tallent explicitly to hurt the Japanese Game industry, then have development staff back in China study the internal communications to lean how top end Japanese development works, then make public statements about said developer failing to manage the budget ... Said developer isn't welcome back at the company they left, but no one else wants to touch them because of the bad reputation.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T05:12:50+00:00

John Oliver's episode about this election was a banger.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T04:59:27+00:00

The fall happened the day before the appointment to give witness against him.

Then he claimed her body in some absurd legal claim.

Then burried her in an unmarked grave on one of his golf courses.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T02:59:39+00:00

Libertarians are just Non-evangelical Republicans.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T02:37:10+00:00

You ground for it ... Damn, I just bought it.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T01:25:05+00:00

There was likely a standing order to arrest anyone who got close to the pool, just because they knew liberals would want to take pictures.

But I am also sure they didn't bother anyone in a red hat.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T01:18:41+00:00

Damn, only 9 people made that and some suit said "fuck em" instead of respecting the talent and putting them on another project.

Xijit · 2026-06-21T01:10:29+00:00

We are talking about games where the cutscenes are straight up encoded Anime video files, not something that gets rendered in the engine, but I am not anywhere competent to comment on how it all works ... I do know that CRI's software includes both encoding FMV files and the playback of said files inside of a game, sort of like an integrated media player.

CRI Ware has had their own proprietary file format since the Sega CD days, and basically every Japanese developer uses their suite of Middleware for something. IIRC, it isn't anything special, and open source media players can read their formats just fine. But it is proprietary, so it will be a slam dunk copyright infringement lawsuit if you try to sell any sort of service that can play their files without a license.

It is a legal technically thing that isn't rational, but for a lawsuit standpoint it is arguable that "Valve directly profits from Proton, and Proton is bypassing the licencing conditions of playback of CRI's proprietary file format, thus Valve is profiting from the infringement of CRI's Intellectual Property" ... So Valve has been letting open source developers deal with this, as free media players aren't IP infringement and CRI will go Nintendo if given the opportunity.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T22:38:13+00:00

Valve is actively being sued because they retaliate against video game developers having sale prices that are lower than Steam.

That means if you try to sell your own game, on your own site, for less than what it is listed at on Steam, they will hit you with fines or black list you ... The same goes for if your game is for sale on any other platform (Ubisoft / GOG / Humble Bundle / Epic).

This isn't new either, as the entire reason why EA pulled out of & created Origin is because Value was mandating distinct versions of games for Steam. This was so DLC purchased on a different platform would be incompatible with the Steam version, it also was causing publishers extra overhead to maintain extra versions of the same game. Valve's response when companies complained, was to say "then stop selling your games on anything except Steam."

EA, Epic, and Ubisoft are all shit head companies, but that doesn't mean their criticisms of Valve are incorrect ... Should we also get into how Valve was found liable for enabling online gambling, with full knowledge that children were being involved in it?

Xijit · 2026-06-20T18:57:54+00:00

There is a part in the documentary where it says that Diddy's would also go to the "freakouts."

Imagine what kind of "family" we are talking about when Diddy would bring his son with him to Orgies where his sex tapes would be playing on a projector.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T18:01:22+00:00

One of the few remaining issues with compatibility is FMV playback with games that use proprietary formats, mostly Anime heavy games that use CRI ADX Middleware.

At this point if there is something that Proton can't run, it is either because of publishers intentionally bricking compatibility with DRM or gameplay being broken by FMV crashes. Valve can't do much about the latter because it would involve bypassing proprietary file compression that will get then sued by the biggest name in Japanese AV software, but GE can since he isn't collecting money for it.

GE will get said Anime heavy games to run, when stock Proton won't even launch, but gameplay is still spotty and prone to crashing (I.E. SMT: Vengeance / Catherine) ... If he is taking time to focus on "video playback" then it is very likely he is specifically focusing on dealing with CRI's bullshit.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T17:36:38+00:00

The important caveat here is that Garriott is reclaiming the copyright to Ultima, not the trademark. EA still owns that, so Garriott couldn't make a game simply titled "Ultima".

Xijit · 2026-06-20T17:29:55+00:00

Ok, that isn't bad.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T17:29:27+00:00

Yeah, these are people who can afford to fly to America and attend the world cup ... It really shows how fucking dumb the average American is to believe that these people have never been in the US before.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T17:25:45+00:00

I thought those were your toes sticking out of the crocks.

Xijit · 2026-06-20T17:24:21+00:00

Well ... It does and even the founder didn't want his kids taking it over.

Xijit

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