Oh absolutely, that’s as much (if not more) of a reason for them keeping quiet. No big company will willingly jump into the pit against payment processors, there’s way too much to lose.

I mean, Valve’s silence isn’t really surprising to be honest. They generally tend to keep quiet and let things go away on their own whenever possible. I’d be more surprised if the came out in force on this issue.

They did respond to the recent claim by Mastercard about them not being responsible for this recent mess - that’s something, I guess? Here is a Kotaku article (don’t kill me, that’s the source I have for this) and here is the relevant part:

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

There’s a bit more in the linked article but that’s pretty much the gist of it.

Man, I really appreciate GOG. They’re not perfect and, as with all corporations, one shouldn’t take them completely at face value but their approach to game preservation, DRM and stuff like this are the reasons why I keep them as my primary choice for purchases whenever possible.

Is it a relatively cheap PR stunt? Maybe. Probably. It’s still more than any other store did or said in regards to the recent events. Might as well grab some free publicity.

Appreciate the sources! Guess it’s as good time to dive in as any.

To be fair BBC’s point (or at least how you described it) doesn’t really conflict with my current understanding. Yes, the countries have to accept it to proceed BUT it can be rejected by having enough votes against (few countries representing specific number of citizens from what I’ve read). I’m just not sure it can be vetoed by a single country.

But yeah, it would be nice to have an actual confirmation. Especially since, as they mention in the source article, this agreement is not legally binding and serves a starting point to further negotiations.

I’m a bit spotty on what falls into which category so I might be wrong about this but I thought this was one of the areas of competence where singular countries can’t veto the whole thing and need specific number of votes instead?

Either way, I do hope someone gets grilled about this before the vote.

This is still just a tentative deal that has to be ratified by all the countries so there’s still hope.

Friendly reminder that you can use this site to find your MPs in the European Parliament. Remind them that they are there for and because of us, and let them know what you think of this kind of deal making.

If EU doesn’t stop this recent festival of stupidity the European project will go nowhere fast. There’s already a huge problem with the rise of euro-scepticism and these bellends just add fuel to fire. I’m tired boss.

Most likely, or maybe someone will try to use this to score some easy points with more online conscious voters. Probably not but one can dream.

There’s a UK Parliament petition to repeal the Online Safety act. There’s no guarantee it’ll do anything but might be worth a try for anyone in the UK.

Yeah, I’d like to think people would focus on other things now that SKG picked up the pace but he’ll most likely be brought up for a long time regardless on what happens with the campaign in the future - even if just as a punching bag for people to feel superior about.

It’s a jab at the Pirate Software guy, I believe.

He actively misrepresented the campaign and spread misinformation about its goals. I don’t know if he genuinely didn’t understand or if he was too embarrassed to admit to a mistake but he did a lot of damage to the momentum and perception of the whole thing.

It sucks these big creators only now pick up the mantle but it’s better than nothing. There’s still some time left.