...so why are we still confronted with “Press [Start] to play” messages in splash-screens? It feels like an anachronism... outside of retail environments games don’t need an “attract mode” - the only thing it’s attracting is my sense of ire...

On older consoles (X360, at least), that screen served two purposes:

- prompt the user to pick a location for their saved game (the console supported saves on the internal HDD, over USB, and later featured cloud saves)

- prompt the user to pick their local profile

For online-connected games, it also provides a "safe" spot to land if there are connection issues, which are very common nowadays (many games have online components and will drop the connection if put into sleep mode).

Just a design choice, I added one to Railgrade since I like the look. It gives the opening less clutter and a chance for players to get oriented.

On switch many games use the "Press L + R" pattern to detect which controller is the preferred controller.

> It gives the opening less clutter and a chance for players to get oriented

An attract-screen for a privately owned game isn’t “player orientation”: it’s a monkey-ladder scenario[1]. Just give me the main-menu right-away; just like how all PC games do.

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[1] I’m aware the actual story is likely apocryphal: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/games-primates-play/...

I only recently got back into PC gaming and all the titles I've played so far have an annoying "press space" or "press enter" before the main menu, before loading or both. This is with Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Cyberpunk 2077 and the original Halo:CE (don't ask :D).