For some reason, Valve still won't just give us a "download all" button to then instantly queue everything up to begin downloading.

Steam is a significant chunk of global Internet traffic, and lots of users keep Steam running in the background. The reason for the staggered scheduled downloads is to prevent 100 million people all downloading at once the second a patch goes live. Perhaps they're concerned that if they put in a Download All function into Steam then people will automate that, and defeat the bandwidth smudging process?

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Quoting: elmapulsince the steam machines floped, i dont think that using this branding is a good idea.
since the deck was a success and the dock help tracks the demand for a living room experinece, the only logical name for an dedicated home console is:
the steam duck!

jokes aside im not sure there is demand for it without exclusives, but if valve can do that, it will create an warfare scenario for other console vendors.

There wouldn't be much demand for it with exclusives, either, and neither Valve nor Steam customers like exclusives.

The market would be "people that want an HTPC but don't want to set up an HTPC." That's pretty small - HTPCs are pretty easy to set up. It could make the primary interface Steam rather than Kodi for some folks, though, especially if they can integrate some Kodi-style functions into Steam.

They've learned some useful lessons from the Steam Machines, of course. They've got their own hardware expertise and pipeline now, so they aren't reliant on OEMs putting out more-expensive-but-less-good versions of their Windows machines. They've got Proton now, so they've got 80-90% of the Steam catalogue working without relying on game devs, rather than the ~40% that game devs managed last time.

I don't expect it to be a big seller. Even with Valve managing to keep the price low with Steam revenue and modest economies of scale. But it would be likely useful for Valve and would be another Linux gaming demonstration device, and maybe that's enough.

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What do you want Valve to focus on next? The Family and Game Recording updates are out in the stable client, so what's next for a major addition to Steam? Is it missing something you think should really be there?

The integration of Store functionality on the Deck is really shonky. Navigating the Store is better than it used to be, but still isn't great, and the wishlist and purchasing are pretty terrible. With a device from Valve in my hands, where I'm going to actually play the Steam games that I buy, it's way easier to pull out my phone to browse the wishlist and buy the games there; that's just full of fail. I'd imagine the experience is similarly bad for Big Picture Mode if you've got a controller-controlled PC hooked up to your telly. Easing the process of giving Valve money doesn't seem like it should be a low priority for Valve.

Since Valve want strategic not-Windows, dogfooding all the things on Linux would be a sensible thing to do, which they've historically done badly at. Their VR headset not fully working on Linux and their games launching without Linux builds being prominent examples.

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In case anyone wants the data on how much is Linux desktop and how much is Steam Deck, it's easy to see the trends.



As always, Steam as a whole is growing, so proportions staying flat (or even declining) doesn't mean totals are reducing, all data are noisy, etc, etc.

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Quoting: GuestFreedesktop-sdk-24.08.7 is not a OS !?

Steam flatpak. Same as Ubuntu Core is Steam snap.

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Quoting: PoliticsOfStarvingAny Theme Park fans played this and can recommend it?

I played some and really enjoyed it - it's only the having to sit at my desktop to play it rather than curling up with my Deck that means that I haven't played more. It's "Theme Park but better and more modern" in the same way that Two Point Hospital is "Theme Hospital but better and more modern."

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Quoting: Leahi84Sucks. I'm broke going into all these sales and black Friday because it's been a really terrible year for me, so I'm going to miss all the sales.

On the brighter side, there'll be the Winter Sale soon after the Autumn Sale finishes, and the Spring Sale not that long after that.

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Taking existing games and mixing them up with other mechanics has been a tried-and-true method of game development since the beginning of game development.

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Quoting: PyrateI wonder if I should get it now, or maybe it'll get an even deeper sale later on. Won't be playing it anytime soon anyways, just want to grab it before the price increase when it leaves early access.

Personally, I won't buy any game in Early Access. I'm happy to buy this when it gets officially released, and at full price since it's got Linux support.

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Quoting: amatai@Liam Winter start in the UK before December ? I thought everyone in the northern hemisphere was starting winter the 21th December (where winter is applicable).

Half of winter has already gone by then. Midwinter festivals (such as Christmas) are to celebrate passing the midpoint of winter, when days steadily start to become longer again.

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