this post was submitted on 11 May 2025

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180

GeoGuessr's Steam Release Hit With Overwhelmingly Negative Reviews For "Completely Pointless" Monetization (www.thegamer.com)

submitted 21 hours ago by Fallstar@mander.xyz to c/games@sh.itjust.works

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Welp

top 23 comments

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[–] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 2 hours ago

I had to look way too hard just to figure out what the fuck the monetization scheme is on that article that kept repeating the headline 3 times, holy shit

[–] Gobbel2000@programming.dev 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I think it was obvious that it was never going to be a free game again. The problem is making it look like it's free to play and then hitting the player with a paywall after a few games. Also, the subscription model is shitty. I would readily put down a onetime payment for something that works as least as good as the web version, which is a lot more polished than the free alternatives I've seen. But I refuse to buy into this subscription model.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 1 points 35 seconds ago* (last edited 20 seconds ago)

You can thank Google for that - they are charging for every API call. A one time payment would either have to be ridiculously high, or it could ruin GeoGuessr.

[+] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works -21 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (6 children)

society should normalize having crypto-miners in software, like as an official method of monetization that the user consents to

that would actually fix most of our problems, no ads, no subscrption fees

I don't see a downside to this

edit: if you disagree with me on this, reply. I wanna debate this

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 1 points 19 minutes ago

This feels like a technical approach for a solution to a political problem. We shouldn't normalize a solution to a predatory approach that companies have, we should regulate so that the approach can't be taken by companies on the first place, we should foster competition so that those who do are going to be outcompeted etc.

Wasting even more electricity to compute numbers used in an unstable speculative market with no clear future is IMHO a completely wrong approach to the problem.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 2 points 46 minutes ago

Counter-point:
crypto-mining should be illegal, period. (and so should AI)
We're on the brink of climate collapse, we as a species can't afford to waste massive amounts of electricity on something that literally creates no value.

[–] Rawdogg@lemm.ee 1 points 53 minutes ago

Nobody wants a shitcoin miner taking resources on their machine

[–] johntash@eviltoast.org 8 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That sounds terrible. Also a lot of games use the gpu so you probably don't want to share it with mining at the same time

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 hour ago

the randomX hash function Monero uses runs on the CPU, not the gpu

it could just use like 1-2 threads if the game is taking a lot of processing power

[–] Proxy@lemmy.imagisphe.re 12 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

My electricity bill would like to have a word

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works -5 points 4 hours ago

But would it cost more to pay for the extra electricity or for the product? At least for the electricity you could invest in solar and lower your bill dramatically

[–] Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think its a horrible idea but maybe have an option for purchase, ads, or crypto. But yeah people are going to hate you for this comment 🤣

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I don’t think its a horrible idea but maybe have an option for purchase, ads, or crypto.

that's what I'm thinking, but additionally having a option to directly 'sell' your computing power should also be an option

But yeah people are going to hate you for this comment 🤣

actually though. I haven't been on Lemmy for too long but this might be the most downvotes ive gotten on a comment

[–] dumblederp@aussie.zone 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 58 minutes ago)

Congratulations. It happens. I didn't think it was too bad an idea. What if steam ran the miner to produce steam bux?

[–] stuner@lemmy.world 92 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Players can only access the lowest rank of competitive gameplay for free, and access to any higher levels costs a subscription fee of $2.50 a month. That's right, you'll need a subscription to play GeoGuessr on Steam, for some reason.

Not only is this price point bizarre for a game that you can literally just hop into similar browser versions and play for free, but [...]

GeoGuessr has required a subscription to actually play for a while now. I think they had a very limited Free tier until 2024, but it was not a great experience. The developers claim that they need to charge a subscription fee because they need to pay Google for the Streetview API access. To me, that seems plausible and would justify a subscription model (as opposed to a one-time purchase).

On the other hand, OpenGuessr seems to be a free alternative that offers a very similar game. That certainly seems like a better alternative if it's sustainable.

[–] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I understand the subscription model is required since every player is bound to cost them money for every round, but apparently even if you're already subscribed to GeoGuessr you have to pay again for the Steam version which is absurd to me.

[–] stuner@lemmy.world 7 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, that seems quite weird and not customer friendly at all. I was wondering if it has something to do with Steam's in-game purchase conditions (mostly the fee).

[–] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 14 hours ago

I'm not sure if it's just because Ubisoft has a special contract but for Trackmania I'm able to pay the subscription either through Ubisoft directly or through Steam.

[–] BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

Yeah I enjoyed GeoGuessr and wishlisted it in Steam when it was announced. Got an email from Steam saying it was available and opened the store page to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews.

I've played OpenGuessr and it's pretty close to the same experience, I never do versus or anything, just a casual player. I did notice it tended to put me in the same countries quite often, like 8 instances of Brazil and 3 in the Philippines in 20 rounds, but still enjoyable.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

A flat subscription fee is blameless.

Don't make it sound like they added $50 hats.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago

People, their service has material costs, and the fee is minuscule.

This is a completely above-board business model. This is not the bottomless pit of "microtransactions" that needs to become illegal. It's how you're supposed to fund a thing that costs money to run.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 38 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I'm assuming it has to do with paying for the Google map api calls. If that's what it is they should say so if that's not what it is they are scummy

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago

i wonder if they could use one of the open alternatives