That’s just the reality of ‘adult’ being the most common euphemism for porn in English, as in ‘adult films’. It’s not going anywhere.

On the other hand, this is Valve capitulating to PayPal and removing games from sale for everyone because a payment provider didn’t like them. Not a good precedent to set.

Just dropping in to say what follows in this thread is the most pointless, overblown argument I’ve seen in a very long time.

Full-on, unironically, arguing over dictionary definitions with each other and trading insults.

This is what the internet does to some people. Look on and despair.

Why save 2 clicks when you could save 3?

The menu item in question reads as follows:

Chicken Pops

Small, itchy, blister-like bumps caused by the varicella-zoster virus; common in childhood.

The pic from the article with candles and ray traced reflections is giving big ‘time cube’/geocities conspiracy theory energy

Wow, Silverlight - now there’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.

This has nothing to do with SKG.

The games aren’t being disabled, they’re being pulled from sale due to a legal/rights dispute. That’s not what SKG is about.

Interesting! I wonder if it’s in any way linked to the word ‘doobie’?

‘Up to 85%’ is a meaningless figure

The definition of indie is always contentious, but there are definitely studios out there who are independent (as in not owned by a larger company) but work with a publisher for funding, marketing, and other support.

Even beyond that bit of semantics, many indies rely on funding from investors of one sort or another, be that angel investors, startup funds, or even just small business loans.

Many of those investors have lost their appetite for games, making it extremely difficult to pay the bills unless you’ve already got a sizeable cash reserve to cover costs.

Tell that to all the smaller studios that have already been decimated and forced to close because of their publishing/funding deals falling through over the last couple of years.

You don’t hear much about it because they’re smaller and/or working on things that hadn’t released yet, vs the occasional big media splashes from companies like MS doing more layoffs, but indies and AA are being gutted too.

It’s comforting to believe that only the biggest companies are struggling, but the industry as a whole is currently in active collapse from the inside out.

I wish that was true, but funding has dried up across the entire sector and that affects the viability of smaller studios more than it does the mega corps with bottomless warchests.

Realistically, it’s Animals for me. Solid narrative theme, Roger Waters’ trademark cynicism at peak potency, great tunes.

But part of me also wants to play devils advocate and say The Final Cut? Okay it’s not the greatest album they made, but it feels raw and real and heartfelt in its own way.

(Yes I also enjoy Waters’ solo albums)

Founded in 1985, Rare is one of the UK’s most historic game developers, best known for Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, and Banjo-Kazooie.

Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, and it has since gone on to create titles such as Kameo, Viva Piñata, Kinect Sports, and Sea of Thieves under the Xbox banner.

Says it all, really. Rare has been mismanaged into the ground for the past 20+ years.

Sadly(?) I don’t think it was actually made with FrontPage 98 - the source is far too neat and clean!!

Agreed. Permanent hardware bans have been a thing since the PS3/360 era.

I’m not saying it’s a good thing that they can unilaterally disable hardware you purchased (although I certainly understand the reasoning wrt cheaters and pirates) but the author here is acting like the idea is some completely new scheme from the diabolical industry villains du jour.

It’s disingenuous at best.

No, I mean the completely unfounded claim that discord’s typing indicators are somehow a tool for analysing users’ writing styles and selling that on to data brokers.

It’s so bizarrely specific that it comes across as an unhinged conspiracy theory, especially when it’s delivered as part of a link salad.

It’s kind of impressive that you managed to squeeze in so many links to references but without including any that actually back up the accusation you’re making.

Like what?

There’s more than one argument against generative AI being used in games, and they don’t all apply to proc gen content. It’s an apples to oranges comparison in most cases.