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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • The big question with that plan, though, is what’s in it for Valve/Epic? Valve has no incentive to let anyone else in on their cut, and Epic’s is so low already there wouldn’t be any room to let anyone else in on it with them.

    I suppose Epic could try to get a deal in place where EGS is installed as the default store on the Ally or Legion, but it’s not like anyone’s going to just stick with the default - first thing anyone will do is just install Steam, and everyone knows it. I don’t see a way for a deal like that to make sense for Epic to even bother with.






  • The OS makes the steam deck better than any other handheld

    Agreed, but with the addition of “for me” at the end there. What makes it better for you and me is going to be a drawback for someone who only plays, say, Destiny 2, Fortnite, or things that are on Game Pass Ultimate.

    Yeah, that theoretical person is going to have an absolute garbage time navigating the OS itself, but that’s what they have to put up with to be able to play the games they want on a handheld PC. They might very well find that trade-off worthwhile, and it’s not for us to tell them they’re wrong.



  • The main problem with any sort of discussion like this is that “better” is going to mean different things to different people.

    Is the one with longer battery life better?

    Is the one with more powerful hardware better?

    Is the one with trackpads better?

    Is the one that can play non-Steam games with less hassle better, even if its UX is overall clunkier?

    Is the one with a smoother UX better, even if you might not be able to play every single game you own on it?

    Deck is going to be better in some ways for some people, and the Ally (et al.) will be better in some ways for other people. At the end of the day, the entire market segment is better for all of us because competing devices exist. Trying to turn this into a zero-sum turf war is only going to be detrimental to everyone. (Not saying that that’s what you are doing, just speaking in general about what tends to happen when comparisons like this get brought up.)