Comparing it to the Swit𒐪ch 2 is a little inaccurate, since this is a handheld PC, both more powerful hardware wise, and more flexible software wise. Despite both being handhelds, they aren't really competing for the same crowd.

I do wonder if MS is going to end up subsidizing more of the cost for the holidays. The sweet spot would be $499 and $799, but I suppose we'll 🥃see.

They *could* block♐ them, but I doubt they will. Sony has been looking for 𓆉revenue streams, and getting people on a competitors device to give you money is an easy win, especially since it requires no extra work in their part.

It's time they just went full digital. You have to be pretty stuck in the past to believe "owning" a cartridge will guarantee access, especialꦿly sincღe almost no game launches today without a day one patch, whether you bought it physically or not.

Making the fullꦺ transition means we can finally stop pretending physical games are a form of game preservation, and start pursuing industry changes that lead to actual preservation, like allowing user to make their own copies.

Voting with your wallet means nothing in this🍰 situation, as this is almost all tariff related. The prices spiked primarily here in the US due to the added expense of importing. I guarantee PlayStation will be doing the same ꧒in short order, once they run out of the stock they've already imported. Consoles are already typically sold at a loss, and adding a 20% tax on top of that just digs the hole deeper.

A 3060 or B580 are only $300 right now, and both will greatly out perform the S🧜witch 2. Hell, the 3050 is literally as powerful, and it's only $200.

The issue isn't the price of the hardware, though. Honestly, $450 for a portable isn't bad. It's $80 games that's the issue. Wh𓆏en done of the best e🌺xperiences recently have been $20-$30 indies, expecting people to cough up more than double for Nintendo exclusives is kind of a shit move. It was a problem for the Switch only made worse by it's successor.

As a fellow Starfield fan, I, too don't fully understand the hate. But then, I'm also perfectly centered in the strike 🎶zone for this ♊one.

It reall♔y is the best game Beth has made from a technical standpoint, though it's also a brand new IP. They're starting a full 30 years and 5 🐬games behind Elder Scrolls, and 28 years and 8 games behind Fallout. Psyched to see where they take it, and hopefully being part of Xbox can shrink that dev cycle down a little.

Just played South of Midnight, and it has that vibe. 10ish hou⛦rs, fairly linear, with a repeating but satisfying gameplay loop, it's also aཧn underrated platformer, with fun movement mechanics and light puzzle solving. It feels like something from the mid 2000s in that sense, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Id love to see more of these games getting the spotlight they deserve instead of disappearing in the AAA shadow of other (and often less deserving) games.🌠

I'm not sure the push for live service is fully to blame. For me, a child of♒ the 80s and 90s that grew up on arcade machines rather than consoles, live service is just a modern evolution of the arcade industry, only instead of popping quarters for a few minutes of play, 𒀰we're paying for cosmetics and tier skips. Same vibe, though.

I think it's more a symptom of meddling by nꦗon-gaming C suite execs making too many high-risk/high-reward gambles without even a baseline understanding of their intended audience.

TheGamer missed the point as usual and failed at basic math. The Premium Edition includes the Car Pass ($30) and VIP ($20) for jus⛦t $30 over base price. 5 days early access is a perk, but not the point. If this is a game you're looking to sink serious time into, it's not a scam, and it saves you cash in the end.

The game's Steam peak (~300K) represented less than 2% of Xbox's 15M on launch day. On PS5 it's even worse, with Steam only hitting 1.3% of their 22.6M. Combined, that means BLOPS 6 on Steam only represented 0.7% oܫf the game's launch audience.

While the conso🥀le numbers certainlyꩵ aren't still that high, it remains the #2 game on both Xbox and PS, meaning it can't have dropped that far.

In other words, trying to pull an assumption of a multiplat game's success from Steam numbers is ignorant at best, and irresponsibl🌌y deceptive at worst. Doubly so when it's a Game Pass title available at launch.

Hoyoverse games. I haven't spent any money in one, but I've put in hundreds of hours a little at a time. It's mos♛tly the low cost gambling mechanic of rolling for waifus 🎃mixed with casual combat.

Good thing Steam numbers are there for you when you want to write with a bias. Just ignore that it's a secondary platform for CoD, especially 🍒wi⛎th the game now on Game Pass, or that it remains the #2 game on both PlayStation and Xbox, behind only Fortnite.

Marvel Rivals just disproved anyone saying the live s꧋ervice space generally -- and hero shooters specifically -- can't be broken into. It makes perfect sense that Sony wants to continue trying. Exclusive single player, story driven titles might bring prestige, but they don't pay the bills, and often barely cover their own costs. The only other real options to incre🍷ase revenue are live service or going cross platform, and I suspect both will be party of Sony's future plans.

Google's your friend, guys. BLOPS 6 does d🌄ifferඣentiate skins depending on which team your on. You're either Rogue Black Ops or Crimson One, and each have their own operator skins, including paid skins that are aligned with one or the other. This is an article about something that isn't happening.

A return to physical media isn't practical. It's expensive and creates unnecessary gatekeeping due to only the biggest publications having the budget🧜 to both produce and advertise content.

The real solution (and coincidentally, what could also ensu🦄re game preservation) is a path to proper archiving and access. Letting content go into the public domain sooner would make huge strides towards crowd sourced preservation.

This is just🎃 bad data intended to advance a specific narrative. It only shows what percentage of each age group prefers single player, not the amount of players in each group. The final percentage is overwhelmingly tilted by gamers 45 and over, which less than <30% of the player base, while leaving out players🌺 under 16 completely.

It's not the S. Both of those games are playable just fine on the Steam Deck, an objectively weaker piece of hardware. It's the fact that devs aren't accounting for the console at the begi🎐nning of the dev process. Larian said as much during BG3's Xbox delay.

Skyrim SE was a full graphics uplift that changed the game engine from 32 to 64 bit and included all DLC. It also replaced the the original release in storefronts. Anniversary Edition is not a standalone release, it's a 10th anniversary add-on ♓for SE with additional content.

Guys,♑ it's not hard to Google for your articles...