As some sites are pointing out, it's quite a shift from when Nintendo made hanafuda cards used in Yakuza gambling dens.

I've struggled to find anything from a reputable source that isn't paywalled. There are various reasons why I no longer visit most PC Gaming websites (discussion of which would breach the forum CoC), but even ignoring that, they typically have next to zero understanding of the real world or of the legal system, so their "reporting" isn't worth much in my book.

Just dump the article link in any decent archival site, and it'll give you a full copy of the article to read.

Yeah, I miss them too. Back then, no DLCs or microtransactions. There were expansion packs, but they packed good content overall. And the games were released in a proper state, unlike nowadays where they're out there, costing full price, only for the users to be beta testers. If you want the full complete experience, then wait almost a year.

The only thing I don't miss is the exclusivity deals. Back then a lot more games were exclusive to consoles, and since I had only a PC, I missed on a lot.

Yep, I remember the Expansion Pack days.

When we had awesome expansion like say BG2: Throne of Bhaal, NWN1: Hordes of the Underdark, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayers - you know, back when expansions felt like actually sequels here, not expansions.

I think the first time we really saw DLC's would probably be NWN1's Premium mods - which were from Kingmaker Premium mod and on; and also Oblivion's Horse Armor (ewww) & Knights of the Nine (that DLC was good!).

About games in a proper state - yeah, things were overall better and less complex back then w/ all of that stuff....but yeah, more games were released in "not-broken", "finished" or "stable" states.

Of course, even back then - some games like Daggerfall and Morrowind were still buggy, unstable, and had not-so-hot performance (i.e. low framerates). I remember even Planescape: Torment had a memory-leak bug, which of course later got fixed.

I'm glad to see more games hit both PC and console, since I ain't done consoles in forever. Glad to see more console-style games hit PC these days.

Glad to see more console-style games and Japanese games finally hit the PC on a regular basis, too - love seeing stuff like Resident Evils, Dark Souls series, Yakuza series, Shenmue series, Bayonetta 1, NieR series, WWE games, Final Fantasy series, Persona series, and all kinds of other console-style games & also some of the console classics hit PC. Glad to see some sequels of these games hitting PC also, too - and on a regular basis, too!

Though, as a consumer here, I'm not fond of exclusive-platform (i.e. some games like God of War Reboot exclusive to PlayStation platforms) or exclusive-store stuff (i.e. stuff exclusive to Epic for say 6-to-12 months). But, hey - if they gonna release Complete Editions w/ All DLC later after they're done w/ the exclusive non-sense...well, I'm alright w/ that.

Often...trying to chase DLC's, Expansions, and whatnot - just can be tough, as that stuff can be at a Premium; often b/c they sell the Base-Game cheap purposely, hoping you'll spring for Expensive Expansion Pass/DLC Packs/etc etc.

Though, I definitely get, on another hand, why 2K and Gearbox would accept the $146m from the developer/publisher side from Epic, to let Borderlands 3 be exclusive for 6 months over there at Epic. Man, that probably paid for a good deal of development & marketing - heck, maybe even all of that - right there.

Yeah, I'm not fond of that too. But in the case of Playstation, well that's more understandable since it's their games. However, now that's changing. Xbox releases all of their games on PC day and date. And Sony is now starting to release their games, with Horizon Zero Dawn last year, and Days Gone this month. And quoting Jim Ryan, "a whole slate is coming".

As for the Epic exclusivity, that sucks too. I wish all games could get released on all stores day and date and people would get the choice on where they wanted to buy it. Stores would then be competing in prices, features and benefits for the consumers.

Yes, that's it - I'd rather stores be competing w/ features, prices, benefits, etc etc to the consumer.

I'm glad to see more XBox games hitting PC too. Was glad to see Halo MCC hit PC - Halo Reach and Halo 2 in there on PC were awesome. Would love to see Halo 5 hit PC one day too. Also, Forza Horizon 3 is awesome on PC too. Gears 4 and 5 were awesome on PC too.

I do get the whole "this is how Sony sells consoles" things w/ having their own games exclusive to them - but, it's still annoying. I don't want to see any gamer left behind, regardless of platform.

Plus, it's nice for Sony, even if they do it a bit later, to give the PC things like HZD, which I do have from GOG - which looks great and runs great here on my RTX 3070; probably much better than it does look & run on say PS4 Regular/Pro and PS5.

Looking forward to seeing Days Gone here on PC on Steam, too. I'd love for it to also come to GOG, BTW - of course.

I hope Halo 5 gets released on PC too, so that we can have all games on the platform. And also that one day MSFT considers releasing a collection of the previous 4 Gears of War titles (1-3 and Judgment) on PC too.

Rumour has it that the next batch of games Sony is releasing on PC includes the likes of: God of War (the latest one), Bloodborne and Ghost of Tsushima.

As for Days Gone, it might follow the same as HZD: release first on Steam and Epic and a few months later here on GOG. Here's hoping.

I felt the same way for years and I have gaps of 5 to 10 years btw game purchases because what I saw available did not appeal to me at all. Out of the "BIG" games online the only ones my kids got into when they were younger was DOTA 2 and Counter Strike/GO. CS/GO I understood as it had a lot in common with death match games I was into in the late 90's. DOTA 2 and the like took me a long time to understand and "get" where they and their friends were coming from. The rest of the stuff eludes me to this day.

Not that I disagree in general, but I know for a fact it's not just kids. I have a friend, my age, who has been a gamer for as long as I have, and yet he loves all this online multiplayer stuff, and embraced the new ways with glee. Loves WoW, Old Republic, praised Fortnite (and its business model) to high heavens. He considers older games to be pretty much unplayable and hated every single-player game I recommended to him in recent times. And I think that many "old timers" are actually more like him than us. The currents of popular trends are strong, and carry away most people. If not to Fortnite then some other similar Apex Legends/Call of Duty/Division thing.

I've a bit older than ya but for me the old days ended in 2019. The big deal that I missed was LAN events back in the late 90's and as those started to dry up, I ran my own. Never got into consoles but I also loved 2 to 4 player games in the arcade so much I bought cabs to bring to my home. Later on I built my own for some old computer games.

My family and friends play DOOM (1993), UT99, UT2k4, Quake 1 to 3, No One Lives Forever and more bi-weekly in my LAN/Arcade gaming basement. The pandemic was a big blow to that and I went online for games for the first time since the late 90's in 2019/2020. It's fine but not the same. We still run our own servers for games like Quake, Xonotic and UT99 but it's just not the same feeling. Now with me selling this big house and moving to small place it's officially dead until we hit Quakecon or other major events again.

I'm glad that LAN and local MP games are still being made which is why I started buying games again in 2019 after a huge gap of no purchases.

Sure, it's not only kids. And I too have friends of my age that play a lot of those multiplayer games you mentioned. They do play single player games from time to time, but they mostly follow the trends.

However, I'm not as pessimist about the future of single player games as I as a few years ago. I remember when EA seemed to be going full multiplayer with Star Wars: Battlefront and the Titanfall not having single player components. There were some backlash and both sequels had campaigns. Also, their latest Star Wars game, Jedi Fallen Order is single player only is a success.

Microsoft wanted to go that route too, and now acquired a lot of studios that are known to produce great single player experiences.

And for both Nintendo and Playstation, great single player games has always been their bread and butter.

When it comes to Multiplayer - I miss the old days of it. Namely, when it wasn't so Level-based. Give me the old days - the RTCW days; Quake 2+3 days; UT series days. Give me the MP where it was about learning the map, learning the equipment, learning your class/skills, etc etc.

Give me the Left 4 Dead co-op days - get a few players together; do the 40m to 1 hour short campaign; and then...whatever. Maybe find a new crew, find some more players - do the same short campaign/episode again; or do another one. Yeah, and back then...no leveling system there either.

If I play COD now, I feel like I'm way behind the curve and the grind. I don't buy games Day 1 - so by the time I buy it, since I often buy stuff dirt-cheap on sale - it's too late; player counts have either dwindled; and/or most players are way higher up than when where I'm at, so I stand no chance.

For me - games w/ leveling systems, those are normally easier to take at my own pace all alone, as I feel like it - in a single player environment. I don't have to worry about other players' over-leveled - to where if we co-op, I'm holding friends back b/c I'm too low of a level compared to them; or if we are competitive I'm just constantly getting crushed b/c I don't have the same stuff unlocked yet.
I actually enjoyed the SW: Battlefront 2 (from DICE) campaign with Iden; that was good.

Also, I'm in the midst of Titanfall 2 - and that campaign's awesome, so far. I'm some 6-7 hours into that.

Yeah, I liked Battlefront 2 campaign as well, but the Titanfall 2 one is on another level. Such a great game, the only downside is that it's too short.

Ain't finished TF2's campaign yet - but I think I'm near the end. But so far - man, it's been awesome. The missions, the combat, the gameplay - it just rocks on so many levels. Nothing short of that.

Obviously, I'd love to see Titanfall 3 and SW: Battlefront 3 w/ awesome single-player campaigns again.
Yeah, I do need to get around to getting Jedi Fallen Order; that so looks up my alley.

As for Sony: this is why I'm glad to see some Sony games, like say HZD and now Days Gone - getting PC ports. I hope they keep 'em coming.

I'd love to see The Last of Us series, Bloodborne, Demon's Souls Remake, Ghosts of Tsushima, Uncharted series, God of War series, and any other stuff from them hit the PC b/c just like you said: "Great single player games has always been their bread and butter."

I also liked Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls recently, when those hit the PC from Quantic Dream.