Techno

I do have a argument as to why digital is better. It has actually been a massive help to the indie industry and I'd argue it's what even allowed for the indie scene to actually exist as digital distribution has been easier, cheaper, and less risky for developers to utilize. Meaning that the indie scene itself really is only possible for digital distribution. Mainly because indie developers rarely have the money to print out copies of a game.

Personally I'd just want some games that don't require steam to play.

Blur, I've never played it but I can tell that it's a fun game. A combat filled racing game is something I've been wanting and Blur looks like it's exactly what I wanted.

I've played the remastered game on Reignited Trilogy. It's personally not my favorite but it's still a great deal of fun.

Yay for me, I actually have an opportunity to try this game at last. I was reluctant to buy it given the mixed reaction the game had and buy the time I decided was interested, the community had dropped of somewhat. This is good for me as I know I'm not the only gamepass user who hasn't tried this out yet.
 
 
I'm not that surprised. The game went multiplatform ages ago, so whilst I see he irony, this isn't that shocking.

Personally I'd just want some games that don't require steam to play.

Well I didn't see this coming. Why the brand new moderators so fast?

So I've been binging though the Bond series. I'm on Casino Royale. I've enjoyed it so far, although  they are silly films. What do you think of them?

This has kinda taken a turn. I get that JK Rowling is a piece of shit human being, but maybe we should keep the subject on the game itself. Since JK Rowling literally has nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy or the future of Harry Potter, I say we let her go and move on to actually discussing the game. 
Yeah she helped create this world, but she has no control of it anymore. She has no say what happens, how it begins and ends, who is in it, etc. 
The movies are cutting her out, and so are the games. I think she's done, nothing can bring her back from the mess she made. 
If you don't like this game because she was the original creator of Harry Potter, that's fine, but maybe lets move this discussion about JK Rowling somewhere else? Like a topic area that more matches it. That way we can discuss this in more depth and leave the game out of it. 

COD, they've made around 20 games. It's no longer interesting or unique. I just want them to stop. Especially with WW2, it's been done to death.

COD, they've made around 20 games. It's no longer interesting or unique. I just want them to stop. Especially with WW2, it's been done to death.

COD, they've made around 20 games. It's no longer interesting or unique. I just want them to stop. Especially with WW2, it's been done to death.

Probably a fun one to discuss yes or no? As topic title says what videogame franchises outstayed their welcome and should be put on hold indefinitely. Where and why did they go downhill?
Let's just avoid the usual suspects like call of duty, fifa, madden and what have you as those are offcourse the more obvious ones. I'll start with my picks :
Sonic -> Yes sonic, i'm kinda ashamed to put it in my list as a sega fan but clearly apart from the brilliant sonic mania plus, sega just doesen't know what to do with franchise anymore and they keep pumping out mediocre game one after the other. With a bunch of remasters in between nobody was waiting for and with the upcoming sonic frontiers game that is already getting slammed  by the general public, i'd say it's time to give the blue hedgehog a well deserved rest. 
Warriors/Musou games -> Where to even start with this, there are just so many of them out there and pretty much a new one wheter it's a spin off or main game comes out every couple of months it's impossible to keep up with them. Offcourse recent entries may be more varied then previous ones but doesen't take away the series should be given some time off, because they all play the same anyway. If Dynasty warriors 9 has proven one thing by going open world is that omega force doesen't really know what to do with it anymore to keep it interesting for more then a couple of hours. 
Final Fantasy -> I'm not 100% sure myself wheter or not i should include it here but goddamn square enix has been milking the final fantasy dry all they can the past few years, like how many spin offs do we even have now, it's damn near impossible to list em all, like Final Fantasy Tactics, Dissidia: Final Fantasy and the recent released Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin coulden't be further away from the traditional jrpg roots of the series. I get it anything final fantasy is likely going to sell better but come on squar enix it's time you make the fantasy final for once and for all. Just start naming your games something different. 
Need for speed -> A no brainer to include Need for speed as Ea themselves doesen't really know what to do with the franchise either, ghost studios clearly isen't capable of delivering a good racing game. Well maybe Rivals can be classified as good but eh ever since the 2015 reboot which imo has one the worst car handlings in any game and on top of that the cheesy live clips in between that are supposed to tell a story eh no thanks. Later games are a tad bit better but the whole you vs the cops or vice versa it's getting old and in this day and age i think nobody is waiting for another need for speed, now that ea bought codemasters i don't really see much reasons to keep need for speed alive for much longer. Let's just say need for speed is a series that is living of it's past glory and imo should be put on hold for a atleast a couple of years. We can only hope the new need for speed by criterion is going to be better then previous entries but if it fails i'm afraid for the series future.
I know i could go on and on but i've got to respect other people their free time, others i would have included are Halo, Gears of war, God of war and Resident Evil.

So I've found something that puts into perspective on how drastic Xbox's first party studio growth has been.
The above image is the studio list in 2023 if the purchase of activision goes though. That would be 35-36 studios depending on if Blizzard acquires another studio called Proletariat.
The below image is the studio list in 2017. There's only 6 in that picture.
What are your thoughts on this?
Credit goes to Klebike on Twitter.

 

100% agreed with this. I'm not bothered by spoilers myself, but I do appreciate people keep spoilers to a minimum in general discussion no matter how old something is. Another forum to discuss that without adding [SPOILERS] and all manner of spacing would be great. A spoiler feature in post/edit mode would also be nice, like how Reddit and other sites do things by placing a black bar over text where you can click on it to temporarily remove it.
On the one hand it doesn't take much to say "have you played [x]? Oh, in that case, I won't spoil it," and on other other hand there should be a place to discuss - without caveats, disclaimers or yabbits - games and all that will spoil them. I think titles should still be respectfully ambiguous like "TLOU2's Ending", but abandon hope all ye who enter.

I second this @Justin11. It's OK that you don't have a full scope of the situation with regard to the resignation of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It is even OK to not really care either, but if wish to contribute to conversation at hand, actually have something to say. For the second time in about 12 hours, I'm telling you if you have nothing to say, say nothing! If you insist on contributing to the conversation, do a little research to develop at at least some understanding of what's going so you can formulate an opinion and then, and I mean ONLY then, express it. If putting that bare minimum effort of is not worth it to you, then why would a post where you couldn't be bothered to make that bare minimum of effort be worth it to us?
 
 
And frankly @Reality vs Adventure, I could say the same thing to you. Especially as the author of the thread, I would expect a lot better than this. No article, not so much as a basic description of what happened nor even a detailed opinion. Sadly, I've come to expect such a half-arsed effort from @Justin11, but this is really disappointing coming from you. @Crazycrab has already done your job for you and went through the basics about what happened and his effort is only reason I'm keeping this thread open. I may have deleted the thread entirely if it wasn't for him.
 
I'll add here an article from what something I would consider a neutral news source to provide some more details. From Sky News
 
My two cents? It was time for him to go. There had been two many missteps with things like party-gate, controversial policies set forth by his administration and what I would describe at best as a slow response to the cost of living crisis. He was not the PM and his was not the government we needed anymore. I don't have anything against the guy, but I don't think history is going to regard him that fondly.

Does anyone else play these types of games or am I the only one? They're the old school computer game genre that was popular in the 90s. Something like Sam And Max, Broken Age, or Grim Fandango are examples of these types of game. 

Yeah that's fair, I just was trying to think and was curious as too what other people opinions were.
For me it's Double Fine, I've played quite a few games of theirs and every one I've enjoyed. Stuff like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Day Of The Tectacle, and Psychonauts 2 have fantastic stories and characters. And while most of those games have so-so gameplay they're just so well thought out.
My close second would be ID software. Doom is a personal favorite series of mine and even Quake was quite fun. They just do well with FPS games in general.

I'll say Obsidian Entertainment have made my favourite games, but I make the distinction between favourite studio and makers of favourite games because what qualifies to be my favourite studio on its own merits? The people? How they're treated? Their creative process? Their ability to actualise it? Their commitment to their ideals? There's so much smoke-and-mirrors in the games industry that it's difficult to say why they're my favourite studio beyond them making my favourite games.
I choose Obsidian not only because of the games they make, but because they're the first to admit to their faults. Whenever Fallout: New Vegas is criticised for being buggy, fanbois (myself included once-upon-a-time) will point to Bethesda and the deadline and the engine and the Metacritic score. Obsidian do not say this themselves. CEO Feargus Urquhart says his studio the common element to all their games being janky, but also it's something they want to work on. A dev eating humble pie in this industry is a rare sight and it's usually only after overwhelming public disgrace.
I'd say Insomniac through nearly all of its lifespan is my favourite studio based on the above criteria because of how they've had constant hits with their ideas, even if they had the miss of FUSE (which would've been Overstrike had it not been focus grouped to death), and keeping their independence up until they knew it was time to be safely acquired. It's considered one of the best places to work in America, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Can't say I hear that every day.
I would like the starters of these threads to kick things off by giving their own examples to promote discussion. That goes for all, so I'm not just picking on you, Techno.

What is your favorite video game studio?

You Talk Sports, which was my forum. It was a sports forum back in 2006. No longer around.

While everyone else chooses more modern and recent years I'm gonna go with 1972, because it's really is when video games became mainstream enough to get seen as profitable. 1972 was when Pong released which really was the start of the video game market. Sure stuff like Table For Two was around but it didn't get all that popular. Pong is the first big hit in the gaming market, which helped establish a market that lead to all the other classics. Another big arcade cabinet game called Computer Space also released around that time.
 
Also in 1972 was the Madavox Odduesy which was the first ever console to be released. It paved the way for Atari and Intelvision to enter the console market.
Basically 1972 is when gaming became an actual market. Which is why I'd call it the greatest.

There should be a game spoiler section where people are free to debate without spoiler restrictions. That is greatly lacking. How do we talk about games we love for fear of spoilers? When I played TLOU2 I felt all alone in my opinions. It's dead now, nothing matters. Time is over. But I think there could have been great debate when people have completed legendary games like that. Some sites warn you of spoilers before preceding. This is a big issue to be able to feel free to talk about games in full extent. 

Honestly, this is kind of concerning to me. The forum hit 50,000+ posts in a span of a few months. Seeing as the last three months had massive problems with low quality posts, I'm not sure 50,000 posts is a good thing when most of the posts kind of suck.

While everyone else chooses more modern and recent years I'm gonna go with 1972, because it's really is when video games became mainstream enough to get seen as profitable. 1972 was when Pong released which really was the start of the video game market. Sure stuff like Table For Two was around but it didn't get all that popular. Pong is the first big hit in the gaming market, which helped establish a market that lead to all the other classics. Another big arcade cabinet game called Computer Space also released around that time.
 
Also in 1972 was the Madavox Odduesy which was the first ever console to be released. It paved the way for Atari and Intelvision to enter the console market.
Basically 1972 is when gaming became an actual market. Which is why I'd call it the greatest.