But now it's a complete paradign shift that anyone can port a popular hit game to the browser just by asking Fable or Opus. Optimization is a whole topic, because most people don't know the specifics around doing so. Streaming of assets is crucial so you don't have the big download problem. Still, someone can tell the model "make it run faster and start up quicker" and the model will largely obey and go ahead and implement that.
We're 100% going to see major portals of console-quality WebGPU games, both ports of well know titles as well as indies using the web as a way to get seen. For anyone interested in real cutting edge in WebGPU, below I've linked to an Unreal Engine 5 FPS running in the browser, you can check it out here: (does not run on mobile, only computers, not Firefox):
A tragic loss of consumer surplus and incredibly inefficient in terms of resources, bandwidth and people’s time.
It’s sad but it seems inevitable at this stage.
Heck, a while back I was wondering if, instead of Moonlight / Sunshine style video streaming, you could stream geometry or some sort of intermediate representation and let the client GPU do some of the final shading / rendering (the idea was that you might be able to recover some frame latency and maybe even do some local reprojection like they do in VR headsets to improve controller responsiveness etc.)
That's probably a trick that somebody at the big gaming companies is going to start looking at.
Even in your optimal scenario adding another 20-40ms (or more) on top of already existent engine input lag, for most of us this means only a fairly basic game with minimal input is acceptable. On top of that, you're asking us to endure compression effects that are readily apparent.
I think the correct answer is that the video games industry will be a little fucked for the foreseeable future.
The people who love video games will keep doing it and the market will adapt. Maybe it'll cause a revival of arcades or interactive theater experiences. Maybe some games will only be playable from gaming cafes with special hardware requirements, in order to guarantee there's no cheating.
I guess if there is no other way of playing good games, but I find that hard to believe.
I find it hard to imagine a world of choice between what everyone hates or nothing. That's not how gaming ever worked, or how a (relatively) free market works.
Even Steam monopoly is only possible because people always genuinely loved Steam.
- Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) for PC was cracked in April 2015, launching almost immediately—on the same day as the official PC release—by the Chinese cracking group 3DM (version 1.24)
Everything will be streamed and locked behind subscriptions, as god intended
Pirated games have always existed. Pirated versions of GTA 5 have been around for years.
Like GabeN said…piracy is a service issue not a price issue.
If a living being didn't write it. It's not worth reading
Let's no go down the rabbit hole of "since it's easier now, we need new laws..." to make new laws and regulations about what AI coding can and can't do when the existing copyright laws work perfectly well.
edit: Want to decomp/recomp a game and modify it and change it so you have more fun? Go right ahead. Have a blast. Want to then publish that? You don't have the right to republish their materials without permission. If you do, the owner can run the math of how much it damages them to decide if they pursue it. We don't need the AI generator to police that for us.
Disclaimer: I'm in neither camp, but just making a note of yet another hypocrisy. I'm into my 17th volume.
Yeah, piracy is doing better than ever. FMHY shows the entire ecosystem—it's huge: https://fmhy.net/
This will be taken down though if Rockstar tries to because dot coms are not DMCA resistant.
At the end of the day, copyright is trying to constrain information which is not easy on the internet.
ps: For the creator, add your website to https://donatemonero.org
Unfortunately the game locked up after about 2 minutes of getting in.
I wonder how many tokens and human steering it took to get this done.
Given how brazen these things are becoming, are we entering a new era of piracy where people hack, crack, rip and distribute entire franchises for free and get paid anonymously?