Final Fantasy is in a Catch-22 Situation
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/26/26 at 04:39 PM CT
Alas, ‘Final Fantasy’ has been in freefall for FAR too long now, as I’ve pointed out previously. Each time a new game is announced, there’s the fleeting possibility that it will redeem the last TWENTY YEARS of flops and garbage, but it never manages to deliver.
Inexplicably, the second MMO entry in the series - “Final Fantasy 14 Online: A Realm Reborn” – seems to be the most recent title to garner a substantial amount of praise, even after flopping at launch and needing a complete revision into its more-or-less current incarnation. This praise comes in spite of the fact that the game is a) an MMO RPG, b) a subscription-based MMO RPG, and c) incredibly EFF-ing boring. Yet it is still getting plenty of support, with a new expansion, “Evercold,” revealed at the recent North American Fan Fest.
Of course, the game’s director, Naoki Yoshida, had a lot more to talk about than just the newest expansion for the last surviving revenue stream with ‘Final Fantasy’ …
Gaming’s Newest Curse: Dynamic Pricing
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/19/26 at 03:53 PM CT
It seems that we are just flat-out not allowed to have nice things, peace, or happiness anymore. Just when it seemed that Industrial Gaming had already plumbed the deepest depths of enshittification, something new is on the horizon, and it seems that Sony is leading the way into even greater hostility toward its customers.
As reported by Bellular News, it seems that Sony is going to be the first major gaming company and platform-holder to start adjusting prices based on what each individual can be expected to pay, rather than offering products at fixed prices with occasional blanket discounts. It’s entirely possible that we’re witnessing the beginning of the end for MSRP - Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price – as, if Sony and other like-minded corporations get their way, all product pricing will change from “MSRP” to “How Much You Got?”
Unfortunately, HMYG dynamic pricing isn’t actually a “new” thing. It has existed for decades under the guise of …
Amazon Luna to Follow Google Stadia on June 10
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/12/26 at 02:59 PM CT
Remember Google’s disastrous attempt at transforming gaming into a Cloud-based experience? Remember how it flopped after a single year and how Google kept it going as a backend service for a while after that before shutting it down altogether?
Well, apparently, Amazon thought they could do better when they launched their Luna game streaming service. Presumably the online retail titan thought they already had the gaming rep needed to launch such an endeavor due to having a de-facto monopoly on the other kind of game streaming through their Twitch platform. Amazon even tried partnering with the (sometimes inexplicably) well-liked DRM-free PC game shop, GOG.com, in order to help new Luna users flesh out their streamable libraries with a bunch of dubiously-Good, definitely-Old, Games.
Too bad for Amazon, but great news for us: Luna has been a complete failure and will be going away on June 10, 2026. Amazon has officially stopped selling new games through the Luna interface, and …
Microsoft: Co-Pilot is Mandatory, but “For Entertainment Only.”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/05/26 at 09:48 PM CT
It seems that ever since Windows 11 launched, Microsoft has been obsessed with cramming their AI assistant, Co-Pilot, into every facet of the OS, including bizarre and nonsensical appearances in such barebones programs as MS Paint and Notepad. These OS-level AI features have also had a grating tendency to re-install themselves during updates, even if the user has gone through the effort of trying to remove them.
And if Windows 11 is beyond saving, then Windows 12 is positively sunk, because Microsoft is currently planning to make it an entirely “agentic” OS, in which AI agents within the operating system interpret the user’s intents and desires, then manipulate the system based on these interpretations instead of allowing the user to manipulate the system directly. Indeed it looks like the future of Windows MS has been building towards is one entirely driven by AI...
... Which is why it’s so strange that, in their Autumn 2025 EULA update for Windows 11, they snuck in …
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