Comment on Microsoft dives into the handheld gaming PC wars with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally

sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Midnitte@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  They also seem to be pivoting towards trying to make “Xbox PC” something to replace Steam (see the end of the Super Meat Boy 3d trailer).

  I wouldn’t be surprised if they try and lock out developers from putting games on Steam and being exclusive to “Xbox PC”.

  Worked so well for Xbox Live for Windows…

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  • pipariturbiini@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    …and this risk is exactly the reason we got SteamOS, Deck and Proton.

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    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It is hilarious to see Microsoft put so much effort into proving that what Valve did was necessary for the industry.

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• bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I dunno, I kind of believe them when they claim they seriously debloated Windows. I bet they actually used SteamOS benchmarks to sway the higher ups to be allowed to do this. It will be interesting to see benchmarks when this thing is released.

  Although I also believe that they would lock down the bootloader. And not release this mode to the general public. They haven’t been very lenient with the media people testing these things. They weren’t even allowed make their own videos of the interface or games running on them.

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I mean, I can’t of course prove anything, but uh.

    I used to work for MSFT.

    I very much doubt thet are capable of meaningfully streamlining Windows.

    And uh also no, no, the SteamOS Benchmarks came out less than a week before this announcement.

    This announcement means they have been working on this project for a year or so, at least, and just haven’t publically mentioned anything definitive untill now.

    They already have the whole thing designed and agreemenrs worked out with all the mfg partners involved.

    You don’t do a public announcement for a release in a few months unless you’ve got the assembly line and logistics systems in place ready to start cranking these things out after maybe a few more weeks of minor touchups.

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    • bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      And uh also no, no, the SteamOS Benchmarks came out less than a week before this announcement.

      I meant that they maybe used SteamOS (or a similar distribution) on whatever prototype they had to make some benchmarks to compare against stock Windows or their own Windows build.

      But you seem to have better insight into the way they work.

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      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Sorry, I edited in more details after you replied.

        But uh yeah, as you yourself have said… MSFT is very good at being secretive and opaque… even internally, there is a massive culture of compartmentalizing information, to say nothing of outward facing info.

        I would say that untill independent reviewers get their hands on these things to do teardowns and benchmarks, trust nothing, all their claims are just marketing BS.

        Im not saying this version of Windows won’t be better than mainline Windows.

        I am saying I’ll eat a sock if it ends up being even as efficient as SteamOS or Bazzite in a same hardware same game same settings frame rate test of 20ish modern games.

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    • rotopenguin@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I’m pretty sure that this “streamlined, gaming-first” development team will last right up to the moment they come into conflict with any other corporate goal.

      You’re not doing AI-first? You’re not injecting Bing into every experience? Where are all the ads? Oops, so sorry, your role has been made redundant.

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      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Pretty much exactly.

        There are so, so many tech bros who build their identity around not being replacable… when in fact, they are.

        Then their identity collapses and they become crypto bros, some other kind of obvious start-up scammers…

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• princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I don’t think there’s going to be a bunch of difference with the Z2 over the Z1, and you’ve gotta remember that they’re just 8000/9000 CPUs with Radeon graphics. AMD open sources their drivers too.

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    AMD open sources their drivers too.

    Ah, right, duh.

    Ok so yeah, uh… the Z2 Extreme supposedly is going to have some kind of ‘AI’ functionality or additional component… god knows what that means…

    Theoretically it could be more difficult for open source devs to fully leverage that, even if the drivers are open source…

    But yeah, for the rest of it, it probably would not take much time at all given that Bazzite and SteamOS already run on the last generation of the same chips.

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    • princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      There’s two versions of the Z2E, the one that is labelled “AI” has an NPU. More than any LLM crap, those NPUs can be really good for local ML features that increase accessibility for people. As for how well that’ll be supported on Linux, I’m not sure.

      On the point if your edit, MSFT have said that it’s going to support third-party stores directly in their game interface. I think it’s fairly unlikely that they’re going to break from their already exisiting Xbox controller input scheme. They already have a monopoly there, even third-party devices like the Legion Go use the Xbox layout and input scheme.

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