Don’t think they’ll go away soon, but building essentially a PC and making it intentionally incompatible with other PCs has been a very anti consumer (and also kinda anti 3rd party developers) practice for a long time.
Though I do think everyone but Nintendo is probably actually better off also selling their “exclusives” on PC, which Sony seems to be slowly getting around to, and I could see a future where Xbox and PlayStation become branded quick start gaming PCs in a more practical way. Nintendo not ever, probably.
Not the Switch, which is the closest form-factor. Though I suppose you can expand the Switch with a microSD card.
Really, only PS5 lets you install an m.2 SSD, as Xbox has those proprietary expansion cards. Even PS5 requires one with a heat sink (I think), meaning a bit of research is required to upgrade the storage on any modern console. You can’t just buy any random m.2 nvme drive and pop it in.
The Steam Deck really is a surprisingly console-like experience, especially if you’re comparing it to a Switch.
Yeah, but how many consoles even let you try to install a 3rd-party store? Zero.
If you’re doing un-console extras like Epic Store or emulation or streaming from another company’s machine (e.g. using your deck as a PS portal, which works really well) then yeah, it’s fiddly, but not more fiddly than hacking a console to install emulators or custom firmware.
If you just use the machine out of the box, and stay in the Steam ecosystem, it’s almost as simple as a console experience. It even comes signed into your Steam account for you! I’d argue for that reason, setup is even easier than modern consoles.
None I agree, but what does that have to do with the comparison of different experiences on a PC compared to a console, as in the context of what I said in the post?
When you buy a console you’re buying into their product and the products available on it. When you buy a PC you have multiple options to play games, including front ends, operating systems and configuration. Some people like to have options, some people just want to play a game. I like a bit of both!
I agree the SteamDeck is the closest PC to console experience, but it does have differences from user to user which is something consoles rarely do (maybe more now than they did before).
I think in the context of the episode’s discussion of why consoles will still exist, it’s disingenuous to say Steam Deck is too complicated to use because installing Epic Store is difficult. The users who would just buy a console would stay in the Steam ecosystem and never see that.
I do think one of the major things that needs to happen is a default setting where only “Great on Steam Deck” games are shown in the store, to prevent users buying incompatible games. But at least Steam has its awesome refund policy, so unlike Frank’s experience with Link’s Awakening, if you buy a game and it doesn’t run well, you can just get your money back.
There is: Great on Deck That only shows games verified for full compatability. I usually only buy games there because I don’t want to have to go through the hassles of setting them up. Some older titles I have are not fully verified and yes I check protondb.com for certain games and help setting them up as I don’t know how to do it.
I think one factor is when you buy a SteamDeck you have to know what you’re going in for. I’m not saying it’s that complicated for someone who wants to just play a game, but it can be for those who want to do more. It’s not a console, even when it looks like one, and while it can act like one it isn’t. And some people don’t want to go into setting up things, they just want to play. It’s why I think there will be for the foreseeable future a market for consoles as not everyone has time or energy to configure a game or machine. The biggest audience for say Animal Crossing is probably not someone who wants to configure how the game runs, they want to enjoy their game.
Gaming is a pretty big market. There’s enough space for those who want to pick up and play, and those who want to pick up, configure and mess around and tweak and then play. Most people who have bought a Switch probably wouldn’t want to mess around with a SteamDeck as they are happy with what they have and what they can do with it.
I love the steam deck but I gotta say the docked experience really sucks. It’s always such a mess to get it to recognize the right monitor and the right resolution. The Switch is so much more convenient in that aspect.
I’m mostly joking but the idea that I would have to learn anything about Linux to play video games is one of the biggest disincentives I’ve ever seen for owning a video game system. Like this console comes with free homework
You don’t have to. As I explained in my post, which was longer than the quote you mentioned:
If you want to play games on a SteamDeck you can without ever going into the steamdeckos. If you want a nice customised configuration to run emulators that doesn’t come out of the box then you have do a bit of work for it.
i just got to the part where Frank describes a fantasy world where Sony came up with a wacky new physical music format in the height of the CD boom oh wait they actually did that and it was great
Not for me no. A hacked console allows you to play a variety of software made specifically for that console - if that’s homebrew or a different front-end you’re still limited by what it can do because you’re buying something which has a specific purpose. I don’t feel I’ve hacked my SteamDeck at all because it has the options to do what I want to do with it ready out of the box without having to do anything out of the ordinary.
All I did was create a mapped path on my micro sd card so that for certain folders, they’re reading directly from the external SSD and the software, Emudeck in this case can only runs files from a single location, could find additional files if I plugged it it. It’s a single line of text which needs a few minutes of navigating to know what folder you want and where you want it to read from:
If the SteamDeck was as locked as say a Switch I doubt I’d have bought one. Then again if it was like that I doubt many people would have. One big thing selling it was if people wanted to play around with it they could. I’m writing this very post on my SteamDeck in desktop mode and I use it as my primary non-work compter and have done for about a year. But I knew I could when I bought the thing.
Totally agree! You could never go into desktop mode and you have a very powerful games console that you, if you check they’re verified games, play just like a console.
I don’t think when you’re outside of it, it feels like a hacked console. Just feels like a PC to me.
It was also great that not only did she do an awesome job improvising a role, but it also showcased gaming experience/knowledge she has that the other hosts lack
Well, @Tom and @Death_Strandicoot laid out everything perfectly in regards to the Steam Deck.
Not much else to add other than I think it stands out to so many of us precisely because consoles have become so dull. Consoles will definitely continue to exist. I just think with the Deck, Valve has managed to merge the convenience consoles bring, along with the unique experience & personality consoles used to bring, while also offering an extra option to go full PC/tinkerer if you want.
On another note, @adashtra definitely provided some great material in this ep. Improv zone was hilarious (especially on the video version, thanks @esper!), and I had a good lol when Ash said “Switch Boy Advance or some shit”
I like that Frank burned a credit for it. I don’t share his lack of interest in consoles, but yes, we’ve basically been buying incremental improvements within a walled ecosystem for the past 15 years. At this point, I know that I’m basically getting a small upgrade or refresh, not a transformative bit of technology. It’s more like getting a new radio or TV to replace an old one.
I enjoyed hearing Brandon talk about Congo. A PC and Saturn console exclusive ! Not a great game - but I like that it exists. Did anyone ever play the Congo pinball game from Williams? Like Johnny Mnemonic (also 1995) - it’s a fantasticly designed pinball machine for a terribly reviewed / forgotten movie.
