Stardew Valley

[Ryan | 11]

Anyone playing some Stardew Valley recently?

I originally bought it for Xbox and couldn't get into it.  Picked it up for Switch a week ago and am in love.  For me, it is the perfect type of game to go along with the Switch.  Super relaxing and enjoyable.  Haven't dabbled in any of the multiplayer aspects, but am definitely intrigued.  This is my first farming type game to really get into.  It's definitely making me think I need to circle back to Harvest Moon. 

[noiseredux | 232]

I bought in PC way back when it first launched, and got distracted soon after. It does seem like the sort of game I'd enjoy more on Switch. I tend to think I'll check it out again SOMEDAY.

[Deadeye | 1,595]

I have it for Switch.  I picked it up maybe the beginning of last year.  I was waiting for a physical release.  When it never came, I imported the Japan release. 

I loved it.  If you liked Harvest Moon SNES, pretty sure you will love it as well.  Stardew Valley took everything great about Harvest Moon and expanded it so much.  Still has updates and additions being pushed out to this day.  

[noiseredux | 232]

1 hour ago, Deadeye said:

I have it for Switch.  I picked it up maybe the beginning of last year.  I was waiting for a physical release.  When it never came, I imported the Japan release.

didn't realize it got a physical release in Japan. Thanks for the heads up!

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I can't even count the times anymore I've always just about pulled the trigger then backed off buying this originally on GoG, then Switch.  I have too many bad memories of never once being able to sustain or barely even start a farm on Harvest Moon and this looks too similar.  I've always wanted to like that series that inspired Stardew Valley, but at this rate I almost hope it hits one of those one day freebie or 99 cent flash drops somewhere then I'll try it.

[Rooster | 124]

My wife has been playing Stardew pretty much religiously for about two years now.  She's completed the game so many times that she makes challenges for herself like trying to collect everything within one year or whatever.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

Stardew Valley is fantastic. The perfect download game for switch.  I've got about 70 hrs in over the last year.  Made it to year 3 and am well on my way to completing the encyclopedia.  Still a few mysterys to solve as well. 

Have been tempted to restart knowing I would do things differently this time around. 

[Ryan | 11]

Glad to hear so many people have putting so many hours into it.  My one worry was that after a few weeks the repetitive nature may get stale.  It's my new go to for an hour or so before bed!

[cartman | 195]

Physical editions for Xbox One and PS4 but no Switch? 

[Ryan | 11]

16 hours ago, cartman said:

Physical editions for Xbox One and PS4 but no Switch? 

Yep as far as I know.  It's a bummer.

[cartman | 195]

4 hours ago, Ryan said:

Yep as far as I know.  It's a bummer.

That's a shame i would've thought Switch was a cheaper platform and one that has more physical copy enthusiasts than the others.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

7 minutes ago, cartman said:

That's a shame i would've thought Switch was a cheaper platform and one that has more physical copy enthusiasts than the others.

It is the only platform still using cartridges.

I would be willing to bet it costs 5x-10x, in parts, for a Switch game versus optical disc consoles.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

You'd be surprised, depending on the size it's not.  Back when the Switch came out the small 8GB card when printed in the usual order amount had parity in value with a standard blu ray release for the other guys. The problem is when you jumped up to 16GB there was a moderate hit, and 32GB was fairly steep quite a few would evade use.  We're not nearly 3 years after that point so I'd have to question the prices now and stupid motives not placing the 64GB cards out there which would bring size disparity pretty much to an end even if the end price to the publisher would be more costly.

It's a good reason a lot of people just spat all over Capcom for being utterly cheap and disgusting with their releases on Switch where people found out they'd use a 1 or 2GB memory card for their collection packages and make the 2nd game/2nd half of the package a download.  There was no expense issue any worse than the optical games, actually it was less, yet they did what they did.  When it came to the RE games though, that was justified as it would have pushed or exceeded the 32GB cap.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

9 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

You'd be surprised, depending on the size it's not.  Back when the Switch came out the small 8GB card when printed in the usual order amount had parity in value with a standard blu ray release for the other guys. The problem is when you jumped up to 16GB there was a moderate hit, and 32GB was fairly steep quite a few would evade use.  We're not nearly 3 years after that point so I'd have to question the prices now and stupid motives not placing the 64GB cards out there which would bring size disparity pretty much to an end even if the end price to the publisher would be more costly.

It's a good reason a lot of people just spat all over Capcom for being utterly cheap and disgusting with their releases on Switch where people found out they'd use a 1 or 2GB memory card for their collection packages and make the 2nd game/2nd half of the package a download.  There was no expense issue any worse than the optical games, actually it was less, yet they did what they did.  When it came to the RE games though, that was justified as it would have pushed or exceeded the 32GB cap.

Do have access to actual cost sheets for what it takes to make an 8GB solid state type of game card versus burning a blu-ray disc?

I could easily believe that 1GB vs 8GB becomes a wash in cost, but I have a pretty hard time believing that fabricating any size of card-based physical media is as cheap as pressing discs.

 

Anything is possible, I guess, but it seems really unlikely that the price-per-GB of the two mediums would be close to each other.

 

 

Here is a discussion from another forum, about a year ago.  The nand/flash costs are lower than I expected, but definitely higher than Blu Ray by a healthy margin (relatively low absolute per-unit difference, though):

Packaging and materials is under $1 optical media at 1 million pressings is $0.01 for CDs $0.05 for DVDs and roughly $0.08 for Blu-ray Discs. Under a million copies varies.

Memory cards are more expensive than optical media due to smartphone manufacturers buying all the nand and flash memory they can get their hands on. 4gb at 1 million copies is around $0.30, 8gb jumps up to $0.85 to $0.90, 16gb is dropping in price right now it’s a little over $1.00. I don’t have other prices.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[cartman | 195]

3 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

It is the only platform still using cartridges.

I would be willing to bet it costs 5x-10x, in parts, for a Switch game versus optical disc consoles.

Yeah that might be it. Altough i like cartridges it feels more "substantial" than a flat fucking disc that you have to house properly or else it gets scrstches.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I thought it unlikely to, and perhaps you recall years ago I had family in the industry, he's still working there, same place too I think, and they're a licensee so that's where I got that nugget from.  I have no idea if that's like a minimum order of 10k or 100k, but whatever it is, I guess Nintendo got a supplier of cheap chips when they're tiny enough, but once you break that barrier then the price sucks exponentially worse which is why they stopped now 3 years going into it at 32GB as it was developer prohibitive.  That is thought what you supplied an interesting break down and I'd be curious how it applies back towards Nintendo and any potential deal they perhaps had from their source in bulk or however that all works out.

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

I just bought it finally during the New Years steam sale and have been really digging it. It's got a bit of everything I like from various games, a great amalgation. A bit grindy but a solid game.Worth it imo if you like sims, adventures or rpg games

[Hmgbking | 0]

I've started it up again on the Switch and am enjoying it. I played for 15 hours or so on the PC around when it was released and also about 5 hours on PC when the Multiplayer came out.

[Fleck586 | 299]

I bought the CE from Play Asia and loved the game until I hit the Submarine glitch and that killed it for me.  I haven't played it since, but I put a ton of hours into it up to that point.  I have heard that there was a patch that fixed this, but I have moved on.  Backlog is WAY too big to go backwards

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

On 2/7/2020 at 10:09 PM, Tanooki said:

I thought it unlikely to, and perhaps you recall years ago I had family in the industry, he's still working there, same place too I think, and they're a licensee so that's where I got that nugget from.  I have no idea if that's like a minimum order of 10k or 100k, but whatever it is, I guess Nintendo got a supplier of cheap chips when they're tiny enough, but once you break that barrier then the price sucks exponentially worse which is why they stopped now 3 years going into it at 32GB as it was developer prohibitive.  That is thought what you supplied an interesting break down and I'd be curious how it applies back towards Nintendo and any potential deal they perhaps had from their source in bulk or however that all works out.

Those prices above (from another forum where someone evidently had price sheet access) were apparently minimum orders of a million units.

I'm sure that means that the LRG guys are paying WAY more per unit for their relatively small orders.

Edited February 13, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[jerbilly | 11]

Stardew is excellent, beats the shit out of any of the Harvest Moon games that have been released in the last 20 years or so.

[phart010 | 1,705]

2 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

Those prices above (from another forum where someone evidently had price sheet access) were apparently minimum orders of a million units.

I'm sure that means that the LRG guys are paying WAY more per unit for their relatively small orders.

People often give publishers a hard time over decisions over seemingly negligible amounts of money.

“Why didn’t they just pay the extra 50 cents to put it on a bigger cartridge size?”

But when you look at it from the publishers perspective if they are going to sell a million copies, that’s 0.50 x 1,000,000 = $500,000 that they are just giving away. Or if they are going to sell 5 million copies, then it’s $2.5 million dollars.

I don’t think that they take into account that some people will decide to not buy based on the media size that they use. And realistically, the percentage of buyers that would consciously choose to not buy just because they are pissed over not having the complete game on the cartridge is probably pretty low.

[Hmgbking | 0]

59 minutes ago, jerbilly said:

Stardew is excellent, beats the shit out of any of the Harvest Moon games that have been released in the last 20 years or so.

Rune Factory is a good series from the same Japanese company (Harvest Moon / Bokujō Monogatari / Story of Seasons), combining farming and battling. RF4 is coming to the switch in a couple weeks.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

8 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

Those prices above (from another forum where someone evidently had price sheet access) were apparently minimum orders of a million units.

I'm sure that means that the LRG guys are paying WAY more per unit for their relatively small orders.

Perhaps(likely) so, and it would maybe just explain why some of their games stand out and stay at higher prices than others like Yooka Laylee.  I wanted it, still would like it, but I just can't pop at $50 when you can GoG it on a sale (they now top 80% off of $50) which happens fairly often.  Same also with other releases of theirs that hit best buy too.  It's a hard pill to swallow likely due to their overhead and because once the Switch is done, BC aside, the games are stuck there, while on PC they'll live on.