It’s certainly the option Google would prefer, which essentially always means it’s unethical.
It’s certainly the option Google would prefer, which essentially always means it’s unethical.
No, this isn’t something you can expect.
There used to be a distro called Gallium OS, but it’s been dead for a couple years now.
There are actually Chromebooks with very solid specs, but no, it isn’t that simple. They have custom firmware and components that often don’t play well with Linux, or Windows for that matter.
My understanding is that Immortals of Aveum was the first output from a pivot of the genuinely terrific EA originals brand that gave us the likes of It Takes Two, A Way out, Unraveled, and lots more. It used to be a program that helped indie devs publish their games with EA only recouping their costs. Immortals of Aveum, ironically, had none of that magic. It was basically a Marvel story baked into a CoD campaign with magic instead of bullets.
Ideally, this will tell the suits that this pivot was a mistake and they’ll go back to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. But they’re much more likely to overmonetize everything into oblivion while laying off massive chunks of their workforce.
Things got very dire in the '10s, but there’s been a bit of a course correction in recent years, at least with EA. It Takes Two and the Star Wars Jedi games were microtransaction free and wonderful experiences. Only It Takes Two could really be considered weird and quirky, but it was phenomenal. First party games are also typically exceptions to the modern AAA paradigm.
I’d gladly agree to pay more in exchange for a legally binding agreement that higher prices mean video games free of predatory monetization and reasonable pay and job security for the people making the games. But we both know that they have no intention of doing the right thing, no matter how high the box price. They’re already raking in record profits while laying off huge chunks of their workforce and giving the c-suite ever-increasing annual bonuses.
They’ve perpetuated the lie that microtransactions were a necessity and the $60 price was unsustainable for such a long time that people actually believe it. Now they want to increase the box price while keeping the predatory monetization, having their cake and eating it too.
This. I genuinely believe that in the near future indie games will be the sole torch-bearer for what I would call “traditional gaming”. Tighter, more focused experiences with no microtransactions or sanitized, inoffensive bloat. Games that are offline and don’t require any server handshake to function. And as the technology available to them advances, it will enable indie devs to be more and more ambitious with their vision.
It’s a compelling proposition, and not one Microsoft can compete with. At least not in the mobile/tablet space. Cloud gaming is all well and good, but native hardware will always be superior. Microsoft is crazy not to be considering a 1st party handheld like the steam deck. Or at least a gaming-centric UI for small screen devices. Even just integrating something like the Xbox UI would be an improvement.
Your point isn’t without merit, but your framing of it certainly is. The comparison made in the initial post is apples to oranges, but your experience is nothing more than anecdote and implying digital is universally cheaper is absurd. Allow me to counter your anecdote with one of my own:
Only a few months after release, I picked up an Xbox copy of Cyberpunk 2077, brand new from a big box retail chain and with a complimentary steelbook case, for $5.
Apple is no doubt considering moving more heavily into the gaming space. They’re looking for more revenue streams to keep feeding the corporate fantasy of perpetual growth, and there are only so many sweat shop laborers they can exploit. Wouldn’t surprise me at all for them to buy a publisher like EA and create some steam competitor (or just leverage the Mac app store).
Every accusation is an admission.
I can download my playlists for offline playback, which is good enough for me. That isn’t the case for everyone, of course, but the question was about one’s personal philosophy.
I never pirate games from indies or smaller publishers, but from the likes of EA, Activision, Take Two, etc? Since they’re always going to use, abuse and discard their workforce so they can keep giving the C suite their multi-million dollar annual bonuses, I will pirate their shit without an ounce of remorse.
With music, I never pirate simply because it’s more convenient to stream the music at a reasonable price. If there’s an artist or album I really love, I will buy it and/or some merch to support the artist directly.
Keep an eye out for Dell Refurbished to run one of their 50% off deals. Recently they had 9th-gen i5s with those specs in that price range, and they’re refurbished business laptops so generally higher build quality than consumer hardware.
When we get in that state of a technology, we should definitely be looking at how to make our devices last longer instead of renewing yearly / bi-yearly.
Won’t somebody please think of the children profits?
There are bugged quests, glitched cameras and abruptly disappointed dialogue aplenty in the back half of the game, for sure. Mind sharing your complete game settings? And are you overclocking or something? I’m genuinely astounded by the performance you’re getting and would like to try to recreate.
Yeah, I went back and tried it again yesterday, fully updated. I have no idea how anyone is getting 30 FPS on steam deck in act 3, unless they’re in the camp or something.
Glad I could brighten your day, friend :) Thanks for sharing
Gotta assume those BG3 Steam Deck numbers are gonna tank as people get into acts 2 and 3. Act 1 runs quite well on deck, but no amount of low settings or disabled features provides an acceptable level of performance.
And 54 cents a month is more than the ad revenue generated by a non-premium user running adblock, hence Google would prefer it.