There’s no way to access them without either pirating them or buying antiques from vendors.
That’s a scary place to be.
But the conversation has felt especially pertinent recently.
Moreso in the wake of consolidation already reaping disastrous consequences.
The video game industry started essentially mimicking Hollywood, says Cifaldi.
There’s basically five companies that own everything now.
That sucks in a lot of ways.
Talk of preservation inevitably leads to the ever-taboo topic of piracy.
Digital streaming scooped everything up and we all got content with it.
We’re already seeing things wiped from existence before our eyes.
Over the holidays, I saw two tweets.
If buying isnt owning, piracy isnt stealing, it read.
Theotherwas from Black Tabby, the two person dev team behind the popular and excellent horror gameSlay The Princess.
As a genuine indie outfit, theyre in the position to decide how their audience interacts with their work.
We don’t want money to necessarily be the game ender.
And piracy, adds Abby Howard, is just going to happen no matter what.
Neither of us here need to be that protectionist about it.
Howard-Arias says if you like the Stanley Parable and you likeDisco Elysium, you’ll probably like this.
Tweets like Black Tabbys might well spur on some research.
There was some minor pushback, however, mostly through misinterpretation.
Some wrongly assumed Black Tabby were upset at streamers.
Howard-Arias describes their position as a strange intersection.
As artists, they want people to experience their art.
Naturally, theyd also want a sustainable business.
We want people experiencing it in the way it’s intended to be played.
So it’s like it’s a situation where all of these things are true at the same time.
Do Black Tabby feel theres any potential risk of normalising piracy in a harmful sense?
He lovedVampire Survivorsand its -likes, but felt the price had an impact.
A lot of people were interested in exploring that space.
Pirated copies, says Howard, arent ones they would have sold anyway.
These are numbers aren’t just cutting into your bottom line so much as they are bonus numbers.
That’s how it’s always felt to me.
What would they want to know?
Its that sheer breadth of individual experience that can make a first playthrough feel almost magical in its fluidity.
Its no wonder Black Tabby want people to experience a first run first-hand.
Theyre not finished yet, either.
Much of it is ideas and elaborations on the story inspired by seeing the game in the wild.
Again, I dont want to put revolutionary slogans in Black Tabbys mouths.
And the idea of remastering a game for the next hardware refresh has become normal.
Still, though, is a strong note of caution.
I dont believe that weve found a commercial solution for your video game staying alive forever.
So, if anyone knows what a torrent is, just let DM me.
It sounds like they could be useful.
