I'm quite surprised by this announcement. I thought that it is standard NDA contract with AAA publishers - they always pay much less than Indie developers. It is the only reason why they still are on Steam (only one big publisher abandoned them - EA). All others, still are present on Steam, even they could bundle games with their own game stories (Ubisoft Uplay, but they are kind enough for Valve and they do not allow to play games bought via Steam without Steam client started). Even Microsoft is selling some of their not XboX/Metro exclusive games via Steam - it doesn't make sense without very big "NDA promotion".

Perhaps it is some kind of even bigger NDA promotion - Valve will take much less than usual from AAA publishers, but even if - why such information is announced publicly?

Perhaps it is "strike ahead" before some kind of "disaster"... Perhaps some very big publishers will soon abandon Steam (ZeniMax? Ubisoft? Take2?)... It could make some gamers very upset, so Valve gave such information that it is not their fault - publishers are too greedy...

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Quoting: ScooptaAll it means is the hypervisor can't draw to the screen only the guest can.

True. You are absolutely right. I didn't thought about headless hypervisor possibility.
Never the less - it is not good idea to prepare "locked-in" internal OS only to protect some silly old Atari games...

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Something along the lines of: if you plug in a bootable external USB drive our hypervisor will boot from it, otherwise it will boot the internal Atari OS.

LOL. If I interpret it correctly - hypervisor means that "other OS" will be started as VM in KVM/Xen hypervisor. It means no real GPU acceleration in VM. Even closed source solutions like VMware do not provide good GPU acceleration in VM - max. DirectX10/OpenGL. As today only GPU passthrough is the best GPU solution for VM, but... it require very expensive corporate edition of GPU (for example nVidia Quadro) or separate consumer GPU.

In my opinion - it doesn't make sense. Why?! Because "Atari OS" has to be protected?! Against who?! Crackers (if interested anyway in niche console) probably will crack their "lock-in" very easily.

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"Also, their artwork for it is absolutely lovely, wouldn't mind an expanded version of this as a background"

True, Valve published bigger version of these artworks, but in fact they are expanded only a little...
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/store/promo/autumn2018/wallpapers.zip [External Link]

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Very risky move. VR market is very expensive and... very unprofitable.

Companies that tried and maybe not clearly failed, but definitely they are not very profitable:
Oculus (before Facebook acquisition)
HTC (with Valve as R&D) - full package (Vive Pro + base stations + wireless adapter) is ridiculously expensive... Now they are going to mobile...
Facebook - going to mobile with Oculus Go
Microsoft Mixed Reality

I'm not sure only about Sony... Clearly PlayStation VR is "the winner" at this point, but probably Sony expected much more sales of VR headsets and games...

Half-Life VR? I want to be wrong, but it could be disaster comparable only to Diablo Immortal. It is not what Half-Life fans want! At least they informed us about it before official announcement, so perhaps expectations will be reduced.

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Quoting: KimyrielleI find it interesting that even in a world where Windows 10 tends to draw criticism even in mainstream user circles for taking away control from the user, forced updates that break something else every single time, spying on users at an unprecedented scale, and a myriad of other things, we STILL don't manage to match Windows growth.

You are talking about Windows PC "power users" (users that have much more IT knowledge than "average user"). It is minority itself. I have no idea how many of Windows Steam users are "power users" but I guess that less than 10%. Of course it is many millions users more than Linux have, but it doesn't change the fact that it is minority. Rest of them - probably do not care even what is the name and version of the system. Windows was when they bought laptop/PC. They are not IT enthusiasts - in the best case they are PC gaming enthusiasts. Many of them are reading gaming portals, probably many of them also have console. They do not care about open-source - they do not know even that something like this exists. If you start talking about it - they will say: "Booooring... Sorry, but I want play games. Any game. I do not want to wonder with questions like: will that new AAA game start in Linux out-of-the-box? Or maybe via Steam Proton? Or maybe via wine-staging beta? Will OriginStore/UplayStore work on Linux? IT politics/wars/etc. - I'm not interested. FBI/CIA/Microsoft could spy my Win10? So what? I'm already spied by them via Chrome, Android/iOS, Facebook/WhatsApp/Messenger and... Steam). In another words: I do not care."

So why at least Windows PC "power users" do not migrate (or migrate but not many of them)? Maybe because they are more "game enthusiasts". Migrate doesn't make sense - all games that could be played on Linux - could be also played on Windows (and much more titles plus with better performance). Windows is some sort supported by game developers. There are many problems, but if not developer - community almost always will find solution (like convert Max Payne sound files to be compatible with newer system than WinXP). Except Feral and other "big" porters - other Linux games many times are not supported even by developer. In fact many ports has been abandoned. It is even worse than no port at all - most of these games probably would be working OK via Steam Proton. Steam Proton itself is great, but supported by Valve only. That is the reason why game enthusiasts with proper knowledge are not migrating massively to Linux.

Situation could change only if someone "big" will start selling PC/consoles with Linux. With marketing and real support, not some sort of crap that Asus for example was selling in the past. When it will happen - game developers will consider to start real support of it (like it was with beginning of Steam Machines initiative).

Valve is probably too small to do it alone. But there is a hope. Valve is not a charity company. OK, probably these several open-source developers that Valve hired is not "very big investment", but anyway they would not do that if there was no "bigger plan". They know that Linux as today, even with Steam Proton, is not real alternative for Windows, so why bother? There need to be some plan of expansion... It has to be...

Anyway, some big changes are coming. For example Steam Chat already is much different than rest of Steam client. But it is "Valve time" so who knows how many years we need to wait for more...

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Quoting: mylkawhat is the problem with installing linux? its pretty simple
it takes time. win7 support ends and maybe some developers will use VULKAN for game they just started to program.

There is no problem at all - for "power users". "Average user" will not reinstall system. In fact most users do not care what is on his/her computer - they are using what was prepared by manufacturer.

Users that in 2020 still will be using Windows 7 probably will not be game developers target. Even so - probably they will stay with Windows 7 anyway.

The real change could be done only by "big company" that will start selling hardware with Linux. Example: Nintendo Switch it is rather new console. Even that there is already many AAA titles - old and new ones. Valve should cooperate with someone and do the same.

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Sorry to say that, but Valve surveys are not reliable. If they do not know how to count/interpret surveys - perhaps they should outsource it to someone more reliable like steamdb.info.

But some data are sure without surveys - Linux gaming market is very small (almost no AAA new native titles plus abandon Linux port by many Indie developers means that even this virtual 648000 monthly Linux users it is not worth native port).

Linux native games even with Steam Proton is simply not enough to convince "average Windows/Mac user" to learn how to install Linux on his/her computer. Without some "big company" involved (Dell Steam Machines 2?) - I do not think that situation will change...

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Quoting: RoadapathyI installed the latest and greatest. Now Steam Play runs Windows games in Linux better than they run in Windows. I know that seems crazy but I noticed it in No Man's Sky. The stary scene at the beginning use to stutter and now it doesn't. The game itself seems to run more smoothly.

True, No Man's Sky is working good, but in fact it is OpenGL game...

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About Marc video: yes, nice Linux native gaming advertisement. I know that in adverts everything need to be pretty, working great, big "native" numbers, etc.

But reality is more brutal. Easily could be prepared quite opposite video with very sad information: Linux native support very often it is illusion. Linux native ports often are abandoned (Ticket to Ride), with start issues (War Thunder) or even cannot be finished (even in Valve game: Half-Life Opposing Force - end map is not loading after kill main boss).

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