Check Out The New EGM Compendium Kickstarter

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.


In this case, that is a good thing

I clearly have been too busy for my own good recently, as I totally had my head buried too deeply in the sands of busyness to be paying attention to recent matters of relevant interest. To wit; a new Kickstarter that has recently started is looking to pay tribute to the myth, the legend, *the* magazine about gamng to read back in the day: EGM is looking to celebrate it’s decades long history with a compendium.

Though the project is technically already funded, you too can contribute some of your hard earned cash to a worthwhile cause in the name of gaming history, by pledging some money to what is going to be a 320 page blowout spectacular celebrating the 25 year run of EGM with a massive spread including it’s entire history, the thousands of games they covered, with new developer interviews, revisited stories, new bits and pieces contributed by old editors, and just…a shit ton of content that makes the mind reel.


So awesome

You of course can just donate a few bucks if you want, or you can plop down some serious casholah, which will net you a series of rewards depending on your level of commitment, including pins, a poster, a special edition physical copy, and even a massive digital archive including every EGM at your fingertips to enjoy at your leisure.

Head on over to the page and contribute to celebrating a cultural institution if you’ve got some extra money. EGM is basically the reason I write about video games today, and if it means half as much to you as it does to me, you will not want to miss being a part of this history.

~Pashford

VR A Fail State? Devs Seem To Think So

And here we were as a collective absolutely terrified of the notion that technology and virtual reality would enslave us at the turn of the century.


Not quite the Matrix, but I guess half right…maybe
a little more “Brave New World” than taking the red pill

In somewhat discouraging news on the VR front, a survey conducted by the group known as the “Game Developer Collective”, polled a sample of people from within the gaming industry that did not inspire confidence within reference to the field of VR. Of the sample group asked about what they thought in terms of how VR games were doing, a majority (56%) said they saw the market as “currently declining or stagnant, with only 23% operating under the belief the state of VR games is gradually improving over time.


If a decade later, several devices after the fact, and even
a new Half-Life game to grace the market, if all that can’t
considerably move the needle, I don’t know what will

One of the reasons it looks to be that devs are refusing the turn to support more VR and or the pivot of adoption in general is due to a limited market that has been mostly kept incredibly small and exclusive is related to price. With even larger companies like Sony offering “cheaper” alternatives as entry level choices for VR adoption, with their PSVR2 retailing for $550 just to get started, it’s easy to see why the supply and demand for VR itself is in such a miserable state.


Damning numbers, to be sure

I remember being really excited to try VR when I first went to E3…back in 2014. The number of headsets I tried ran the spectrum, from Sony’s offerings at the time, to the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift which was really impressive, though they all offered something grand to enjoy. I knew even then however, with my astoundingly positive experience with any of the headsets, price, even for someone like me who dedicated a lot of their budget to new gaming experiences, was going to be a barrier for VR entry. More than a decade later, and I *still* haven’t picked up a single headset for the very same reasons, and I was part of the target demographic that was even on the front lines of early prospective buyers that still hasn’t taken the leap. With even the Apple Vision Pro failing to make any splash whatsoever, with a whopping 72% of developers not seeing it as an “important moment for VR”, it seems like just about no major company can get it to work.

If major companies like Valve, Sony and even Apple can’t even get people interested enough in growing the market, I think VR will remain a niche market till kingdom come at this point, with little hope for widespread adoption. Perhaps VR will always remain just a little too future for the general gaming public at large.

~Pashford