I just noticed that the game got a lot more language support with this update, including Catalan, Silesian and Welsh. It's always nice to see games become available to more people.

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Sail Forth has been on my wishlist for a while, and one of the reasons I didn't get it the last time I was buying games was because it's the kind of game I'd rather play curled up on the sofa than sat at my desk. It just got bumped up the list.

Recently on the Deck I've completed Unavowed [External Link] and Beyond A Steel Sky [External Link], and the little one's been playing Duck Tales [External Link], Skywalker Saga [External Link] and Alba [External Link]. On my desktop I've been playing Parkitect [External Link].

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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI'm still curious how this process actually works. Let's imagine I'm a game dev, and I've committed to supporting Linux with Proton. Alright, what do I do?

Full effort version: have at least one Linux machine running Proton plumbed into your CI unit tests and manual testing pipeline, and fail those tests if any build fails to work as it should on that machine.

Less effort version: test your release builds on at least one Linux machine prior to release.

Even less effort version: make some effort to fix bugs that your Linux users report after you've released an update that breaks the game for them.

Least effort version: release updates and let Valve fix them.

Most game devs pick the last one, and a select few pick the penultimate one.

I imagine the only thing I can do is submit bugs to Valve when I encounter a bug with Wine/DXVK/whatever. Does Valve have an official private channel for sending these bugs in? Because there is no open issue on the Proton Github page for SMITE 2. Well, if I had a Wine dev on hand, I could get them to submit patches upstream.

Game devs that have paid their $100 get access to a whole bunch of game developer-only forums and a separate game developer-only helpdesk (it used to be a specific contact at Valve but got amended into a shared pool of staff). Valve also have the resources to pre-emptively test whatever they deem important, or to contact anyone they deem important.

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This has been on my wishlist for a while, but with my Deck for games to cozily finish and my desktop for spectacle games, and having recently started something from the category of "new timesink games that anchor you to a desk," it'll be a while till I get round to it.

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Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: CatKillerHands up: I didn't think that they'd be able to match the price of the Deck, but they have. They must've managed to get some sweet prices on components.

4000 series apu. Old tech? Could it be a rebranding of an older model's internals leftovers that they are trying to get rid off?

If so smart move, but I'm not interrested.

Renoir is the same Zen 2 as the Van Gogh in the Deck; the Deck just uses RDNA 2 for the GPU rather than the Vega in the mainstream chips.

But, yes, stock clearance would have helped with the pricing.

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Hands up: I didn't think that they'd be able to match the price of the Deck, but they have. They must've managed to get some sweet prices on components.

I definitely wouldn't get one over a Deck - awkward control layout, no trackpads, weaker GPU - but the Deck isn't an option for everyone since it's only sold in a limited number of countries.

I hope using Linux works out for them, and they use it for future models (and there's no shortage of future models with Aya Neo) as the better option rather than as the cheaper option.

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Quoting: scaineBut as for Valve, yeah, good point - Canada has around the same population as Australia, so it's clearly not the numbers driving this decision. It's either regulation, import/export laws, or supply chain. Or something else - global freight isn't my thing, so I'm guessing.

Canada is, like, a couple of miles from Valve HQ.

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For some reason they kept calling it S@box, but it's s&box.

Everyone knows it's s#&%box.

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Quoting: dpanterBleh, guess I didn't have enough fingers. Concerned this might hurt the Linux gaming handheld scene instead. I didn't trust Ayaneo before, things like this sure don't help and I definitely don't trust their ability to maintain a fringe spin of a fringe distro.
What will they do when issues start happening? Tell people to install Windows instead? :unsure:

The same thing they do for issues with their Windows handhelds - say nothing and release a new model every two weeks.

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Quoting: sarmadSounds like they are going in the other direction and targetting lower prices rather than fancier spec sheet. That's smart if they manage to bring the price down to something below the price of Steam Deck.

It's extremely unlikely to be cheaper than the Deck. Valve have economies of scale that Aya Neo don't have, and Valve don't actually need to make money on the hardware. The Next (which this is supposed to be a cheaper version of) is $1,315, and their cheapest product is $899.

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