Doggleganger t1_iqz68bz wrote on October 4, 2022 at 4:08 AM

Reply to comment by medusas-oblongata in Microsoft has launched a website to explain its Activision Blizzard acquisition by Zepanda66

Why is the hardware duopoly ending?

Dornith t1_ir0lana wrote on October 4, 2022 at 1:53 PM

Since when did we have a duopoly?

I know Nintendo and PC aren't strictly seen as competing with XBox or PS, but realistically they are very comparable. At least enough that fans of Microsoft and Sony could switch to a different system entirely if they had reason to.

sykot1c t1_iqzb7pr wrote on October 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM

Steamdeck is a pretty huge improvement in the hardware sphere for gaming, it's paving the way for Linux to become a reliable OS for average users for gaming, when historically it hasn't been.

Doggleganger t1_iqzf6lf wrote on October 4, 2022 at 5:46 AM

That would be nice, but I'm not sure I'm ready to declare the duopoly over because of the steamdeck.

epic_null t1_iqzctfd wrote on October 4, 2022 at 5:18 AM

Steam OS may be a contributor, but so is Steam taking over the DRM mess and convincing developers to use wine-compatible DRM systems while also conveniently rolling out Steam Play (Wine, but with some additional setup).

Seriously, the ability to launch a wine-based game straight from my normal launcher is a GAME CHANGER.

sykot1c t1_iqzrsmv wrote on October 4, 2022 at 8:42 AM

Yeah, honestly the only thing keeping me from dropping windows all together is lackluster support for gaming on the current Linux distros.

I'm hoping the steam deck helps drive that support. Guess we'll see!

epic_null t1_ir0rkgk wrote on October 4, 2022 at 2:37 PM

As long as Steam pushes to use primarily libraries that other distros can get (meaning avoiding proprietary packages), I'm good with that.

Those who have never used linux are always worried about which distro to support (completely missing that usually supporting any means the community can usually port really easily)

Veilmurder t1_ir0fhpp wrote on October 4, 2022 at 1:09 PM

Look the steamdeck is cool and all but it has sold 1M copies, its too soon to call the duopoly dead

medusas-oblongata t1_ir0ow53 wrote on October 4, 2022 at 2:19 PM

take a look at what samsung is doing with their TVs.. they keep putting smarter and smarter chips in them.

in 5 years, consoles will have gone the way of the Cable TV set top box. they're just not necessary anymore.