Valve has just released a rather fancy Steam Deck Booklet to introduce Valve, Steam and the Steam Deck to the new markets across Asia they're about to expand into and it gives some fun details.
A lot of it goes over all the stuff those of us across western markets already know, including where Valve has servers located, info on their previous hardware and how things like the Steam Link and Steam Controller enabled the Steam Deck to actually be a thing.
It also confirmed, again, that SteamOS will be getting a generic installer so that anyone will be able to install the latest SteamOS available from the Steam Deck on their PC. Along with that, hardware vendors will also be able to use it so we'll eventually see devices from others with some already looking into it like GPD and OneXPlayer.
What about a Steam Deck 2 then? Well, it doesn't get much more firm than "In the future, Valve will follow up on this
product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market." which was taken from the last info page:
The page mentions they want it to be "even more open" than the first generation too. I'm not sure how they plan to improve on that, since it's already one of the most open mainstream gaming devices around but I'm keen to see what they have planned.
What do you think about the future of the Steam Deck and SteamOS?
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Well, I'm doing my part.
Quoting: soulsourceMultiplayer on a sim card? Yikes it'd be lag city on the UK networks, where I am we have flaky 4G that often drops down to 3G or even 2GQuoting: BlackBloodRumI don't think Steam Deck 2 is any time soon, remember we're working on Valve Time hereThat doesn't help with multiplayer or single-player-always-online-because-we-hate-our-customers games.
Quoting: tpauMore Open?
Maybe the Steam Launcher will become partially opensource so people can integrate other platforms and it still looks like it was done by valve by default?
For Deck2 it would be nice if we get a sim card slot and 5g compatibility. So you can truly play on the road without having to go through the hassle of creating a wifi hotspot with your cellphone.
That's one method of doing it. The other method (which I'd prefer, since a sim card would mean extra expenses) is to simply make the device work while offline properly.
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As for those other games.. yeah just don't buy those or if you do patch them or complain to the developers
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Sadly that's an artefact of gamers being happy and accepting of always-online DRM saying "it's for the best".
Quoting: BlackBloodRumIf it were only DRM one could just download a crack... Publishers got more creative than that in recent years, and started to force asynchronous multiplayer gameplay elements into single-player games...Quoting: soulsourceMultiplayer on a sim card? Yikes it'd be lag city on the UK networks, where I am we have flaky 4G that often drops down to 3G or even 2GQuoting: BlackBloodRumI don't think Steam Deck 2 is any time soon, remember we're working on Valve Time hereThat doesn't help with multiplayer or single-player-always-online-because-we-hate-our-customers games.
Quoting: tpauMore Open?
Maybe the Steam Launcher will become partially opensource so people can integrate other platforms and it still looks like it was done by valve by default?
For Deck2 it would be nice if we get a sim card slot and 5g compatibility. So you can truly play on the road without having to go through the hassle of creating a wifi hotspot with your cellphone.
That's one method of doing it. The other method (which I'd prefer, since a sim card would mean extra expenses) is to simply make the device work while offline properly.
As for those other games.. yeah just don't buy those or if you do patch them or complain to the developers
Sadly that's an artefact of gamers being happy and accepting of always-online DRM saying "it's for the best".
Quoting: soulsourceQuoting: BlackBloodRumI don't think Steam Deck 2 is any time soon, remember we're working on Valve Time hereThat doesn't help with multiplayer or single-player-always-online-because-we-hate-our-customers games.
Quoting: tpauMore Open?
Maybe the Steam Launcher will become partially opensource so people can integrate other platforms and it still looks like it was done by valve by default?
For Deck2 it would be nice if we get a sim card slot and 5g compatibility. So you can truly play on the road without having to go through the hassle of creating a wifi hotspot with your cellphone.
That's one method of doing it. The other method (which I'd prefer, since a sim card would mean extra expenses) is to simply make the device work while offline properly.
That's not Valve's problem though. If people don't want studios to go that route then they shouldn't buy their games.
There is a nice documentary, done by Mystic, on YT on the history of PS4 and the competition from the XBox one. M$ tried to pull a stunt like that back then. Players needed to login to keep their games playable and physical games were to be bound to the user's account.
The crowd said no and M$ reversed this decision.
A ton of patches after the release of Steam Deck suggests that it had to be postponed for at least another six months.
I am waiting for Valve to release SteamOS for PC - this is the next important step that will push Linux to popularity.
Quoting: soulsourceIf it were only DRM one could just download a crack... Publishers got more creative than that in recent years, and started to force asynchronous multiplayer gameplay elements into single-player games...
Yeah.. I tend to avoid buying those ones. That's still DRM in my book as it affects your rights on how you use the product. And those games do eventually get "unofficially patched"
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For example, I own all the Assassin's Creed games w/ all their DLC on Steam and I quickly got sick of UPlay forcing me to enter my password every time I press "play" in steam (It's annoying because it means opening my password manager every single time, and ubisoft confirmed it was intentional[1]).
I patched every single one of those games, even the ones with "multiplayer gameplay elements". So unlike other new owners of AC2's DLC[2], I was able to activate and use my DLC, other users can't do that legally because Ubisoft already disabled DLC activation for that game, so you're paying for a single player DLC you can't use
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The other more "legal" option is to try to find the same game on GOG, often those don't require the DRM. For example mafia definitive edition:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/mafia_definitive_edition
You'll see the notice below:
QuoteThe DRM-Free version of Mafia: Definitive Edition does not support signing up for a 2K account, therefore 2K account bonus content and bonus content acquired for owning other Mafia titles on GOG are not available.
Although a few games slipped through GOG's anti-drm net sadly and they seem to be getting a little sloppy on what they call "DRM".
Anyway, I'm not a fan of DRM and I've opposed it for many years, I've been a FOSS supporter for many years so it's difficult for me to accept having my rights restricted and I will fight it.
Anyway, I can't get too much into this topic because of the rules though, and I don't want to accidentally start an argument again so I'll leave it at this
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[1] https://discussions.ubisoft.com/post/687966
[2] This one's actually an easy one, just a save file and a no-uplay patch
Quoting: BlackBloodRumMultiplayer on a sim card? Yikes it'd be lag city on the UK networks, where I am we have flaky 4G that often drops down to 3G or even 2G
The Deck could also be used to have a larger display for browsing the web on the go where at the moment people take a tablet with them.
I don't think we can defeat this pressure to be online for a singleplayer game so it would benefit compatibility if you could just plug in a sim card and be able to start more games.
Quoting: tpauI'm not against the device having a sim slot for those that want it. I just feel it should be optional (So you could use the device just the same, even if no sim is inserted.)Quoting: BlackBloodRumMultiplayer on a sim card? Yikes it'd be lag city on the UK networks, where I am we have flaky 4G that often drops down to 3G or even 2G
The Deck could also be used to have a larger display for browsing the web on the go where at the moment people take a tablet with them.
I don't think we can defeat this pressure to be online for a singleplayer game so it would benefit compatibility if you could just plug in a sim card and be able to start more games.
I'd be fine with the device having a sim slot that's optional to use
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Quoting: mphuZI am waiting for Valve to release SteamOS for PC - this is the next important step that will push Linux to popularity.
It'll be nice to have that, but it won't matter to anyone who's not already into Linux. There will be no reason to install that over Windows on a PC for everyone else.
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