Yarr, the high seas have plenty of ships full of cargo! 'Tis a good time to find your treasure, matey.

My commenter on the internet, consumer-facing Windows is bloat city and will not grant the freedom to cut down the garbage holding performance back like Linux Distros do. If you have Win10/11 Enterprise LTSC and run a few debloat scripts maybe, but that’s not something an ordinary person can gain access to without piracy, and it’s unlikely that the “stripped down Windows version for gaming” becomes a product without either restrictions or a price premium to the general public.

That’s just default Bazzite. There’s not much included out the gate other than gaming dependencies.

Technically every game supports it since steam Input allows you to remap any possible input from KBM or a traditional controller onto it.

I guess it may be more intuitive for steam deck owners.

I’d assume AAA and top overall best sellers on Steam (with the exception of games like Fortnite and Minecraft).

I do have Minecraft installed, but only modded versions (purchased original copy in 2013).

I don’t think I even have a game from the top 20 installed. They all keep shitting the bed.

I think steam support does offer refunds in those instances where the terms of sale were changed on you when mentioned in a ticket (see Helldivers and newer COD games)

What’s the age of the game? 75-90% discounts on steam aren’t uncommon for games more than 5-10 years old.

I should clarify, self hosted Gits for projects that may fall under targeted harassment by corporations (Eaglercraft, Switch Emulators, etc…) are becoming popular.

Ryujinx, operating out of Brazil, couldn’t be taken to court by Nintendo. So a lot of projects that could have Nintendo’s eye of sauron on them are looking for a safe country and self hosting as guaranteed insurance from a Yuzu situation.

Self-hosted gits in a country that doesn’t care are becoming popular.

Go to Ebay, look for switch games, then come back and tell us with a straight face that’s a reasonable market.

Also, tell me the many innovative ways those overpriced glorified android tablets can be upscaled and run games at 60fps without either purchasing the overpriced switch 2 or emulation.

I’d reckon that’s a byproduct of the console standard, no?

In the end I guess it’s just centered around whatever this hypothetical gamer is looking for, but my current stance is predicated on Boots Theory, where purchasing an enticingly cheap console will absolutely screw you in the long run compared to an open platform such as the PC ecosystem. Open platforms are resistant from enshittification and software distribution monopolies, whereas the console market thrives on subsidized hardware that entraps their user into a locked in cage that seems impossible to leave the longer you spend.

I would even argue if I bought a cheap used office PC from some liquidated company for 50-60 USD and placed a modest GPU within it, even with lower specs compared to current console hardware, I have gotten better value for my money and have better future game and software prospects than the PS5/Switch2/Xbox Ecoystem owner.

But then that’s undermined by access to piracy then. Romsets for emulated consoles are widespread, and repacks of cross-platform releases are similarly ubiquitous.

Purchasing a closed hardware/software ecosystem makes little rational sense from a monetary perspective. It only makes more sense from a “simplicity” or “integration” perspective.

…and pay orders of magnitude more money for games, be forced into a subscription to play online, and be unable to run software like emulators officially.

I don’t mind - clarification requests are something I’m always glad to answer :)

Why Toby Fox went with Materia I’ll never get. Was it because of the console space? (If he stuck to just PC could he have remained an independent stakeholder?)

File compression, for starters. A dedicated installer is much easier to bring around.

(Primarily because Microsoft is contractually obligated to support Win10 IOT LTSC until 2032, and that support timeline only exists for security updates, since IOT LTSC’s target use case is places like hospitals, banks, etc…)

(Also, you’re not using a third party service that may introduce additional points of failure, and may not patch vulnerabilities at the speed that MS does for LTSC, since MS does not want to lose out on future LTSC contracts)

…you don’t need to? Massgrave’s website has the process explained pretty well down to a T.