The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm extremely self-conscious so performing in a public space makes me uncomfortable.  I'd probably feel a lot better if I knew that only friends I trust were the ones watching me.

[Twig]

I'm also that way! And yet.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I am tempted to try this out but don't wanna butt in on the 2 people I know that are currently playing, it feels weird.

[Merus]

Hah, I'd honestly feel MORE comfortable if lots of people were watching me. The fact that only a few people are, and they're people I know, is what makes it hard. Am I weird.

 

A friend of mine does streaming and he talks to people by name and responds to them in chat, which feels like the way to do it.

 

See, my problem is I expect no-one to watch.

[SecretAsianMan]

So I streamed a disappointing daily challenge, but more importantly I also messed around a bit with the settings.  Apparently it not only streams the game audio, it just streams all audio.  I put on the podcast in the background and it played on the stream.  Also if you enable desktop capture, you can just minimize the window and stream pretty much anything you want.  I've already heard reports of porn and anime being broadcast.  I expect that won't last long.

[Justin Leego]

I wonder how Steam is monitoring that sort of thing. Surely not just by relying on user reports?

[Merus]

I wonder how Steam is monitoring that sort of thing. Surely not just by relying on user reports?

 

It's Steam, you think they've thought for one minute about how their community will abuse their new feature?

[SuperBiasedMan]

And they have also repeatedly demonstrated that they're willing to rely on the community and fight fires later.

[JonCole]

Street Fighter V is a PS4 and PC exclusive according to a leaked Capcom trailer - http://www.polygon.com/2014/12/5/7338907/street-fighter-5-is-a-playstation-4-windows-pc-exclusive

[Henroid]

So uh, there's some bad news revolving around Sony. The short of it is that they knew their IT security was shit and they weren't lifting a finger to fix it, nor did they have any plan if things went to hell (the big hack that happened a while ago).

 

http://gizmodo.com/sony-execs-knew-about-extensive-it-flaws-two-months-bef-1670203774

[Twig]

Sad trumpet noise.

 

Also they're making a Mario movie! Or are they? http://kotaku.com/report-sony-making-super-mario-bros-cartoon-1670192558

[Sno]

Well, if this ever actually materializes, they could do a lot, lot worse than Genndy Tartakovsky.

[Twig]

Agreed, I said elsewhere that if they get him, I'm 100% in.

[SecretAsianMan]

I would totally watch an animated Genndy Tartakovsky Mario movie.

[Sno]

So this is a weird thing that happened.

Kind of bums me out to hear this, having recently found myself surprised that i really quite liked Spintires.

Seems like there's a fair number of allegations being thrown back and forth between the publisher and the designer though, glancing at the Steam board for the game.

[Nachimir]

Has anyone mentioned the new VAT rules in the EU yet? There are loads of indie game/thing creators taking their things down tomorrow since the amount of admin and money it'll take to comply outstrip the money they make. I ignored when I first heard about it a few months ago, because it sounded like typical anti-EU nonsense that would be explained, but no. Even this anti-EU source has it pretty much correct. The law was changed to make big companies like Amazon and eBay stop dodging higher VAT rates. In practice, it's going to hamper independents and drive more trade to bigger players just like them.

 

Basically: VAT will be charged on digital goods and services according to the location of the buyer, and sellers have to collect proof of that location and pay the VAT. While the UK have set up a kind of centralised clearing house for this, it's still onerous for any small traders, as the UK exempts companies from VAT registration below a threshold turnover of about £80,000. The new EU law has no lower threshold, so suddenly those UK companies have to stop trading or take on the extra admin and expense of registering for and reporting VAT in the UK and EU.

 

Bandcamp have stepped in to handle it for musicians:

http://blog.bandcamp.com/2014/12/30/eu-digital-vat-changes-and-bandcamp/

 

Hopefully places like itch.io will be able do this for game creators too. In the past week, game designers I know have been variously planning to take their stuff down, make it free or ignore the law and hope no one notices because it's ridiculous.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I have heard that itch.io are working on doing this too. Hopefully it can be sorted but it's a shitty mess. I think this will push people more to other funding like Kickstarter or Patreon where they could (at least theoretically) avoid VAT but still get paid and supply games to people. If the idea is to go after Amazon and eBay that hopefully means they'd care little about these loopholes.

 

I'm also now concerned cause I have to try and figure out if doing freelance work for individuals will mean that I have to deal with all this even before I start to try and release any games?
If so, this is incredibly awful timing!

[Nachimir]

I really hope that's the case for itch.io, and was doubtful since last time I looked into it, it was a spare time project of one developer that took 0% of all sales.

 

Has it been clarified that Patreon bypasses it?

[SuperBiasedMan]

Uhhh well after googling Patreon and VATMOSS I got an unsatisfying result that indicates maybe it and kickstarter would render artists liable for their rewards:

http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=20123

 

It's so nebulous though that sometimes the advice seems to be asking how careful you want to be, since this is all new territory and it's unsure exactly how these things will be enforced.

 

Here's a petition about stopping it by the way.

https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products/share?after_sign_exp=default&just_signed=true

[elmuerte]

Holy crap what a retarded rule. They are basically bringing the VAT hell from the US here.

[SuperBiasedMan]

itchio has written an extensive blogpost clarifying their system for VATMOSS,

 

The short answer is, they wont be handling it for sellers. They WILL provide the option to collect location data and automatically calculate VAT based on the buyer's location (but these can be turned off),

 

They do offer a handy back door though, They mention how amounts payed above the minimum price are not subject to VAT and that if you have a game with a zero as the minimum price then none of it is subject to VAT.

 

Sooo that's going to be my monetisation model for 2015.

[Sno]

Another trademark was filed for a "Dragon's Dogma Online".

*Sigh*

Not what i would have hoped for out of a Dragon's Dogma follow-up, if it is indeed what the name implies it is. Seems like Capcom is responding to all the misguided demands for co-op out of that game.

[SecretAsianMan]

The Xbox One won an Emmy Award for Television Enhancement Devices which is apparently a real category.  Go figure.

[Merus]

I am curious to see what ArenaNet is willing to say they learned from running a successful online game without trying to do a boxed expansion, because after the first few updates it really seems like they had difficulty getting press for anything they were doing.

[JonCole]

Club Nintendo is going away. In the next month, Nintendo will be adding "dozens" of things to the rewards page to help people spend out what points they have remaining. Also, now you just have the next couple months to qualify for Gold/Platinum status if that's a thing you care about.

 

Important dates:

 

1/20/2015 - Products released after this date are not eligible for registration with Club Nintendo

3/31/2015 - Last day to earn Coins, register products with Club Nintendo, and sign up for new Club Nintendo membership

6/30/2015 - Last day to redeem Coins or access your account on the Club Nintendo website. Club Nintendo program shuts down at 11:59pm PT on 6/30/2015.

 

That first cutoff date is unfortunate, as I already kinda have Punchout and Metroid Prime Trilogy as locked-in purchases in my mind and it's a shame we can't register them.