PCG article links and discussions for February 2024

[ZedClampet]

The makers of Palworld are desperate to hire more developers: 'We are overwhelmingly short of people'

Pocketpair is hiring. Like, really hiring.

www.pcgamer.com

You would think Japan, with its love of mobile and console games, would be chock full of people with a bit of development experience, but based on this article and the article about it being a "miracle" that the game was made, it sounds like experienced developers are few and far between there.

Another problem is that only the Japanese speak Japanese, and they can't speak anything else. In Europe or the Americas, you can hire people from anywhere because so many people speak English.

 

[Colif]

Doesn't help Nintendo are using their influence to squash the studio. They couldn't stop game but they can stop people talking about it. Curious how I haven't seen updated sales figures since the 20 million was released. That was a week ago...

 

[Brian Boru]

They couldn't stop game

Did they try?

 

[Colif]

One would think they looked at it in the 3 years since it was announced. I don't have any proof as I don't work there.

 

[ZedClampet]

Doesn't help Nintendo are using their influence to squash the studio. They couldn't stop game but they can stop people talking about it. Curious how I haven't seen updated sales figures since the 20 million was released. That was a week ago...

Sales have slowed down quite a bit, I think. But if this works the way other big early access releases have gone, the sales will steady out during early access, spike briefly for big updates, and then be out of this world when the game goes into full release.

 

[ZedClampet]

Did they try?

No, they didn't try. Would have been a waste of money and provided even more publicity for Palworld. Nintendo doesn't own the concept of pet collection games, so why bother trying to stop one? Would be like McDonalds trying to shut down Burger King.

 

[Colif]

No one can own ideas. Ideas aren't protected, but the results of them can be.

 

[ZedClampet]

No one can own ideas. Ideas aren't protected, but the results of them can be.

Very loosely. I don't know why people consider this significantly different from all the shooters that release every year or the zombie games. Pet collection is a genre, like survival or horror. It can't be owned by anyone.

 

[Colif]

it isn't any different. People just over reacted to something everyone else does.

Speaking of using other peoples appearance

Rubber Hose Rampage on Steam

Rubber Hose Rampage is a classic 2D action game filled with 23 boss battles. Inspired by classical music and rubber hose animation from the 1920s and 1930s.

store.steampowered.com

I can't see that getting released, Steamboat might be fair game but I see other characters that are probably covered still.

 

[Brian Boru]

This is great news. I've been quietly working away on Cry Far with a small team. Our first release will have a mad hero Saav and the tag line "You know the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over—and getting away with it!"

 

[Colif]

"You know the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over—and getting away with it!"

22 COD games
39 Battlefield games

it seems insane repetition is popular with the kids. Go for it. It works for AAA companies, why not.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn Ubisoft might have that name already as its pretty easy misspell. Many companies try to cover names like that.

 

[ZedClampet]

This is great news. I've been quietly working away on Cry Far with a small team. Our first release will have a mad hero Saav and the tag line "You know the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over—and getting away with it!"

What great news are you talking about? As you're aware, your idea would be immediately taken down by Ubisoft. I just don't see where anyone in this thread suggested that idea would be okay.

But here's some great news. We noticed it too, as that's exactly why we started the demo thread:

We're in a golden era of game demos

We're spoiled for choice in an unending tide of free game trials.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Colif]

This is great news. I've been quietly working away on Cry Far with a small team. Our first release will have a mad hero Saav and the tag line "You know the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over—and getting away with it!"

I would have called it Car Fry... might have not been taken by Ubisoft
If you made it a smash up derby game they wouldn't have any legs to stand on.

I will be waiting for the demo

 

[Pifanjr]

New report predicts 60% of PCs sold will be AI-capable by 2027 and I just died of not surprise

So, yeah, mosts PC will have NPUs, soon.

www.pcgamer.com

It's surprising to me that AI chips are already being integrated into consumer hardware when there's no good use case for AI for consumers as far as I can see. At least no use cases that would warrant adding a specific piece of hardware.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's surprising to me that AI chips are already being integrated into consumer hardware when there's no good use case for AI for consumers as far as I can see. At least no use cases that would warrant adding a specific piece of hardware.

There are plenty of use cases when you consider a lot of PCs are used for work. And having it on your own PCs gives a false sense of privacy over using it in the cloud, but I'm sure one of the primary purposes of AI is actually personal data collection.

 

[Colif]

latest Intel & AMD laptop CPU have AI cores. So the number of devices with those cores is likely to grow in the next 3 years.

Meet the Intel Core Ultra processor lineup, with built-in NPUs for AI, and Arc graphics

Meteor Lake has landed, ushering in the era of the AI PC.

www.tomshardware.com

AMD launches Ryzen 8000G ‘Phoenix’ APUs, brings AI to the desktop PC — reveals Zen 4c clocks for the first time

RDNA 3 delivers bang for your buck.

www.tomshardware.com

Win 11 2402 will use features of the AI cores. But its not necessary to have a CPU with the cores to use Win 11 2402, it just won't let you use the features

 

[ZedClampet]

latest Intel & AMD laptop CPU have AI cores. So the number of devices with those cores is likely to grow in the next 3 years.

Meet the Intel Core Ultra processor lineup, with built-in NPUs for AI, and Arc graphics

Meteor Lake has landed, ushering in the era of the AI PC.

www.tomshardware.com

AMD launches Ryzen 8000G ‘Phoenix’ APUs, brings AI to the desktop PC — reveals Zen 4c clocks for the first time

RDNA 3 delivers bang for your buck.

www.tomshardware.com

Win 11 2402 will use features of the AI cores. But its not necessary to have a CPU with the cores to use Win 11 2402, it just won't let you use the features

And AI cores are going into laptops first because that's what companies give their employees these days.

 

[Pifanjr]

There are plenty of use cases when you consider a lot of PCs are used for work. And having it on your own PCs gives a false sense of privacy over using it in the cloud, but I'm sure one of the primary purposes of AI is actually personal data collection.

I suppose something like AI powered noise cancellation for meetings, as well as background blurring, could be useful both for businesses and for private use.

 

[Colif]

I suppose something like AI powered noise cancellation for meetings, as well as background blurring, could be useful both for businesses and for private use.

World’s #1 Noise Cancelling App | Krisp

With a single button, Krisp removes all background noises for incoming and outgoing calls. Increase your productivity by having professional and noiseless conference calls from anywhere.

krisp.ai

 

[Brian Boru]

I would have called it Car Fry

Kaamos already grabbed that idea, and commissioned Zed to work on it—a mashup of Forza and Diner Dash

It's surprising to me that AI chips are already being integrated into consumer hardware when there's no good use case for AI for consumers as far as I can see

Just as a generalization, isn't it likely that the coming 5G-powered IoT will benefit from devices being able to 'talk' to each other?

 

[ZedClampet]

I suppose something like AI powered noise cancellation for meetings, as well as background blurring, could be useful both for businesses and for private use.

My wife's work uses it to rewrite blog posts and to create images for newletters and reports. I don't know what else they use it for, but I'm sure there are other things.

 

[ZedClampet]

Helldivers 2 is now PlayStation's biggest PC launch by a factor of two

The peak concurrent players Steam has doubled God of War.

www.pcgamer.com

Three huge hits so far on PC in 2023, and none of them are on the Epic store. What are they even doing over there? They don't have to be exclusives. They can't convince people to just add their games to the store? Granted, the additional sales would be very low, and it would just be another site to maintain for the developers, but if they want to be competitive, they are going to have to get these games in their system. Going after niche indies and making them exclusives is not a winning formula when you don't have any of the biggest games. Congrats on getting a horror game, Alan Wake 2, I guess.

 

[Pifanjr]

Just as a generalization, isn't it likely that the coming 5G-powered IoT will benefit from devices being able to 'talk' to each other?

My wife's work uses it to rewrite blog posts and to create images for newletters and reports. I don't know what else they use it for, but I'm sure there are other things.

I'm sure AI must be used fairly extensively already, because I can't imagine they're putting AI chips in most computers if there was no indication people were using the existing AI applications. I've just not really heard or seen much of it myself.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm sure AI must be used fairly extensively already, because I can't imagine they're putting AI chips in most computers if there was no indication people were using the existing AI applications. I've just not really heard or seen much of it myself.

A native AI assisted Super Resolution feature is coming to Windows 11

Upscaling for all.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Once again I am forced to tap the 'singleplayer games are not dying' sign

Immortals of Aveum flopped because sometimes games flop.

www.pcgamer.com

Are single player games dying?

I dont think so, its 90% of what I play and I dont exactly have a shortage of really good games to get through. I'll be starting Armored Core 6 soon, can't wait. Lies of P is a really good game I'm still working though, and I'm playing Dredge still. I even considered picking up Immortal of Aveum on a deep sale because I enjoy a big dumb shooter campaign.

I'd be really interested to see demographics of people who buy single player games though, both indies and big budget ones. Are as many younger people buying single player games anymore or are they mostly about free to play multiplayer, and not moving on from that as they hit their 20's and older?