it's likely to be running Windows
On Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:47:25 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
wrote:
On 3/12/2025 10:30 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
On Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:38:46 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
it's likely to be running Windows
Actually, according to what I read, it *will* be running 11. God help
them.
Probably some stripped down ultra crap 'home' version like are on the MS >>Surface tablets.
I mean, to be fair, even the XBox consoles can be said to be running
Windows. Stripped down for performance and modded to make it harder to
pirate games, but ultimately still Windows in the back-end.
But I suspect that Microsoft won't do anything quite so drastic with
its handheld... especially since it seems that they'll be having OEMs
build the thing rather than make it themselves. Especially if
streaming/cloud gaming is the primary intended use, which may be the
case since Microsoft has been making a lot of fuss about unifying
their various platforms.
On Thu, 13 Mar 2025 10:50:24 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:47:25 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>Oh god. You think it might be a "thin client" handheld? Hmm. I bet that
wrote:
On 3/12/2025 10:30 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
On Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:38:46 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
it's likely to be running Windows
Actually, according to what I read, it *will* be running 11. God help
them.
Probably some stripped down ultra crap 'home' version like are on the MS >>>Surface tablets.
I mean, to be fair, even the XBox consoles can be said to be running >>Windows. Stripped down for performance and modded to make it harder to >>pirate games, but ultimately still Windows in the back-end.
But I suspect that Microsoft won't do anything quite so drastic with
its handheld... especially since it seems that they'll be having OEMs
build the thing rather than make it themselves. Especially if >>streaming/cloud gaming is the primary intended use, which may be the
case since Microsoft has been making a lot of fuss about unifying
their various platforms.
will go over well!
But none of the competition is doing it, so it is "innovative," if you
forgot the 1990s.
I myself would be infuriated by this restriction; I put
more emphasis on eye-candy than framerate and not being able to up the
visual fidelity at the cost of a few (dozen) FPS probably would make
me avoid the game entirely.
So the first Microsoft Steamdecks are out*. Well, they're not actually >SteamDecks and, they're not really out (all we're getting is the first >official announcements and specs for the new devices) and,
technically, they're not even Microsoft devices.
In actuality, these machines are handheld gaming PCs with XBox
branding being made by third-party OEMS... but they sure as hell look
like a SteamDeck. Like Valve's own device (and its licensed clones),
the Asus ROG XBox Ally is features AMD processors/chipsets and has
button placement remarkably similar to Valve's machine. The higher-end
model (the XBox Ally X) comes with 24GB too, as opposed to the 16GB on >Valve's hand-held.
But basically it's just another fairly-standard hand-held PC with the
native XBox app featured front-and-center.
Me, if I were Valve, I'd be working hard to make sure the SteamDeck OS
was 100% compatible with the new XBox Ally on its release day. I mean,
c'mon, you know that's what most people are going to be putting Steam
on there anyway. ;-P
So the first Microsoft Steamdecks are out*. Well, they're not actually SteamDecks and, they're not really out (all we're getting is the first official announcements and specs for the new devices) and,
technically, they're not even Microsoft devices.
In actuality, these machines are handheld gaming PCs with XBox
branding being made by third-party OEMS... but they sure as hell look
like a SteamDeck. Like Valve's own device (and its licensed clones),
the Asus ROG XBox Ally is features AMD processors/chipsets and has
button placement remarkably similar to Valve's machine. The higher-end
model (the XBox Ally X) comes with 24GB too, as opposed to the 16GB on Valve's hand-held.
But basically it's just another fairly-standard hand-held PC with the
native XBox app featured front-and-center.
Me, if I were Valve, I'd be working hard to make sure the SteamDeck OS
was 100% compatible with the new XBox Ally on its release day. I mean,
c'mon, you know that's what most people are going to be putting Steam
on there anyway. ;-P
As for performance, that probably has as much to do with whether or
not the game is running on native code or through Proton as anything
else.
On Wed, 11 Jun 2025 09:46:04 +0100, JAB <[email protected]> wrote:
On 10/06/2025 16:57, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
So the first Microsoft Steamdecks are out*. Well, they're not actually
SteamDecks and, they're not really out (all we're getting is the first
official announcements and specs for the new devices) and,
technically, they're not even Microsoft devices.
In actuality, these machines are handheld gaming PCs with XBox
branding being made by third-party OEMS... but they sure as hell look
like a SteamDeck. Like Valve's own device (and its licensed clones),
the Asus ROG XBox Ally is features AMD processors/chipsets and has
button placement remarkably similar to Valve's machine. The higher-end
model (the XBox Ally X) comes with 24GB too, as opposed to the 16GB on
Valve's hand-held.
But basically it's just another fairly-standard hand-held PC with the
native XBox app featured front-and-center.
Me, if I were Valve, I'd be working hard to make sure the SteamDeck OS
was 100% compatible with the new XBox Ally on its release day. I mean,
c'mon, you know that's what most people are going to be putting Steam
on there anyway. ;-P
I have seen some reviews of whatever Windows handheld it was that can
now ship with Steam OS. The were a couple of interesting takeaways. >>Performance (FPS) was better on Steam OS although if I wanted a handheld >>raw performance just has to be good enough and not the best. The biggy >>though was battery life, it is a portable after all. It depends on which >>game was played but there were some dramatic differences in how long the >>Steam OS version lasted.
I suspect whichever model of SteamDeck-clone out there, they will all
be inferior to Valve's design. In part, because Valve was able to
customize their hardware and OS to work perfectly in tandem, whereas
the competitors are just slapping OEM chipsets into a reasonable
fascimile. But also, SteamDeck is a flagship product for Valve,
designed a much to push the idea of Steam as a mobile platform as it
is to make Valve some dosh. Wheras for ASUS and Lenovo and the rest,
this is just a small subset of their overall market, and they'll cut
the hardware to the bone to make it affordable (and profitable).
As for performance, that probably has as much to do with whether or
not the game is running on native code or through Proton as anything
else. Still, the fact that it's possible to get reasonable performance through (semi-)emulation says a lot for how powerful modern processors
are these day. (On the gripping hand, it helps a lot that SteamDeck
runs at 1280x800, pushing less than half the number of pixels per
frame than even a regular "HD" screen!)
Regardless, it's impressive that Valve has almost single-handedly
created the new "handheld PC" market. Pretty good results for a
side-product developed by a company that's primarily focused on
digital retail!
On Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:57:17 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:
On the other hand...
Insiders are now reporting that " Microsoft's own Xbox handheld is essentially canceled."*
Which doesn't mean we won't see more OEM-built handheld-PCs with XBox branding, like the recently announced Asus ROG XBox Ally. But
Microsoft is backing away from making their own portable console
hardware. Or, really, any gaming hardware in general. They haven't
--yet-- given up the idea of making another XBox console, but on the
whole the company is a lot less bullish about hardware in general.
These days, it seems they're much more interested in streaming and
cloud services.
Which doesn't mean we won't see more OEM-built handheld-PCs with XBox branding, like the recently announced Asus ROG XBox Ally. But
Microsoft is backing away from making their own portable console
hardware. Or, really, any gaming hardware in general. They haven't
--yet-- given up the idea of making another XBox console, but on the
whole the company is a lot less bullish about hardware in general.
These days, it seems they're much more interested in streaming and
cloud services.
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