i mean, they kind of didn't have a choice, i'd think.
sony's retarded decision basically hurt everybody 'downstream', from the publisher DEVELOPER arrowhead studios, to steam/valve, to the actual consumers.
but especially steam/valve, because the only people who would have refunded their purchase would have been the people who bought the game on the PC, on steam, meaning that because of sony's stupid decision, they were getting hit with constant refund requests. i can't even imagine how much money valve lost because of sony's idiocy.
valve doesn't pay extra, they always have the customer support on hand or an outsourced contract. the only thing really changing is average time of reply going up.
refunds don't come out of steams pocket either, payout is done at the end of the month, they'll just deduct it from any sales or withhold it till the account is balanced. the only thing that will have ruined someone's weekend (if there isn't someone one call anyway) is having to deal with arrowhead changing the terms making the game unplayable in certain regions. that's something CS doesn't deal with and requires a decision from higher up.
however, people focus too much on sony here. yes, sony is retarded, hold your trashcan. and it's easy to gloat, but let's recap how we got here:
- sony tells arrowhead to make the game, one requirement being linked PSN account
- arrowhead fucks up their servers to the point people can't even play (everyone has conveniently forgotten that shitshow it seems)
- due to this, they disable the PSN link, full knowing it's a requirement from sony.
- do fuck all for three months, basically going critical drinker "nah it'll be fine"
- sony at some point demands the PSN link, as expected.
up until this point, who is at fault here? sony for requiring psn accounts? keep in mind no one would have a problem with it if accounts had been a requirement from day one, people would either bought it anyway or skipped it before putting time into the game. no ne gives a shit that halo MCC needs an xbox account, or any of the other launchers - people just don't buy it.
to make matters worse, the swecucks didn't even consider that steam regions != psn regions, causing further issues down the line.
all sony did really was demanding sticking to the agreed terms. maybe a bit too boneheaded, but can anyone really give them shit for that? it's easy for arrowhead to shift the blame and go "bad sony made us do it" when it's their fault really (granted iirc the CEO said as much, but still didn't really made it clear to the average redditor).
I have a feeling a year from now that the gaming industry will be unrecognizable.
The sheer aggression of their ESG implementation is like the troon shit on steroids and internet/tech culture shifts a 100 times faster than real life culture.
I'm gonna make a prediction and check back in 6 months:
>GTA6 will be a dumpster fire
>All triple A games will have ESG/kike shit out the ass and their won't ever be another Elden Ring tier game
>Every promising indie game will have ESG or be a bait and switch
>Japan will bend the knee hard enough that they will start uglifying/trooning their anime characters
>Gaben will die of a "heart attack" and the company will be taken over by kikes and ruined within months
Anybody else wanna chime in with some predictions?
I am blackpilled as the next guy, but those predictions ignore quite a lot of factors. GTA6 will sell no matter what, they could make you suck the puss out of a troon's stinkditch in full 4k, doesn't matter when most people play it for the multiplayer. AAA already is infested with ESG because that's how their funding scheme works. for the same reason most indies don't get pozzed because they are not eligible anyway or have the freedom to avoid it. if they do it it's some soy-mentality of "being inclusive" living in a bughive, but even then there are literally thousands of games released by now each year, just pick a non-pozzed one.
japan will always produce for japan first, and even if they try to turn it into europe 2.0 it's gonna take time, and TPTB don't even have the luxury of cheap credit and a strong economy anymore. people not being able to afford food and housing usually leads to give zero fucks about the feelings of some LGBTBBQ.
as for gabe, we'll see how it goes. but even in the worst case valve has license agreements with literally millions of users, you can't just void that and go #yolo. the minute even the worst new owner tries to fuck with it too much they will be dragged in front of several courts at once. besides, the way it's set up valve doesn't even need to sell out, and since steam is like pokemon, shitting money for low effort, why fuck with it (yes that didn't keep people from going full retard in the past, but not everyone is retarded, otherwise we wouldn't have steam in the first place).
But despite everything you've said on the subject, the PC market has grown exponentially, even in Japan, where PC gaming was historically non-existent. Now, its actually becoming an increasing part of Japanese gaming culture. If Steam released a better Steambox today, they'd completely undersell Sony and Microsoft. But even if they don't, the Switch already is, as its sales prove, and the PC gaming itself still exists for those willing to invest or looking for the best possible performance.
the switch is still a console. my point was there will always be people buying a console over a pc because they don't need or want more. I mean how would you sell a PC to the average cod-player? he doesn't care about price or 4k, and while it has crossplay (which isn't the norm) to play with some mates on PC it also means cheaters and people with mouse/keyboard. or someone who uses it as a netflix box to maybe buy the big moviegame every 2-3 years he saw the advertisement of? and that's before you go into any stereotypes of "PC=work/console=kids toy" you'd have to overcome etc.
