From a non-gamer is there any reason there isn't something like an Apple TV Pro that would be a 4K gaming console? I imagine they have hardware capable of this in their existing inventory. Would it be the major game studios are kept locked in to XBox or PS consoles?
Apple tried this, I forgot which year, there was a push to make the Apple TV a console. Arcade support, controller compatibility, it all shipped. You can plug in an Apple TV and pair an Xbox controller right now and play a surprisingly large number of AAA and indie games, from Resident Evil VIII to Slay the Spire. It was too little too late, though. Most games are played on phones, and the console market is falling apart. Microsoft seems to be pulling out, Sony is basically shipping locked-down gaming PCs with a couple of exclusive games. Nintendo is holding course more or less, but their main value propositions are simplicity and first-party exclusivity, and phones already ate the first half of that.
As someone who used to be into console gaming but has been out basically since the PS2, this is an interesting summation of the current state of things. Do you have any color you'd add with regard to the Steam Machine and its potential?
As someone with a Steam Machine, somewhat low potential. It has a console like experience but not everything in the store supports it. It's open then other things but there are plenty of multiplayer games that refuse to support it due to Anti Cheat.
It feels like R&D project that Steam is doing so in case Microsoft gets really aggressive and locks down Windows 11 to point that Steam no longer works, they have fallback option.
Whatever anticheat company can come up with a decent enough anticheat for linux (stay out of my fucking kernel) and pair it with some kind of server side anti cheat heuristic may win the day. I know a lot of people who are steamdeck kids and are experimenting with steamos or other linuxes on the desktop because they are sick of windows in general.
I'm about ready to pull the trigger on my windows gaming pc to move it to linux because I honestly don't really play anything that requires anticheat anymore. Too old to bother with multiplayer that isn't co-op anymore. I think the last game I have with anticheat in it is elden ring and I don't pvp there either so I can just disable the online stuff and ignore the anti-cheat all together.
t1234s · · focus · HN ↗
idle_zealot · · focus · HN ↗
RankingMember · · focus · HN ↗
stackskipton · · focus · HN ↗
It feels like R&D project that Steam is doing so in case Microsoft gets really aggressive and locks down Windows 11 to point that Steam no longer works, they have fallback option.
sleepybrett · · focus · HN ↗
I'm about ready to pull the trigger on my windows gaming pc to move it to linux because I honestly don't really play anything that requires anticheat anymore. Too old to bother with multiplayer that isn't co-op anymore. I think the last game I have with anticheat in it is elden ring and I don't pvp there either so I can just disable the online stuff and ignore the anti-cheat all together.