Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve is about to win the console generation

xeiaso.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 556 posts

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#421

Post by Hikikomori »

LexiMax wrote: post #415
aaomidi wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re going to have to figure out a better way of dealing with cheaters. You could be playing against an AI model specifically trained on that game. No anti cheat is going to detect that.

I find it much more likely that Valve enables Secure Boot on their Steam hardware. I imagine that if this happens, it will be followed by popular Linux distros finally becoming serious about their Secure Boot implementations, instead of simply shimming it or seen as a rarely-used feature reserved for enterprise distros like RHEL. Some of us actually think that having some sort of validation that our OS hasn't been ta…

Or rebooting to a secure mode where you can only run the game and maybe discord.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#422

Post by Snowfield9571 »

I think this article makes one assumption that isn't correct. "This means that even though Valve will be selling this hardware at a loss..." From the reviews I have read, Valve is not planning on doing this. They are not doing an Xbox type of deal where games are overpriced and console is cheap. If I am not mistaken, I got this information from the LTT review where they talked with Valve about this directly.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#423

Post by layla5alive »

wmeredith wrote: post #366
AlexandrB wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only possible due to how the console space has changed over the last 10 years. The killer app for console over PC used to be simplicity - you pop in the disc/cartridge and you just go. This is rarely true anymore. Even Switch 2 games often require waiting to download a bunch of stuff before you can play. Meanwhile the PC experience has generally gotten simpler and most games "just work", in part thanks to Ste…

Thank you for calling this out. As a long time console gamer, I hadn't noticed this creeping bloat until I started playing games with my young children. My son begged for a new Madden game after playing it at his friend's house. When we got the game, it probably took us an hour of fucking around with downloads and accounts. Off the top of my head, I had to set up a parents EA account and kids account, set permissions…

This is so very sad and so very ripe for disruption.

So many of the top players in our modern late stage capitalism economy fit this mold of having a terrible user experience with a large unsatisfied user base. Usually it's not even a monopoly, but all the top players are roughly equally awful to their users.

I'm tempted to start some companies to just do the thing in a way that doesn't suck for the actual paying customers. I think just doing a good/competent/user-needs-centric job at the same basic product would be enough to disrupt the market in many cases.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#424

Post by redwall_hp »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #256
nodja wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All they have to do is market the fact you don't have to pay for online. PS5 + 3 years of PS Plus = $740 Steam Machine = $700 Add/remove more years of PS Plus if the SM turns out to be more/less expensive. If you add the fact that games on PC are usually cheaper and have sales more often then it's a no brainer, but that won't convince the FIFA and COD players.

>All they have to do is market the fact you don't have to pay for online. All Sony and MS have to do it market that it can't play GTA6 at launch.

Or Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Roblox, Marvel Rivals or any other popular live service game. Which are the games most people care about now.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#426

Post by squigz »

tianreyma wrote: post #391
acdbddh wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a console that is brother-proof. He should not be able to break it by just pressing buttons

My nephew changed the DNS settings on his PS5, some things stopped working, and took me quite a while to figure out what he had done.

Lock it down some more. Why would a user need to change their DNS ever anyway?

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#427

Post by spooky_deep »

theshrike79 wrote: post #227
pjmlp wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some PS were open (still have my PS2Linux) and XBoxes have dev mode, even if it is stuck on UWP, and there was XNA as well. Turns out most open consoles are full of either crapware or emulators, which is the reason Sony and Microsoft eventually gave up on some openess.

Random trivia: The PS2 Linux was purely for tax evasion. EU had a higher tax rate for "gaming computers" than "generic computers" so Sony slapped Linux on the console to get better profits.

You mean PS3 Linux?

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#428

Post by spooky_deep »

testdelacc1 wrote: post #189
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #46

Valve certainly won't win it, but they're bringing the heat where it wasn't before. SteamOS is the important part here - if it is proven to be a good console experience (which the deck has basically proven already) then licensing of the OS to other manufacturers will put a lot of pressure on integrated h/w s/w manufacturers. Unlike the handheld format, the tvbox console is fairly easy to manufacture and is tolerant o…

Current OS split of Steam users - 94.84% windows, 2.11% mac, 3.05% Linux. Valve has fought tooth and nail for a decade to make that 3.05% a reality. Linux means they control their own destiny, instead of being at the mercy of Microsoft. Valve has their eyes on this prize and they’re willing to play the long game. Everyone’s going to talk about “winning” the console generation, but winning could mean an increase of Li…

I’d bet that most PC Windows gamers care a lot more about Steam than they do about Windows. If Microsoft did anything drastic - like blocking Steam like Apple do on iOS - it would hurt Windows severely.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#429

Post by hamdingers »

wnevets wrote: post #419
hamdingers wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An "entry level" computer which could mean anything. The first thing I did after the announcement was put together a micro atx PC with similar specs on PCPartPicker and came up with $800, so I consider that the ceiling. Assuming they can bring costs down at scale and subsidize a bit, I don't think undercutting the PS5 pro is unreasonable.

> An "entry level" computer which could mean anything. Perhaps but I don't feel like Valve going out of their way to specifically say that the steam machine will not be priced like a console leaves a ton of room for interpretation. With the current state of the industry & tariffs I would be shocked if its under $1000 USD.

A similar spec laptop from ASUS with a 7600S is $988 on Amazon right now, and it comes with a screen, keyboard, mouse, battery, and Windows license.

I'd be shocked if Valve is so out of touch they would kill this thing with an unwarranted price tag, but I guess we'll see.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#430

Post by rangestransform »

cestith wrote: post #414
aaomidi wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re going to have to figure out a better way of dealing with cheaters. You could be playing against an AI model specifically trained on that game. No anti cheat is going to detect that.

A few anti-cheat systems rather than inspecting the local machine look for things like impossibly fast target acquisition in FPS games, or the server noticing when a shot is taken on an opponent who’s supposed to be totally obscured. Those aren’t perfect, but they don’t require kernel-level anticheat.

Cheating detection server side is expensive and probabilistic at best, kernel level anti cheat is a purely financial decision
Post reply on HN