As Embracer Group crumbles before our eyes, it offers a stark warning to what consolidation in the gaming industry could lead to.
In recent years, Ubisoft has canceled several games, one of them being a project code-named Renaissance.
With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process.
Putting Ads in a pay-to-play Premium title? Well done Microsoft. Well done /s This is really scummy.
This game will never change because these sweatlords love buying up all the skins and bundles that become obsolete the following year. They're the ones perpetuating Activision's greed.
If Microsoft introduces adverts into its other games I hope it can do them without disrupting the immersion of the game world. So for example in the new Fable game it would look out of place if there was a billboard advertising Cadillacs.
A far better way to do it would be to have a wizard conjure a 'dream cloud' in front of your character and then in the cloud you can see the Cadillac car and see the text with price and availability and hear a booming sales voice promoting the car. That would work so well as it wouldn't be a billboard and completely, 100%, fit in with your character's adventuring in Albion. Doesn't that sound so much better?!
@venom, or how about our of 100 farts in Albion, 1 of them has a Cadillac pop out
The first direct and natively supported comparison between identical Windows 11 and SteamOS gaming hardware is here. And it's pretty much a bloodbath for Microsoft.
"And it's pretty much a bloodbath for Microsoft."
OOOKAY! ..Interesting choice of words for that topic lol
Maybe a bit extreme lol. But it's really interesting. Seen one or two videos of Forza Horizon 5. One of the testers used a low end Rx 6500 xt GPU. Using windows FH5 got a average of 62fps fairly respectable. But the same setup using Steam OS using the same settings FH5 got a average of 94fps. Thats a massive gain.
Racing games are pretty much always easy to run though. Look at the more demanding ones, 5-13fps gain, not bad but if you already have a decent PC to begin with those gains are small. For a handheld though I guess any boost is a decent boost.
Yup I would also say that the last time a Windows operating system was good was Windows XP
It has basic Linux in it, and you can stuff it with the Linux equivalent of all the apps your casual PC user uses on Windows. The Steam portion of it basically acts like Steam Bug Picture mode which it loads up automatically to that for a more console like experience. It isn't JUST made for gaming.
And anyone that has tried to extend the life of PCs knows the best way to improve the performance is to replace Windows with Linux
@crazyCoconuts:
I dunno, man. I switched to Pop OS exclusively about two weeks ago and when it comes to games i've gotta say i'm a bit disappointed. I had to stop playing A Plague Tale Requiem because i was getting a fluctuating 15-20fps. On Windows I was around 45fps, letting me lock down a perfect 30. With RT. Even Ghost of Tsushima, which i had running at a perfectly locked 60 in Windows, chugged with Proton on the same settings. I had to turn on DLSS Frame Gen to achieve anything even slightly playable (while still looking nice). I really don't like the look of frame gen, not gonna lie. Had to stop playing that as well.
Even RPCS3, which one would assume would run better in Linux, is noticeably worse. Siren Blood Curse chugs like crazy in the split screen segments when it otherwise never did. Plus HDR just isn't possible. I'll say the mandatory UE4 shader compilation step does solve the stutters that otherwise destroy Windows games, though. That's one plus. Needs some work, though. Maybe native Linux games are better.
Still worth it to get away from Microsoft tracking my every move and throwing ads at me every chance they can. Plus it looks CLEAN as hell. Likely never going back to Windows.
@amp, yeah totally agree. While Linux as an OS is clearly leaner and faster, as long as we're relying on compatibility layers for games, things can get squirrelly on a case by case basis. Publishers need more Linux gamers to justify a separate build target, so it's kinda a chicken and egg problem right now
@Sorftware_Lover
Aren't you forgetting the fact that almost all games are "made for Windows"?
It would be a long road, but that could change. At least a start would be ensuring all games run under proton. Eventually moving away from DirectX. That's probably wishful thinking though
Should we be surprised?
Steam OS is built solely for gaming, whereas Windows 11 is packed with numerous security features and various overall processes.
I switched to Mint couple months back and it was the best decision I made. Turns out my laptop isn't a complete POS, Windows is. Windows has been a complete headache since I got my laptops a few years back and Linux fixes all those problems. I don't even game on my laptop, I just use it for basic stuff and I cannot recommend switching enough.
having the same problems right now with no way back. I have been refusing W11 upgrades all this times with my PC and laptop at home - both Ryzens. but suddenly last week, both of them started to have stability issues for no reason.
the PC with RX6600XT connected to a TV keep crashing and losing display, where I had to keep reinstalling the Radeon software after each reset but no matter what I did, I couldn't get the HDMI audio working anymore despite it has been working fine all this time. the laptop was even worst, it abruptly crashed while I was using MS word and listening to music on YT and then never able to recover again. the Asus recovery, startup repair, restore point, reset windows...nothing worked!
for the PC, I said "F it" and proceeded to W11 upgrade. didn't take long and would you look at that, the Radeon software and HDMI audio working fine from the first boot. this made me think, do MS and AMD have some deal in the back, forcing users to upgrade by purposely messing up their drivers? on the other hand, my laptop was beyond saving, so I fresh installed Windows using USB. thing was, I forgot the USB installer I used was for Win11 not Win10 as I helped a friend build a PC last couple of months and he wanted W11. and yeah my laptop works now.
BUT these don't feel like upgrades at all! they both work but they are noticeably SLOWER than they were when I was on W10! like WTF MS?? it's official that W11 is a bloated, unoptimized mess of an OS that is hiding its flaws behind fast hardware!
By any chance, did you update Windows 10 recently? The May 13th update, dubbed 'The last security update for Windows 10,' is bricking a lot of Windows 10 PCs (including mine) to force people to upgrade to Windows 11.
@CantThinkOfUsername
yeah...I think I might have installed it without knowing. I remember reading about it but it completely skipped my mind at the time. shaddy as hell!
I really don't like Windows 11. If you use an external HDD, it will literally stall out Windows Explorer everytime you open it. It will freeze your PC until the external drive wakes up and spins up.
It does this even when you aren't trying to access anything on the drive. It's so freaking annoying.
Windows 10 didn't have this issue and Windows 8.1 was even better. Windows has been getting progressively slower for a while.
They need to get the Windows 8.1 team to speed this thing up. It has nice features, but it has bogged down the OS.
Features shouldn't use resources unless they are requested.
All corporations under same investors do that, release virus, broken drivers. That's why I hate Windows update cause they fk up on purpose
Dude just buy a xbox or pc and call it a day .
Not a bad article but there were things there that were completely unnecessary like the PlayStation hack, PS3 being expensive to buy or the always online and Kinect of Xbox. These things have nothing to do with industry consolidation.
With Sony, you could have went with the purchase of Evolution Studios and their shutdown after not delivering with Drive Club. Article writer did mention Lion Head closing their doors but could have mentioned the huge publisher acquisitions of Zenimax Bethesda and Activision purchases. It was kind of spoken about to sure up game pass but could have expanded more on these and their effect on the industry and their competitors.
Problem with Embracer is that they haven't made any impact with their purchases. They bought Studios and IP but have done really nothing to show for it. Maybe it was to get profit down the line eventually on their acquisitions by being the owner in the background. But their spending just seemed wasteful.
We'll see what they'll do over time and if it was worth the acquisitions.
With the cost of game development rising so much it is only a matter of time before the small to medium size publishers are required by larger companies. one huge failure, code, sync, the whole ship. Microsoft threw the biggest punch rent it wired so much talent so don’t be surprised when there is a definite reaction to those acquisitions.
I have always said this and I will always say this. I am against game platforms buying of publishers there enough independent studios they could acquire they should never go after publishers and then make their games exclusives
They were a warning since last year when they began shutting down several studios left and right after acquiring the rights to Deus Ex and the Legacy of Kain series.
This is why I don't want MS, Goggle, Amazon or Apple anywhere near gaming. At anytime these tax dodging mega companies can just take huge chucks of any industry they decide to enter away. Until we have consumer protections that are allowed to work outside of MS money hatting we will carry on losing more and more.
The more things owned by fewer and fewer companies the worse everything always gets.