Good, because now that Steam's catalogue is very lightly moderated, a lot of demos were being uploaded as separate games already. Here is a search for prologue [External Link], it finds 800 free games.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: StoneColdSpider

Quoting: GuestSo, let me understand.

I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?

Does this feel right to anyone?

Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......

Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.

Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......

This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.

They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.

Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.

Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.

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Quoting: kshadeIt's good that you need some "premium" AI accelerator for this to work, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they decided that it has been "so successful" (read: not enough people buy the hardware) that the less fortunate will get access too - using the power of the cloud, of course.

The initial announcement does attempt to market AI surveillance as premium and desirable by restricting it to a new line of devices. MS has a 49% stake in OpenAI (effectively more than that; they are entitled to 75% of future profits until they recoup the 10 billion or so they invested), they have to hype this tripe. Selling surveillance to employers is one way to make money off this; but I'm guessing they'll also try to racket regulated sectors or corps that don't want discovery to bring them legal trouble into paying more to have a guarantee that such material isn't stored.

There's good conversation on Mastodon; for example someone making the point that baking surveillance into the OS enables domestic abuse [External Link]. (There's this whole sidebar conversation about Linux; they are correct that a victim of domestic abuse is not at the point where just switching to Linux is a solution, but anyone else who has a broader horizon definitely helps by supporting Linux as a platform that empowers users over monopolies.)

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Quoting: jarhead_hThere IS an easy answer for this. REQUIRE that ALL SOFTWARE be open sourced ten years from date of first sale. Then the community can take it from there.

My proposal in the same spirit: once a game or a significant feature of a game (an online mode for example) becomes unsupported or no longer available, a dump of the server backend must be published, anyone who owns the game (or, excuse me, has or had a license) gets access to a DRM-free version and is permitted to strip their copies of DRM or point them to other servers, and the game and its servers and supporting infrastructure are fair game for reverse engineering, emulation, and so on (reversing the kind of preservation-hostile restrictions that crop up in EULAs).

No requirement for publishers to support their old games if they don't want to, but a right for anyone willing to do it in their place.

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I've been following the progress on Mastodon [External Link], and this looks like it will be a well-polished game!

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Anyway, she's a fun character to play, very dynamic, but not an easy one (like the other "don't stop moving to the beat" characters)

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Quoting: tonitch

Quoting: elmapulthe Queen of copyleft now is a guest character in an game that support linux natively, that is just perfect!

I really think this title is cool and I wanted to see if it was real or what. I searched on google only to realise that title is not given to anyone yet ! So is it a fact now ?
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22queen+of+copyleft%22 [External Link]

I looked, the official site has Creative Commons BY-NC character designs [External Link]. It wouldn't cover this (commercial) DLC; and copyleft would be BY-SA. I don't know how the music is licensed (when going through Vocaloid software or without) either, and I think there's a lively doujin scene that would mostly ignore copyright as long as the players don't look too big. It is a form of remix culture, but not the same as open source or copyleft.

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Quoting: M@GOidSo what is he upset about: that they milked the game by creating multiple DLCs, or that they decided to end development of the game?

For anyone who didn't read the links to figure out the EE/MT relationship:

This former Deadcells dev blew the whistle on the former developer, now IP owner, of dead cells (MT), "firing" the entire outsourced dev team of 60 or so people (EE), a lot of whom were ex-MT, by making a unilateral announcement that dead cells was done being updated.

At this point MT has not been involved in dead cells outside of being an IP owner. I'm guessing most copies sold were after the split. The people who should have been involved weren't.

And it stings to think of the small cooperative behaving unfairly and the newer, traditional company offshoot supporting many more workers and being fairer to them.

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Here's some industry journalism that sheds light on the relationship between Evil Empire and Motion Twin (via the dead cells subreddit): https://www.gamesindustry.biz/from-dead-cells-to-reinventing-retro-ip-the-untold-story-of-evil-empire [External Link]

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Quoting: kneekooFormer lead designer and developer on Dead Cells, Sébastien Benard, said on Discord:
<snipped/>

Now an interesting blog post: https://deepnight.net/blog/regarding-dead-cells-termination/ [External Link]

I don't think he claims special knowledge of current events, but he would be well placed to know the history:

Quoting: DeepnightFor the context, I’ve been an associate at MT for about 19 years and was responsible for most of the design of Dead Cells, and its development, from gameplay, controls, balancing, items and down to the engine (see gamebase). I was not alone, but frankly, I had direct implications on all its parts.

Here is also a quick presentation of the Dead Cells related companies:

Motion Twin (including myself) created the game and released 2 DLCs.
While Motion Twin retained the IP, Evil Empire, created by former MT associates, continued the hard work and released 22 new major updates and DLCs, for about 5 years. They hired 50 people during that period of time.

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