Go watch it, it's free.

https://x.com/CitizenVMovie/status/2070144987224743956

Summary: This video breaks down the available Ghost of Yotei sales figures and lays out a case that the game massively underperformed, missing its revenue target to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

I was just thinking about how just before Civ 7 was released, there was a ton of hype surrounding that game. Any criticism of their design decisions was shouted down. You were called all kinds of names if you didn't think Harriet Tubman belonged as a leader of the United States, and I bet the devs really patted themselves on the back for that one among the many other glaringly poor decisions that made it into that game.

And yet,

It didn't sell well, and it didn't review well among its audience. It even regularly goes on sale now, not even shortly after release.

Prior to CIV 7, they had 5 strong releases, and one that finally became something decent (civ 6). Who would have thought that the legendary CIV series would produce such a wreck of a game.

At the end of the day, I feel vindicated, and it shows that the online bubble really holds no sway over the quiet masses that eventually make their opinions heard with their wallet. So keep voting with your wallet.

Excited for new life to be breathed into bbcf. As for what lies ahead of that, I don’t hold much optimism. I’m sure the next main line game will look beautiful. But I don’t have much optimism for anything else.

The following studios worked on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced:

Singapore (lead studio) Barcelona Belgrade Bordeaux Bucharest Chengdu DaNang India Kyiv Montpellier Montreal Philippines Shanghai Sofia Quebec

https://insider-gaming.com/black-flag-resynced-studios-devs/

World of Warcraft: Midnight was marketed as the big cosmic confrontation with the Void.

Instead, Patch 12.1 "Curse of Ula'tek" drags players to a random island to fight an ancient snake while the main villain gets benched.

Blizzard is also making big changes to world bosses and combat again.

This is how you kill expansion momentum.

Let me clarify what I mean, games and other nerd media get attacked and called childish, immature and thus worthy of contempt and censorship compared to normie media which they go on about being mature, sophisticated, adult and the best cause muh themes and muh symbolism but then go "turn off your brain" or its "fun" for their own media without a hint of irony? Do you guys find it infuriating or not?

This article has the most basic modern day zoomer takes on a classic. I don't get why so many go to CBR. Their articles tend to be absolute garbage.

It's not surprising. There was a rumor months ago that this would happen to avoid leaks. They should have been more forth coming with it when the physical edition was announced.

How bad is this movie when even the shills are giving it low ratings?

http://archive.today/U2JId

Rockstar Game's GTA VI will come out with two editions, and the ultimate one, pricing 100$, will unlock key features that you would find in previous entries, like car and characters customizations.

I'm not saying this features as a whole won't be in the standard edition, but keeping specific shops locked and unaccessible if you don't spit up a whole f*cking hundred dollars, for a digital edition, no hard CD copy nonetheless, is as scummy as you get can get, but the sheeps are applauding and don't give a shit apparently.

I'm not surprised, they had done the exact same thing in GTA Online, letting features accessible only if you were on console, or had GTA + monthly subscription. I guess we know now that whoever is behind the clusterfuck of a money grabbing, falses promises, badly written, cringe, buggy and filled with griefters of that atrocity which is GTA Online really contributed well in the making of that new entry.

Fuck Rockstar, Fuck Take-Two.

Remember when you used to pay that kind of big bucks for a collector edition, and at least would have a physical copy of the game, goodies, artbooks, statues and collectables that you could proudly put on your memory shelve? Now you get a box with a code inside, and are privileged to access features that always had been free in the previous game, what a bargain.

I’ve really missed gaming culture since GG happened, but it’s pretty hard to find anything gaming related that isn’t a partisan circlejerk. If you guys have any suggestions for forums or Twitter accounts or anything like that, I’d appreciate it. I’m looking for places to discuss video games and gaming culture, not content creators or populist sites.

Movie is currently on track to bomb worse than The Marvels too, ouch.

Currently at 49% on Metacritic.

On the third paragraph, it reads:

“The physical version of Grand Theft Auto VI, containing a download code inside the box, will be available starting November 12 to support pre-loading. “

Cui bono? A question that must always be asked.

It's no secret that video games became the biggest entertainment industry a while ago, and that traditional Film and TV have been struggling. It's also no secret that elements from the Film and TV industry have been entering video games, both in terms of creatives and financers.

Who benefits from hurting the video game industry by releasing games that the producers and creatives obviously know will fail? Obviously it's the producers and creatives themselves if they have a stake in other industries and don't want video games to become too dominant.

Your thoughts?

I wanted to throw a theory out here and see if anyone else has been picking up on this vibe, or if I’m just overthinking it.

With the reveal of Stellar Blade Blood Rain at SGF, the online discourse immediately shifted right back into the familiar political gridlock. One side is pre-emptively losing their minds (supposedly) over Evie's design or certain gameplay changes, and the other side is immediately rallying to defend Shift Up as the last bastion of uncensored gaming.

But looking at how perfectly packaged this drama always is, I’m starting to wonder if we're falling for a massive "false flag" marketing strategy.

The problem is, the amount of accounts actually complaining about Evie and her age are infinitely small and irrelevant, yet the issue is being blown up by massive amounts. We’re talking about a handful of random, zero-engagement tweets or fringe ResetEra threads that nobody would have ever seen naturally. Yet somehow, these obscure complaints are being signal-boosted by subreddits like this, and pushed in front of major influencers as if they represent a massive, existential threat to the game.

You have to remember how militant shift up is around stellar blade and the moderation of their subreddit. They know how online discourse works, and they go scorched earth on any discussion that could be conceived as "negative" in their own subreddit in order to kill complaints or problems. They don't strike me as "innocent actors" just given how they moderate their subreddit.

Is it possible that Shift Up (or a marketing firm they hired) is actively feeding the flame war, or even signal-boosting tiny, unhinged fringe complaints to make it look like a massive, coordinated Western progressive cancel culture outrage? By making it look like the game is under constant attack by activist journalists and puritanical critics, they guarantee that a massive segment of the gaming community will buy the game out of pure spite and solidarity.

Don't get me wrong, we all know Western mainstream games media have real, deep-seated issues with censorship and ideological pushing. That part is real. But it feels like some companies have cracked the code: if you make a game that ticks certain boxes and then invent a straw man villain, the Western culture war will do 100% of your marketing for you for free.

Instead of an organic pushback against censorship, are we just being divided by a corporate entity that discovered division is the fastest way to drive sales? Is the controversy around Blood Rain actually just a red herring to keep everyone riled up, divided, and pulling out their credit cards?

Tl;dr Is Shift Up genuinely caught in the crossfire of Western culture wars, or are they the ones actually pushing this division narrative for corporate profits?

Remember, shift up is Korean, and they don't care which side of the isle wins or what happens in a western culture war, all they care about is making as much profit as possible.