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Google has had quite the trajectory. At first, they were just purely a search engine, and a good one, and that was OK. And then there was a time when if I heard that Google was announcing some new thing they were doing, I'd be sort of pleased and interested, my assumption being that chances were it would be something interesting or useful. After a while there was a phase where if Google announced something I'd be kind of dubious, both over whether it was a good thing and over whether it mattered because probably they would abandon it soon anyway.

Now we've reached a point where if I hear Google is doing some new initiative my instinctive reaction is more like "Oh, God, what is it this time?" and hoping it won't do too much harm.

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Quoting: wit_as_a_riddle

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: wit_as_a_riddleI find the moral indignation over what others do with their own hard earned money to be performative.

That sounds like it makes sense, but it's ludicrous. So, Geoffrey Epstein spent his own hard earned money on sex with underage girls. I am morally indignant about that. Not you, though, that would be "performative".

That sounds like it makes sense, but it's ludicrous! The morally repugnant issue is sex with underage girls, spending money on it or not is irrelevant.

Uh, yeah. Go look at what you said.

Your point was that if people were spending "their own hard earned money" on something, that meant we shouldn't be morally indignant about it. This appeared to be an admonition completely independent of the content of what those people were doing with their "hard earned money". I pointed out the absurdity of this. You have just confirmed it--yes, whether someone spends "their own hard earned money" on something is in fact irrelevant to whether we should feel moral indignation about it. So, your initial statement was ludicrous.

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I kept thinking it was weird this game wasn't in my Steam library, as I was sure I bought it. Turns out that was back when I was young and naive and still had faith in GOG. I think it's time to repurchase it on Steam and get actual customer support.
(for reference, the Steam Linux depot was updated along with the Windows and Mac depots; the GOG Linux version has indeed been ignored for about 7 years)

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Quoting: doragasuNow Nintendo needs an AI tool to automate Cease & Desists.

Rest assured they're way ahead of you. 🤬

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Since my language version of Pooh was not named Winnie, the only association I have with this name is Danica McKellar in The Wonder Years. 😇

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Quoting: HamishI actually came across this game just the other day while looking into something else. The GOG.com version does not have the patch yet but they usually take longer to get it so.

It's worse that just a delay... The macOS and Linux releases on GOG didn't get any updates since 2019!
That's what I was talking about, we always hear the excuse of "it's because GOG Galaxy isn't on Linux", but what's the excuse for the macOS download then?
I don't think we'll ever see them.

On the topic still, what a changelog thought!

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Quoting: LoftyThanks for the info. Not to be lazy but i do sometimes wish Linux had more native apps with an actually decent GUI for doing cool stuff like this.

You know I had almost the same discussion 6 days ago on Reddit so here is a verbatim copy:

There is not really a way to do this even on e.g. Windows. This will always require tinkering with the game. Each is different, each uses different head tracking systems (if any at all and it doesn't require mapping to virtual gamepads or even mouse input) and almost no game ships with native SBS support.

When ReShade is involved you have a list of supported games but when it's missing you have to start tweaking and configuration your own config. That's worthy of an extended article in itself.

This is really exactly what VR solved (and even here it's YMMV) handling various devices and making data available via a well known and unified API. This is where Monado is a nice alternative but afair they don't support Vitures [yet].

Oh and don't get me started why there is no unified API for head tracking at all. Can probably thank Naturalsoft threatening everyone with a law suit for years while trying to protect sending 6 digits to a game for decades 🤢

tl;dr: some things users have to understand the basic concept. Too many moving parts.

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Quoting: doragasuNow Nintendo needs an AI tool to automate Cease & Desists.

Lawsuit slop.

I'm fairly sure that's what law companies will do to each other in the future.
I guess there are positive outlooks as well 😂

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Quoting: LeprottoThis won't block Google AI to intrude into your searches.

I don't use Google for searches, I stopped doing that many years ago, or anything actually, except watching some videos from Youtube with third-party clients.

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Quoting: SzkodnixSo far the only good thing in Epic is that they got regional pricing right for me (or at least in Poland).

I still don't trust that clown Sweeney.

maybe i will play devil's advocate here, but when epic games shut down their Paragon MOBA game, they refunded all donations made by players. Killing games sucks, but at least epic games did a really honourable gesture with these refunds.

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I actually came across this game just the other day while looking into something else. The GOG.com version does not have the patch yet but they usually take longer to get it so.

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Now Nintendo needs an AI tool to automate Cease & Desists.

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...the what?

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Quoting: tohur

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: williamjcm

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

Not everyone pays a VAT and the largest gaming market outside of China is the USA.. the USA alone is the largest market by a long shot compared to any country that pays a VAT. Point is that math don't math.

The math doesn't math. But the US is a small part of the world's game market.

The USA is the SECOND largest market at around $50 billion.. the next closest market is Japan at $17 billion.. like I said the math he put up does NOT math for obvious reasons

I agreed with you that the math doesn't math?!?

It doesn't matter if they're the second largest or the largest or the third largest. What matters is their size compared to the sum of the others. Well, in the end to the others that take VAT, but I won't try to figure that out.
My point was that the US is a minority in the whole PC gaming market. Depending on whom you ask it may be below 20 or around 30 percent, but either way a minority.
(I had deleted my post because I decided not to go into this deeper, but you were too fast. ;) )

The only Europe countries that even show up in the top ten is Germany, UK, and France.. and those 3 combined are less then Japan.. the rest are MUCH less then one of those 3. like I said the vast majority of gamers that spend money do NOT pay a VAT

It seems I misunderstood you on what maths and what not.

(*sigh * I did not want to be pulled into this...)

According to what I read, most US states do have sales taxes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States

... and so does China:

https://globaltaxnews.ey.com/news/2025-0133-china-officially-enacts-vat-law-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-tax-governance

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: williamjcm

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

Not everyone pays a VAT and the largest gaming market outside of China is the USA.. the USA alone is the largest market by a long shot compared to any country that pays a VAT. Point is that math don't math.

The math doesn't math. But the US is a small part of the world's game market.

The USA is the SECOND largest market at around $50 billion.. the next closest market is Japan at $17 billion.. like I said the math he put up does NOT math for obvious reasons

I agreed with you that the math doesn't math?!?

It doesn't matter if they're the second largest or the largest or the third largest. What matters is their size compared to the sum of the others. Well, in the end to the others that take VAT, but I won't try to figure that out.
My point was that the US is a minority in the whole PC gaming market. Depending on whom you ask it may be below 20 or around 30 percent, but either way a minority.
(I had deleted my post because I decided not to go into this deeper, but you were too fast. ;) )

The only Europe countries that even show up in the top ten is Germany, UK, and France.. and those 3 combined are less then Japan.. the rest are MUCH less then one of those 3. like I said the vast majority of gamers that spend money do NOT pay a VAT

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Quoting: tuubi

Well, I have to admit, I'm a little confused. The video game business since its inception was built on the back of machine learning and artificial intelligence. We create our games in computers with technology.

Give yourself some credit, won't you Mr. Zelnick? You're not just "a little" confused. You're either very confused or very stupid.

How do these idiots end up leading corporations?

Considering the last phrase you cited, I wonder if he wants to run for president.

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I love that the first instinct when something wholesome expires from trademark or copyright is just to make it cursed and shit on everyone's fond memories. /s

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Quoting: tuubiHow do these idiots end up leading corporations?

I just have to assume all the other idiots with money see their fellow idiots and give them money, perpetuating the cycle of C-suite decay.

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Quoting: tohur

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: williamjcm

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

Not everyone pays a VAT and the largest gaming market outside of China is the USA.. the USA alone is the largest market by a long shot compared to any country that pays a VAT. Point is that math don't math.

The math doesn't math. But the US is a small part of the world's game market.

The USA is the SECOND largest market at around $50 billion.. the next closest market is Japan at $17 billion.. like I said the math he put up does NOT math for obvious reasons

I agreed with you that the math doesn't math?!?

It doesn't matter if they're the second largest or the largest or the third largest. What matters is their size compared to the sum of the others. Well, in the end to the others that take VAT, but I won't try to figure that out.
My point was that the US is a minority in the whole PC gaming market. Depending on whom you ask it may be below 20 or around 30 percent, but either way a minority.
(I had deleted my post because I decided not to go into this deeper, but you were too fast. ;) )

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Quoting: eggroleI don't get the hate for Epic. I've never bought from them because I didn't want to have more launchers, but now that I use Steam and Heroic I have no real reason not to if the price is right. I get all their free games and have played plenty of them with no issues.

I am glad Epic is doing better. More competition means that Steam (and GOG) won't be able to sit around.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should start buying on Epic - you do you - but clearly enough people are buying that Epic isn't failing, and that IMHO is a good thing.

Well said! Steam is a monopoly, however benign, and competition is essential. I am also happy that Epic is doing better.

I've gotten pretty much every free game Epic has given away and have played quite a few - there's very little effort involved in getting them to run on Linux, either through Wine or through Steam/Proton or with launchers like Heroic, especially since most of them are DRM-free. I've even purchased a couple of games on Epic because they were great deals at the time compared to Steam: Subnautica: Below Zero and Outer Wilds.

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I'm disappointed by the lack of double entendres in the headline. Consider this post a sternly worded letter to the editor.

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tohur

Quoting: williamjcm

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

Not everyone pays a VAT and the largest gaming market outside of China is the USA.. the USA alone is the largest market by a long shot compared to any country that pays a VAT. Point is that math don't math.

The math doesn't math. But the US is a small part of the world's game market.

The USA is the SECOND largest market at around $50 billion.. the next closest market is Japan at $17 billion.. like I said the math he put up does NOT math for obvious reasons

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Quoting: williamjcm

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

Not everyone pays a VAT and the largest gaming market outside of China is the USA.. the USA alone is the largest market by a long shot compared to any country that pays a VAT. Point is that math don't math.

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Well, I have to admit, I'm a little confused. The video game business since its inception was built on the back of machine learning and artificial intelligence. We create our games in computers with technology.

Give yourself some credit, won't you Mr. Zelnick? You're not just "a little" confused. You're either very confused or very stupid.

How do these idiots end up leading corporations?

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Quoting: SzkodnixI'm still worried about the price. Even the most pessimistic scenario of $1,000 is becoming less and less realistic option.

They claimed "mid range pc" pricing ... which is totally fine by me for what it is. So as long as they stick to that, I'm all good.

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I remember having fun with the game when I played it back in 2018. Definitely worth the measly 3.75€ it's going for on Steam currently, if you enjoy the genre.

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most cursed game name of all time?

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Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: williamjcmThe reason the third-party sale numbers increased by that much is because they now include VAT, while previous years didn't include it to my knowledge.

That makes no sense, where in the world do we have 57% VAT?

I mean, it would still have increased compared to the previous year, just *much less* than what Epic's claiming. For example, if we assume that everyone on the EGS paid a 20% VAT, then the "before VAT" spending would have been around 333M$, which would seem much less impressive.

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I don't get the hate for Epic. I've never bought from them because I didn't want to have more launchers, but now that I use Steam and Heroic I have no real reason not to if the price is right. I get all their free games and have played plenty of them with no issues.

I am glad Epic is doing better. More competition means that Steam (and GOG) won't be able to sit around.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should start buying on Epic - you do you - but clearly enough people are buying that Epic isn't failing, and that IMHO is a good thing.

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I'm curious to see what the future holds for the Epic Games Store. It's well known that Tim Sweeney is very anti-Linux and with more and more people leaving Windows behind, sooner or later he will have major problems with that attitude.

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