August-November of that year was headlined by a slew of all-time greats: Half-Life 2, San Andreas, MGS3, Halo 2, The Sims 2…
If you were into video games in any way in that time period, you had something great to play, regardless of platform.
Rainbow Six Siege is up there — there’s six dimensions of assholery in the game by my count.
Universal Paperclips! It’s an idle game that relies on you making smart planning decisions to optimize things, so there’s a degree of strategy that most of them lack.
That’s my thought as well – the licensed sports game market is probably more reliable (and generates more revenue vs. development cost) than originals, and they can “streamline” their business by splitting the originals business off for a sale. Not including sports probably makes the originals side more attractive to platform holders, as most sports games probably include provisions that require multiplatform releases (see also: the MLB signing a publishing deal for Sony’s “The Show” on non-Sony platforms).
I have AA (via their bundle, it’s not really worth it on its own), and within a few weeks I wasn’t able to find online matches. It also didn’t feel great to play (both on touchscreen and controller), and they never released anything beyond 3-on-3 hockey. I would not recommend.
A roguelike platformer. While it lacks any meta-progression (like the similar Rogue Legacy games), the core platforming keeps me coming back again and again. The systems-based nature of the game keeps things fresh through many play-throughs.
A photography game that’s more cyberpunk than the game titled Cyberpunk. It gradually introduces you into its neon-soaked, Neon Genesis Evangelion-inspired world where humanity fights the good fight against kaiju.
Except the kaiju, born from global warming, have already won, humanity is doomed, and you’re there to document the end of everything. The game takes a clear political position, inspired by the Australian bushfires and protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, that neoliberalism and conservatism can’t solve society-level issues, and will instead use the power of the state to sell non-solutions to delay or hide problems while violently stifling any real dissent.
A story of love, loss, and moving on.
They had their moment in the early 00s, but they went away largely because people stopped buying them. Even though Hitz and Blitz showed some of the more-cringeworthy aspects of their sports, the sales were good enough for the licensors to not really care.
If Tape-to-Tape ends up selling well, you’ll see the NHL pushing for their own officially-licensed version (because nobody in that league has any original ideas). The same goes for other arcadey sports games.
MLB tried to bring back arcadey games with RBI Baseball (through their Advanced Media arm) – without it, the only annual baseball game would be Sony’s “The Show”. They wound that down when MLBAM signed a deal to publish The Show on non-Sony platforms. I’d think that, if the sales justified it, they’d be happy to continue selling both sim and arcade games.
Three thoughts:
The biggest reasons to lock down hardware aren’t really there on the Deck. On top of that, it benefits Valve to have other devices running their storefront, so using off-the-shelf parts when possible makes it easier for others to use the Deck as a template.