Geotastic is definitely a great alternative! If I could add another it would be FreeGuessr.com. You can turn off street names, it doesn’t have Ads and you can play No Move or Blink Mode directly from the game.
There’s a few, like Openguessr too. But they are not really Geoguessr alternatives in the same way Geotastic is, with all the community features, I also like the transparency Geotastic has with running costs, I can donate to cover my own usage without overspending for profiteering like is the case with Geoguessr now.
Amazing news! It’s great to see GeoGuessr coming to Steam! 🥰 This should make playing on Steam Deck much smoother. I just hope there’s a free option (even with ads). On the web, most people have switched to free alternatives like FreeGuessr. If they go with a monthly subscription on Steam, I’m not sure it will work.
Why?
Money.
They already added a subscription.
Up front cost cannot cover the ongoing API costs they must be paying for Google Maps. So either this has to be free and just a front end for the same shit, or they’ll still end up net negative.
They are adding a “Steam pass”, which doesn’t let you play on the web and your web subscription doesnt let you play the Steam version. Just play Geotastic instead.
I found out recently that steam now let’s devs create subscriptions as opposed to one-time charges, so it’s 110% that
Ain’t no way I’ll pay that.
I would have discussed if it meant a one time payment but hell nah.Google Maps API isn’t free
I mentioned one time pay.
If it’s that expensive, I can’t help you (or the devs) because I won’t play it then :-)
Trading Cards and probably TF2 hats.
Can run a little bitcoin mine in the background this way
Volatility of a business based on Google Maps seems to be very painful from observing GeoGuessr.
Yeah, this easy pass.
Yeah, GeoGuessr is an extreme example as Google basically did 95% of the work for them. Having to image large chunks of the world would mean a huge investment and I highly doubt GeoGuessr would even exist without Google Maps.
If Google would double their API pricing tomorrow there’s very little GeoGuessr can do except maybe switch to Apple Maps (they offer an API, not sure they offer one for their “street view” data though).
I mean they do require a subscription now to play GeoGuessr, so could be they are planning
From what I remember the subscription was added because Google raised the price of the API.
Haha! You’re in the Gulf of Mexico!
[Depending on where you’re located determines if this is a right or wrong answer]
Yeah, considering that the whole game is dependent on Google Maps, they can end it any time. I just hope GeoGuessr has a good partnership with them. I saw somewhere that they pay millions per year for the maps!
