April 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

Palworld CEO surprisingly jazzed about the big-budget clones of its game that are in the works: 'These are incredible times'

Takura Mizobe is kinda down with the "Genshin Impact-level" clones.

www.pcgamer.com

Get ready to collect critters. Meanwhile, Palworld still has between 70k and 100k concurrent players a day, which is pretty good 4 months later.

That's uncalled for.

That's because you're a turd, as the kids say. Whenever my daughter was little I'd say something completely stupid and irrelevant and tag it with, "as the kids say," and it would make her furious. "Kids don't say that!"

Speaking of turds, I used to check in at restaurants as Ferguson.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB7AxXTCnPg

 

[ZedClampet]

German government wants games like Baldur's Gate 3 to 'also go on to be developed in Germany'

Germany started giving out federal grants in 2020 to "achieve international competitiveness" in game development.

www.pcgamer.com

I think a good strategy might be to incubate promising small studios and hope they grow into big ones. I don't think tossing out small grants to big studios really accomplishes anything.

Remember when Poland gave CDPR a huge grant for multiplayer in Cyberpunk 2077? Complete waste of money. CDPR didn't need the money and didn't add any sort of multiplayer to the game, but that money could have kept multiple small studios afloat and given them the funds needed to make their games more complete, something Polish indies struggle with.

 

[DXCHASE]

Didnt want to see this thread buried, but this article (and the news attached to it) is great.

Remember all those Destiny 2 guns you deleted after they got sunset? Bungie admits you shouldn't have done that: 'We regret we have no recovery mechanism'

In a major change coming as part of The Final Shape, legacy gear will be upgradeable to the new power cap again.

www.pcgamer.com

So, basically Bungie said a couple of years ago to delete old weapons because they arent being updated as the game progresses and new loot comes out.

So a lot of people, including the author, deleted all their old guns, even Destiny 2 streamer/player Datto started a series where he would help other yt's delete their old arsenals.

This was done not just because they werent being updated, but because inventory space is limited (was 500 at the time, now its 6 i think?). Which is not nearly enough for a game like Destiny 2 (looter shooter) thats 7 years old now.

Well THIS GUY deleted a couple but still has nearly 3 tabs of inventory of old, old OLLDD, weapons because my thought was that any new ones were gonna be updated and that they werent as worthy to me as older guns.

So now, when the new expansion drops, i can pull out year 1 and 2 guns and have them hit just as hard now as they did then, obviously not with updated perks, but apparently they are going to be falling now during activities, so im ready.




TLDR: I saved my old weapons and can use them now, but not the author of the article! teehee.

 

[ZedClampet]

Game devs praise Steam as a 'democratic platform' that 'continues to be transformative' for PC gaming today

"It's just a great constant in our industry that is [otherwise] really in f***ing panic mode."

www.pcgamer.com

You'll occasionally find some unhinged, basement dwelling indie devs who survive off of government grants who hate Steam, but real developers realize how important and empowering it is. From the article:

Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford credits Steam as "the thing that still allows me to have a job."

"We launched on Steam in open beta in March 2013… and it was transformative for us and continues to be,"

****

When we asked if the number of games released on Steam is a concern, Douse pointed out that before the rise of Steam "you made a game for a retail chain, you didn't make it for a player." Limited shelf space was a much harsher bottleneck for developers being able to make and sell games period. "I'm not concerned about visibility in the store—I understand not everyone can have a spot and empathize when people don't, but the function of it is to give everyone a chance, at least. I think that's a beautiful thing. Everyone has a chance."

****

Slay the Spire co-creator Casey Yano credited Steam with making it possible for tiny indie teams like his to be able to make a living off of their games. "I made a Flash game way back when and I think I made $20," he said. "[The store] was like 'that's not enough money, we're not even gonna send you a check.' But Steam came along and it was like, whoa, maybe some people can actually make a livable wage from this. I wouldn't even have a job … I wish more people could make it in the industry, but that's a problem with our society more than Valve. Valve is giving more people chances."

****

Michael Douse, Larian's publishing director, called Steam "a democratic platform."

"There's like two of those, I think," he said. "Steam, and the Switch, too, is quite a democratic platform. If your game is really, really good, you have a very good chance that people on Steam will see it. You have to make an effort, it has to be good, it's not that simple, but it's so much better than, for example, having to campaign for your game with somebody else for like 12 months to get their store team to care about it."

****

Despite the occasional conspiracy fruitcake who loathes everything and especially Steam, the truth is that Steam is the reason PC gaming is strong and winning the day.

They may have miserable customer service, but how often do you really need their customer service, anyway?

 

[Brian Boru]

PC gaming is strong and winning the day

I didn't realize things changed so much last year.

That said, it's definitely better than it was—and consoles are nearly PCs these days anyway

 

[ZedClampet]

I didn't realize things changed so much last year.

That said, it's definitely better than it was—and consoles are nearly PCs these days anyway

It's not PC versus consoles. It's PC versus Sony and PC versus Xbox, and PC versus Switch unless something happened I don't know about and they became one entity. And mobile is its own thing and not in competition with consoles or PC.

Furthermore, it's about many other things, as well, like who is getting the games, and PC wins that hands down.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Thats a really good podcast they based the article off. Always interesting to hear people involved in development talking together about the industry.

Brians chart also says boxed/downloaded PC games, so I'm wondering how much MTX fit into that chart.

Fortnite Statistics 2024 (Active Players & Revenue)

Get the latest Fortnite statistics for 2024. Discover active player counts, revenue figures, and key trends.

www.demandsage.com

Apparently if this is to be trusted 78% of Fortnite players are on console, revenue split might look worse for PC if this is true

Spoiler

6. Fortnite Usage by Device​

• According to Newzoo, the preferred gaming platform for 78% of Fortnite players is a console.
• An interesting revenue breakdown for Fortnite reveals that from March 2018 to July 2020, 46.8% of the game’s overall revenue was generated from PlayStation 4, while Xbox One contributed to 27.5% of the game’s revenue.
• The remaining 18.7% of revenue was collectively derived from Nintendo Switch, Android, and PC.

Source: Finance Online

Roblox Statistics 2024: Key User, Game & Revenue Data Facts - Skillademia

Roblox statistics: user base, gameplay hours, demographics, revenue, developer earnings, valuation, and more. 50+ current stats and facts about Roblox.

www.skillademia.com

Again if this is to be trusted, its 72% mobile 25% PC and 3% console for Roblox.

Totally agree that Steam is a big part of the reason PC is doing so well, looks like PC is up YOY there, whatever else is going on.

 

[Zloth]

Comments closed for this?

Manor Lords players delighted to discover a villager with an NSFW name, but the developer says it's historically accurate

Sometimes he's a gravedigger, sometimes he's a farmer, and sometimes he's even an ox—but he's already a celebrity.

www.pcgamer.com

I can't imagine why! Neither can this guy:

 

[Brian Boru]

What's next for World of Warcraft after 20 years?

What's next for World of Warcraft after 20 years?

The game's maker Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft last year in gaming's biggest ever acquisition

www.bbc.com