By Jessica Conditt
Twenty-one randomly selected indie developers walk into a digital room and ponder the question, "Which online distribution system has been the most effective for your games?"
If this were the set-up to a joke, the punchline would probably be, "Facebook." But for many indie developers, the question of which platform to publish their games on is a very serious one, with potentially dire consequences. Pared down, platform success is all about accessibility, upload and support, and in terms of those factors, there's a clear, unsurprising favorite: Steam.
Blindfolding myself and clicking a Steam page at random would serve me better recommendations than Steam’s algorithm
Hmm, not sure I agree with that. The recommendations I get are usually pretty good, but then again I have pretty large library of games on Steam and hundreds of them in my wish list, along with lots of curators I follow for it to build recommendations off of. On occasion it will throw me a random FIFA game or something I've never bought or shown interest in, but mostly its decent IMO.
Dive into the best Metroidvania games on Steam, from hidden gems to top-rated classics, and embark on unforgettable adventures!
Players can pay to edit their character, resurrect the dead and other actions.
I hate any/all MTX in a paid game (especially a full-price game)... but know that you can spend in-game currency (RC), which you get from killing mobs, to completely remake your character.
@xRisto how much did it change the gameplay though? Changing your character would have probably not cost any rc if they weren't hellbent on getting money by making it inconvenient
You can literally edit your character using in-game gold, dropped from monsters or obtained from selling items, as soon as you reach the first main town. You can even use Rift Crystals obtained from other people using your pawn or dropped from monsters to change your entire character or Pawn. It's paying to avoid doing something that is literally in the game.
They are lucky there using Denuvo or their game and all future DLC etc. would be for free. 🤣
@koga you completely missed the point i was making but go ahead and act like i'm being the wrong one
Capcom cares quite a bit....hence why it was kept from reviewers and initial impressions.
As far as optional...yeah...ALL mtx are optional. That's not the problem. The miss the mark entirely.
Heck buying the game is "optional" too.
The fact that they were hiding this is scummy as hell. I was going to buy this day 1 or day 3. Now I'm reconsidering the purchase entirely because as the reviews point out...there are certain design decisions which have not changed but funnily enough seem to be remedied by these mtx...
In other words they may have left certain features in the game in order to monetize them. So the mtx affected the development of the game in a negative way.
I'm certainly not buying it anymore. It has affected at least one sale from me. I'll pick it up second hand
Very close to buy the game at a discounted price but not anymore.
Bad business practice and hence they do not get my support/money !
It wasn't kept fromreviewers s though. Twitter reviewers are saying there was mention of mtx's in the reviewers guide
STOP. USING. THAT. SHITTY. EXCUSE
God damn man
Look how DLC changed after Oblivions horse armour, within 10 years most developers took the absolute p***. What was said then aswell? “It’s only optional who cares?” Now look where we all are.
There’s no half measures with these things, when will people realise this.
Oh it’s gonna get worse. Ng+ locked behind mtx, “cool downs” preventing you from playing for more than 3 hours at a time unless u pay the mtx for unlimited access, main campaign bosses, in-game music, certain dialog, difficulty modes, certain npc interactions, all locked behind mtx, etc.. etc. gonna end up being like the NBA 2k games eventually paying for cross overs and shit… They gon get mid-evil on our asses.
I can guarantee most of the items you can buy with mtx and ingame currency wouldn’t exist in ANY paid form if the main goal wasn't monetization. If the goal is to give idiots who are willing to pay for basic game features as mtx a way to do things faster then the only ones the mtx hurt are the non paying players as you are now locking features behind a grind that you chose to put in the game that you are essentially admitting to creating some type of time sink. I have never heard of a game locking basic character editing behind a ingame paywall, it’s usually just an option.
Takes two to tango though - unfortunately people buy this garbage which incentivises the behaviour. It's an inevitable outcome of the profit motive
@Mario
Yes. And so are resurrection "Wakestones." You can find them but they're rare.
Buying the game is now very optional too. If you don’t know why then you don’t get it.
Because it's only a door way. That's why we care. We've already seen some shit since Mtx was introduced.
1. DD2 is an ARPG with 8 different playable classes
2. There is no multiplayer aspect to the game
3. You can only have one character (have to pay for more)
4. You cannot delete the character unless you go into the game files
5. The game is $70 dollars upfront
Having to pay for more character slots in a game that *features* 8 playable classes is pretty much not optional for an ARPG.
Judging from steam reviews, gamers care. Not plastic gamers. Why didn’t Itsuno mention such MTX would be available in-game? Why weren’t the MTXs there for review copies?
Who cares is how all this started. The many many excuses. Please keep defending these greedy publishers and unfair tactics. We be gamers are the problem
Horse armor
$10 online passes if buying a used copy
Cheat codes gone and are replaced by micro transactions
Unlocking stuff by playing games behind micro transactions and XP boosters
It’s only cosmetic
No one is being forced to spend even though publishers are literally making their games more grindy to force people to play
Full priced games have mobile game type micro transactions
$70 priced games because higher development costs while making record profits and laying off record number of employees
And to play the game early pay us extra $20-30 on top of full price
Release games now and promise to maybe fix them later only to abandon the game
Day one patches that make the games worst
If it’s your favorite game defend the publisher if it’s not hate on another publisher for similar content
Yeah these are really bad ones. Directly impacting gameplay too. Super scummy move. I hope nobody buys them.
Yet Helldivers 2 gets a pass? Y’know a GotY contender by the name of RE4 had them and so does Devil May Cry V. The funny thing is I enjoyed both of those games thoroughly without having to buy a single microtransaction.
What I do consider a valid complaint is not being able to start a new game or being able to edit your character. That’s kind of a seriously baffling decision, but then I think how I played Dragon’s Dogma 1 and I never edited my character and I just did a 100% playthrough on a single file and didn’t start a NG since. So, I don’t think these are really going to impact me, but I can see how it will others.
Helldivers 2 is a live service game where everything is obtainable in game with incredible ease.
Not sure about re4 or DMC but nobody is giving anyone a pass ...this article is about dragons dogma 2...not those games.
What is valid are in game features made to supposedly force you to think carefully only to have a surprise online store offer solutions to built in problems for more money.
Those same things they are selling can be found Ingame as well. U can buy the character editor through merchants with gold. Don't get me wrong..I dislike these mtx they are doing but you don't need to buy them to be able to get them.
Oh my bad, I can’t bring up games with microtransactions that nobody had a sh*t fit over. My mistake.
I love how people move the goalpost.
@goose
@crimson
All mtx sucks. I'd rather helldiver's not have them because it makes me wonder if the rate at which you collect materials. That said. The games features are all fully enjoyable and aren't affected by the mtx.
That's not the case with dragons dogma 2...they left in place features that are supposedly part of the challenge of the game only to let you buy your way out very conveniently. I didn't look through all of them but I've heard some are rare but can be purchased with more money now. Even more so in a game about managing weight load there's a tent, I believe, that you can pay more money for that weighs less than your typical tent...not all sure on all the mtx and I'm aware that you can purchase many through in game vendor but they're incredibly useful mtx that are obtained much more slowly in game...or even a limited amount of them.
Instead is selling fast travel...just let us don't for free....or instead of selling cosmetic changes...how about letting us do it for free...
Nothing in helldivers comes close to this abomination
One is a single player game and one is a live service game. One is $40 vs＄70. And most importantly, one game is there to spread democracy.
It's not incredibly easy for certain things in helldivers though u still have grind quite bit but u ate correct in saying u can eventually get enough medals to purchase stuff
It was extremely scummy that capcom hid this from reviewers. I have no doubt this game is good but these type of microtransactions don't sit well with me. They've lost a sale from me
I was going to pay full price to support this game because I've been waiting for it for forever but I think I'll wait until I get it for free from Epic or a Humblebundle monthly.
I am not defending Capcom, as I am not a fan of MTX in single player games. I do however belive they were open to reviewers about having MTX in their game. The reviewers just decided to leave that part out. Which is very disingenuous. There are some companies that get away with these things. Image if this was done by EA, Ubisoft, or even Activision? I am positive those defending Capcom, would have had their pitchforks ready if the companies listed above did this
That's why reviewers can't be trusted. In fact, they are not reviewers at all. They get free codes to talk about stuff they don't understand nor care about.
I mean it was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes...one of the items you get from deluxe edition was in game items.
1500 Rift Crystals - Points to Spend Beyond the Rift (A)
Which honestly I figured they kept a similar mtx system like DMC5 and the optional red orbs.
1500 Rift Crystals doesn't mean anything. The first game had Rift crystals too, you just earned them by people hiring your Pawn and you get it from certain quests.
A reviewer's job is to point out the obvious of a product as though they were the consumer. This means reviewers, to do their actual job, would need to review the complete game: the edition they are reviewing, how they got the game, technical aspects, story, and monetization scheme. Since, it is obvious that MT's are a part of the game, it would need to be reviewed. This way people can be informed, so they can decide if they want to play this style of game/monetization scheme.
For example, AC Origins was bad with Mt's. I had to farm side missions or pay to advance the story. This was after I already did close to 25 or more side missions. While I was grinding there were constant reminders that I could pay to ease the grind. I would have never bought the game if it were reviewed properly.
Steam is hands-down the best value for no subscription(Ps+) digital service. Unlike Sony and MS, Valve are not being held by the balls by retailers.
Long live the King and may he enjoy many more years of trolling us with Half Life Ep 3.
Steam wins any contest by a long shot. Although PS+ is a great service the PS store is massively overpriced with several new games selling at a ridiculous £60! And MS Points, what was wrong with real currency?
GoG.com beats steam and every other sevice hands down no contest and if indie devs are not releasing on GoG.com they're stupid and smell like poo
Steam is the best, obviously. I love having PS Plus, as well. Steam sales, PSN sales, and PS Plus all ensure that I have more games than I know what to do with. ;)