RDJ did get shit for that, though it mostly died down when it was clear the movie was sending a great big “Don’t actually do this!” message with that character.  It was very clearly and intentionally satire, and he made the part work.

Wait, do you really think people are offended by the letter X?

FromSoftware could just take an MMO-style approach: make the easy mode available later.

It would be nice if either company had anything to do with Patagonia, the actual place. 

The movie wasn’t seen by almost anyone in the US by the time nominations were due. The distributor could have released a couple months later and been in the running for the following year’s awards instead.

Dear North American distributor of this film,

It’s nowhere near that easy. Some jobs would shift, but having 2-3 major companies’ labor forces unionize would dramatically alter the overall landscape. 

Considering that people make films based on texts that *everyone* acknowledges are fictional, why do you seem so miffed by the existence of a film that is based on texts that *some* think are fictional?

True, though homes that lack an actual foundation are at a distinct disadvantage.

The upper midwest definitely has tornado problems, though I can’t speak to New England or Central California.

It really depends on the geography. Is Sweden frequently visited by tornadoes, as is the case for many of the poorer rural regions of the US?

Hulk’s distribution rights are owned by Universal. 

Exactly.  Which is why letting Steam have sole control over it, which is the status quo today, is a bad idea.

A unified key database that is jointly controlled by multiple competing distributors, and that takes either no cut or a trivial cut of sales, would mean that you could seamlessly play your entire library (or nearly so) from any software client, while still being able to buy that software from any storefront.

The thing is that, when you buy from other storefronts like Humble or GMG, you’re effectively still buying them from Steam. They more-or-less buy keys from Steam at wholesale prices, and Steam is still getting a significant cut of those sales. Their monopoly is perpetuated while providing the appearance of competition.

For folks that want to avoid store-exclusivity, what we should be demanding as consumers is a digital platform similar to Movies Anywhere, the successor to Ultraviolet.

I think that worry is misplaced. It’s highly unlikely that Epic’s exclusivity contracts will be sustainable in the long term. They’re likely a loss-leader deal to get some penetration into the market and build a customer base.

Again, though, it comes down to a cost-benefit equation. Developers know that exclusive titles can risk lowering overall sales. Clearly Epic is offering them enough that the developers think it’s worth the risk.

Considering the vast amount of greasy “silver” that Steam has taken in as a near-monopoly for PC games, I’m surprised it took this long for someone to compete on retail percentage.

Or they could simply reduce the percentage of game sales they demand from developers, thus eliminating the primary benefit of Epic’s exclusivity.