Sounds like Sony finally has their very own Mario game! I hope Sony leans into this side of their portfolio in the future. And more selfishly, I REALLLY hope this one comes to PC

That statement was my attempt to summarize a chunk of the article, and was not my own analysis. From my perspective, I will say that I understand that there are parts of the world that don’t have access to PS5 games or whatever. However, I don’t think that this market is going to massively shift at any time in the next decade, because that would mean a shift of the entire socio-economic balance of the world. As much as I would love to see the Global North take a backseat while other nations rise, I think it’s fair for an analyst to assume that this is not going to happen.

The standout line for me was this bit at the end:

Are we going to reach the same levels of player count and engagement again when there are so many other draws on their attention and time compared to 2020 or 2021? Not anytime soon, if we ever do.

As I see it, the video game market went from a growth market to mature practically overnight. Meaning, since Pong, the video game market has continued to grow as more and more people have discovered gaming over time. But in 2020-21, a huge influx of players and time found their way to the video game market and many of them liked it and stuck around. Others have again left gaming, having been pulled away by other things. So now, it’s more about optimization of the player base rather than pursuing more organic growth by finding new players.

This has been a painful transition in thinking for many in the industry, especially those who assumed that player growth would continue forever, especially after the boom seen in 2020-21.

It’s not just that gaming had an unusual growth period during COVID lockdown. It’s that gaming had its final big growth period ever during this period. Everyone left out there that ever thought they might give gaming a shot did so during the lockdown, and they either stuck with it, or they realized it wasn’t a forever hobby for them. From here on out, the gaming industry is more like the food industry or something. They won’t find new pockets of untapped consumers. They have found them all, and now developers and publishers need to be smarter about scale and burn rate.

Ys IX

Guild Wars 2 and Loop Hero

clear out my backlog

I have a feeling you aren’t going to make much progress on your backlog. lol

I’ve been playing Mario Galaxy 2 for the first time. It’s pretty good, but I’m wondering what the hype was about.

Does it feel like anything more than a level pack for Galaxy 1? That was the general impression that I remember. My lil bro beat Galaxy 2 but I never got around to it.

the RoR devs are looking to apply their talents to…VR headsets?

With the release of the Dark Souls 2 Lighting Engine mod, I’ve been motivated to pick that game back up again. I played DS2 for the first time about a year ago, got maybe a third through, and then kind of fell off. It’s fun to be back in Drangleic! Last time I was rolling a Paladin-type character with Faith and melee weapons, this time I’m interested in making a huge-sword type build and pivoting to hexes in the later game. The lighting mod also let’s you mod in HDR if your monitor is capable, and boy howdy does it look incredible with the improved lighting and HDR 🤩

Edit: here’s some screenshots i took capturing how bright Majula is, and capturing the added shadows.

Make sure you wishlist it! That really helps out games that haven’t come out yet. I didn’t even know Supermassive was making this one, it looks neat!

what is your Dharma, wise Big_Boss_77?

ah shit me and my friends used to do this, pre-social media. I remember one time in middle school recess, going out to the farthest corner of the playground with my friends, and we all did a thing where we took turns holding our breath while someone else squeezed our chest. I remember blacking out, hearing the pokemon theme in pitch darkness, and then waking up on the ground.

I don’t think we did it more than once (at least I didn’t). But of course, the crucial difference was that I was with my dumbass friends, so at least there was someone to run for help if someone didn’t wake up.

thank you for sharing your experience with the game!

part 3 of the Defenstration Trilogy!

awesome! just double-check that it’s compatible with the new one before dropping the extra $80! Nothing about the Pro is official yet, so we still gotta wait and see.

the hardware design team is so far up their own asses with the PS5 design. Here’s two articles where you can read how high they are on their own supply: One, Two

more puzzle-like than tactical combat, but the added “Confidence” objectives are fun to try to get.

Yeah it’s giving me Into the Breach vibes, and that was a game that also felt very “puzzle tactics”.

EDIT: actually I have a question for the group. How do y’all feel about “puzzle” tactics games like this versus more open-ended tactics games like XCOM? Personally I can sometimes get turned off from games that feel like all the levels are predesigned with a “best” solution that i have to work out. XCOM can feel freeing because when you come up with an incredibly efficient turn that synergizes everyone’s abilities, it can feel like you “got one over” on the game.

same! it looks really good, and the writing especially seems unusually great for a game of this type.

i mean…you could always buy the add-on disc drive? Assuming that it is still compatible with the Pro, not sure why it wouldn’t be. They get to fleece physical media heads for an extra $80, that’s a win for Sony.

I know this has been out for like a week now. But have you seen this game? It looks sick as hell! And it has defenestration!

absolutely brilliant, great pairing. With the possible tv and film deals, i hope this brings Remedy even more success!