The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[frunk]

Here's a pretty interesting discussion of the Unity Game Engine license changes.  What I found interesting was the business model differences between Unity and Unreal.  Unreal doesn't allow companies to put their logo on the game unless they hit certain thresholds, while Unity requires keeping the logo unless you pay to remove it.  This is one of the reasons Unity is associated with lower quality games (besides the much greater usage of it).

[Iormlund]

So they had to roll back some of the changes.

But nothing is set in stone (one of the problems is the ToS says that they can change the terms whenever they see fit and those always apply). So it's just a "trust me bro" thing.

And I can't see them regaining even a modicum of trust unless at least the CEO is let go.

[Grey Fox]

John Riccitiello, the man who was responsible for EA being repeatedly voted the worse company in the world, is being an idiot again. Nothing will change. If you are a unity developer it's time to let go.

[frunk]

I think Unity is trying to push every developer of any size onto its Ad supported version of the engine.  The Ad supported version doesn't have to pay these fees.  Which is eh to bleh for mobile games but a complete non-starter for most PC/Platform games.

[Iormlund]

Yeah, that seemed to be the goal here.

Unity has a big piece of the mobile gamedev cake, they were basically blackmailing studios to leverage that into ad revenue.

They failed and maybe destroyed the company in the process.

Trust aside, what I can't really see is how they expected to win any legal challenge in the EU. Our regulators love slapping big corps for unfair practices with huge fines.

[frunk]

Trust aside, what I can't really see is how they expected to win any legal challenge in the EU. Our regulators love slapping big corps for unfair practices with huge fines.

It also seems like the charity installs don't count is a huge loophole that could turn Unity based developers into charity based business models ("Every download we donate the $.01 cost to a charity, and then charge an activation fee").  This whole thing has been a dumb, dangerous, ineffective and trust destroying move.

[Tonitrus]

Since RPGs are back on vogue for now, there's been a remake of Wizardry (the very first one) coming out recently:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2518960/Wizardry_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord/

Next thing you know, they'll be remaking Zork.

But that being said, with reboots/remakes all the rage in the film world...old school computer game reboots are lagging behind.

[celedhring]

Yeah, it's interesting how nostalgia hasn't been that big of a player in videogames as is in film/tv. I guess that's because the medium was still in its infancy in the 1980s. Maybe we'll start getting more once the nostalgia needle definitely moves to the 1990s.

[Jacob]

I expect we'll see more of it in video games.

[Sheilbh]

It'd be interesting to see what it looks like - obviously there's some game franchises still very much in their original area. But then there's so many that are in a form like point and click adventures that I don't think's particularly popular anymore. Interesting to see what gets done with them

Having said that it feels a little like BG3 is a bit of a breakthrough hit from people who normally like that type of game, perhaps by leaning into its game-ish features (dice!). Maybe something similar?

[Josquius]

I wouldn't agree nostalgia isn't much of a thing in games.
It probably goes in waves. I remember back in the psx days there was a lot of nostalgia and remakes for old early 80s arcade games and 8 bit consoles with a lot of remakes.

I've heard the most recent street fighter game contains a virtual arcade where you can play the old games and this is proving more popular in multiplayer than the normal game.

[Tonitrus]

I see your point...a lot of the nostalgia/remake energy has been weaned out in probably many more sequels and spin-offs.  Especially in console games.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Wouldn't the nostalgia thing also be covered my the many old-style games coming out? Pixel art games are a big thing after all (to name an obvious type)

[Tamas]

Wouldn't the nostalgia thing also be covered my the many old-style games coming out? Pixel art games are a big thing after all (to name an obvious type)

Yeah and there were some kickstarters werent there like a monkey island sequel or something?

Not to mention the massive scam called Star Citizen which took off because the guy made the Wing Commander games.

[Syt]

The whole RPG revival, too - Shadowrun, Pillars of Eternity, etc.