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Latest Comments by Mal
Ashes of the Singularity developer thinks Vulkan will make Linux gaming viable
12 March 2016 at 2:49 am UTC

Quoting: KimyrielleNot sure why game devs would want to support two rendering paths when one of the already is supporting every single platform they could possibly want to support in the long run

Cough...

UWP...

cough cough...

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
8 March 2016 at 4:08 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Mal
Quoting: wvstolzingSo what does this imply for the hardware side of the xbox business? Are they discontinuing it? Won't people riot because they're forced to become 'PC gamers'? Wouldn't that entail total Sony dominance in the 'console space'?

Consoles are dead friend. This is their last iteration.

Microsoft knows it and Sony probably suspects it.

And Nintendo is laughing at you.

http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/


Here, do yourself a BIG favor.

Sort by PC games first. http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=PC&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

- Find Half-Life on that list.

- Add the Steam sales of Half-Life on Steam. http://steamspy.com/app/70

9.8 million copies of Half-Life (or even 11.8 million of Half-Life 2) isn't even--(wait for it)--HALF of what Wii Sports did, or Super Mario Bros. did ... in 1985!!!

If you think companies like this are going to lay down and die, just because you and your little slice of Linux said so, I can only offer this:

Pokémon GO

Whatever you feel about this, take comfort in this one fact. If you get this game on Android, you can say you supported it on Linux. ;)

So according to your number PS2 is the future of consoles and developer will target it. GG. Your number crunching skills sold me.

Back to serious stuff I never said a thing about linux (or SteamOs) killing consoles. Windows 10 will.

Win10 "xbox edition" is already everything that SteamOs craves to be and when the current generation will be old (in 1 or maximum 2 years) M$ has all the interest to break the "generation model" to transition to more flexible hardware model.

A game on xbox one today is game you take with you in all future xboxes (+ PCs) for the foreseeable future. Under this aspect it has all the advantages of a linux game in the steam library in the M$ world.

So M$ can really settle to whatever model it wants: from making "win10 xbox edition" free to download for everybody so they can build xbox machines, to let OEMs license it and eat each other for the low hardware margins to just release a sanctioned and upgraded xbox one model each year (like the iphone do).

Portability (or retrocompatibility as they call it) is a huge value for console gamers. That's why consoles delay the next generation for as long as possible. M$ set the course to break this limitation in their ecosystem. Yeah: Sony won the xboxone/ps4 battle. But if doesn't do something quickly it will lose the war because when this console generation dies, traditional consoles will die with it.

Linux usage on Steam is better than people think
5 March 2016 at 3:10 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: toorDo you think microsoft is getting major video game medias to give a bad image of steamOS ? :þ

? Ofc they do.

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
5 March 2016 at 2:41 pm UTC

Quoting: wvstolzingSo what does this imply for the hardware side of the xbox business? Are they discontinuing it? Won't people riot because they're forced to become 'PC gamers'? Wouldn't that entail total Sony dominance in the 'console space'?

Consoles are dead friend. This is their last iteration.

Microsoft knows it and Sony probably suspects it.

Why do you think they brought win 10 on xbox one? In a couple of years, when their hardware will be to crappy for AAA titles, Microsoft will do what Valve is doing now: windows machines. Gaming PC with console form factor to put under your tv in your living room.

That is the "next generation".

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
4 March 2016 at 6:09 pm UTC

Quoting: HomepcgamerMaybe Sweeney explains better the situation...

He does indeed:

QuotePC UWP can, should, must, and will die as a result of industry backlash,
Tim Sweeney :D

Pew. this happened sooner than I expected.

All right Blizzard, RIOT and EA. Someone just said clearly what everybody is thinking. You cannot just pretend that nothing happened. Microsoft just set its table to eat your cakes.

Is time to phone Gaben, throw down the money for some linux devs, join the SteamOs consortium and re-brand it as "GamingOs" or whatever you want. And start to port your stuff on the penguin ofc.

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
3 March 2016 at 9:42 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: NyapMake hl3 a steam-linux exclusive. Boom, problem solved
I got a couple of digs for (jokingly) saying that earlier in the topic.
People seem to take it waaay too seriously.

Well... arguably make hl3 linux only is not make it an exclusive. Since the platform is open and free it doesn't really cut out anybody... both technically and economically.

Good luck explain it to the guys still connected to the Matrix though. ^_^

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
3 March 2016 at 11:38 am UTC Likes: 1

Oh God. You gotta read this.

My already low respect for consoletards got even lower. :O

Anyway, a Pearl among this moronic nonsense galore:

QuoteI've said it over and over, we're focused on the best place to play for gamers, not about creating walls.
Phil Spencer

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
2 March 2016 at 7:37 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: MaelraneActually that is the point. You can't start a Steamworks game without Steam. So saying that it's not lock-in, when you can only access it from inside the steam-client is kind of bullshit, don't you think?

Of course you can make it optional, but if you use Steamworks, the client has to be present, up and running ;)

Wut? The whole point of Steamworks is to allow you to leverage the features that are built in the steam client. That's like arguing that buying an orange juice bottle locks you in consuming orange juice. If you don't want it you don't buy it. If you want something different you buy something different or make it yourself.

Quoting: MaelraneReally, you can defend Steam all you want. It was and is DRM.

Steam is not DRM. Steam has DRM. Among many other things. Composition over inheritance.

And the fact that it offers DRM is a very good thing. Before DRM came in PC gaming was on the brink of extinction. Piracy swallowed it completely. DRM ressed it but then, thanks to crappy "money over quality" companies like Ubisoft, PC gaming became a miserable experience because of the deadly combo "always on line requirement" + "always down DRM server".

Software, including games, is not religion. It's not about absolutes but it's about improving the quality of life of people. If it doesn't make your life better it's bad software. It's just that.

Steam is good because it improves the quality of life of gamers. In fact one has only advantages in having a game in the Steam library. Including a well made DRM: they don't call this time "the golden age of gaming" for nothing. The only thing piracy ever brought was the "dark age of the consoles".

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
2 March 2016 at 5:20 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: s8as8a
QuoteValve is making games exclusive to their "platform", which is Steam, the same way Microsoft is making games exclusive to their Xbox/Windows store
If you're referring to the Source 2 engine, to my knowledge, Valve is not saying that games made using that engine cannot be sold outside of Steam; Valve is simply saying that, the Source 2 engine games must be sold in either Steam alone or Steam in addition to any other store.
I think it was about Steamworks. Steam isn't new to the lock-in game. Developers which use Steamworks and make it mandatory can't distribute their games outside of Steam. It's a nasty tactics to use developer tools for lock-in.
Steamworks is an optional feature. It's up to the developer whether or not they want to use it, so it's hard to argue that as a case of vendor lock in.

Optional or not that's not the point. It's just not a lock in.

Microsoft's latest tactics show Gabe Newell of Valve was right to worry
2 March 2016 at 4:25 pm UTC Likes: 6

Hei hei! What is all this hate for Steam?

Closed source games? Seriously? You think this is Steam fault? Even assuming open source is good and closed source is evil (which is not, they are two different model that make sense for different domains... and gaming is hardly an open source friendly domain), it's a developer choice to take one or the other route.

DRM? Are you trolling? Steam actually solved the whole DRM problem by actually making the damn thing sensible and working as intended. No more always on requirement, no more crappy servers to prevent you play your game on day one (and day X,Y,Z too I'd say). Yes you have to be on line once. But we're talking about an online market place. If Internet is your problem you don't buy on an online store. All right, true. You're not free to pirate a steam game. Is this your concern?

Exclusives? What are we talking about? Steam is the only vendor who actually encourage developers to sell their games on all the platforms and all the markets they want. There are no Steam exclusives and there will never be. Unless Gaben sells the company or make it public that is. This is their philosophy and it's a damn good philosophy. Exclusives are the worst possible thing for consumers, be they halo junkies or game of thrones fanatics. If we had better governments (or smarter voters) this practice would be forbidden by law. But it's not so to have a big player like Steam rejecting them as a core value is actually a wonderful thing.

Then hei! I'm not saying Steam has to become the only marketplace. Monopoly is never good and I'm not a Steam fanboy myself. I'm an opportunist and I actually buy games where they are cheaper, not necessarily on Steam. What I'm saying is that from a ideological point of view there is no moral superiority between markets like Steam and GOG. Being without DRM is not "good". Bad is ruining a game by making it unplayable with crappy DRM.
But then between Steam and GOG, Steam actually adds a lot of value to games with the Valve infrastructure (patching client, friends, community forums, stream, etc). So it re-invests the money you pay to make your games even better (and more importantly, convenient to port on linux). A game in your steam library is actually a better game. Can you say the same of GOG?