Phil Spencer Threatens to Kill-Off Xbox When Gamepass Fails
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/24/23 at 03:48 PM CT
The legal proceedings happening around the still-not-finished Activision/Blizzard/King merger with Microsoft’s Xbox Division continue to be a goldmine. Recently, Xbox head, Phil Spencer, who is frequently viewed as a messianic figure by the miserable and paltry community of Xbox Fandom online, had something very interesting to say to the court.
Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t see a future in traditional console style gaming (which we here at MeltedJoystick have been saying for years). Their push to turn gaming into a subscription-based hellscape via their Gamepass service is really the only thing Xbox cares about, as a way to penetrate further into the healthy and robust PC gaming ecosystem and establish themselves as a source of non-mobile-style games on mobile platforms.
Phil Spencer’s vision for Xbox is so intimately intertwined with the mass-adoption of Gamepass, he went on the record stating that, if Gamepass doesn’t hit specific financial and growth targets by 2027, …
Unity Engine = Finished
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/17/23 at 12:42 AM CT
This week, the corporate overlords that control the second-most-popular canned game development engine, commonly known as Unity, followed in the footsteps of Wizards of the Coast in being the second American corporation in 2023 to completely self-destruct after announcing intentions to reform their basic licensing structure in order to capture more profits. Not content to receive flat licensing fees from studios that wish to use their engine, and no longer feeling magnanimous with their engine’s free “Personal” licensing tier, Unity’s corporate overlord, John Riccitiello, came up with a scheme to charge developers who use Unity a so-called “per-install” fee, requiring them to pay upwards of 20 cents every time a game is installed – NOT purchased, but INSTALLED!
In a show of… ahem… unity, gamers and the predominantly-Indie-tier developers who use the engine have collectively decided that Unity is now WORSE than multi-year-worst-corporation-winner-loser, Electronic …
Backlog: The Embiggening – September, 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/09/23 at 08:24 PM CT
Backlog: The Embiggening – September, 2023
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Summer’s over and all the little darlings have gone back to school, while the most of the MJ Crew has returned our dear mothers to the Earth. Can the Games Industry do anything to improve our collective mood? Not bloody likely!
The shovelware is OVERWHELMING for September, with all three major subvarieties present in the great, seething mass. In Licensed Swill, there are games based on ‘RoboCop,’ ‘Paw Patrol’ (which still disappoints me by not being ‘Papa Troll’), ‘Ninja Kidz,’ the ‘Fate’ anime, ‘Cry Babies Magic Tears,’ the auditory abomination known as ‘Baby Shark,’ ‘NASCAR,’ ‘Rainbow High,’ ‘House Flipper,’ ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender,’ and – inscrutably – an ancient Western movie that I have surprisingly never seen, ‘Bud Spencer & Terence Hill.’ That’s quite the load, and it includes both IPs I’ve never heard of because …
Review Round-Up: Summer 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/03/23 at 01:21 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
If Spring was unkind to me, Summer was as malicious and vindictive as possible. Most of the games I played through were definitively mediocre or slightly above average, but nothing to get excited about, with “Bug Fables” being the only real standout experience. But on top of everything else, my mother got the bad news of a terminal cancer diagnosis during the last week in July, and didn’t survive until the end of August. So on top of a frustrating gaming experience, I’ve been dealing with a heaping helping of despair. Thanks a fucking lot, Universe.
“Ruzar: The Life Stone” – 3.5/5
“Bladed Fury” – 3.5/5
“Middle-Earth: Shadow of War” – 3.5/5
“Front Mission 1st Remake” – 1.5/5
“Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling” – 4.5/5
“Riverbond” – 3/5
“Yaga” – 2.5/5
Chris’ …
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