Comments 323

Re: The UK Government Shoots Down 'Stop Killing Games' Campaign in Official Debate

Markatron84

Online video games are often dynamic, interactive services—not static products—and maintaining online services requires substantial investment over years or even decades.

I feel like this entirely misses the point of the argument Stop Killing Games is making though. Nobody is asking for online games to be updated and maintained forever, or dedicated servers to be provided in perpetuity; they just want to be able to play a game after it's taken offline. If the groundwork is laid down at the beginning of development, why should this be an issue? If, for example, Bioware had implemented a form of offline play in Anthem from the outset, problem solved; they could still wash their hands of it and let the people who want to still play it still play it.

Re: Marvel Cosmic Invasion's Unannounced Final Characters Have Leaked Online

Markatron84

This roster feels really weird and disjointed to me and I feel the same way about it as I did about the one in Midnight Suns:

If you're going to do a space story, fill the game with characters that fit it; characters whose "domain" is space. Get super weird with it. Go for the super deep cuts. Same with Midnight Suns; if you're going to do a story focussing on magic, fill it with the magic-based and supernatural characters.

Have some balls. Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine don't need to be in every Marvel game.

Re: 'Things Are Progressing Really Smoothly': Nomura Shares Rare Update on Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Kingdom Hearts 4

Markatron84

Oh damn, I'd better get my skates on and finish Rebirth. I'm part of the way through chapter 13. Judging by what's happening narratively (and being told that I'm now locked into the area), I assume I'm not far off finishing it.

@LikelySatan

"sales did not meet our expectations."

Fun fact: that phrase - written in Latin - is on the Square Enix coat of arms.

Re: Bungie Boss Pete Parsons Departs as Sony Starts to Take Control of Flagging Dev

Markatron84

You call this journalism? I found the actual quote:

After more than two decades of generally being a massive scumbag, Sony's had enough and is giving me the boot. This journey has been the honour of a lifetime. I am deeply proud of the millions of dollars' worth of classic cars I was able to buy while we laid off hundreds of workers – and most of all I am privileged by the opportunity to nope out of here probably with a sizeable severance package.

Re: Media Molecule's Last Remaining Co-Founder Resigns After Nearly 20 Years

Markatron84

@AverageGamer true, the LBP games sold millions of copies. But I should have clarified: by hit, I was thinking of not just sales, but were the games a financial success? I have to think that the development of tools as fully featured as those in LBP and Dreams had to cost a pretty penny. Plus the cost of the upkeep of the servers to store people's creations, and the moderation of said creations. I might be completely off-base, but while MM's games overall sold reasonably well, it's not hard to imagine that the financial success was hindered somewhat by the very nature of what the games were. Just my thoughts.