Ubisoft’s bean counters had some trouble reading the market on this one.

They left Steam because they felt the 30% cut that Valve takes for sales on their platform is way too high, but didn’t account that users of Steam are really entrenched into that platform and don’t want to leave just for the chance to play an Ubisoft title. So instead of seeing 70% of Steam sales of their games, they saw 0.

This is bad news for my productivity

I’m not sure I necessarily agree. Your assessment is correct, but I don’t really think this situation is security by obscurity. Like most things in computer security, you have to weight the pros and cons to each approach.

Yubico used components that all passed Common Criteria certification and built their product in a read-only configuration to prevent any potential shenanigans with vulnerable firmware updates. This approach almost entirely protects them from supply-chain attacks like what happened with ZX a few months back.

To exploit this vulnerability you need physical access to the device, a ton of expensive equipment, and an incredibly deep knowledge in digital cryptography. This is effectively a non-issue for your average Yubikey user. The people this does affect will be retiring and replacing their Yubikeys with the newest models ASAP.

Absolutely. If you are the CISO in a place where security is a top priority with adversaries that may have access to the equipment and knowledge to exploit this, you will absolutely want to retire the keys ASAP and replace them with the new model that is not vulnerable to this.

I love this place. Thank you for keeping it alive.

Nintendo doesn’t go after fangames like this

Unless you’re like AM2R, Pokemon Uranium, Mario 64 online, or any of the the other numerous fangames, romhacks, or mods that Nintendo threatened to sue into oblivion.

This looks incredible. I hope it evades the eye of sauron that is Nintendo’s lawyers

Uh oh. What did Ubisoft do this time?

They only talk about BG&E2 when they are about to be raked over the coals for some heinous shit they did.

You dont need to remind us to sympathize with the people you laid off, Phil. Thats the whole reason why your PR is bad right now.

Mid-range GPUs still exist, they just dont get the same coverage as the top-end cards. An RTX 4060 is set at $300 which is much cheaper than a PS5 or Series X

This is an interesting take. Historically, the main benefits to console gaming were 2 things:

• Consoles are cheaper than PCs

• Games require no config and and are guaranteed to be compatible

Nether of these is really the case anymore. For the price of a PS5 or a Series X you could get a midrange gaming PC with similar performance.

Regarding complexity, we kind of met in the middle. Long gone are the days when you could just pop a disc in the tray of your playstation or xbox and start playing, every game requires an install now. And on the PC side, you very rarely need to configure settings to get a game to a playable state. Hell, you dont really even need to manually install drivers anymore.

Of course, as the article points out, none of this applies to Nintendo and those consoles are still worth buying.

My guess for the future is that if Microsoft and Sony are going to hang around in the hardware space, they’re going to make something akin to the steam deck, but locked to their own storefront. And then they’ll wonder why people are still choosing PCs over their hardware.

That’s exactly the problem.

Under the current system, people that produce creative works as their job are forced to monetize them. Until we live in a post-scarcity world where everyone’s needs are met, like Star Trek, we have to deal with capitalist problems. To say otherwise is to ensure a system where artists and authors are unable to survive. Currently, the copyright system is good enough™ that creating art can be profitable enough that they are not destitute.

Simply because the technology exists to endlessly replicate and distribute art, regardless of the wishes of the artist (for which it is already frequently used, if you look at piracy channels) does not mean that it should be used with reckless abandon.

Copyright is generally a good idea. There has to be some level of restriction, otherwise infinite copies of your art immediately show up and you cant make a living.

On the flipside, it harms the industry at large if the copyright is too long. There is no reason why a corporate entity should be making royalties on something long after it’s creator has died.

So, where is the middle point? What is a good length of time to let an artist exclusively sell their art without fear of someone undercutting them as soon as they make something? Personally, i think the US figured out the sweet spot before all the changes. 14 years, plus a single 14 year extension you have to register. 28 years is enough time that you can make a career, but also not long enough to harm the creative process or prevent art from reaching the masses while its relevant.

My Ryzen 3900X idles at around 50C, although that’s a few generations ago now

Probably negatively, but also likey not enough to matter. CPUs these days run pretty cool.

Were a long way from the days of an idle Pentium 4 at 75C

I started Ori specifically because I didnt want to endlessly throw myself at Soul Master and the Watcher Knights again.

I’m about 60% through Ori and the Blind forest. Its curently scratching an itch I have for metroidvania games.

However, I learned that instead of patching the original game or releasing a DLC, they just made a re-release and im not buying the game a second time just for a new area and some improved QoL with fast travel.

Someone didnt watch the video

Computer engineers will try to get 2 things running on anything that could be described as Turing complete. The first is Conway’s Game of Life and the other is Doom

It sucks that this was the outcome as it’s going to require a ton of work from the modders, but to expect that a major publisher would involve the unofficial modding community in the release of official patches feels insane, even if they do have a sizable following.

In fact, I prefer it this way. I want the publisher to keep their fingers out of what the modders do as much as possible. Things are their best when the publisher is ignorant of their work. Less chance that the Eye of Sauron that is their legal department starts checking over mods for potential copyright lawsuits