Re: Now Even Microsoft Is Making a SteamDeck

On Thu, 13 Mar 2025 13:01:13 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Mar 2025 10:50:24 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
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On Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:47:25 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
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.

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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.
>

Oh god. You think it might be a "thin client" handheld? Hmm. I bet that
will go over well!

I think it will be cheap, is what I think. Partly because Microsoft
has taken a beating in the hardware market and its made it clear that
it wants to back away from deep investments there, and partly because
they're involving OEMs rather than doing it themselves (and OEMs
always skimp on hardware performance). So making it so it will run on
the least powerful hardware will probably be a priority.

Plus, Microsoft seems to want to unify its gaming experience over
different platforms, and is trying to push its cloud-services to
become its primary revenue source. It's been chasing
software-as-a-service for thirty years, after all.

Will it be a thin-client? I don't know, but what I don't expect is
that it will be a high-end gaming platform. A true streaming-only
thin-client might be a bit much to expect from a mobile device, after
all (especially in the United States, where the XBox brand is most
successful but mobile data is ridiculously overpriced).

But really, all this is supposition. There just isn't enough
information yet about the product. I don't expect that Microsoft's
handheld to be a major player in the market. I only think its
noteworthy in showing how the form-factor is gaining in popularity.