I hate to say it, but if MS released a competitor, it will probably outsell the Deck 5:1 regardless of quality, if only because of the advertising reach. Your average non-gamer has never heard of Steam. Everyone and their grandmother know MS and would therefore be more willing to get one for their kid.
Comment on SteamOS massively beats Windows on the Legion Go S
ogeist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I hope Windows does try to challenge Steam. Competition is good, it should strongly drive PC game optimization.
otacon239@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Did you know that Steam’s monthly active user base dwarfs any single console out there? At this point, it’s almost as large as PlayStation and Xbox combined; definitely bigger than the combined install base for each of their current gen consoles. Steam is more mainstream than PlayStation at this point.
ogeist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The Steam Deck was the way of bringing SteamOS to the masses, now the HW developers will sell their devices in Walmart just by the Switch and the other consoles, it will be cheaper due to the 0 license cost (or, you know, pocketing the difference) with a big, ever expanding, catalog.
About the Switch 2, the hype is there definitely and it is a known brand, mainly sold to families and casual gamers. But even PlayStation and Xbox are not competing with Nintendo.
otacon239@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I agree with everything you said, but I still don’t think that will change the decision of someone on the fence. The Deck is the odd one out.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Deck and SteamOS and want it to succeed, and expect them to to a certain degree, but I just know the average consumer and they’ll just look at the SteamOS handhelds as a weird knockoff gaming computer.
We all know how special it is because we were the target market. But when all is said and done, it comes down to what people know.
If Valve was advertising like the big guys do, maybe, but with no ad support, not a chance.
aksdb@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would rather bet that most people have no clue what an operating system is and that the one they (unknowingly) use is made by Microsoft. On the other hand if they play games (on that PC), they will know Steam, because they actively had to install it and click it’s icon frequently.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Meanwhile in reality, Xbox as a console ain’t doing so great.
Your average non-gamer
Isn’t a target market. Gamers range into their 60s and onward now. If someone ‘isn’t a gamer’ chances are they’re aren’t even going to be.
demonsword@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
150 million Switch 2 sales
Nope, that’s Switch 1 sales, over its entire lifetime.
otacon239@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I fixed it. It was 15 million. But I think that point still stands. The Deck has been out for a few years now.
Jhex@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
when Windows “challenges” others, they don’t compete on merit… it’s easier to blackmail game developers by threatening to kick them out of Windows / Xbox platforms if they develop for Linux… this is how we ended up with “windows is the only os for gaming” back in the 90s
ogeist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes but that’s it right, they are not developing for Linux, Steam is doing it for the developer. There is nothing stopping Windows of saying sell exclusively through my Store, though I believe they have tried.
But I do understand were you are coming from Windows is definitely not the most ethical company and definitely they are not up for fair fight, what I’m trying to say is that I hope the game developers focus more in the mobile market and optimize the games more.
dustyData@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No, you see. Corporations have no rights. People have rights. Corporations can have legal protections, but not rights.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Do you have a source for that? As far as I know, Microsoft never gave much of a damn about making Linux versions of games. They did have an Xbox parity clause for games that came to other consoles, but that’s pretty different than what you’re saying.
Jhex@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I learnt most of the story from this book Renegades of the Empire
The story is summarized here: gist.github.com/kirkegaard/1055336
It’s all about how DirectX/Direct3D was launching and competing with OpenGL (the open standard).
In a nutshell, MS literally ported games for free to Windows (Doom95 being the flagship example) and/or subsidized the development of games for Direct3D so there would be no appetite for OpenGL.
This is equivalent to Amazon or Walmart selling their stuff at a loss until all competitors go bankrupt
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well, the truth of that is quite a bit different than how you put it, and it’s also more carrot than stick. There were efforts to make Linux versions of games after this adoption of DirectX, and they didn’t take; I have a Linux disc for Unreal Tournament 2004 that came in the same box as the Windows one. What Microsoft did surely sucked for everyone, but fortunately, we live in a world where their recent efforts to do similar things aren’t working. They didn’t manage to siphon PC gaming over the Windows Store, and Windows handhelds are demonstrably worse and sell worse than the Linux ones. Consoles’ walled gardens are slowly crumbling from natural market forces to the openness of PC, and that includes a PC where almost all of those games work on Linux.
Microsoft does not have a position of strength here right now, and they know it, so they instead pivoted to just being an enormous publisher with a subscription service that’s lucrative but has already plateaued.