I know they are better than average, but the issue is that by doing this sort of "half and half" thing, VNs and other Asian games that would otherwise have their own dedicated stronghold are fragmented as a result of Steam pretty much being the place for non 18+ Japanese games.

Like, I'm talking about striking down 17+ games instead of 18+ ones. With 18+ games, you can go on Fakku or Mangagamer or just source from DMM/Nutaku. Non adult but lewd ones? You're out of luck. Itch.io is the closest thing and not enough.

I never really liked centralization as a whole. I favor the old "Installer from a website" method with its own protection system since that way, the publisher had exclusive control. Even for fan projects, you would often be prompted to go to a site, not just "go on Steam and if it's not there then it's probably not available. Period."

I feel Epic is considerably more adamant to make a point here: put them somewhere else and let that be the site for that sort of stuff. When you have a behemoth like Steam, it's a lot harder to argue that.

There's a reason I use PlayNite as a GM.

While I agree the half and half thing is pretty stupid, it all comes down to western culture and employee subjectivity. Eventually Valve might clear things up or have an Adult corner but it's a wait and see sorta deal. Until then, I think the audience that Steam allows these developers to have access to far exceeds the negatives of some games being denied Steam's access for stupid reasons.

And I highly doubt that Steam is the primary income for a lot of these Japanese VNs/games, adult or not adult. Because the Japanese devs don't just put a VN/game on steam and call it a day or get denied and cry in a corner. Japanese devs first release their games, sometimes months to years before in Asian based stores like DLSite (also has a English version). And if the game becomes a success there, they might translate it to English and then try to put it onto Steam. I know this because I yar a ton of hentai games that are either machine translated or fan translated that aren't available on steam. But 6 months to a few years later, I do see some of these games come to Steam with proper translation.

Imo that Stronghold is still there in the Asian market. The main thing Steam does is allow developers like illusion that have been Japanese only to finally bring their games to the west due to it's large audience and that's why I like them for it. Because before Steam, illusion was never going to commit because they have no idea how it would sell in the west. But after steam, they slowly started putting games which has had quite a lot of success. So, sure it has it's downsides but imo they are minor and I wouldn't trade it for the sketchy experience of trying to buy lewd games prior to Steam.

But to each their own.

So you want non18+ VN games and choose the Epic Games Store over Steam... because they have none of these games instead of only a big part of them?

Epic vs Apple court case day 5... If you want to see Epic representative get killed by Apples lawyer, skip to 32 minutes

[Rumour] Apple Preparing a ‘Portable Hybrid Console’ With a Brand New SoC That Offers Enhanced GPU Performance Increase

https://wccftech.com/apple-developing-portable-hybrid-console/

Sounds like Apple is interested in making a Switch competitor. Take it with a grain of salt.

Several "SSDS" started to die with Chia mining

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/n8cmbo/several_ssds_started_to_die_with_chia_mining/

512GB SSDs die with 2 months of mining

1TB SSDs die with 3 months of mining

I linked the reddit post because the original news article goes to a chinese website. Still, this is about to produce a crap ton of ewaste while making SSD and Hard Drive prices go up.

I assume it would run iOS games, right? Hard to imagine Apple launching a brand new platform just for games when they don't really make any of their own. If so, it's also hard to imagine it doing a whole lot better than Android gaming devices like Shield or *shudder* Ouya. Then again, people love that Apple logo. By some miracle it might legitimize mobile as a serious gaming platform for more than cheap cash grabs.

Yea it would run iOS. I think Apple wants to push Apple Arcade more and more so making a portable handheld with something similar to Joycons could make it work. I'd be curious about the price but one thing I will say about Apple is that when they go into a certain market, they certainly put effort into it unlike many Android gaming devices. And Apple's own SoCs are quite powerful as well. It will be interesting to say the least.

Yeah, it might be better than nothing, but I promised myself I wouldn't be hypocritical regarding this sort of approach when I started blacklisting consoles. I cannot just make an exception for Steam. ESPECIALLY since I'm a proponent of a game storefront having actual curation and having several people go through a game before reaching a verdict on whether it goes or not. 

Also, fun you mentioned Illusion. They totally butchered one of their games (to the point it was FAKKU who ended up publishing one of those). 

I'm sorry, but I have principles that are just strict and cannot throw them under the bus, especially when storefronts lead to an Oblivion situation where if you want to get Oblivion nowadays, you have to get the GOG version. There's no "disc version digital download" with or without DRM. 

I want a company that either adopts a "no 18+ games here" or "18+ games go, no exceptions (unless obviously illegal)" approaches. I cannot just pick the inconsistent companies. Either you draw a line or don't bother. 

At least Epic has been clear in this regard. I'd rather just get the stuff from a site I know won't censor anything and let the fan community make it serviceable, because we've been doing so since ages ago and I like it better than snipped media. 

Oh and this also concerns NON 18+ games. We're talking stuff like Senran Kagura, which is mature but not 18+. If it were a matter of just uprating a game to adult ratings, we wouldn't be having this convo. 

It will just turn into another iPhone for people who want to play Fantasian (yuck) or attempted to jailbreak and want to run emulators. Let's be honest, what games besides otome games and Azur Lane does iOS have? 

If Apple is wise, they will at least settle for Mac OS, since it's a lot more open. Either that or a humongous push towards more serious games. 

You don't legitimize mobile gaming by making it seem decent. You legitimize it by offering a cross genre experience with major titles in every department and at least a few AAA, hardware exhausting titles. 

iOS would fail miserably at any of these. 

Again, what do they have to offer to me? It's going to turn into another Vita. 

Almost makes me wish the jailbreak community would get into game porting just to show Apple how it's done like they've done since the release of the iPhone. 

Yea I do get where you are coming from. I do think that eventually, there will be a game that gets denied where the backlash will be strong enough for Valve to reevaluate what they want to do with these types of games which will hopefully, make them be less restrictive for lewd/non H games and put the H games in an Adult corner.

And I am not sure what they will do as it's just a rumor that doesn't have much details. But I do think Apple is trying to get into the gaming market as not only do they have Apple Arcade, they are also buying up exclusives. It will certainly be interesting to have another player in the handheld space.

Aye. If Apple does actually put up some effort into making their games something to covet, then this might actually work for them.