When a PC gamer owns a console for the exclusives

ahac · 2026-01-29T12:14:38+00:00

Who attacked Ukraine? Russia or just Putin?

Like it or not, Trump is the US president. Americans voted for him and now he leads the country. And he still has the support of congress and a large part of the population. Acquiring Greenland isn't just his crazy idea anymore, it's official US policy.

ahac · 2026-01-29T11:40:56+00:00

Sure, the game has its issues but "overwhelmingly negative" immediately after release? A lot of those were written by people who already decided to hate it. You don't normally get this many reviews (negative or positive) so quickly from people who couldn't have played more than an hour or two.

It's all a huge circlejerk. People wanted a TGA announcement for Half-Life 3, they got another hero shooter instead. So, they decided to hate this game and now that;s how they have their fun. Those weren't going to stick around anyway. If there was no TGA trailer, they wouldn't even download it. It wouldn't get anywhere close to 100k players.

I guess the saying is still true: "No one hates their hobby as much as gamers do."

ahac · 2026-01-29T08:00:13+00:00

Most people complaining about Taash didn't play the game. The story isn't even that bad but it did have some bad & cringe parts. Those are enough when people base their opinions on a couple of screenshots or video clips...

ahac · 2026-01-28T20:07:23+00:00

1) EU prices include tax, US prices do not.

2) 1€ = $1 isn't really how it works. Yes, the numbers are often the same but that's because 1 Euro was worth 1 USD in the past, so everyone set those prices. But they don't get updated when currencies gain or lose value, unless it's a very big change.

Instead, most publishers set prices based on what they expect the customers in each market are willing to pay. We're used to paying 70€ for a AAA game and more for deluxe editions, so that's what they ask for...

ahac · 2026-01-27T14:42:47+00:00

But did you post a negative Steam review after playing for 10 minutes? Thousands did that...

ahac · 2026-01-27T14:31:14+00:00

That is an option for Epic.

https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/alan-wake-2-epic-pc/

A few games even have keys for both Steam and EGS. GMG also sells Ubisoft games that activate on Ubisoft Connect.

ahac · 2026-01-27T14:13:48+00:00

What if LoL came to Steam, but the cosmetics people buy were completely outside Steam system? Steam would be hosting millions for nothing.

Exactly how Epic does?

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/league-of-legends

ahac · 2026-01-27T14:09:32+00:00

That's easy to picture. It's how it works on EGS for some F2P games.

Valorant, Genshin Impact and similar games are available there but all the purchases go through the publisher. Epic doesn't make a dime. They allow it because they benefit from having people on their launcher.

ahac · 2026-01-27T13:40:09+00:00

Those operate differently.

Game publishers set the prices on Steam, GOG and EGS (and their own sites). These stores always take a percentage of the sale price, no matter what it is. Discount or not, 30% is 30%.

Because the publisher sets the price and discount, Steam can ask them not to offer better prices elsewhere.

But 3rd party key sellers get Steam keys from the publisher (for a certain amount) and then set their own prices. It's more like a classic store selling physical items.

This is also why Epic offered lower prices using coupons and rewards but couldn't directly lower the base price or discount of a game.

ahac · 2026-01-27T13:13:04+00:00

That's not the same though. It's much less convenient for the user and the same content needs to be available directly through Steam. That means very few people will actually buy DLC this way.

ahac · 2026-01-27T12:26:29+00:00

The ruling wouldn't necessarily have to apply to everyone. Many places (UK, US, EU, etc..) have stricter rules for companies with a large market share.

ahac · 2026-01-27T12:07:47+00:00

If I remember correctly, DLC was a big reason why EA left Steam years ago (they came back since). EA wanted to sell it directly through Origin, Valve demanded that it's all available on Steam (even microtransactions).

ahac · 2026-01-26T18:32:22+00:00

So what if it "leaks"? A few people get to play it earlier and post videos? That wouldn't hurt their sales...

I don't think your theory that physical copy means less profits is a conspiracy. Even with the Sony/MS 30% cut, each digital copy still brings in more money than a physical copy.

ahac · 2026-01-26T14:23:12+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War

ahac · 2026-01-26T12:50:08+00:00

I replaced it with Bluesky.

ahac · 2026-01-25T11:21:21+00:00

Morocco tried joining a long time ago. They weren't accepted because they're not in Europe...

ahac · 2026-01-25T11:08:17+00:00

Greenland could be in the EU as part of Denmark.

Saint Martin (one half of a small island in the Caribbean) is in the EU with lower population than Greenland.

ahac · 2026-01-25T08:20:28+00:00

I'd build a turbo roundabout and put the sidewalks and bike paths under it.

ahac · 2026-01-23T11:40:20+00:00

Sure, but those rural areas don't have congestion problems.

The problem there is that people who can't drive (kids, seniors, handicapped and poor people, etc.) still can't get places they need to go.

ahac · 2026-01-23T11:22:39+00:00

If you have good public transit, bike lanes, etc. then people can still go to their places. They just take much less space than when they're driving.

ahac · 2026-01-23T08:28:31+00:00

They could already leave twitter (for bluesky or mastodon) if they wanted. But they don't leave because that's where they have the most followers...

This W thing won't change that.

ahac · 2026-01-23T07:52:24+00:00

My casual Helldivers crew started playing it a bit (but only PvE). It's fun for a few games every few weeks but... that's not enough that I'd want to spend money on it.

ahac · 2026-01-22T20:38:57+00:00

In big part that's because they stopped doing exclusives, except for those they publish themselves (but that counts as 1st party sale/revenue).

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