The one anti-union employee who got the most mention in the article was eligible, unless I read that wrong. This whole initiative seemed to have many problems, whether you were pro- or anti-union. On Bluesky, the author summarized her article as:

reported on something that was really difficult for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons in a lot of different ways

Very well could be, but they don’t want the game as-is. The same thing happened with SimCity 13 years ago. And as a stat that keeps coming up from developers of online mulitplayer games, 70% of people don’t engage in the competitive modes, even of games where that’s seen as its main attraction, like PVP in an RTS or even the biggest MOBAs. I don’t know exactly how that translates to Skate, but it’s not surprising to me that people didn’t want a free to play online social version of this franchise.

I think the mod has been downloaded 350k times because they asked for Skate 4 and this is what they got instead.

Yeah, I’m willing to explore some unknowns. No way I would have ever heard of some of my favorite bands without Guitar Hero and Rock Band. But you need to sweeten the pot up front so I can play Muse or Metallica or Foo Fighters or Dream Theater before I start branching out.

I’ve tried the version of this type of game without the separated master tracks, and it results in a worse gameplay experience, so customs won’t do a lot of good for me. The big thing with Stage Tour is that this is the first time one of these came to PC since the terrible port of Guitar Hero 3, but it’s a chicken and egg sort of situation where the soundtrack I’d like needs to be there, and that will probably only come with time allowing them to build and sell a lot of DLC so I can pick what I want. I think it’s a difficult road ahead of them.

Governments hand out perks in the interest of tourism all the time. That hardly makes it fascist.

I didn’t have much faith in it, honestly. The demo they showed us several years ago was smoke and mirrors because even after a long development period, they didn’t have a vertical slice that was anywhere near ready, and I’ve got no reason to believe that any large publisher would make a shooter like they used to. Do you think we’d have gotten split-screen and deathmatch in this game, or do you think they’d have some kind of live service multiplayer? Even a Free Radical run by members of the original team couldn’t make a TimeSplitters game when given the resources to do just that; they tried to make something that looks like Fortnite, just like everyone else, before it too got cancelled.

Sure, but you just spend your time and money on the better stuff, and it all comes out in the wash.

Not the way it’s being done now. As I understand, this is sort of like green screening a character from one game into the other, without the actions actually working the way you’d imagine. Also, there’s a nonstop deluge of games coming out all the time with great mechanics.

For what it’s worth, the stuff gated behind the online requirement for Bond was far less of the main event than it was in Hitman. But that stuff still really bugs me, too.

Yeah, mine was more an abbreviated history. If memory serves, that one delayed NBA Live was actually cancelled after review copies went out, which only a handful of games have ever done. As I remember the likes of Jeff Gerstmann telling it, that was the exact inflection point. Though I’ll admit I haven’t purchased a basketball game since the N64.

Unlike American football and baseball, NBA does not have an exclusivity deal with 2K, last I heard. It’s just that their competitors always made worse games, and 2K was all that survived. There isn’t even an off-brand basketball game to turn to without the NBA license. If you want video game basketball, this is basically all there is.

This is how it was done 30 years ago, and I think they found that continuing to do it this way makes more money.

Probably the best way forward for someone to try to compete and usurp this series, which would be a tough road even with 2K continuing to shit the bed, would be to make an easily and highly moddable game that gets the sport’s gameplay right from the get-go, so that players can implement their custom teams the way they want without being raked over the coals for the NBA license. There are a handful of American football games out there seeking to do that, but they’ve hardly made a splash compared to the (lately very poorly received) Madden titles, so a game like this would rely on enthusiasts and word of mouth.

This game isn’t online-only, but a mode that ought to work offline is arbitrarily tied to a premium currency that is affected by the server shutdown. Plus, the kind of person looking to play NBA2k is looking for a basketball game, not just any video game, indie or otherwise. There are no more basketball competitors, even though the NBA is one of the leagues without an exclusivity license.

He continues: “If we wanted to make some noise, we’d do it in style. I’d invite Sam Houser to come face me in a karaoke joint of his choice. CEO to CEO. I’m pretty sure the code prevents the CEO of Rockstar from declining a rock-off challenge.”

What a reference. I thought that Tenacious D movie was overall pretty bad, but the musical segments at the beginning and end were phenomenal.

It doesn’t read that way. Seems to just be which current sales are shown front and center rather than manually setting them by promotional deals or otherwise.