A direct inflation conversion like that is not invalid, but it lacks a lot of context. Games might have been more expensive back then, but everything else was orders of magnitude cheaper. People were buying homes and starting families as young adults back then. Now many in that bracket live check-to-check and struggle to put food on the table. It stings a lot more.

also to clarify: I was using Canadian dollars. Major releases are around one hundred bucks here when adding tax, give or take a little.

It’s called AAA because that’s the sound I make when I see the pricetag.

They’ve been doing big things with the Mac lineup in recent years. Macbooks, both Pro and Air, have gotten major design shakeups and improved processors. The Mini just got a new design and hardware as well. Oh yeah, and they’ve officially ended the 8gb minimum RAM so that’s a big boost to new purchasers.

Meanwhile the iPhone has hardly changed for numerous generations now. All they really do is shuffle the camera bumps around and add in AI that nobody asked for. I have an iPhone myself but it doesn’t exactly spark much joy for me. It is a very sterile, unenthusiastic device and I get that impression from every one of their recent models. They are stagnating badly, imo. My 14P still has 100% battery health and loads every single app practically instantly. Why the hell would I get a new device? Especially when they are like $1,000+

Once again another reminder why I don’t buy games at launch.

Well, this and the near-$100 price that most AAA’s are launching at now.

I’ve learned that whenever a major US organisation criticises China for something it’s almost always projection.

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a Seagate drive in the last 20 or so years. Every time I’ve been shopping for a spinning disk, there has been some ongoing controversy surrounding Seagate in one form or another that turned me off buying one.

Ahhh, our local fascist party doing what they do best.

I struggle to think of something I’d rather do less than entrust Musk with my money.

Gargling sulphuric acid, perhaps.

Wait until they hear what data Instagram/Meta collects during use!

But they’re a US company so it’s ok.

I wish I could do more shopping there, but eBay in Canada is extremely expensive which has lead to it being kind of a ghost town compared to the US. $20-$50 shipping fees, even on tiny items, is common.

So I’ve started to use AliExpress more often. Literally the exact same item on Amazon but without the markup - sometimes even half the price. It’s not a great solution but the online shopping selection here in Canada is awful.

Not every type of epilepsy is photosensitive.

In fact, it’s an extremely rare form of epilepsy.

Also tonic-clonic seizures are only one of many kinds, and they are not fun.

The primary use of my computer is for work as I am a 3D artist. I also watch a lot of videos and it serves as my audio rig for my music and headphones.

Well, think about it.

They profit off their users by either charging them for a service, selling user data, and/or advertisement. If their dating app was very successful and quickly matched users together, they wouldn’t be using the app very long and the company would lose potential profit.

This probably wasn’t the case in the earlier days of the internet but it certainly is now. They want you hooked and coming back every day so they can get maximum profit off you.

Paid calculator apps.

Not only are many of them paid - but they are subscription as well. Imagine paying a monthly fee for your goddamn calculator.

This comes shortly after news that EA lost several billion in market value and Veilguard underperformed, so not surprising at all.

Nvidia is in the business of selling AI hardware. They want to hype up AI so they sell more hardware.

This is a salesman trying to make a sale.

Good bug!

Hot damn did they ever screw up badly with DAV.

If they just released what people were expecting (and wanting): Dreadwolf, a true Dragon Age sequel - then it would’ve sold by the figurative truckload and they’d be riding the money boat right now.

But no. The reality-disconnected decision makers decreed that it had to be ultra sanitised, corporate, Disney-esque slop. Not an awful game, sure, but absolutely not a Dragon Age game.

This needs to be one part of a multi-part retaliation to the US. The trade deals between the US and Canada are worth almost 1 Trillion dollars with manufactured goods and fuels being a large part of it. With the US being so politically unstable and aggressive, we need to find new trade deals and walk away from these draconian agreements we made with the US.

Canada has major ports on both the Pacific and Atlantic coast with rail and road infrastructure linking them to the rest of the country. There is a lot we could do. Will we? Probably not. A sizable portion of our own political sphere wants to bend over and take it from Trump even though he will give no love in return.

AAA games are already $90CAD here with deluxe/special editions going for $120-$160. I can’t remember the last time I actually bought one of those games because most of them are trash designed to exploit the player as much as possible. There are a lot of other hobbies I’d rather drop that kind of money on that respect my time heaps more than modern games.

I think Tiny Glade is the only game I play regularly that is an actual new release. Everything else is 5+ years old because I got them on sale for good prices. Also means they’re already patched up and usually perform better instead of having people pay $90+ to beta test broken garbage.