A really good game will find its audience, not always, but the vast majority of the time. The sad part is that mediocrity in the gaming industry (and mass consumer media of all kinds) makes it really hard to find those good games we as consumers, really want to play. And publishers depend on this very fact, because they do not care if you pay for a good game or a bad game, as long as you're desperately paying.
I do not believe in crowd funding, as that model does not work for most of the projects it takes funding in, from its patrons.
But this is one studio/developer whose work I would be happy to risk an investment or three, my god they make great games. Better then most any thing that comes out.
CRPG heroes, they have earned my loyalty, at least for a game... or two.
@branthiumbabe: Yeah, if not for the shear amount of games that come out each year I would be so down about gaming. But sadly the AAA games - you the big games that competed with each other every fall, there is just no competition. Too few big publishers (that consistently put out games on a routine, basis) exist now. Sony/tencent are just too big, too much power, even if deservedly so- they invest heavily in games and put out a ton of them.
Like music and books who would not publish a album of their stable at the same time. For instance a Madonna album and Janet Jackson hitting on the same week, as your just competing with yourself. (god I am old).
I remember the 97' 98' the 2002-2003, the 2007 , 2008 when publishers would drop a strong game right on top of a competitors game just to sour their launch. Which equaled, more great and innovative games.
For an industry bigger then movies, music, books combined... the gaming industry actually has too few players in the AAA space.
but they can take in donations and or patreon, in bitcoin, and through discord, even a paypal donation. While most will get hardly anything, some can make enough money through mods, passion projects, to pay for a 6 figure income.
Even torrents, rips, and mods or emulators can make enough money ... well you have seen the news. I personally have donated to emulators, because I believe in their work to keep software IPs available past their hardware lifespans and limitations. Right or wrong.
You need someone to herd the cats, but you also want a certain amount of head butting when it comes to professional, creative, highly skilled work environments. I mean at Taco Bell you want consistency, but say in a medical setting- you want opinions, you need people to be strong advocates for those opinions, and you want an environment that encourages it. Or else you will have old doctors who only want to do it the old way, and young doctors who want to try something brand new and untested, as having a mix of both is the best. Clicks are good and clicks can be detrimental, knowing the difference is super important.
Butting departments against each other for monetary/nonmonetary milestones is a good way to encourage competition, innovation, and high production. But to prevent infighting, and making sure everyone works well with cross teams, mean that you have got to have management right in the mix, sweating it out with good communication with department heads, including executives.
I miss the passion that the developers had back in the day, as well as the talent. We still have amazing talent and developers, but there is just way too few competition amongst the publishers. Funding is so narrow, with investors asking for publishers to chase fads rather then create great games. There needs to be room for great rewards, and room to fail, and it is not up to the gamers to save bad publishers/developers.
As of this date... I have tried the remaster - I did not buy it.
I am a big fan of the very first game legacy of kain RPG, ... really good back then. Watch minute of it here https://youtu.be/SKTXp3j6Csg?t=750 on YT classic gaming. For 96' it was wildly amazing. The LoK games after were rather good, a bit too much box moving - who knew vampires would spend soo much time dragging boxes around. Good but not great games, I still played through them.
So was the remaster any good... yes and no, there are few quality of life - but the remaster part of it, seems to be a AI overhaul of the graphics giving everything a nice smooth coat of paint, nothing is strikingly stand out. There are no HDR or RT lighting, and the FPS is capped on most platforms at 60, and on pc it looks weird if you try doing anything else. What ever interpolating they are doing, does not work, if you try for higher fps it feels weird. They have brought some graphic overhaul to the main characters, but for the most part everything looks similar but brighter or given some highlights.
If you have not played these two games, try em out they are pretty good and at a reasonable price on steam. If you have, I would just try a emulator and rom, as they have pretty good upscale settings, to take you down memory lane until you remember most of the game is puzzle pieces where you drag boxes around, and platform jump.
Would I have liked a Resident Evil 2 or 4 remake, FF7Remake, of these games... for sure. But right now if you have played these once, you may want to just try a demo, emulator, torrent etc and see. We are getting too many old classic games that were just run through AI, upscaling and replacing graphics, but really adding nothing that amazing, for the $$$ especially if you have played them once already.
Remake Blood Omen to todays graphics or give us a sequel in the franchise, make us something NEW. Sounds weird, doesn't it.
I do feel prices will increase, (with information at this time). But like any price increase, Nintendo-> like any mass electronic consumer good, -> will wait until many other industries increase prices at the time same time. This is following price histories for 60 yrs.
Once tariffs, like taxes, get baked in it is nearly impossible to get rid of, just acclimated to. Decreased features, cheaper materials, worse manufacturing, etc. will be the future of any electronic good under taxation. Materials will get higher, labor will get more expensive, reciprocal taxes will cause - products will Like food, cars, hospital equip, even services... all to go higher to adapt.
Industries will all raise prices at once, even if they do not have to.
The worse part is how hard it is to get rid of a tariff or tax. Just because one country decides to, doesn't mean the other will remove theirs at the same time. Who budges first. And once these get baked in, manufacturers are less likely to drop prices until they know it will favor their profits. Often times, it is safer to just wait and see.
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