Quoting: Linas

Quoting: Salvatos

Quoting: tuubi- Canada (excluding Quebec).

Every. Damn. Time.

What makes Quebec special? For me it sounds like saying Germany, but excluding Bavaria.

If it weren't for the fact that France is included I might imagine they didn't want to do French . . . but France is included so I have no idea.

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"Hypersomnia"? I feel like this game would put me to sleep.

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Quoting: TheRiddickMaybe they should go after MS Windows for the constant gatekeeping shit that goes on there.

MS should have been broken up back at the turn of the century. The fix was sure in there.

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Quoting: GuestFinally! First two are very good points. I mostly buy games on platforms other than steam, but they can't sell games that are also listed on Steam for cheaper. (Example: CD Projekt Red with *their* games on *their* platform (GOG))

I don't think we know this to be the case. It might be, and maybe something will come out in discovery. But it might well not be. It does seem like something a dominant platform would want to do . . . but it also seems like something a dominant platform might avoid doing, or at least avoid formally doing, for fear of legal complications.

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Quoting: finaldestExcessive Pricing, I don't see any complaints against MS, Sony, Nintendo.

From the article:

Represented by Milberg London LLP, it's worth noting this is not their first rodeo, as they're also going after Sony for £5 billion.

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Quoting: d10sfanThis makes little sense, 30% is pretty industry standard.

Some people think it's not a reasonable standard though. I think it basically comes from Apple setting 30% for iTunes--just a rule of thumb that got established as what the traffic would bear. Nothing sacred about it. And none of the people charging it have been very keen to let anyone get a look at their revenues and expenses to see if it's reasonable, so it's hard to tell if it is, in fact, a reasonable toll--or if it's reasonable in some industries and less so in others. iTunes doesn't exactly have to host everyone's saved games, for instance, or their mods, or do frequent version updates to everyone who bought some song, et cetera. So taking 30% for a music store may be much less reasonable than 30% for a computer game store.

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Well. Although the lawsuit is about more or less the same stuff, the relevant laws could be quite different so who knows how it will play out. Wonder what will come out in discovery.

I'm kind of neutral on the suit itself. I mean, I like Valve, but let's face it, they're probably doing some of that stuff. If we're going to have a functional monopolist controlling a very dominant platform, I'd rather it was Valve, but probably it would be better if we didn't have that.

I've been thinking lately, though, that Valve is really by far the best outfit controlling such a platform. Look at the music industry--there's a couple players controlling everything (spotify, Apple, Ticketmaster) and the landscape they have established has led to most musicians finding it impossible to even come remotely close to making a living doing music; the remuneration for musicians has imploded, literally a fifth or something of what it was just 20, 25 years ago. Google search is becoming more and more enshittified, as are all the social media platforms, Amazon cheats both its customers and the other vendors who have little choice but to use its platform, and so on. But PC gaming still sees plenty of surprise hits from indy developers, and Valve does not systematically shit on them. There is no indication that Valve is jimmying its game discoverability to favour anyone for payola. They collect the toll, but in return they still seem dedicated to providing a good platform that works--they don't always succeed, but I've never seen anyone claim that they're deliberately messing it up the way Google are deliberately messing up their search.

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Wow. That ship is more Studio Ghibli than Studio Ghibli.

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Quoting: basedWhat I really want is to be a crime lord (think of anything with drugs, prostitution, money laundering, holding people for ransom, etc etc etc...)

So, Crusader Kings.

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Quoting: melkemindIstanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

But, why did Constantinople get the works?

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