Honestly, I may be an exception, but I feel like maybe I'm not: I'm really having a lot of trouble supporting the breath of games I used to. In part because I'm a grown ass man with less gaming time, but also because GAAS games are taking a lot of the oxygen out of the room. Outside of some truly special releases over the last decade, the grind of GAAS has resulted in me having a backlog of games, with many games still sitting in shrink wrap a year+ into ownership.

In our capitalism-driven world where revenue must always increase, I just don't know what the future looks like. Or, I do: a bunch of small indie games orbiting a handful of massive, well-maintained GAAS games and annual releases and almost nothing in between. Creativity extracted in order to maintain revenue. Calculated, clinical releases instead of new ideas built on love and passion. Lots of studio closures and dissolvements.

And it feels like my fault to some degree. I've allowed my gaming time to go to the Overwatches, Dota's, League of Legends', Diablo's, Path of Exile's, Apex Legends, CS Go's, and Team Fortress 2's of the world. 90% of my gaming time is in that nexus of games somewhere. For others its the annual Madden or FIFA or Fortnite or mobile Gacha games. If I wasn't playing these time sinks, I would have enjoyed some of the brilliant single players experiences from small and large studios alike that have come out over the last several years. And maybe the outlook wouldn't be quite as grim.

Or maybe it's really just a reflection of failed leadership and COVID-expansion greed and over-promising. Again, it's always the workers that get punished while execs get pay raises for their trash decisions.

Jack Welsh may be one of the worst people to ever live. And if you don't know who that is, I encourage you to do some reading. He is the reason why businesses behave the way they do (mass layoffs) to make their numbers look better for investors.

Executive mismanagement, overpromising, and neglect continues to be a thing in tech, and the employees doing good work pay the price.

Destiny 2. New and refreshed weapons that are actually worth farming.

Not a lot of gaming time planned, though. I got a date to enjoy tomorrow, some work to get ahead of for next week.

this forum still has signatures? lmao

Sounds good. Grats to those who've been waiting patiently for this. Looks like it is solid.

Spend some time reading up on Jack Welsh, then report back.

Her battery didn't "die" because of the cold weather. What you mean to say is that she ran out of juice because she didn't charge her car in time for whatever reason. Words matter. 180,000 posts in, you should have learned that by now.

And keep that same energy for all the people with frozen gas tank lines. an issue that EVs do not have.

I'm not super intersted in debating semantics.

Were 2 of the top selling vehicles of 2023 EVs? Yes? Then they aren't so niche, are they. To me, "niche" is Maserati. It's Lotus. It's Subaru. Porsche. Fiat. Alfa Romero. I see 2 Teslas/Ioinic's/etc. at every stop light here in south Florida (never mind the regular Taycan's, Rivian SUVs and trucks, Genesis', etc.), so about as "Niche" as idunno...a Dodge or Buick. More common than those brands combined, really. YMMV wherever in the country you are.

Furthermore, EVs have an annual growth rate of 18% and are expected to maintain that pace through 2028. They certainly won't fall in popularity as charging performance and battery range increase and prices decrease.

So again, if you define that as "niche" presently, okay. That's your personal phraseology and maybe EVs are a rare sight in your neck of the woods. In my neck of the woods, they extremely common and only growing more common as traditional brands finally have caught up and can compete. Remember, it's their fault they are only now competitive in the first place as they tried to lobby Congress in the early 2000s to kill EV efforts to preserve their cash cow. Tesla forced their hand.

What do they do?

Bungie is supporting one of the largest live service games in the world with significant content expansions roughly every QUARTER while developing two others and incubating a 3rd.

You tell me what they all do.

Riot Games employs more than 4,000 people. But they only make League of Legends, Valorant and some mobile stuff, right?

2 of the top 10 highest selling vehicles in America last year were EVs. That number will only grow. So um, your premise is instantly wrong and demonstrably false. EVs are already a thing. I'm looking forward to getting my Lotus EV later this year when it arrives in the US. Best vehicle I've ever driven, best interior I've experienced second only to our 2011 Rolls Royce Phantom.

That said, there are plenty of infastructure issues that still need to be tackled. Not enough commercial chargers and performance is inconsistent and suspect, making EVs still best for homeowners rather than renters. But it's only going to get better, for very obvious reasons. There is demand, which means there is capital to be made. Someone will go get it. Worry less.

If hydrogen is the future, we'll see it hit the market eventually and go through its necessary growing pains but it's at least a decade from any sort of market viability. You can worry about those products whenever the finally hit the market in like 2035. Between now and then? I'mma enjoy my 2.9s 0-60 in my electric SUV and laugh at ICE cars that have zero shoot of keeping up outside of supercars.