Re: Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: Arelor to Nightfox on Wed Nov 26 2025 08:28 am

Valve has invested a huge amount of resources in order to not become dependant on Microsoft.

Think about it. Steam has a 70% market share when it comes to PC games, but most of their games used to run only on Windows. This means Steam had a HUGE business going, but it all depended on a third party (Microsoft) for their customers to run their licensed games.

If Microsoft were to play a Google/Apple style scheme and make it so only official app stores were supported by their Operating Systems, Steam would be in trouble. If Microsoft released their own games store and actively tried to hinder third party stores, Steam would be in trouble. The people at Valve is smart and they know this. The best way to survive long term is to ensure they don't depend on Microsoft playing ball forever, therefore they NEED their product to run on different Operating Systems just in case.

That all makes sense, and I wouldn't argue against any of that. Even though Steam supports other operating systems, they're mainly an app store. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of games they sell aren't made by them (though I know Steam/Valve does make games), and many PC game makers target Windows. But having the Steam store on other operating systems definitely helps motivate game makers to support other operating systems. I currently dual-boot my main PC between Windows and Linux, and I've thought of fully using Linux; one of the main things keeping me using Windows is the games. But there are some other programs I use that don't have a Linux version yet too.

Nightfox
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They have been buying studios in spades for a while now in order to fuel their library and they are already experimenting by licensing the Xbox brand to third party hardware manufacturers. It is obvious they are extremely serious about their strategical change of pace.

Our they trying to take the same approach to Windows? Allow companies to build the hardware then use their software?

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Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: niter3 to Arelor on Fri Nov 28 2025 06:20 am

Our they trying to take the same approach to Windows? Allow companies to build the hardware then use their software?

They recently gave a license to a hardware manufacturer to produce a "Xbox" handheld. Think of a Nintendo Switch, but in Xbox version.

You look under its hood and it is a Steam Deck-like computer running Windows and with Xbox software on it. I think that is what Microsoft is trying to pull out: Third party hardware manufacturers producing Xbox licensed hardware which runs the Xbox store, so they can sell games on them.

I could work if lots of people had massive Xbox libraries, which made them locked into the MS ecosystem, but as far as I am aware Xbox missed the train on the previous generation so the big mass of Xbox users necessary to move the idea forward is not there. Last time somebody tried something similar was with the 3DO and it crashed very badly.


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Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: niter3 to Arelor on Fri Nov 28 2025 06:20 am

Our they trying to take the same approach to Windows? Allow companies to build the hardware then use their software?

I think their ultimate move is to ditch the whole hardware department and become a videogame publisher, a bit like Sega did in the past, except they intend their brand to remain meaningful.

So far it seems they are testing the waters, and if it works for them they will stop making consoles and license the XBOX brands to hardware manufacturers. Still it does not look like it will be very important for their strategy. What they really want is for people to sign up tp Game Pass in spades and the way to accomplish it is by purchasing studios so most relevant games become expensive but available on Game Pass for cheap.


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Hello everybody!

Has anybody seen the upcoming products from Valve? I only run Steam on my PC on Windows. Does anybody have Steam Deck, how does it perform?
I think I would be buying the Steam Machine when it's released.

Javier


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Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: Javier Sturman to All on Thu Nov 20 2025 03:25 pm

Has anybody seen the upcoming products from Valve? I only run Steam on my PC on Windows. Does anybody have Steam Deck, how does it perform? I think I would be buying the Steam Machine when it's released.

I don't have a Steam Deck, but I do use Steam. I use it mainly in Windows, but a couple years ago, I installed Steam in Linux, and I've since installed a couple Linux-native versions of games from Steam: X-Plane 11 (and 12, I believe) and Overload (a 2018 successor to Descent/Descent 2). I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of those games in Linux (though of course, those games aren't developed by Steam/Valve themselves).

Nightfox
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BY: Javier Sturman (21:3/100.2)

|11JS|09> |07
|11JS|09> |10 Hello everybody!|07
|11JS|09> |07
|11JS|09> |10Has anybody seen the upcoming products from Valve? I only run Steam on|07
|11JS|09> |10my PC on Windows. Does anybody have Steam Deck, how does it perform?|07
|11JS|09> |10I think I would be buying the Steam Machine when it's released.|07 |11JS|09> |07
I dont think the steam machine will be that affordable, but if i didnt own so many electrical devices such as switch 2, macbook air, ipad and a windows laptop, i would have been open to a steamdeck.

--- WWIV 5.9.03748[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Has anybody seen the upcoming products from Valve? I only run Steam on
my PC on Windows. Does anybody have Steam Deck, how does it perform?
I think I would be buying the Steam Machine when it's released.

The Steam Deck ain't perfect, but if you want mine, you'll have to pry it
from my cold, dead hands. It's perfect for certain types of games, and it's
my favorite emulation machine ever.

So many non-linux games "just work" - no muss, no fuss. Brilliant.

|03--|11[|05esc|13!|05dEMONIC|11]|03--|07

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I don't have a Steam Deck, but I do use Steam. I use it mainly in Windows, but a couple years ago, I installed Steam in Linux, and I've since installed a couple Linux-native versions of games from Steam: X-Plane 11 (and 12, I believe) and Overload (a 2018 successor to Descent/Descent 2). I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of those games in Linux (though of course, those games aren't developed by Steam/Valve themselves).

Same on Mac. Steam/Valve did a lot of good job with wine backed launchers to launch windows only games on other major OSes. Not even speaking that more companies are actually releasing multiplatform these days.

Windows is not that critical for PC gaming anymore.

-h1

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Re: Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: hollowone to Nightfox on Fri Nov 21 2025 01:50 pm

Same on Mac. Steam/Valve did a lot of good job with wine backed launchers to launch windows only games on other major OSes. Not even speaking that more companies are actually releasing multiplatform these days.

That's cool. I've noticed that myself - A couple of the games I've played in the last several years have had multi-platform releases. And one of the games I discovered recently (Overload) was released in 2018, and it was released for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

Windows is not that critical for PC gaming anymore.

Why is that? Is it because there are more Mac and Linux users these days? I thought Windows was still important for PC gaming, as a lot of game developers still seem to at least make a Windows release by default.

I thought I'd heard that a lot of people these days don't have a PC of any kind anymore though (which seems odd to me), so I'd think consoles might be a significant factor these days (as they always were).

Nightfox
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Re: Re: Latest Valve's announcement
By: hollowone to Arelor on Thu Nov 27 2025 12:04 am

would be in trouble. If Microsoft released their own games store and
actively tried to hinder third party stores, Steam would be in trouble.

They may try... to buy Steam.. that would be better for them instead of competing. This is such fucked up app store platform if I think about it

That would be interesting.. Although Microsoft already owns a lot of stuff - They bought GitHub not too long ago, for instance. I'm not sure how I'd feel about Microsoft owning Steam; I'm not fond of monopolies, and when a company starts buying lots of other companies & projects, they start appearing more like a monopoly. Microsoft has already been in trouble once in the late 90s for monopolistic practices. However, if there's ever an issue with software approval for Windows, then I suppose Microsoft buying Steam could be okay.

I don't really like the idea of an OS vendor approving software for their OS though.. I think one thing that makes an OS good is the availability of software, and having a system where it's easy to release software for an OS means there will be a lot of software for people to use.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.31-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

They have been buying studios in spades for a while now in order to fuel their library and they are already experimenting by licensing the Xbox brand to third party hardware manufacturers. It is obvious they are extremely serious about their strategical change of pace.

Our they trying to take the same approach to Windows? Allow companies to build the hardware then use their software?

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