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Crowdfunding has become somewhat controversial as of late. For every story about a successful crowdfunding campaign, there seems to be a tale about a crowdfunding recipient running off with their spoils and leaving backers high and dry. That being said, crowdfunding may still be precisely what the gaming industry needs right now. Before we delve into the nitty gritty of crowdfunding, let’s look at another aspect of the gaming industry. AA developers are about to be in high demand. Within the world of gaming, the industry did away with the term “blockbuster” years ago in place of calling massive, highly funded, world-class games “AAA.” Still, the meaning is analogous to blockbuster. Some AAA developers include Bethesda, DICE and Infinity Ward. The issue with AAA gaming is that it has reached a level of success similar to film. A blockbuster film requires massive sums of funding to produce. Consequently, the films…

The recent hype around Obsidian Entertainment’s new The Outer Worlds title has drawn an interesting point. AA developers can still lure the attention of the video game industry’s exponentially growing video game audience. It’s a good thing too, because we need those developers now more than ever. First off, before breaking down why we need smaller developers, let’s dig into why The Outer Worlds is getting so much attention right now. Obsidian Entertainment includes members of the development team involved in the original Fallout franchise. Video game titan Bethesda purchased the rights to the franchise before producing Fallout 3, Fallout Shelter, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. Obsidian was later contracted to make Fallout: New Vegas, however. Bethesda has been receiving some heat from fans as of late. Many hardcore fallout fans were seemingly underwhelmed by Fallout 4 following the critical success of Fallout 3. Beyond that, the release of Fallout…

There is nothing quite like a good RPG. The open world, expansive quest lines and in-depth levels of customization and choice are each endearing to the genre. That being said, there is a problem within the RPG world that is not being addressed. Well, now it is time to take a gander at that bloated elephant trouncing around the room. RPG games are about as poorly balanced as it gets. RPG is a pretty expansive genre. Everything from Assassin’s Creed to Tomb Raider could fit under the modern definition, making the term nearly meaningless. It has become more of a marketing term to excite casual fans into a frenzy. Simply placing the term “RPG” on a game box seemingly adds the belief that the game will now offer a deeper and more expansive experience. With that in mind, it’s somewhat understandable that marketers want to see it on every game…

Bethesda has been getting a bad wrap lately. And, it’s not just because of Fallout 76. A bevy of lawsuits, middling fan reception to their latest two releases and a seemingly big push towards mobile all have hardcore Bethesda fans scared. That being said, artistically, the company is doing just fine. Seriously, there’s no need to worry. Before we get into the nitty gritty details of what’s going on with Bethesda right now and the seemingly chaotic turmoil their PR is dealing with, let’s slow it down. Let’s break down what got Bethesda on most gamers’ radars. Bethesda Game Studios earned their place as the proverbial top dogs of RPG games back in the early 2000s. With the release of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, later followed by the more commercially successful title Oblivion, Bethesda claimed their spot among the great developers for wide eyed, RPG playing video game fans around…

Following a video from YouTuber TheQuartering — who noted the game’s low availability on Amazon as one of many reasons for Fallout 76’s potential move to free-to-play — the rumor of the game’s shift to being a free service sky rocketed. However, it would appear that there is no reason to get excited quite yet. Fallout 76 is the latest in Bethesda’s highly popular Fallout series. While Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 have been met largely with high praise, Fallout 76 has met negative critical reception. The game currently holds a Metacritic score of 52 for its PC version. None the less, news of the game’s potential shift to free-to-play snared the attention of many longtime Fallout fans. A fan would go on to ask Bethesda if there is any truth to the rising rumor. Bethesda however has since categorically denied any intention to take Fallout 76 to a free-to-play…

Bethesda recently issued a lawsuit against mobile Westworld game developer Behaviour Interactive. Bethesda has claimed that the developer has stolen coding, designs and artwork which have since allegedly been used within the Westworld game. Behaviour helped develop Bethesda’s incredibly popular mobile game Fallout Shelter, which released back in 2015. Within the recent lawsuit, Bethesda claimed that the development studio has stolen assets from the Fallout Shelter property and has allegedly appropriated them for the development team’s recent Westworld mobile game. Westworld owners Warner Bros. are being sued by Bethesda for inducement to breach of contract. Meanwhile, Behaviour is being sued for breach of contract. Both parties, however, are facing litigation for “their willful and intentional infringement of Bethesda’s copyrights, misappropriation of Bethesda’s trade secrets, and deceptive business practices and unfair competition through their development, marketing, and promotion of the Westworld mobile game.” Warner Bros. has since provided a statement, as reported by…

Yes. You’re done reading the article now. You’re free to go. Oh wait, you want to know why I’m saying yes? Well, it’s common sense. No one is going to play Fallout 76 now by having to pay for it beforehand. All the negative press of it being a failure has saturated the web-o-sphere with strong anti-Fallout 76 commentary. So the only hail mary left is free to play. It’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. If it doesn’t the only way forward is for them to shut the game down. The reason being is that players who have bought will play, but will get disgusted by any kind of micro-transaction purchases thrown at them as they had purchased the game. Myself, for instance, spent $59.99 because it looked like so much fun (and it was for the few weeks I played). If I was still playing and they said well,…

Free to play games are great, or are they? I can get behind a free to play game under certain circumstances but unfortunately those circumstances are far and few between. The truth is nothing in life is truly free it is like magic everything has a cost. But what is the real cost of a free to play game? I can get behind a free to play game if it uses ads in a respectful manner, micro-transactions solely for ascetics, paid expansions but beyond this I find it unacceptable and the price is your enjoyment. If I must play with people willing to spend real money to rank up it ruins the game for me (though there is always joy when you beat a paid player.) The problem is greed is strong and of course I understand that it costs insane amounts of money to make these games and they…

It’s no joke that game piracy really hurts the industry. How it hurts the industry, I do not know. Most of the pirates I’ve seen probably don’t have enough money to buy the games they “steal” but nevertheless it’s a problem. I mean, if games don’t make money then investors don’t invest in games and then we’re stuck with GoFundMes and Kickstarter games that have as much success making it past the first released alpha build as you do getting your order right at the local fast food restaurant. The key to piracy is that the games code is executed within the PC that it is installed in. If you play, for instance, Fallout 4 then there is very little online connectivity built into the game. Everything, from NPCs to damage calculations, is ran through your processor and graphics card to present the game to you. The game’s code is…

Update: It’s 2023 and the following still remains mostly true. The EPIC Store continues to be a pain in the gaming community’s side. Fighting Steam is the past time for many people in this world it seems, as we’re now seeing the Epic Store vs. Steam battle keep raging on. Which is much like the golden ages of MMOs where almost every month a new WoW killer was coming to fight the champion, who won the war via attrition and investors tired of sending their money down a bottomless pit. Now Epic Games, Discord and even Kongregate the flash game site is trying to lure you into replacing Steam with their awesome storefront. This isn’t new, Razer started selling games in their zCoin software forever ago. Twitch has the ability to buy some games, but the purchases often help the streamer. Humble Bundle was once a monthly bundle of games…