Have any of you heard of Unknown 9?
If you haven't- I don't blame you. I haven't either. Apparently it's a 4-month old 
game developed by Reflector Entertainment who also made... uhh this game and it's DLCs.
This screenshot gives a lot away but fear not, it was published by Bandai Namco, the guys who made the Dark SoulsTM of videogames 
These guys know a good investment when they see it, and at 50 eurobucks (USD to EUR is almost 1:1 at the time of writing 
!eurochads), a price comparable to that of God of War 2022 
(50 EUR, 95% rating), HOI 4 
(50 EUR, 90% rating) and Mount & Blade: Bannerlord II 
*editor's note: why are there so many MLP emojis when querying 'horse' (50 EUR, 87% rating(should be 100)), it is sure to deliver the same experience, right? 
Well, from the screenshot you might have noticed that the ratings are mediocre: 49%. But that does not tell the whole story.
Unknown 9 currently has 7 concurrent players 
, 11 player 24-hour peak 
and a 285-player all-time peak 
[1]. This means it is mogged by the likes of Gollum 2023 
at 758 all-time high [2], 6 year old rockstar game Red Dead: Redemption 2 
at almost double the rating [3], a 2023 unity slavshit game Contraband Police at almost double the rating and half the price 
[4] and absolutely mogged by LEWDAPOCALYPSE, which has double the concurrent players, double the rating, and 1/50th of the price 
[5].
IGN gave Unknown 9 a 9(-4) rating [6], so is it really that bad?
Looks pretty bad, but is this the lowest we can go? Just some failed garbage from an upcoming studio, but is that it? Can't we do worse?
Heck no! It was in the works for at least 4 years, and was supposed to be a tans-media project, "including video games 
, film 
, and books (!bookworms)
, for example. Unknown 9 was conceptualized as an ongoing series, spanning podcasts 
, comics 
, and even a web series 
, many of which have already been released." [7]. So you've been laughing at Concord for having an Amazon episode despite being a dead game- well, you've seen nothing yet kid. This shit was supposed to be massive, at least according to the cited source (I didn't check further (yes how could you tell, I work in academia 
)). It was supposed to be the next fricking star wars by the looks of things, expecting to bank on their notoriety to create the equivalent to Netflix's Witcher [7] (which is not something to be proud of tbh). While we have no numbers on the project costs, one might imagine that a AAA game with massive marketing like that would've cost a lot. While we do not know how much exactly the project did cost, it is hardly believable that some unknown studio with 0 releases might have funded it. Indeed, the studio is owned by the publishers- Bandai Namco, who can probably afford to throw money around [8]. Looking at their website and LinkedIn is pretty funny as well, considering that they have announced that they will cease support for the game [8].
But you don't have to trust me, you can view the official gameplay trailer posted on Playstation's account and come to your own conclusions:
The lore/narrative trailer, which is just as stupid, can be found at
TL;DR?
Well, it's about a brown woman 
with supernatural abilities 
. Kind of like Forespoken from 1 2 years ago if anyone remembers that.
"Unfortunately, part of Hoerdt's statement confirmed several staff members would be made redundant, including back-office employees, and given severance packages, further health benefits, access to counseling services, and "proactive" career planning support." [7]. Lmao imagine getting free counselling from a company that fired you. I would probably take that as an insult, equivalent to one of those "reddit cares" messages 
. One might accuse me of using a chuddy source, but the same website compliments Unknown 9's use of "stepping powers", which states that "Stepping is the ability to project one's mind into the consciousness of another, by way of the Fold. While Stepping, one has access to the weaponry, strength, and intellect of a given vessel, and may fully control their actions." [9]. A totally true statement which has never been done before.
Here's Cr1tikal AKA Charlie AKA penguinz0 explaining it probably better than I do (it's the weekend and I've had several drinks already 
):
He quotes the investment value into the IP at 100 million $ [citation needed]
In conclusion: 1) gaming in 2025 is dead, do not bother. 2) Nominative Determinism is true- the game was titled Unknown 9, and it remained unknown. For anyone running any sort of business- watch what you name your product.
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This game is legitimately bizarre. It's been in development for years, with a huge budget. There were even several books released (I think the books came first, I'm not sure). They picked Anya Chalotra to be the model for some reason, and basically made her less attractive in game.
This reeks of one determined man's autism project to me. How the creator managed to get AAA funding for it, I have no clue. But it's genuinely one of the strangest developments in recent gaming history. It's not even that it's bad, it's that it's so unknown and undermarketed. Makes me think there might be some money laundering shenanigans going on...
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Link them and I'll pin you
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https://www.bandainamcoent.com/games/unknown9/en/products/novels/genesis/
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!bookworms lmao, all 3 books have >4, almost 5/5 rating on amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP1YLTFN?binding=kindle_edition&qid=1732638738&sr=8-1&ref=dbs_dp_awt_sb_pc_tkin
They're astroturfing this shit to unreal degrees. 150 reviews my butt, nobody read this shit
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Is that rare?
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The goodreads is 4/5 with 195 reviews. Nothing about it looks botted, just normal foid book nonsense
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idk
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Evangelical Protestant Canon be like:
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Downdooted
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Updooted
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you gotta release the supplementary material when your work is already popular, execs mix up the chicken and egg here
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This is why they failed.
STOP MAKING THE ACTRESSES UGGO YOU'VE GOT THEIR FACE SCANS
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The model
The character
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gyatt
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I want her to be in more movies so I can look at her
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i want her to be on my face
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are you sure, lad?
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i can take it
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Thats the same picture
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prime bug eyed bbc fodder
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This sounds consistent with all the Concordshit that's been coming out tbh. It feels like somewhere around 2017 some consulting company ran around doing a song and dance about how ugly brown people games are the future and persuaded every AAA company to invest majorly into a huge IP with franchise potential. We're only just now seeing the fruits of these ugly brown shits that have been digesting since then, and the companies are only now realizing that their "market research" was completely wrong.
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I wonder how much of this is just technical or artistic incompetence. We can't make people in video games look realistic yet, they always turn out weird and uncanny. So you have to make it kind of cartoonlike but still realistic enough to be considered 'good graphics' and that's all easy to frick up
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the thing is all the dude characters usually look fine, they know how to do it they're making them ugly on purpose
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Possibly, but Miranda in mass effect was literally a 1:1 of Yvonne Strahovski and she didn't look weird at all.
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yeah i don't think it's technical. but i do think a lot of it is just artistic incompetence and shit taste
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Used to be they would cover up for it by making them uncannily bangable. Which I think is still possible
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Not uncommon thing to be fair.
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They did and their concept is loosely based on some novel that I think is public domain at this point. An entire multimedia franchise with in-character podcasts and shit around a thing whose market hadn't even been proven to exist yet.
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I saw one of the trailers and thought it looked interesting. I don't know if it's one you posted, and I'm not going to watch it to check.
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Do these devs play games themselves? You look at that game and all you can think. Why would anyone play it?
I know its common for devs to suck at games. But this reeks like they have never even seen videogame.
Difference between this and control is staggering. They are basically same game. But other is done by people who have played games. Other is done by people who havent. And probably havent even seen movies.
Control is tight ride. It has enough of cinematic elements to tell story. It has vision. It is directed with clear eye. But when it comes time to fight. Game let you loose and let you mess around.
Unknown game on otherhand looks like sloppy mess and unthinkably booring. And it looks less logical then control somehow.
Its mind blowing. All they had to do was play control and copy that. How hard is it to tell your team play this game. Give them week. Let them play it during work hours. Then get to work
But nah. Do this most boring game ever.
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Bravo, Europeans!
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The developer is Canadian and publisher Japanese.
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https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/about-us
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I think I understand why they didn't narket it, the game is definitely lessened without the lore tidbits you get from the other media. (Theres a puzzle book on the main menu and I think you have to watch,read, and pkay everything to solve it) Since all that came out at different times and piecemeal, it be hard to use it to market the game especially since none of it has anything to do with the game itself just the setting.
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That's strange
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Very! But not as strange as deciding to make the video game a ...
stealth girl game? Instead of something closer to Control or a survival horror like game.
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Many such cases!
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estonians are pocs
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anya chalotra is fricking BONG
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She's a lot prettier than a bong, don't be ashamed
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What's the difference?
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That is some fine Marsey work
Have a great Friday everyone 
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It's Monday
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This just seems like a marketing fail, I haven't heard anything about this before
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Even if you had it probably wouldn't change much.
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I'm generally in touch with new games coming out and I never heard about this game until I saw.some Asmongold fans smugposting about its player count on Reddit.
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I thought this was just people bringing back Forspoken to dunk on it again, but apparently its an entirely different game with a jeetess.
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I've seen shit indie games with 0 marketing and a single kickstarter page generate more hype
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It's cuz they actually generate word of mouth attention within the confines of their respective genre fans or autismo groups
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is this mostly a new studio failing to find an audience? Gaming is hard to break into and get yourself noticed
Concord was more funny for how much it cost
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Read the fricking post BIPOC. It probably cost a lot too, we just don't know it yet. I t will probably become known in a couple of months at Namco's quarterly report, but expect it to be a lot. It's not just the game, it's also licenses to shows, podcasts etc. The fact that you (or anyone) hasn't heard about it only makes it worse
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The $100m figure seems pulled out of thin air. There's a lot of proposed media (shows, podcasts, etc.) but I don't see evidence that any of them were actually created, seems more like some ambitious ideas from the developer.
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Prolly
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Market is hungry for games. If you play games and underdtand games and keep eye on things. You will see where there is room. All you have to do is then make one mid sized game thats good enough to get in. Work up from there. Manor lord is very good example of this.
But that requires devs to play games. Understand them and investors to be okey with not making biggest thing ever. Like with this game. Cinematic unvierse stuff reeks investor influence.
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The gameplay looks awful.
I'm sick and tired
of these woke devs who care more about skin pores on POC main characters than actual good gameplay!!
Make Gayming
Great 
Again! Kick all women 
out of gaming 
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I went from story is most important part of game to not caring about story and just hoping gameplay should be fun.
But now, its increasingly common for game to have neither. Just borefest
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If the gameplay looks shit, dont worry, the podcast, audiobook, mini web series and tiktok ARG will definitely charm you
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They really be trying to make whole franchises out of thin air these days, huh?
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MCU and its consequences
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NGL, season 1 of the podcast did charm me.
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Playing the game and going through the external media, I don't think the devs themselves are woke, but rather sweet baby made them add in a bunch of woke elements. But yeah gameplay is janky as shit, plays like a shitty chinese MMO from the 2010s.
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!commenters I'm just going to say it, bannerlord wasn't that good. The map is downright wonky, they never made the naval war DLC they talked about, you can still win just by having the most man power, it doesn't take nearly long enough to do stuff (The game has a whole generational system where you raise your heir, meanwhile I've always won within the OG chars life time)
Warband with mods is better
Speaking of mods, there's almost none for bannerlord because they made modding it harder
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It's impossible to make a single player game that feels appropriately challenging to competent males without completely destroying 80% of your demographic.
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Yeah. Thats why you should make it fun and then give cowtools to players to tweek it themselves. Wide variety of difficulty sliders. Map and mod cowtools.
Helldivers 2 is good example of this. Devs themselves suck at game. Their solutions to difficulty is just throw enemies at you. More and more. Then ocasionally effects that make it harder. But if player is good. They know how to engage enemies just enough to not get bogged down. Or if team is good. They can still blow everything up.
Devs themselves dont know how to make game more challenging.
But if they game map cowtools and basic modding capability. You would have challenging map and stuff in month.
Kinda like mario maker.
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I hate when they do that!!
As a company, why would you deny yourself the innovation and ideas for your next sequel?
It's all freeeeee! 
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Yeah warband just plays better in most ways. It's kind of sad imo
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It's one of those games that keeps making you think of how good it could be or another game could be, but it's not, and the less neurodivergent you are, the faster you stop playing.
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Well yeah, but the original M&B was always just a bare bones for modders to add proper content onto. And Warband itself was built on top of the original M&B, which was in early access for years (possibly the original early access gam?) So you're comparing years with of effort to something much newer
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I never played Bannerlord II btw, I just thought that statement would give me updooterinos
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-_-
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A real wasted opportunity.
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I tried to like it because its supposed to be up my alley of RPG/strategy elements but it was boring af. Like I think last when I tried to get into it I was supposed to go find a guy to validate my claims or something but that dude was hard to find and was then like a hostage so I just visited a bunch of random castles and played castle checkers or whatever the frick with chicks. Occasionally killing some bandits? idk...
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You're supposed to usually join a faction and start fighting wars and capturing castles and cities, that's where the game starts being fun
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When listing mind control games you forgot about the 2011 megahit Mindjack.
Anyway good post, despite some grammatical mistakes and one instance of grinding repetition.
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I had a couple of drinks
I had a couple of drinks
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Just don't try to convince anyone that you have an Asian girlfriend, please.
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Is this in reference to something?
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Metadrama with drunk Pizzashill and his mute Asian girlfriend he recorded to prove she is real.
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Revolutionary War FPS when?
Every time you load your musket, you have to perform a quick time event
tear open the power package (wiggle the right stick horizontally)
hold the musket upright (keep the left stick at a randomly assigned X/Y position) while pouring the powder (right stick X) while watching a fill bar to make sure you get the right amount
load the ball
use the ramrod to press the ball onto the powder (right stick vertical, needs to be the right speed to ensure it connects to the powder but not too hard to ignite it)
pull back the firing mechanism
aim
pull the trigger
The ball will randomly deviate by several inches.
If you don't get enough powder in (spilling it, stopping before it's full) then it will spark but not fire. If you add too much then your gun kicks too hard and can potentially injure your firing hand.
You can also fix bayonets and charge when ordered.
80% of the game is marching and setting up camps along the way.
!g*mers
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I wouldn't be suprised if next rdr game is set during civil war.
At start of the war. You have revolvers that are slow to load. Shotgun and musket. By end you have revolvers that are faster to load. breeches loading guns and even lever action guns with magazine.
At start of game. You fire all of your guns then bayonet rest of enemies. Use guns enemies drop to blast other enemies.
By end you have same firepower one except from cowboy game.
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Literally just play Holdfast r-slur, same period !g*mers
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Hope you got diagnosed
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The character creation will be elaborate
One s*x to choose (bio male)
One skin tone (white)
But you have 5 styles of powdered wigs to choose from, plus 5 more if you buy the Aristocrat comestic DLC.
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So, ARMA but with muskets.
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and trumpet calls you have to memorize so that you know if you're supposed to charge with bayonets or pick up your mail
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god this would be so kino
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Tap (X) to hammer tent pegs
You can also be in the band and play the marching songs like Guitar Hero
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you're in the wrong neigh-bourhood, dirt whorse
!horsefrickers
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!jannies effortpost pls
!followers rare dramapost from me
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I just straight up don't wanna play as a chick sorry
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Gay
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Yes
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Slits usually come with 2 peepees inside so i'm double gay actually
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Oh shoot I guess I have to buy the game now to prove I'm straight
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this idiot doesn't have an adblocker?
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Yes
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Anyone who makes media with the goal of becoming the next cultural phenomenon is destined to fail miserably.
Insane popularity is almost always an accident and the blowhards who don't realize this lack the awareness to make anything good.
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Was going to upmarsey for remining me of this hilarious multimedia failure but
Keep yourself safe
I still am not convinced this series wasn't entirely AI generated
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Yore whalecum
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Spoken unironically in the year of our lord that presented us with both Factorio Space Age and Path of Exile 2
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2025 is literally a DELTARUNE year. Wtf this BIPOC talking about?
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Flopping pretty hard rn
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Hoi4 costs 50 euros?
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Yeah. They hired ceo from some gambling company whose job was to make as much money as possible for company.
It backfired massively and theh fired her. Now they just jack up prices in hope to generate more money.
Its sad becouse when whole strategy changed orginally was their peak. They respond to it by fricking things up and never recovering
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Supposedly. I wouldn't know, I bought my keys on shady russian(lowercase r) websites
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play hoi4 and warband with us
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Paradox games are disgustingly overpriced and serve as DLC vectors nowadays. Frick those neighbors, all their games are basically spreadsheet simulators.
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