Although I still like my Steam Deck and use it a few times a week, after the initial honeymoon period wore off (which admittedly took a good year) my Arch Desktop PC has certainly dethroned it. There's something that is just so much nicer for those long 8hr+ gaming sessions on a Desktop versus my Steam Deck. For short bursts the Steam Deck is nice but when I want to play a game I don't reach for my Steam Deck by default anymore.

Plus being able to tab out of my game and use Discord on one of my other screens is nicer than grabbing my phone to do the same. At this point I am too used to my 4-monitor setup and multitasking that the Steam Deck ends up feeling restrictive after some time.

When it's warm though it is nice to grab my Steam Deck and stream from my PC to a TV in a cooler room. It's easier to put a controller down and grab my phone than to put my Steam Deck down and grab my phone.

But although I do like my Steam Deck, to me it's an accessory more than anything else. Like a phone or a laptop, nothing can replace my everything-PC for my use-cases.

Actually at time of writing, I haven't charged my Steam Deck in over a week...

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Unfortunately this is not usable on the Linux Desktop, at least on Arch with Plasma 6.1, as the Steam Overlay does not work.

EDIT: Running Steam from the commandline does allow the Steam Overlay to function again. But the Game Recording Timeline has issues interacting with the UI (depending on the display it is on, only certain sections can be interacted with). Both of these issues have already been reported upstream at ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux [External Link].

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Quoting: EssojeEAC isn't protecting you from just cheaters, but also hackers with access to RCE.

This points back to the issue being on FromSoftware for improperly implementing multiplayer (RCE exists, but gets patched). The ideal, again, would have been to remove multiplayer entirely.

Also, EAC is not immune to RCE attacks either. Companies that put invasive anti-cheat in their games deserve to be called out (some even call out the players, although I am not so extreme). Invasive anti-cheat is a solution to vulnerabilities, but if you need to use malware to fix your multiplayer component, you should not have a multiplayer component.

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Quoting: EssojeI don't think FromSoftware had much of a say on it after the RCE vulnerability appeared, as it was necessary to protect players of older Souls games, and ER was close to release.

Cutting the multiplayer temporarily (or my preference, permanently) like they did for Dark Souls would've been better, and allowing EAC to be disabled for single-player.

Quoting: EssojeIf anything, going for EAC isn't nearly as egregious as some other anti-cheat software that is out there.

It's better than something like nProtect, sure, but that doesn't make EAC acceptable. I would rather no anti-cheat and cheaters than invasive anti-cheat, if that was the choice.

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Quoting: StalePopcornBut they stated that they're aware of the situation and are working on a hotfix

I meant for including EAC in the game, period.

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Screw you, FromSoftware.

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Given that the recent updates to SteamOS 3.6 Preview have been quite small, perhaps we're getting close to the stable release now.

I don't think so, 3.6 Preview is still fairly unstable, the most unstable Preview has ever been for me since I got my Steam Deck. Not a discredit to Valve at all, it is normal to expect major bugs, and Preview is still usable (a credit to Valve that the most unstable state Preview has ever had still keeps the device usable), but the Steam Client still crashes a couple times a day in Game Mode and still doesn't start automatically when switching to Desktop Mode.

The audio drivers also still has some kinks with the built-in speakers where session switching still borks it, and the volume is too low by default and you have to keep switching audio sources until it works (external speakers and headphones work fine).

The CEC features still don't quite work correctly (I've tried various HDMI cables with different hubs and the official Dock, still no dice) and Valve in the previous release just fixed the system crashing when unplugging it from a display (broken since SteamOS 3.6.0). The device still crashes once every dozen or so disconnects, and will crash if you connect and disconnect in rapid succession (plugging and unplugging like a crazy person).

To my understanding these are all known issues on the SteamOS issue tracker, but when I encounter any I don't see reported, bug hunting is a big reason why I like staying on Preview :happy:

I'd say we're still at least a month out from 3.6 being in Stable given all the critical issues that still need fixed before it could be considered stable. Not critical for everyday use on a channel that you accept is expected to be unstable (it wouldn't be called Preview if it was going to be rock-solid all the time, or even most of the time), but these are issues that would prevent a Stable release imo.

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I rewatch the YouTube movie every so often, been waiting for this game since I saw the announcement quite a long way back. Glad it's still going ahead!

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I don't see how any of these points are exclusive to Steam, nor how they are as damaging as this suit claims.

We say that Valve Corporation imposes price parity clauses that restrict and prevent game developers from offering better prices on PC-games on rival platforms, limiting consumer choice and harming competition.

I would be interested to see if anything comes from this claim. I highly doubt it happens to the extent this suit claims given that you can find find games at varying prices on and off Steam.

It is also worth mentioning that in some countries, games with exclusivity deals on the Epic Games Store (meaning they got paid up-front, from a storefront which takes a lower cut) can cost more than on Steam, who take a higher cut. I don't think the price goes down once the exclusivity deal ends, either.

Tying: We say that the restrictions Valve Corporation imposes, that mean the add-on content for games must also be purchased from Steam, restricts competition in the market.

I don't fault Valve for this, personally. I think this falls under the umbrella of DRM. But if a developer wanted to give this sort of freedom I'm not sure all of the responsibility here is up to Valve. How would Epic feel if people could buy DLC on Steam on a hefty sale? Likewise, I'm not sure Valve would like people buying some potentially paid-exclusive DLC on the Epic Games Store. And to top it all off, I think publishers are happy to let people buy a game's DLC twice.

I think this is a wider-industry thing. At worst, Valve is being passive here. But there is nothing stopping developers from offering keys on other stores for DLC or even the full game. Anyone who has bought an indie game on itch.io knows it is not uncommon to get a Steam key in addition to the content you bought, so that you don't have to buy it again.

I also think this is distinctly different from cross-console DLC for example, since on PC you have direct access to files (albeit usually marred with DRM).

Excessive pricing: We argue that Valve Corporation has imposed an excessive commission, of up to 30%, charged to publishers, that resulted in inflated prices on its Steam platform.

I don't think Valve do this to inflate the price of games on Steam. If they did, they wouldn't negotiate with developers and publishers.

The 30% tax is an industry standard, but that that makes it okay by default. It does have various benefits however. Compare the quality of the Steam Client to that of even competitors that take 30%, not to mention competitors that take less.

It has also been mentioned that charging 30% makes offering physical Steam Wallet gift cards far more financially viable. This may be exaggerated on Valve's part, true, but I recall Epic had trouble offering gift cards because their cut was too low.

Epic tried the lower-cut model and demonstrated that it didn't pay off. Whether that was due to incompetence, greed, or because the cut was simply too low to reinvest properly, I can't say. But Valve have shown, in my opinion, that they invest the approx 30% cut they take very wisely. Free online gameplay, free Cloud Saves, Remote Play Anywhere/Together, investments in open-source (Proton, DXVK, vkd3d-proton, funding KDE's Wayland work, throwing weight behind standardizing Wayland protocols instead of only making private ones (GameScope has some private protocols for now)), investments in hardware (previously the Steam Controller and Steam Link, currently the Valve Index and Steam Deck).

What I am getting at is, it is much easier to see where the 30% cut is going with Valve compared to other platforms. How much of that 30% is pure profit and how much do they actually need to invest in Steam is anyone's guess.

I believe Microsoft take a lower cut on the Microsoft Store as well, but it's easier for Microsoft to take that loss than it is for Epic.

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We believe Valve Corporation has been unfairly shutting out competition for PC games and in-game content, which has meant that UK customers have paid too much for these products.

I believe that Valve hold a dominant position simply because they offer a better service than their competitors. I like supporting charity bundles on itch.io, I like buying games for preservation on GOG, but I buy games on Steam because I prefer the platform.

Even if Valve lowered their cut and allowed cross-store DLC, I would still go to Steam. Even though it's not unusual for a game to be cheaper on GOG, I still buy on Steam. I like my Cloud Saves, all-in-one co-op, ease of use on Steam Deck (GOG and Itch could do this too if they had better native Linux clients).

I don't feel like I've ever overpaid for a game on Steam or gotten a bad deal. Even though it is noted that they're going after Sony too, if they really think people in the UK have paid too much because of these practices, they'd need to go after a lot more than just Valve and Sony. If this is as much of a problem as they pose, then every major digital distribution platform has this problem.

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Quoting: PenglingJust throwing this out there, but have you tried a different HDMI cable? I know that the Switch is super-picky about those, and it wouldn't especially surprise me if the Steam Deck also is.

I didn't know this, I have tried a few different ones but not with the intent of fixing the problem, I just happen to use different hubs and cables with my Steam Deck through general usage. But I'll keep that in mind, maybe that's why the Switch is so picky. Although I thought the Switch one was actually supplied by Nintendo, but it's been many years and I may be remembering wrong :grin:

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