I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC, but then, you also need the name and reputation for it. Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console. Which is mostly a PC, but you need xbox games, a separate ecosystem.
>Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console.
Missed the one, they did try with the rebranding of 'xbox'
Absolutely bonkers considering how strong they came in with the first Xbox, Halo, and Xbox Live.
And the rationale that they couldn't go from Xbox to Xbox 3 because of the PS3 is abject bullshit. They skipped Windows 9, after all.
As an engineer and a consumer / customer, I simply cannot understand why there's a need to complicate things.
You have a Thing, right? It sells, right? You develop the next Thing? Great! Call it Thing 2. Instant success.
What would've happened if Nintendo simply would've advertised "The new Nintendo Switch"?
Never thought about that, but now it's an interesting thought experiment.
Numbering helps sell electronics because it makes it clear that your old phone/console is old and "needs" upgrading. It's also critical for selling software exclusive to a certain hardware generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_3DS
Things are going wrong when you have a model name like "New Nintendo 2DS XL" to describe a product IMO.
With computer/console, you have to pretend the devicethey are still enjoying is obsolete to invent a need to replace it
In my head it would have been the "Playstation Island", while for most of the world it would probably have been the "Playstation Empty Set".
(for those who don't get it: Tetsuya Nomura is a director at Squarenix and known (amongst other) for its Kingdom Heart series who ends up with word salad title such as "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" or "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days")
Steam deck is "just a PC" as well, which can be turned on to immediately play video games.
Thanks to its reputation, the masses will trust the Steam Machine to do this much.
Valve know what they're doing.
Honestly, my SD has seen more use as a stationary PC than a handheld :-P
In like, what way? You can "just" boot up a new Windows PC, install some games and play them straight away. Do you mean the fact that you now have to log into a Microsoft account first? Because if yes - SteamOS also requires you to log in before you can use it.
Since Valve owns the library it makes sense that people will trust their solution and it has more chance for succcess
Microsoft used to have Windows Media Centre, which was a version of Windows designed for HTPC use that booted straight to the media centre control screen. The last version of that was in Windows 7.
It is actually possible to replace the desktop in Windows, window management (but not chrome, that's part of Aero and/or individual "owner draw" applications), Explorer etc. Nobody's really bothered with that.
Microsoft are just too used to not having to compete, so they don't provide lots of variant SKUs for different uses. Even "point of sale" and LTS are somewhat neglected.
I still hope that they will compete with console pricing though.
Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Atari, Sega...
They intentionally choose to brand their personal computers poorly to coerce their customers into giving up control of their computers. That doesn't make their computers any less personal, unless they are using it to serve other people.
A lot of these capabilities would rely on windows, sleeping and resuming the system thats entirely the purview of the OS.
And Microsoft just doesn't care.
A Linux distribution. Which is often done by one person. Zero snark intended.
The fact that you can almost, sort of use a Windows PC as a gaming console, even with all the headaches that come with it, is something of a miracle.
* two major platforms on PC and one of em doesn’t sport a Big Picture mode
* the other store does nasty tricks like never terminate a game process completely when you launch their titles through the other platform (very obvious w/ Alan Wake 2)
* other store’s titles doesn’t have this problem if I use Playnite as the TV frontend, but Playnite is a giant security vulnerability waiting to happen cause you need 3rd party plugins to emulate Steam Big Picture
* entire swatches of games that act funny with Steam Input or have incomplete configurations and I don’t feel like figuring that out just to play Backrooms
* Windows window management when using Steam Big Picture w/ controller is bad, b/c lots of desktop things will steal focus (hello Rockstar Games and EA)
* oh yeah, mandatory LAUNCHERS
* Try to play Mass Effect Legendary Edition on a TV with a controller; no really, try
* don’t even get me started on OOTB auto HDR config for almost any random TV with PS5 vs dicking around with the NVIDIA control panel
* the Steam store navigation w/ controller is baaaaad in 2025, many times you won’t be able to move or select certain things.
This is an incomplete list. It actually doesn’t matter whether you have a point-by-point refutation, no non-technical person wants to deal with any of this. They want machine to take care of everything. That’s what an appliance is
(Edit: formatting)
And the exciting thing is I’m not even aware of many of those because I don’t play the same games and use different peripherals. If I listed out all my issues many would be unique to me. There are an infinity of issues with using a PC as a console.
A random one - audio outputs and inputs randomly locking to something you aren’t actually using. Between virtual devices for streaming apps you didn’t know you installed, weird devices hidden in USB peripherals, outputs on various TVs and monitors - my sound rarely “just works” and I have to spend a lot of time in the desktop fiddling around with the system tray.
A game console is a classic appliance. You turn it on and see your current game running or a selection of games to play and you can start playing a game with zero intermediate steps.
The Steam Deck and Steam Box are designed as appliance emulators—they boot and by default operate in appliance mode. They can provide the same exact experience as a console if you use them as designed. They are also general-purpose computers, if you wish to step out of console mode.
Anything that makes the PC gaming experience more like a console is good. This is the first gaming PC that I could actually justify putting in the living room.
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co80944...
it rings hollow from a company whose entire bedrock for existence is DRM procedures.
does Steam still disallow accounts from playing more than one independently owned game at a time without special procedures?
I'm not judging them "by comparison" because it's hard to look bad next to Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. Just looking objectively at the situation, even if Valve was alone on the market.
On the other hand, if the games already have DRM and it gets worse or for whatever reason Valve goes under and you can't play your games anymore, well... you can't play any DRMed game without using whatever DRM mechanism they'll choose next.
In other words "No DRM -> DRM" and "DRM -> Worse DRM" have different outcomes.
> Valve has been doing business this way forever.
And Google's motto was "Don't be evil" and for a good chunk of their life they weren't. That worked out well, did it? I'm not saying Valve will do a 180 and squander all the good faith it acquired. I'm just saying it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
People here like to pretend google wasn't evil from the start.
https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-ci...
But you are right there is always the possibility they turn to shit. The advantage is that compared to other DRMs it is trivial to break even by yourself and all steam games are already freely available cracked so if they do just torrent them.
There is no way for Steam to enable DRM on a copy of a game you made after you downloaded it from Steam. It's a weird argument to use really - once you copied the data elsewhere neither platform can do anything with it.
In the first case they can just refuse to let you use your copy when you ask for permission.
If the game didn't have DRM enabled, no check is made. Copy the game folder elsewhere, without steam install and it should launch.
Devs can enable the DRM afterward, but your copy won't be locked.
But even then, if valve goes bad guy, the DRM is simple enough to be broken, and there is no double check or something preventing you from playing (unlike Denuvo which encrypts the game and has multiple separate checks for the DRM).
So if one day Steam (more broadly, Valve) says "nope" you're locked out of your game, correct?
With Valve, I'm more concerned of not being able to download the games if they go under, than the DRM on the games I have. Over time, the Steam DRM has also been more permissive than before, as I can now play my "family's" games and they can play mine.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_off...
I'm personally concerned about what happens when Gabe retires or shuffles off this mortal coil, and his replacement comes with a "fresh" revenue idea. He's a one of a kind visionary leader, it's not a sure thing that his successor is the same. I've been baited and switched so many times in the past few decades that it's hard to blindly trust any company for more than the very immediate future.
From the couple documentaries I have seen over the years it already seems like he is basically retired, only working on things he is interested in like the brain interface stuff. I think as long as valve stays a private company the enshitification will be limited.
He owns Valve so semi-retired still means he at least keeps the spirit going. This can't last forever.
What do you mean? My GOG offline installers should work fine with or without internet or GOG services for as long as the binaries can be executed. I can pass them on to my grandkids, if they'll ever be interested. You can own games, music, videos. You can do what you want with them, sell them, give them to family or friends. Any non-dystopian interpretation of DRM means you get to keep what you own. Changes don't apply to already owned things. When "renting" changes can apply retroactively to everything.
> everything can be appended with “for now”
Only if you're looking to be unreasonable and make any argument irrelevant. But we're trying to have a constructive conversation not shoot down everything with generic, nihilistic arguments.
You wan to look at history but so selectively that it only supports your argument. Few companies stayed faithful to the customer without fault especially when the visionary leader and owner retired, or they hit hard times. The norm is for them to pull a bait and switch as soon as the profits looked too good to pass. When Gabe is out it could go either way, slowly or all at once.
You still cannot play a game C from my library while I play the game A from my own library.
The only way to be able to play any game you want would be to create a separate account for each game.
I just tried it, and I could.
I can run rimworld and quasimorph via steam at the same time, as an example.
However, there is still a huge difference between buying hardware that literally "jails" you and force feeds you DRM and a system where even in the marketing says you can completely tear away all of that without jailbreaks, etc. and without stuff being super fiddly.
Yes. I just tried launching one game on Steam Deck and another one on my desktop and it showed a message:
> Error - Steam: You are logged in on another computer already playing Railbound. Launching Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder here will disconnect the other session from Steam.
Might also help to slow down enshittification by a bit if there was a popular alternative. Maybe something like Waydroid could even ease with transition.
It just needs my banking apps, and and I'll be happy to pay for it.
Some banks might even be up for putting children's banking apps on the steam deck to start with.
But also, phones don't seem to be the best hardware to play PC games which is kinda the whole deal.
I maybe would see first a smaller ARM based device (like those retro consoles).
I just hope Google & Apple read, understand and follow this.
the last few in years in tech have been depressing, like no one cares to make something that's actually better for the consumer, it's made me into a cynic and I hate it
One day, Gabe Newell will die. Maybe his racer son will inherit the job, or maybe he'll delegate the job. Maybe this new CEO will take Valve public to ensure they get a centi-million dollar payout.
Then all the good times end. This is the halcyon for Steam customers.
In many public companies there is the added level of investor interest, and it can often be a challenge for the C levels to remain in power during periods of slow or even negative growth. Challenges that companies like Valve simply don't have as long as the CEO is fine with it. On the flip side, I'm happy with my own stock portfolio so there is that.
Their shareholders are not in it for the long term. Investment managers tend to look at anything more than two years as "long term", and they are conscious of their position in annual league tables.
Even private equity and venture capital are usually going to be thinking about the value at which they can exit reasonably soon.
The management of the company will be thinking about bonuses and options they get between now and when they move to the next job.
A private company can often take the view that what really matters is how much they will be making in five or ten years time. Maybe even how much it will be worth when the current shareholder’s kids inherit it. The management are often either owners, or are closely monitored by the owners.
tldr; GTFO!
What universe do you live in?
- Broken games still pre-ordered
- marginal updates sold at full price
- double/triple-dipping with microtransactions and battle passes
- DRM still [predominant and still hurts performance
- every publisher with more than one game has their own launcher (usually shitty and brings no value)
- rootkit as anti-cheat
- offline game that require online connectivety
- online services get shutdown
- LAN multiplayer is a thing of a past
What did games exactly won?
- Paid skyrim mods? It's back.
- MS game sharing thing that rendered GameStop business model useless? IMO a mistake, MS was onto something there.
I view this as a positive -- it's not feasible to maintain a build for every game and storefront's DRM/auth (unless you go DRM-free, which is the ideal but not something publishers and developers do on release). A launcher is the layer that sits between -- the games are written to auth against a launcher, and the launcher has builds for each storefront.
Otherwise you're just further entrenching Steam as the de facto monopoly on sales.
Paradox launcher is alright for example, it adds value in form of mod preset managment and ability to launch straight into saved game.
What ever is in dune: awakening" exists just to tell me about their other games and as a result make game launching longer than it needs to be. Not only that it adds A LOT of friction when I launch it via Remote Play with a controller.
Point is: if you make a launcher make sure it adds any value and not just an advertisementr billboard.
As for store fronts: steam by far has the most functionality among PC storefronts.
Only because new population enters the market.
I pre-ordered a game once. F1 2010. Since then, I have *never* pre-ordered anything.
I also opted out from any game that required a rootkit to play.
LAN gameplay is still a thing in the simracing world.
Again, this only continues because of new players. Any burned player will not fall for the same trick twice.
Yeah, not. I'm not saying is the same people pre-order the same games, but there is not THAT much new population influx.
> LAN gameplay is still a thing in the simracing world.
It's a niche within a niche. Also, I remember a guy named Max had a lot to say about the current state of sim-racing.
DRM is everywhere so gamers have clearly lost
That’s an imaginary issue.
The Blu-Ray drive is basically no added cost since the games were already distributed on optical disks, it’s like how the PS2 was one of the most popular DVD players. The problem with the Xbone was that, at least judging on their marketing at the time, Microsoft was far more focused on broadening the scope of the device beyond games while Sony stayed focused on gaming. That’s why I bought a PS4 despite previously using an Xbox 360.
I worked for a Sony dealer when the PS2 launched, and they wouldn't give us one :-/
What I thought at the time was insane was that they were still selling a 200-disc carousel CD changer, and DVD version of the same thing (same box, different shade of silver grey, different drive mechanism, two chips different on the PCB) - but they had no plans to sell a 200-disc carousel PS2.
Imagine if you could have had all your movies, audio CDs, PSX, and shiny new PS2 games in one big box, tucked away out of sight, with your spiffy new 576p projector and 5.1 speakers hooked up to it!
When Xbox360 and PS3 came out, the format war was only just starting, and the consoles were on either side of it.
PS3 came with a BluRay drive and the games were delivered on BluRay.
Xbox360 came with software support for HDDVD, but the actual disk reader hardware was a DVD reader (famously, a large off-the-shelf part selected at the last minute that required a redesign of the cooling system to accomodate its size), and the HDDVD drive was an optional add-on that nobody bought.
The fact that every PS3 could read BluRay, but you needed a special extra to play HDDVD on Xbox 360 is arguably the main reason BluRay won the format war.
I wasn't an early adopter and only bought a PS3 in 2010. In the intervening 15 years I have bought four Blu-Rays, and been given two more.
I own (and watch) more VHS tapes than Blu-Rays.
I sure did play a lot of GTA4, GTA5, Infamous, and Little Big Planet though.
Can you expand on this? I'm not a massive gamer, I thought xbox was doing well?
Microsoft lost the console wars. Their new generation (Series S & X) sold almost 1/4 of what PS5 did because they basically don't have any exclusive game that you can only play in their hardware. Microsoft invested heavily in their Gamepass subscription (that has more than 35 million users) and they believe that the future is on PC. The newest xbox hardware, a handheld made by Asus, is a PC running windows. The next generation of xbox hardware that will compete with the PS6 will also very likely be a PC. The xbox console is dead.
“Oh, there’s a PlayStation 5 now? Man I gotta upgrade from my PS4!”
Microsoft evidently did not learn from the Wii U.
XBOX cultivates a "gamer" who is heavily invested in the identity and is well educated in the various versions of XBOX and how the naming scheme works and since they are an adult buying the console for themselves they don't need to explain it to outsiders.
If your marketing makes it hard to figure out what is what, well a Playstation $int[max] it is...
I worked at a pawn shop when that console generation kicked off. One day a guy called in and asked if he could bring in his Xbox One. "Of course," I told him, until I had to turn him away because it was an original Xbox.
What a wild world it would be, if Microsoft release a GamesPass client for linux so it can try and get a slice of all this new linux gaming happening on SteamOS.
The ideal would be MS just selling Game Pass subscriptions via Steam but I expect we'll see that happen shortly after hell freezes over.
I still can't wrap my head around why they decided to do this considering they were in a pretty killer position coming out of the PS4 generation. I mean, it's probably a positive for consumers to have more options for platforms, so I won't exactly complain. But I do want PlayStation to stick around as a strong competitor because fierce competition is best for consumers in the long-term.
At first it seemed like they were just porting the previous game in a series when the sequel came out exclusively on PS5, as a way to get people into the series and then making them buy their console to play the next game. But now it seems like there's barely any wait between when one of Sony's exclusives comes to PS5 and the PC launch afterwards. If Sony is confused as to why the PS5 isn't selling up to expectations, the answer to that seems pretty obvious to me.
Didn't they just blow the remaining goodwill they had by increasing the gamepads price by 50% overnight?
It very much isn’t.
Most media for me is a one and done. A book, a movie, a computer game. Granted a computer games version of "done" might mean "played on and off for a year".
There are exceptions to this - books I read again, shows I'd watch again, but games seem to age poorly by comparison. Original Syndicate or Deus Ex - while playable - is not what I remember it to be and I'd rather keep the nostalgic memories than shatter them with a replay.
This rarity of exceptions means that I wouldn't lose much if my Steam account disappeared - mainly just "whatever I'm playing now". Create a new account and go again, or buy off GOG or something.
However in return for using Steam I get a lot of convenience - updates, propogated save files, easy chat and "Right click -> Join Game" with friends. That "Right click -> Join Game" is almost worth it on it's own for ease of social gaming.
There is no such thing as "owning" a game unless you're the company that developed the game (or bought the company that did).
You think you own the Silmarillion because you have a paper copy? Hah! No, you have a transferrable license to read it.
Every hard copy movie you have starts with a big green FBI warning reminding you that having that disc does not means you own the movie, it means you have a transferrable license to play it for yourself and small groups on small screens.
Digital media with DRM allow content distributors to remove the "transferrable" part of the license if they want, which often allows them to sell for cheaper since they know that each sale represents only one person recieving the experience. The license comes with less rights (no transferrance), so it can be priced lower.
That's really the saddest thing about capitalism, if everything around us wasn't getting enshittified in the exact same way at least the future would be more alluring.
DRM is the publishers choice, worth noting.
This is not that - Steam has to compete on the free market, there is a reward for making the product everyone else refuses to make. In a post-Deck world, it's hard to believe that moral obligation plays a bigger role than the overall hatred of Windows for seamless gaming experiences.
... the plebs know what is good for them. Horrible Dukes get horses wanting nails.
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
"A complement is a product that you usually buy together with another product. Gas and cars are complements. Computer hardware is a classic complement of computer operating systems. And babysitters are a complement of dinner at fine restaurants."
The Gaben house is building a secret army, using a technique unknown to us; a technique involving steam.
That's the same Valve that doesn't let me play the games I paid it for unless they are running on its platform? That's how it "respects" me?
What exactly does that mean, for you?
Basically just go the the folder and run bin\x64\Cyberpunk2077.exe
The "Launch Cyberpunk" shortcut in the folder starts Galaxy and then runs the game from there.
Games using things like steam input might also require steam to be running so there is some drm free games that might not run also. Some of those will if you move them outside the steam folder / rename Steam.exe. If you leave them in the steam folder the game will start steam for you if when you launch it.
Why? If another platform also disrespects me, does that mean Steam doesn't disrespect me?
Also don't knock those zip files purchased off of itch.io. Sometimes it's good to visit a cottage industry to see what's passing under the radar of the big guys.
Your usual publicly traded (or owned by publicly traded entity) corporation in its accidental intelligence does not
That was the desktop mode, showing KDE Plasma (a linux desktop environment).
Also, Blender on the left screen and Godot on the right screen!
The more interesting point is that if you aren't driven by investors to care about short term financial stuff (stock prices) then you can make long term decisions. Caring about your customers is a classic one for this - costs you money in the short term, but in the long term gets you a great customer base.
What they don't care is the endless growth that MBA guys always try to achieve, and the quarterly profit driven decision making that ultimately destroys their customers loyalty, for short term profit.
A business can be very profitable without being exploitative. It's the people in Wall Street who can't seem to understand this. For them a hundred million dollars of profit is good if last year it was only fifty million dollars, and a dying business if last year it was also a hundred million dollars. It really makes no sense.
I just know that I expect stock prices to go up because most “dividend stocks” give such a small amount of money per share.
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts this would be the cat's pyjamas. I shan't deny it's mathematically elegant, and also feels good in many ways, but the real trouble is it's exceptionally hard to form a watertight argument for an alternative.
Put another way, the appeal of the free market isn't so much in its correctness as it is in its simplicity. I can personally attest that it's sumple enough for any fool to understand, in an area of economics where it's devilishly difficult to establish anything solidly.
I say all this as someone who is a big fan of Valve and their work, deapite otherwise being a foss zealot, just because they throw a bone to our sort.
Dividends are taxed differently and higher than capital gains. So given a choice between a stock buyback and a dividend, often a buyback makes more sense.
This sort of thing is why I think we need heavy taxes to limit wealth accumulation. Money is power, and the amount of power a person with ten+ figure wealth wields is too much for any one person to have, let alone one who was never elected.
I'm so happy to read this