Isn’t that a prerequisite for enshitification? Publicly-traded companies are required (by law, I think) to maximize profits for their shareholders, even if that means utterly ruining their original product (Reddit, Boeing, etc.), yes? What do you think?

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    6 months ago

    That’s true, and also why I added that last part about it being confirmation bias on my part. Definitely not saying there aren’t good examples, but like you said, I’m also having a hard time coming up with any.

    Has Valve ever bought any other company? lol They’re one of the few I could see actually making the child company better xD

    • Corroded@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      6 months ago

      I’m not sure. Portal and Team Fortress both have really interesting back stories that I think have a bit to do with Valve acquisitions

      • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Interesting. I’ve never played TF but Portal is one of my all-time favorites (I’m not much of a gamer lol). Will try to look into that when I have time because it’s definitely interesting if true (and can be my token good example lol).

        • Corroded@leminal.space
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 months ago

          You might be interested in Portal on the N64 while you’re at it.

          I’d check out Narbacular Drop. Pretty sure that’s the game that I’m talking about that became Portal, in a way, later.

          There was a good YouTube video about it a while ago but I think it had a clickbait title that makes it hard to find.

          • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            I’ve followed that for a while :) Saw it on Hack a Day early in its development and thought it was one of the coolest ports I’ve ever seen. Sadly, I think he got D&D’d. Best I recall, I think it was unlicensed use of the N64 SDK or something like that.

    • Uninvited Guest@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 months ago

      They would bring other game developers or mod developers in house.

      Wasn’t Turtle Rock (or whomever made L4D) basically acquired?