Valve’s NEW Hardware… ANNOUNCED

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

Valve announced a TRIO of devices. A TRIO. THREE. DEVICES. A new Steam Controller, THE Steam Machine, and finally, The Steam Frame which was once called the Valve Deckard.

The Steam Controller is an evolved Steam Controller featuring all of the inputs the Steam Deck has, but in a controller form, and with some additional bells and whistles.

The Steam Machine is Valve’s return to bringing Steam to the living room… this time with more confidence in their work on Linux and Proton. The landscape’s changed drastically since their first attempt over a decade ago with Proton existing as a core part of Steam on Linux.

The Steam Frame is Valve’s standalone VR headset. Not quite a true successor to the Index but it’s something more. A standalone ARM headset designed to play full fat PCVR games, with the ability to sideload Android APKs. What’s more interesting too is SteamOS on ARM. It includes FEX-EMU, a translation layer designed to run x86 binaries on ARM on TOP of Proton translating Windows calls to Linux calls. One has to wonder how performant games will run on the Frame.

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Let’s play a game… how much do YOU think ALL of the new Steam Hardware will be? Whoever’s closest to the real MSRP of the devices will win eternal glory.

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The real reason we’ve yet to get a Steam Deck 2

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/valve-says-it-has-a-pretty-good-idea-of-what-steam-deck-2-is-going-to-be-explains-why-its-holding-off-for-now

The Steam Deck 2 is still happening, it just isn’t happening now because as valve claims “there’s no offerings in that landscape”. Valve apparently isn’t interested in performance gains as low as 50% at the same battery level. They want more. More more more. Battery life is a major consideration, otherwise we’d have extremely powerful handhelds without the battery to keep them alive for long.

SteamOS on ARM?

Link: http://pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/steamos-launching-for-arm-fex-translation-layer/

https://www.theverge.com/news/818672/valve-android-apps-steam-frame

Valve states that with the release of the Steam Frame, they will also release an updated SteamOS with ARM support. Now I doubt you would be able to run this on just any ARM based system, like a modern smartphone, but there may be a place for SteamOS on various Snapdragon based handhelds, such as the AYN Thor and whatnot. More testing required but SteamOS for ARM will include FEX-EMU for running games. Word has it that you’ll just be able to run Android apps on here and even sideload Android APKs too.

Who will be nominated at The Game Awards? Find out 11/17

Link: https://www.thegameawards.com/news/nominations-live-on-monday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_Awards#Video_games_and_media

We won’t have nominees announced by the time this podcast releases, but we’re gonna take our best shot at predicting who’s gonna be nominated, and later on we’re gonna predict who’s gonna win. Should we live stream this?

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Who will win GOTY? Take our bets now! Also announce the live stream

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Sony’s Bungie Acquisition not going as expected. ~$204M impairment loss

Link: https://thegamepost.com/sony-destiny-2-sales-user-engagement-not-reached-bungie/

Destiny 2 was in a good spot before the Sony buyout, which is why Sony bought the studio for a big sum of cash… but Destiny 2 is now in dire straits. The lowest player count it’s ever seen and Marathon isn’t looking too good for prospective players either. All of Bungie hinges on the upcoming Star Wars themed expansion for Destiny 2… Renegades.

The Grand Theft Layoff Saga - Hundreds of Rockstar employees furious

Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/this-is-a-blatant-unapologetic-act-of-vicious-union-busting-hundreds-of-rockstar-employees-sign-letter-to-management-demanding-fired-colleagues-get-reinstated

A number of employees had their employment grand thefted in what appears to be union busting. Hundreds of Rockstar employees PISSED and signed a letter to management demanding they get reinstated.

Somehow… Concord Returned

Link: https://thegamepost.com/sony-concord-playable-again-custom-servers/

Concord, the catastrophic live service failure, has returned thanks to a community made server. Concord released last year and lasted only two weeks before shutting down and all purchasers were issued refunds, with the studio itself going under soon after. Of course it’s work in progress but there is evidence of the return of Concord, at least not by Sony.