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A comment on Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser. Parent comment

Re:Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser by breisa on Saturday November 07, 2026 @09:06AM (#50404649)
I imagine they will just switch to offering cloud gaming exclusively. It allows them to sell to anyone with a screen, regardless of specs. It also aligns perfectly with the ongoing death of local gaming hardware.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser by hombre_fatal on Saturday November 07, 2026 @09:21AM (#50404769)
People have been claiming this in response to piracy for decades, yet people still go out and buy the official game.

Even online games like World of Warcraft and its fractal of private servers, people still find value in paying for the unified experience with a unified direction by professionals.

Game developers already have the tools they need: try distributing your browser version of a game anybody cares about instead of a 20 year old game.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser by cubefox on Saturday November 07, 2026 @10:09AM (#50405202)
Only 20 year old games have any hope running in the browser. And why would anyone pay for a game running in a browser? It doesn't make any sense.

> yet people still go out and buy the official game.

Not all people, especially not if piracy is easy.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser by hombre_fatal on Saturday November 07, 2026 @11:24AM (#50405799)
> why would anyone pay for a game running in a browser?

The same reason you buy any game. Why did anyone pay for Runescape when it ran in the browser?

Btw, with webgl/webgpu/wasm you can make high fidelity, high performant 3D games.

But browser games isn't relevant to the point. It's just piracy. The only reason this is on HN is because "click here to play a pirated game" is a lot more interesting than "download a pirated game".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Need for Speed Underground 2 online in the browser by cubefox on Saturday November 07, 2026 @01:34PM (#50406821)
It didn't kill it, but it did have negative effect on it, and this effect might get a lot worse now with LLMs cracking various copy protection mechanisms.
[ Parent | on HN ]