They stopped releasing heroes in 2020 or something, then did nothing for a few years, but eventually started doing occasional balance patches, and now they're apparently going to release at least two new characters. Servers have been up and running this whole time.
If anyone can deliver those insane profits on a consistent basis, I'm betting on Blizzard currently. Basically all of their major games are live service and print money. That probably still won't fully save them from the next round of Microsoft layoffs, but they might no get hit as hard.
Just some minor notes, Dominion is just the name of the cinematic, the game doesn't have an announced name yet (unless they're calling it just Starcraft, which would be weird).
The Last Titan expansion wasn't revealed for the first time here. I think during the last Blizzcon a few years ago, when the World Soul Saga was announced, they went through the three expansions, their names, some overall themes, so you might find a bit more info in those videos, if you're interested.
For me, the 2030 release date (+eventual delays) lines up with Microsoft's recent push/wish for more games in their big franchises a couple of months ago, so this is probably still in some kind of pre-production.
Diablo 4 will be six years old by the time this comes out (not including eventual delays), which seems like a decent time between major releases, and three years after the current expansion, which concluded the Mephisto story.
That guide is out of date, I think. It's simpler now, and almost like a normal game.
This image is linked on the Steam Store page, annoyingly hidden below the 007 First Light advert, and lists which levels are included in which edition.
The Standard Edition, that's on sale right now, includes the modern (base game) Hitman 1-3 levels, plus some Hitman 1 DLC stuff (like Patient Zero campaign). The Deluxe Edition, that's not on sale, adds some DLC levels and missions. Special missions with Eminem or the new one with Snoop Dogg are separate DLC. Standard Edition + Deluxe Pack DLC would get you the Deluxe Edition for like 50% off, although you could just get the Deluxe upgrade later down the line of course.
Something I always found shitty is, that you can't upgrade from Hitman Part 1 to the Standard Edition, without essentially buying the levels again.
I only know of the limit on how many curators you can ignore, which is also capped at 100, and I've been at that limit for a very long time.
I think over time Steam has pushed curators less and less, so now I rarely see this basically useless feature. Or maybe Augmented Steam has an option to block/hide them in general, and I just don't remember.
For some reason Steam Hardware is set as a curator, which I followed after the announcement of the Controller, Frame and Machine. Since I don't use this anyway, I just unfollowed, and now the list is empty again.
The biggest problem with the villains is the typical anime game trope of defeating them in the battle, but losing in the cutscene, constantly. This whole series just loves to blue ball you. You are constantly getting teased, never getting a payoff. Nothing you do matters.
::: spoiler spoiler
Until finally in CS3, the big mystery is revealed, and it's a wet fart. Just a massive let down. 8 games, 500h of time wasted on that garbage. Jokes on me though, since Falcom got all my money already, and I eventually plan to hate-play the rest of the series, just to see the conclusion of this train wreck. I'm in too deep at this point.
:::
Gotta chime in as a Trails hater, from time to time.
This is one of the worst games I've played, mainly because of the terrible story and worst written villains ever. I cannot understand why anyone would like this game. There is only one good game in the series, Trails from Zero, because it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the series (which is ruined in the sequel).
These things regularly come up, and people complain about the obvious garbage, that constantly fill their store pages (which doesn't really happen to me).
Because they would be good enough to make those games work or because they wouldn't care how good or bad a game is?
If you mean the latter, even current Blizzard has shown, they just cancel projects, they think will not work, like OW PVE or that Survival Game, that never saw the light of day.
Your suggestion was to let physical gift cards only be used for games, no DLC, marketplace, or elsewhere.
That would mean you'd have to add those gift cards to a new pool of funds, separate from the "general purpose" wallet, that you charge with the digital gift cards, or by selling stuff on the marketplace.
100% there will be people who're going to be confused by this. "Why can't I buy this DLC, I have the money in my Steam Wallet?! Was I scammed?" and another support ticket is opened.
This is not the same as using different payment methods, because it's not like your VISA can only be used for certain things.
If you want to avoid this possible confusion, you can make it so, the physical gift card doesn't automatically get added to your wallet. You just use the funds you actually need during checkout. This would inevitably lead to some gift cards not getting fully used, so you got a few dollars here or there left over, which is just a massive pain. In hindsight this also has the same problem with possible confusion, when people can't buy certain items with their gift cards and open support tickets again to complain.
why do you care when it wouldn't impact you, and bring up complaints that illustrate you don't even use the system?
I don't buy physical gift cards, I either load up my wallet or pay directly for stuff. Even so, I know your suggestion was terrible.
gift cards can only be for buying games, not DLC or in-game credit
That's even worse.
You'll either have the balance on the actual gift card, not in your wallet anymore, and potentially a bunch of cards with a few bucks each lying around, that you need to keep track of.
Or you add a secondary wallet, just for physical gift cards, and people will get confused why they can't buy something, when Steam says they have the funds.
I'm pretty whatever about this change, since it doesn't impact me.
PaysafeCard is an alternative, if it's available in your region, or depending on the amount of scams involving the physical cards, Steam should just eat the cost of the additional support needed to combat this better.
You can still just play the game, nothing has changed. It's extremely easy to just ignore everything to do with the inventory on Steam, which a lot of people do.
If you don't want to give Valve and the dev money, you can also trade the cards with other people directly.
You could also recycle certain items into gems and use those to craft booster packs, to eventually get a full set completely by yourself.
Also, the only thing the trading cards are for at this point are the badges, that you can "show off" on your profile. All the other stuff (emoticons or wallpapers) can be bought directly in the Points Shop.
Same story, different localisation, so minimal differences.
You get modern graphics and QoL changes and stuff.
They stopped releasing heroes in 2020 or something, then did nothing for a few years, but eventually started doing occasional balance patches, and now they're apparently going to release at least two new characters. Servers have been up and running this whole time.
If anyone can deliver those insane profits on a consistent basis, I'm betting on Blizzard currently. Basically all of their major games are live service and print money. That probably still won't fully save them from the next round of Microsoft layoffs, but they might no get hit as hard.
Just some minor notes, Dominion is just the name of the cinematic, the game doesn't have an announced name yet (unless they're calling it just Starcraft, which would be weird).
The Last Titan expansion wasn't revealed for the first time here. I think during the last Blizzcon a few years ago, when the World Soul Saga was announced, they went through the three expansions, their names, some overall themes, so you might find a bit more info in those videos, if you're interested.
For me, the 2030 release date (+eventual delays) lines up with Microsoft's recent push/wish for more games in their big franchises a couple of months ago, so this is probably still in some kind of pre-production.
Diablo 4 will be six years old by the time this comes out (not including eventual delays), which seems like a decent time between major releases, and three years after the current expansion, which concluded the Mephisto story.
As not a fighting game guy (at all), he looked kinda meh, but the Super or whatever at the very end was awesome.
That guide is out of date, I think. It's simpler now, and almost like a normal game.
This image is linked on the Steam Store page, annoyingly hidden below the 007 First Light advert, and lists which levels are included in which edition.
The Standard Edition, that's on sale right now, includes the modern (base game) Hitman 1-3 levels, plus some Hitman 1 DLC stuff (like Patient Zero campaign). The Deluxe Edition, that's not on sale, adds some DLC levels and missions. Special missions with Eminem or the new one with Snoop Dogg are separate DLC. Standard Edition + Deluxe Pack DLC would get you the Deluxe Edition for like 50% off, although you could just get the Deluxe upgrade later down the line of course.
Something I always found shitty is, that you can't upgrade from Hitman Part 1 to the Standard Edition, without essentially buying the levels again.
I only know of the limit on how many curators you can ignore, which is also capped at 100, and I've been at that limit for a very long time.
I think over time Steam has pushed curators less and less, so now I rarely see this basically useless feature. Or maybe Augmented Steam has an option to block/hide them in general, and I just don't remember.
For some reason Steam Hardware is set as a curator, which I followed after the announcement of the Controller, Frame and Machine. Since I don't use this anyway, I just unfollowed, and now the list is empty again.
That's why I said almost. I remember being pretty disappointed at the end, because the ties to the rest of the series got more prominent.
The biggest problem with the villains is the typical anime game trope of defeating them in the battle, but losing in the cutscene, constantly. This whole series just loves to blue ball you. You are constantly getting teased, never getting a payoff. Nothing you do matters.
::: spoiler spoiler Until finally in CS3, the big mystery is revealed, and it's a wet fart. Just a massive let down. 8 games, 500h of time wasted on that garbage. Jokes on me though, since Falcom got all my money already, and I eventually plan to hate-play the rest of the series, just to see the conclusion of this train wreck. I'm in too deep at this point. :::
Gotta chime in as a Trails hater, from time to time.
This is one of the worst games I've played, mainly because of the terrible story and worst written villains ever. I cannot understand why anyone would like this game. There is only one good game in the series, Trails from Zero, because it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the series (which is ruined in the sequel).
Combat is decent though.
These things regularly come up, and people complain about the obvious garbage, that constantly fill their store pages (which doesn't really happen to me).
Still doubt it, because current Blizzard doesn't release any game, that isn't a live service title and makes $1B+.
Because they would be good enough to make those games work or because they wouldn't care how good or bad a game is?
If you mean the latter, even current Blizzard has shown, they just cancel projects, they think will not work, like OW PVE or that Survival Game, that never saw the light of day.
Below the graph is the full timeline, with zoom options, where you can see the prce going back to launch.
Your suggestion was to let physical gift cards only be used for games, no DLC, marketplace, or elsewhere.
That would mean you'd have to add those gift cards to a new pool of funds, separate from the "general purpose" wallet, that you charge with the digital gift cards, or by selling stuff on the marketplace.
100% there will be people who're going to be confused by this. "Why can't I buy this DLC, I have the money in my Steam Wallet?! Was I scammed?" and another support ticket is opened.
This is not the same as using different payment methods, because it's not like your VISA can only be used for certain things.
If you want to avoid this possible confusion, you can make it so, the physical gift card doesn't automatically get added to your wallet. You just use the funds you actually need during checkout. This would inevitably lead to some gift cards not getting fully used, so you got a few dollars here or there left over, which is just a massive pain. In hindsight this also has the same problem with possible confusion, when people can't buy certain items with their gift cards and open support tickets again to complain.
I don't buy physical gift cards, I either load up my wallet or pay directly for stuff. Even so, I know your suggestion was terrible.
That's even worse.
You'll either have the balance on the actual gift card, not in your wallet anymore, and potentially a bunch of cards with a few bucks each lying around, that you need to keep track of.
Or you add a secondary wallet, just for physical gift cards, and people will get confused why they can't buy something, when Steam says they have the funds.
I'm pretty whatever about this change, since it doesn't impact me.
PaysafeCard is an alternative, if it's available in your region, or depending on the amount of scams involving the physical cards, Steam should just eat the cost of the additional support needed to combat this better.
You can still just play the game, nothing has changed. It's extremely easy to just ignore everything to do with the inventory on Steam, which a lot of people do.
If you don't want to give Valve and the dev money, you can also trade the cards with other people directly.
You could also recycle certain items into gems and use those to craft booster packs, to eventually get a full set completely by yourself.
Also, the only thing the trading cards are for at this point are the badges, that you can "show off" on your profile. All the other stuff (emoticons or wallpapers) can be bought directly in the Points Shop.
What?