crispy4000

I’d want to try 2K Drive, so hopefully this means it ends up in a Humble Bundle soon.

There isn’t a risk of it happening any time soon, not without the industry's focus on DLC and micro-transactions changing. I don't know how their PR could navigate it either. They've been all about giving players more options, not less. Subscription exclusive titles you can't buy would be one of the worst developments in this industry I can imagine. I hate the idea of being forced to pay monthly to play a particular long-ass game, and the design decisions that stem from that. It's why I've never played an MMO.

I don’t think either Nintendo or Sony are so desperate for Microsoft’s games to take such a deal on its own terms. Especially since Microsoft has no intention to stop porting CoD.

Allowing more Microsoft 1st party games to be published on other platforms would take nothing, and could happen regardless of any Games Pass deal if it fits this new vision. Allowing Games Pass is the bigger question. I don’t think it happens as the full service. At least not without some threat attached. Of which, day one CoD on Games Pass alone is significant in Sony’s case, as Jim complained about. Perhaps Core + CoD is what gets Sony to listen.

Microsoft keeps breaking "realistic" norms though. Putting everything day and date on PC, putting everything day and date on their subscription, bringing more properties to Switch, etc. It's not the biggest stretch that they would try to port more games to PS5 eventually. Devaluing console "exclusivity" in pursuit of other goals is a trade-off they're apparently willing to make.

Just imagine if it was only "Games Pass Core" that comes to PS5, but most new 1st party games get ported, eventually. I could honestly see that sort of thing happening. It'd be super silly, yes. But wouldn't hurt Sony's home base advantage on their machines. But also, that's the sort of deal that might exist if Microsoft didn't pressure their leverage more...

It could either be that they've worked out the deal already and just had to get the tech ready, or there's an impasse over royalties.

Another point I'll make: Nintendo or Sony shouldn't look this as any sort of long term commitment from Microsoft unless its signed in ink. There's the clear examples of games like Starfield and Hi-Fi Rush not making it to PS5. But less obviously, the last non-Minecraft Microsoft game on Switch was Ori 2 in 2020. They've kept changing their minds with Nintendo. The very least they could do is port Pentiment, but nope.

I think EA couldn't strike the sort of deal they desired to make Steam EA Play Pro work for their business model.

Don't see why it would be when they worked it out with EA. EA Play Pro not being available on Steam is probably a clue.

Valve ‘more than happy’ to help Microsoft bring PC Game Pass to Steam - The Verge WWW.THEVERGE.COM The ball is well and truly in Microsoft’s court. From a year and a half ago. My guess is that the leverage Valve has in the PC space has (thus far) kept it from happening. Like Nintendo, Activision-Blizzard royalties aren't a huge factor in their buisness.

Microsoft Wants Game Pass On PlayStation, Nintendo, And "Every Screen" Possible - GameSpot WWW.GAMESPOT.COM "It's a bit of a change of strategy," Microsoft admits. The big question: What would it take for Sony and Nintendo to agree to put a rival subscription service on their machines?

Console versions check in:

Looks alright, wishlisted.

I'm personally bummed that Forgotten Land didn't get discounted as deep as the Kirby Wii remake. Older means more expensive to Nintendo I guess.

Humble Bundles/Choice and EGS giveaways are probably the cheapest way to go to be frank. You just have to be open to what gets delt. Just the other day they had that insane WB game package. Would have been amazing for anyone who missed even half of their good games over the years. There’s been equally crazy packages from Capcom recently too.

I’m always going to be more skeptical of CDKeys on that front given the region-buying methods that are likely at the center of their business model. It’s equally fair to say their customer service has a solid reputation, as much as GMG and Humble. The worst tends to happen when region locked keys aren’t disclosed, but they’ve all gotten better at that thankfully. For ease of use, the Enhanced Steam app is my highest recommendation. It won’t give price history of CDkeys, but as a general overview of bundles and authorized storefront pricing, it’s a must.

I think it’s best to point someone new to the PC ecosystem to Steam first, and the authorized resellers. You can climb down the ladder of directness from there as desired. We’d all advocate for staying away from peer-to-peer and sketch sellers like G2A. Truth be told, I hardly ever use GMG because I almost never buy new PC games. They don’t bundle games as often, so I tend to ignore them. If I did buy new PC games more, I might be inclined to use CDKeys, but maybe not if the discount wasn’t much more than GMG.

You’re absolutely the worst here about twisting words: “don’t buy from CDKeys!” my ass. I may have a slightly different take than you, but that’s no excuse to lump me into a hardline position I never took. Read me correctly there, and the rest of my responses should make more sense. I’m even willing to entertain that CDKeys could source some keys from publishers. I just want to see the proof if that is in fact true. It doesn’t seem to be a consensus anywhere I’ve looked.

And that literally makes no difference.

I have a bias that grey markets are grey, yes. All this is to illustrate that they're not white. As was suggested with Microsoft/EA/etc.

If CDKeys explained where they sourced their keys for each game, I'd be more inclined to put them on the same pedestal.

Not an isolated occurrence. Again, as I've said before, this is apparently rare.

There's nothing wrong with painting an honest picture. Revokes from them are extremely rare, but as I linked, can happen. GMG is currently a legitimate reseller that has been caught selling improperly sourced keys in the past. They've since added a "Source" to game descriptions to specify exactly where they aquired their keys from. That was enough to put them back in the good graces of places like r/gamedeals that keeps tabs on this sort of thing. CDKeys is basically like them before that, only AFAIK, the publishers don't sell to them directly. It's not enough to say they must have those relationships because they sell keys from fringe storefronts. Gotta present evidence to support such a claim. Funny that you posted this after I wrote out my response. They've had their share of troubles too, but should be completely kosher now.