After Steam announced they will discontinue Gift Cards, I got it all wrong: they will discontinue PHYSICAL ones in stores as only scammers and boomers use them these days.

Instead, the virtual ones are in the spotlight of the current Steam Sale. In Europe it shows values of 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 Euro.

#Steam@GameDEV

And the sale is coming in 23 hours!

Hold up...

#meme@GameDEV
#Hardware@GameDEV

You can no longer properly evaluate YouTube engagement on your own videos (without plugins). YouTube studio removed likes and dislikes.

#YouTube@GameDEV
#WTF@GameDEV
#Google@GameDEV

Upload custom, 10mb!
(og Doom fits three times)

#UIUX@GameDEV
#meme@GameDEV

Oddly enough, you can find Likes and Dislikes (after they were removed from YT Studio), but obtaining such a sacred data now requires a dozen of clicks. You have to:

- Switch to Analytics - Advanced
- Set the Date Range
- Set the Metrics (Likes, Dislikes, Ratio)

#YouTube@GameDEV
#SocialMedia@GameDEV
#Google@GameDEV

🤔 QUICK SUMMARY:

Previously, Take-Two leadership (notably Strauss Zelnick) repeatedly said they still believed in physical distribution and did not plan to abandon discs wholesale.

Yesterday the official wording changed and the physical editions are not a pack of BD disks, they are only box + activation code. No reselling value, no alternatives. Right?

The EXACT wording was only from a 3rd party retailers (BestBuy and GameStop) who claimed no disk inside.

Technically the elephant in the room is simply the game's size: cheap 50GB disks are not enough. And printing that many BD disks for every user + deliver them around the world as huge boxes is a nightmare.

- So, Zelnick lied in February? Probably!
- Should you trust a CEO? No!
- What's the alternative? IDK

We need a new disk format...

UPD: Both PS5 and Series X support Triple-Layer Blu-Ray, capable to hold 100GB each. With proper compression on top 2-3 disks would be enough and physical copy seems possible in this case.

#TakeTwo@GameDEV
#GTA@GameDEV

We still remember you, delivery girl!

#Steam@GameDEV

We have a permanent pond in the park with huge red-eared turtles, frogs, fishes, snails, and such. It's just about 50 meters in diameter and made out of the old fountain frame by the nearby university.

During the heavy rain frogs inside make such a loud noise altogether that is audible from a mile away. Such a wonderful place!

Kind advice: do not get these turtles as pets. They are hard to care about, their enclosure must be big, they are nasty eaters, male ones are aggressive and territorial and grow up to 30 cm, they are hunters capable of biting a mouse in half and tear apart any fish.

#OffTopic@GameDEV

Capcom is preparing for Dark Arisen: Dragon's Dogma 2 base pierce was lowered to just $40, and almost all paid DLCs were removed.

The price will most likely improve further on the upcoming Steam Summer Sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2054970/Dragons_Dogma_2/
#Capcom@GameDEV
#RPG@GameDEV

Oh, those wealthy Hungarians secretly rule the world — I always knew it!

#GTA@GameDEV

One day (I'll be 97 or smthn)

#Hardware@GameDEV
#meme@GameDEV

After the cancellation of Destiny 2 support and obvious decline of Marathon, Bungie is laying off "the majority of the Destiny team and some people from the Marathon team". The expected 50% reduction in the workforce from earlier reports was apparently surpassed.

Please, don't read the text on their picture, it's fucked up and today is not that day to read that.

Hermen Hulst's statement.
Bungie's post on Twitter.

#Bungie@GameDEV
#PlayStation@GameDEV

Avatar Season 2 is not working. They are constantly skipping time, teleporting literally thousands of miles without any context or explanation, missing very important things from the original series, and such. The talk to king Bumi alone is such a downgrade, I can't believe they're for real.

Showrunners were forced to turn 8 episodes into 7 and also cut the budget further. So most of these episodes that are left they're talking, chatting, yapping and whining. In such a slow and careless tone that it kills me. Nothing happens 90% of the time.

And I'm the person who kinda liked the season one for some of their ideas and scenes. So imagine how it feels for people who didn't like live action at all.

#Movies@GameDEV

It's not just Steam that is struggling, SteamDB (that gives a much better search tools) is also ain't making it through Steam Summer Sale...

#Steam@GameDEV

Good stuff on sale
(Beyond the obvious)

Just Cause 3 (-85%) — Worthy with DLCs, dumb and fun game on a 1000KM island. Fly around in a jetpack, walk in a spider-bot, destroy 100 military bases, and just have fun.

Ghostwire: Tokyo (-90%) — learn Japanese culture and city legends, also kill ghosts and use them to fly around. Also very sad crap if you into stories.

Dead Island 2 (-90%) — Worthy with DLCs, very fun zombie-slashing game, good in co-op.

RAGE 2 (-80%) — made by Just Cause devs in collab with ID Software. Amazing shooting and powers, huge map, odd driving. Short and dumb story but at least you are the president of the US.

Mass Effect Trilogy (-92%) — literally 100+ hours, all DLCs, still feels good AF. Let's pretend Andromeda never existed, OK?

Blacktail (-80%) — a Slavic folk walking-sim + open-world game about Yaga. You fight trolls and mushrooms, make alliance with Bees and Stones, and find 30 boboks.

Call of Juarez (-90%) — better Wild West game than RDR2. You walk around, shoot everyone in slow-motion, and comment like Jason Statham.

State of Mind (-90%) — we have Detroit Become Human at home. Practice alcoholism, cheat on your wife since she has a scar after the car accident you got her into, neglect your kid, betray best friend, blame others. UPD: Just checked the game and recent reviews say it's crashing in the main menu on modern PCs. So I've tried it now and found no issues.

Share yours in the comments!

Brazil is 61 hours btw. Almost 8 days of work.

It seems that the ultimate edition of GTA VI goes with instant "free 1 month of GTA Online subscription with auto renewal". Regardless of your current access to GTA V which is at least odd or borderline illegal. Yep, it then sits as the endless subscription that will charge you after one month.

#GTA@GameDEV
#TakeTwo@GameDEV