Microsoft Terminates Key XBONE Feature
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/27/25 at 06:11 PM CT
Remember the disastrous Xbox One (a.k.a., XBONE) reveal, where Microsoft’s representatives spent all of their time talking about how you could have all of your non-gaming content (a.k.a., ‘it’) in one place, with little concern for showing actual exclusive games one might wish to play on the ostensible game console that was the XBONE? That feature came to be known as Microsoft Movies and TV… and they’re officially shutting ‘it’ down.
This reminds me uncomfortably of Microsoft’s decision to kill-off Windows Media Center and the dedicated versions of their flagship OS that came with it. The MJ Crew was SERIOUSLY invested in the success of Windows Media Center, with both Nick and I going whole-hog into cord-cutting (though, being rural, I never had a cord to begin with) and placing Windows Media Center-powered Home Theater PCs at the beating heart of our media consumption experience. The key difference, of course, is the fact that Windows Media Center was really, …
Steam Forced into Inconsistent Adult Content Ban by Purse-String Holders
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/20/25 at 05:02 PM CT
The world seems to have an Adult Content problem – Primarily that 70% of adults want it, while the other 30% are prudish scolds who want it banned. And, unfortunately, thanks to the Horseshoe Theory of politics, there’s enough power behind the desire for bans that they tend to be enforced.
A few years ago, Valve made waves in the face of Sony Bowdlerizing and censoring fairly benign and inconsequential content in Japanese games by announcing that any and all uncensored content would be welcome on Steam… then almost immediately regretted that decision. After a couple rounds of back-and-forth, though, Steam ultimately ended up as a glorious Laissez-Faire marketplace where people who were open to Adult Content in their games could opt-in to see such things, and those who didn’t want to see such content – or who weren’t officially old enough to see it – could ignore it. And that seemed to be the perfect balance between insane levels of porn everywhere (like unfiltered …
“Stop Killing Games” Movement Shows Europe Still Ahead of U.S. in Consumer Rights
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/13/25 at 03:12 PM CT
Rights abuses by IP and copyright holders have been a recurring subject on this blog, largely because they are so flagrant and egregious in contemporary Industrial Gaming, and neither the Democrats nor Republicans that control the United States government and write all of the laws seem to want to do anything about it. Considering the last major piece of legislation Americans got was the horrendous Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was copied largely intact across foreign governments ranging from the U.K. to Japan, it felt like we as consumers were at the mercy of Corporate Persons who seemed determined to NEVER let us enjoy Intellectual Property on our own terms.
Since the formation of the European Union, however, the European Commission has been on the bleeding edge of pushing for individual rights. Sometimes these pushes veer into nonsensical and Woke directions, but most of the time, European regulations force multi-national corporations to stop doing objectively …
Square-Enix and the Concept of “Awareness”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/06/25 at 01:36 PM CT
It’s no secret that “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” made a bit of a splash with its release earlier this year. It was also one of the games that made my list of titles to get excited about in 2025, primarily by virtue of being a story-rich, turn-based RPG with decent production values – the type of thing Squaresoft and Enix were renowned for in the Golden Age of ‘90s-era gaming, but which has largely fallen out of favor, with studios pushing more in the direction of Cinematic Sandboxes with copy-pasted Action-based combat instead.
Square-Enix has gone on the record stating that they are “aware” of the success of “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” and seem to be pondering a return to the style of game that made the original two component publishers into household names once upon a time.
And this is worrisome.
Square-Enix has been out-of-touch and on the back foot for well over a decade now. It seems that since shortly after the merger, the two-headed Ettin of a …
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