Back again for some Friday summing that is somewhat game related. I don’t even have much of a preamble, so let’s just get to it.
- The End of the Metazerse as Zuck Knew It
Six years and $77 billion later it appears that Zuck is finally throwing in the towel on his vision of being a real boy… or the one person with legs in a legless virtual reality.
Zuck… if he can’t be real, he’ll make everybody else wooden!
The metaverse hype wasn’t even a solution in search of a problem like so many tech boondoggles. It was worse that the Juicero, another solution that solve no problems, but at least it could be described and people could point and laugh at it.
The metaverse was a technology that even those promoting it couldn’t define. Nobody during that hype bubble could define the metaverse in a way that didn’t either stray into such a specific niche as to be ridiculous or hand wave in such general terms that you were forced to conclude that we already have a metaverse and may have had it for a couple of decades at this point.
You can’t solve a problem if you cannot define it.
But that didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg from jumping on board with his Reality Labs division which set fire to so much money since Covid… think of all that could have been done.
Well the money wasn’t literally set on fire. It went to pay people and vendors and stimulated the local economy and put pressure on housing prices and what not. It is just that the outcome from all that spending… it would have been better to pay people to clean up the streets or, I don’t know… moderate toxic content on Facebook.
And now it will be going to fund AI slop.
- Enad Global 7 Setting Sail for Trouble
The pirates are shouting, “I’m the captain now!” over at Enad Global 7 where a capital management group has taken over the chairman of the board position based on a platform of “how can we milk this cow even harder?”
Enad Global 7
The last couple of earnings reports haven’t looked good, especially on the Daybreak side of the house, which has been the reliable engine of the gaming side of the house. Ji Ham gets out there and talks about how strong of a brand H1Z1 is and how THJ is hurting their business, but those are all excuses. They bought Singularity 6, which got a new title under the Daybreak umbrella, but is Palia strong enough to take over from the sagging fortunes of EverQuest and DC Universe Online?
I was pessimistic in my annual predictions post, but was I pessimistic enough? The Q4 results, which includes expansion and holiday revenue, and the overall 2025 financials will be coming out in the next few weeks. We shall see what that portends. Will they embrace AI slop?
- The Coming Enshitification of Discord
- Reuters – Chat platform Discord files confidentially for US IPO
- Tech Crunch – Discord’s IPO could happen in March
- Super Joost Playlist – Discord’s IPO heralds a year of sobriety
We knew this day was coming. It has just been the economic troubles that have kept Discord and its backers from cashing out. But even high inflation, insane tariffs, and growing unemployment can’t keep the VCs from trying to squeeze a few more bucks out of the market before the AI bubble bursts and the real recession begins.
Unity through Discord
Not that Discord hasn’t started in on the monetization enshitification already, but once the IPO hits and Wall Street gains full control, the demand for the line to go up every quarter will mean throwing all sense of customer service out the door in favor of turning the monetization dial to 11.
So the question of the moment is where will we find the next Discord and how long do we have to find it and move over before the current business simply becomes glorified malware pushing AI slop?
Suggestions welcome on what might be next!
- Ubisoft being Ubisoft
I mean, what am I going to say about Ubisoft? I do find it rich that one of the most historically customer hostile developers has declared they are going to become more “gamer-centric” by… cancelling games, firing devs, and doubling down on AI slop. I’m already 25 years in on refusing to buy anything they publish, and it looks like I’ll go to my grave holding onto that vow.
- The Worst People Fighting… Let Them Fight
I thought that one of the benefits of Activision Blizzard selling out to Microsoft was going to be no longer having to hear about that shitheel Bobby Kotick. But there he is again, so we get layoffs, less competition, and poorer conditions for consumers AND we have to hear him whine about not being richer than he already is? Another argument for this being the on the worst timeline.
Anyway, he showed up like pet vomit you’ve stepped into in the middle of the night to throw stones at Embracer Group, a collection of awful shitheels on their own who can’t even run a successful business without wrecking almost everything they touch, for possibly objecting to the acquisition of his company by Microsoft.
That sound like it might be the only good thing Lars from Mars and the inbred board at Embracer Group might have ever done. I mean, they did it for asinine and selfish greed, but at least it was in the direction of something that was pro-consumer in that “a broken clock is right twice a day” fashion. I am sure they’ll plead the nobleness of their intentions to Saint Peter on this, as in so many things that were selfish, hurtful greed, before he sends them to hell.
Anyway, I can only hope they sue each other or something.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 