tiramichu

@tiramichu@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Don't expect a SteamOS phone after the Steam Machine, Valve engineer says⁩ ⁨⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  It really wouldn’t make sense at all, to me.

  Like sure - they could design a Linux phone with their own polished UI, and Proton so it can run Steam games natively, and that would be super cool! But what about the apps?

  I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that for most people out there a phone is all about apps - in fact, completely synonymous with apps - and the sad truth is that Android and iOS have an absolute stranglehold on the app market.

  There have been (and still are) efforts to develop Linux phones, but they are generally seen as rough experiments which for most people require far too much compromise - with one of the most significant compromises being that you give up all your apps.

  Valve’s recent hardware successes haven’t come from making experiments for dedicated nerds, but from making polished hardware devices that you can put in the hands of a consumer and just work, and do everything they expect. That’s the strategy.

  Now don’t get me wrong - I’d love to see a big-hitter like Valve with some financial clout try to make a phone. But this is an arena where even Microsoft failed, and heavens knows how much money they poured into phones before pulling the plug.

  I’d love it, but I don’t think it aligns at all with Valve’s strategy, and I don’t expect to see it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve confirm the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC with similar specs, rather than a console⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure, for real.

  Of course, it isn’t like you can’t build yourself a small PC. I’ve got a build in a Fractal Design Terra with a beefy GPU, and that thing is barely bigger than a shoebox.

  But building small is even more daunting than building large, so IMO it ties into the same angle of people wanting something that is premade and a product that just works, right down to the SteamOS operating system it ships with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve confirm the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC with similar specs, rather than a console⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They can’t, and they won’t.

  The way I see it, the people the Steam Machine is meant for are these:

  1. People who are sick of the increasingly predatory nature of console gaming and want to switch to PC, but don’t have the confidence or knowledge to build their own

  2. People who are similarly sick of Windows bullshit and want to try Linux, but don’t have the confidence or knowledge to do it themselves

  3. People with plenty of cash who fancy an extra gaming PC to put under the TV

  4. Valve fans who will buy anything Valve releases, no matter what

  IMO it’s not trying to compete against consoles directly, and especially not on price, it’s trying to be an alternative to people who are already sick of consoles.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve employee Pierre-Loup Griffais talks more about anti-cheat support for Linux/SteamOS on FPS Podcast #83⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Valve are working on what they can from the OS side, but fundamentally there’s no silver bullet and it’s up to game devs to implement anti-cheat in a way that works for SteamOS if they want games that require anti cheat to work.

  My personal interpretation is that we remain in the same situation as ever, and games which have invasive anticheat will continue to not work on Linux unless the game developers make them work - and publishers won’t do that until Linux as a gaming platform has sufficient market share that they would lose a large chunk of money by not supporting it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve upgrade Steam's trailer player, and all it took was trawling through something like 400,000 videos⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  For broadcasts yes. The autoplay for trailers keeps forgetting its setting constantly and there’s nothing you can do about all the embeds - which are really the worst offender.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve upgrade Steam's trailer player, and all it took was trawling through something like 400,000 videos⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re the sort of person who likes to take in plenty of trailers when you’re hunting for new stuff to play on Steam […]

  How about if I’m the sort of person who hates it when a bunch of shit starts autoplaying and there is a dev stream popping up and 10 embedded animated images in the product description?

  Got any features for me?