It was a more drawn out process than I expected but the server upgrade and migration are complete. You shouldn’t have seen much downtime over the last week and — fingers crossed — far less of it going forward!
I’ve decided to move the Site Search to a permanent page but you can jump straight to it with the link at the top of the site, plus it’s got some extra features now. Filters are always displayed below the search box and there’s a quick reset button to get back to the default view. Mobile is a little different so I’m still tweaking the search there.
Stadia Never Had the Exclusives (or Support) It Needed
To be clear, Google has said most of the right things over the years when it comes to how much they support the Stadia platform and the whole idea of the service. However, I’ve personally always gotten the impression that Stadia never really got the full support it needed to grow into something special.
To me, the biggest sign of Google’s hesitations regarding Stadia was the service’s lack of notable exclusives. Say what you will about the “ethics” of exclusive games, but they’re a big part of the industry. Pretty much every successful console/service in gaming history has launched with a remarkable exclusive. There’s a reason why the term “system seller” exists.
The new Need for Speed has been delayed as EA shifts resources to Battlefield 6
“We’re going to put all the resources we have on this,” says studios boss
Reaction to the news on the series’ Reddit has been largely negative, mainly due to the fact that players weren’t given enough warning that the games were being delisted.
Valve promised to remove DRM
Although it is true that the closure of Steam worries everyone, it is not a question that is usually asked too much. Moreover, on the Internet there is very little information about it, and only one official message. A user asked the company more than 10 years ago what would happen to games and DRM in the event of an imminent shutdown. And Valve indicated that, in case of closure, it would release a global update to all your games to remove their DRM.
By removing the DRM from Steam, we would only have to buy a large (VERY large) hard drive and download the games, one by one, before the permanent closure of the servers. All games would work, and would be largely original. Of course, as long as they do not have any associated third-party DRM, nor are they online games or MMOs that depend on Valve.