Tweaktown: Microsoft's ZeniMax buyout complete, listed as 'realized' by investor

[GrrImAFridge]

I'm just arguing that it meant they implemented a better one than simply going the mainly console route of just doing what the laws require and sometimes only applying them in the country that has those laws rather than a unified policy which they could have easily done. It's less you and more I've kept seeing it being argued that Steam's refund policy was due to laws not competition but the laws just required Steam to implement one, they didn't need to go beyond it in the way they did.

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Ah, right. Yeah, I don't think it can be discounted that the terms of Steam's refund policy were, at least in part, shaped by what EA had done earlier with Origin.

 

[Synth]

i didn't know. thank you for correcting me.
is it right to assume that cloud saving is now also free on the PS ecosystem?

I don't think it was that surprising we got half life game. After all valve always use half-life to introduce concepts.
what i would be surprised is us getting a half-life 3 without any "gimmick"/new tech. Valve did the lab and had several partners in VR before comepting themselves, like HTC Vive.

assuming steam hardware survey isn't too far from reality we can say:
Despite occulus comeptition Valve headset is the 3rd most used one at around 16% of the player base. Which , IMO, is Huge for a 1000€ product. Oculus quest 2 (300€) and rift S (450€) only have around 22% of the market each despite being half price of index.

I also want to add that valve's comeption in VR space (16% vs 50% of occulus) is by offering better products not by fleecing costumers by using exclusives (i can use my rift s to play valve's Alyx)

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Valve doesn't compete only via the Index, but also SteamVR. They were in competition with Oculus even in the earlier days of their partnership with HTC (hence Vive being pushed on the Steam storefront).

Whilst Half-Life has been used to push new gameplay concepts, the fact that it launched within the window of the Index can't be overlooked. As you said, it's perfectly playable using an Oculus headset, and yet:

A) They didn't put the resources forth until it aligned with the launch of their own competing hardware.
B) None of the applications Valve created have made it onto any other competing VR storefronts, whether that be on PC, Quest, PSVR, etc. They have been functioning as a platform holder, creating platform exclusives.

 

[ThatNerdGUI]

lol the usual suspects are still crying doom and gloom huh?

just buy an xbox if you really want to play Beth games. If you didn't want Zenimax to seek out an acquisition you should've bought their games back on PlayStation instead of letting the sales stay so flat

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Or a PC since the same group of people are the ones that say you don't need an Xbox and you get a PC instead, or cloud streaming if the other options bother you. The fact is that in the end the console market is roughly 1/4 of the gaming market. In the end Bethesda games will be available to the bigger part of the market being only on the MS ecosystem (Console, PC, Mobile/Cloud Streaming). People really need to get out of the console bubble.

 

[Firima]

People really need to get out of the console bubble.

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People (especially here in ERA) have a vastly overinflated sense of importance when it comes to the PlayStation brand. When these games are announced as not coming to PS5, maybe they'll get to see just how unnecessary their sales are for the health of the industry, especially given this particular publisher's affinity for the PC platform.

 

[Classybro]

What is this thread even about anymore lol

 

[Kyra]

Why is this topic so long?... Oh.

 

[Nilou]

Given that this thread has completely derailed and run it's course it has been locked.