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Try War of the Overworld. Very entertaining! http://store.steampowered.com/...

Intel is preferred still where gamers rejected Ryzen for i7's and even the older FX series! AMD's marketshare plummets as soon as Ryzen comes out :-(

So I think Intel must be doing something right as gamers feel AMD sucks for games and has a bad brand name attached compared to Intel/Nvidia.

Tim Sweeney (of Epic Games) stated (before the price reduction) Vive is outselling Rift 2:1. Since UE4 is used in many VR games he would have access various data like royalty figures to make a pretty educated guess.

Valve's hardware survey results also reflect similar trend.

There are independent firms also tracking sales that seem to agree with these figures. Palmer disputes them he doesn't really give any specific evidence.

AMD is still on a downward trend on Steam, which you would think has a higher share of enthusiast CPUs than average. Of course those are accumulated figures, not new sales so changes will be smaller and depend on market share of retired processors but the rumors of AMDs recovery are a bit exaggerated. The Q2 guidance is 12% YoY growth but compared to their downhill slide they have a long climb back up to profitability.

The real question is going to be, how long before this becomes a requirement on new PC purchases for consumers with Windows pre-loaded? And will consumers cough up the 10 bucks a month or so in addition to the cost of the computer?

Requirement? No, I doubt that but I'm sure they'll eventually become like Xbox Live / Playstation Plus and make some key features paid subscription only. They just need to boil the frog a few more years, 50.33% of gamers are now on Win10 according to Steam. If you don't expect funny business from Microsoft when that goes up to 80-90% as Win7 support expires you're naive. And despite the number of games available for Linux the market share is trending down at 0.72% now. As Microsoft has the business market cornered too, I think YotLD is still on hold... people will pay because all the alternatives seem like too much change.

Why do you need to get a hold of the guy when you can just fricking buy the game on Steam, it is even on sale

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Here's another thing, The game only costs $14.99, full price and is currently on sale for $11.99.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

That is NOT exorbitant for an Indie game.

All he's done is enable thieves and legitimized their theft.

Agreed.

The persons pirating don't have a license to play the game so technically they "stole" a license.

Lets go back in time shall we? Suppose it is 199x and a new SNES game came out. Should I be allowed to shoplift the game or a SNES because I claim "I can't afford it"

The game is an indie game, it only cots $14.99 on Steam and is on sale for $11.99

http://store.steampowered.com/...

It even costs LESS in Russia and the rest of the piracy havens.

Axiom Verge

Which is why players will go to a VR parlor and pay for this experience. It's the greatest game that nobody can *OWN*, but they can probably afford to play it.

And to make matters worse, there's already a Non-VR Bridge Simulator that is more fun &, less expensive http://store.steampowered.com/...

... that already has 3rd parties touring USA offering expensive, parlor-style setups. http://www.gamingnomads.com/

(Not affiliated with creator, or gaming nomads. Just played once at a convention, once at home; and both times made me smile.)

> It was mostly marketing I think, free versions of BSD were appearing at the same time but didn't generate excitement for a variety of reasons.

It was more then just marketing -- it a was a difference in Philosophy and how it was applied.

BSD, while "free", didn't provide the guarantee that the code would STAY free like GPL.

My understanding is that Stallman _could_ have used a corresponding WTFPL, Do-What-The-Fuck-You-Want Public License, aka Public Domain, but he was more concerned about companies "hijacking" the free source code and making it proprietary again.

Sometimes you need to restrict freedom in order to maintain it, ironically.

> The hobbiest already has Linux, the gamers are going to consoles it seems,

Aside from console exclusive games, gamers are all over the place.

PC Master Race is alive and well thank-you-very-much -- especially with the high performance demands of 4K, 120 Hz, and VR. Plus certain games such as Starcraft 2 will never be on shitty* consoles.

* Shitty is the technical term for dog-slow performance compared to PC -- they are great games on both PC and Console platforms.

Destiny 2 is rumored to also be coming to Windows.

That said,

* Sony uses FreeBSD for the PS3 and PS4 hypervisor kernel.
* Microsoft uses the Windows kernel the XBox 360 and and XBone.

> and the generic home user is happy with phones, tablets, and netbooks.

On PC, if the Steam Hardware Survey is accurate:

* Windows is ~96% of the market here,
* OSX is holding steady at ~3 %
* Linux usage, while also holding, is still a rounding error, for the most part, at ~0.76%

Mobile space is different:

* Android, with its 2+ Billion devices in 5 years, uses Linux, making WinCE and Windows Phones look like a total joke.
* iOS is also popular.

Sorry, I don't have stats for mobile.

There's some really interesting (non-Star Wars) stuff out now (Eve: Valkyrie, House of the Dying Sun) that are even available on VR. And if you haven't tried VR yet, I'd strongly encourage you to check it out. It is an absolutely incredible experience, one of those things you just cannot describe to someone they have to try it themselves.

There's some really interesting (non-Star Wars) stuff out now (Eve: Valkyrie, House of the Dying Sun) that are even available on VR. And if you haven't tried VR yet, I'd strongly encourage you to check it out. It is an absolutely incredible experience, one of those things you just cannot describe to someone they have to try it themselves.

You're the Johnny-come-lately again.

The word you're looking for is 'Steam'.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

I tried it. It works (for some values of "works") but the question is wrong. I had Rage working in Wine on Linux *with* CUDA support using someone's special wine-cuda wrapper hack, and it worked amazingly well, for all of 2 weeks then never worked again. I won't bore you with the sad technical details but the take away is that the real question that should be asked here is "Can Linux run a GPU-Computing application written for Windows without Nvidia's permission?"

References:
the code
back when it worked

The Steam Hardware Survey shows 0.23% of users having a Vive, vs. 0.11% with an Oculus Rift and 0.2% with the older Rift DK2 development kit
http://store.steampowered.com/...

And of course, there are entirely brain-dead things on some platforms, like Windows filesystem being case-aware but not case-sensitive.

That's not restricted to Windows, I'm afraid. OSX has HFS+ in four different modes: !journaled, case-insensitive; !journaled, case-sensitive; journaled, case-insensitive; journaled, case-sensitive. Things like Steam will refuse to install if you try to target a case-sensitive file system... go figure! (ref: https://support.steampowered.c...)

They pretty much have to be if they're willing to pay 10-15 bucks more for a game than PC gamers...

Did you just time travel from 1999? While in the past there was a price differential and I know that in Europe PC partisan devs/publishers kept the price differential up longer because they wanted to favor the PC... but there isn't one NOW and hasn't been for about a decade.

For Honor: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Berzerk and the Band of the Hawk: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Fallout 4: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy $19.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Stardew Valley $14.99 on PSN and Steam
https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

They pretty much have to be if they're willing to pay 10-15 bucks more for a game than PC gamers...

Did you just time travel from 1999? While in the past there was a price differential and I know that in Europe PC partisan devs/publishers kept the price differential up longer because they wanted to favor the PC... but there isn't one NOW and hasn't been for about a decade.

For Honor: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Berzerk and the Band of the Hawk: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Fallout 4: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy $19.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Stardew Valley $14.99 on PSN and Steam
https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

They pretty much have to be if they're willing to pay 10-15 bucks more for a game than PC gamers...

Did you just time travel from 1999? While in the past there was a price differential and I know that in Europe PC partisan devs/publishers kept the price differential up longer because they wanted to favor the PC... but there isn't one NOW and hasn't been for about a decade.

For Honor: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Berzerk and the Band of the Hawk: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Fallout 4: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy $19.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Stardew Valley $14.99 on PSN and Steam
https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

They pretty much have to be if they're willing to pay 10-15 bucks more for a game than PC gamers...

Did you just time travel from 1999? While in the past there was a price differential and I know that in Europe PC partisan devs/publishers kept the price differential up longer because they wanted to favor the PC... but there isn't one NOW and hasn't been for about a decade.

For Honor: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Berzerk and the Band of the Hawk: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Fallout 4: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy $19.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Stardew Valley $14.99 on PSN and Steam
https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

They pretty much have to be if they're willing to pay 10-15 bucks more for a game than PC gamers...

Did you just time travel from 1999? While in the past there was a price differential and I know that in Europe PC partisan devs/publishers kept the price differential up longer because they wanted to favor the PC... but there isn't one NOW and hasn't been for about a decade.

For Honor: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Berzerk and the Band of the Hawk: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Fallout 4: $59.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy $19.99 on PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Stardew Valley $14.99 on PSN and Steam
https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

I definitely agree that MS made some bad decisions that annoyed a lot of their customers, and that may have pushed a few of them away, but let's be honest here: we still haven't seen any significant shift away from Windows in the desktop numbers. Microsoft Windows still dominates at 96%, Mac is an also-ran, hanging in their at ~3% or so, and Linux trails at 1%, like it always has, with even that spread across several popular distros, and dozens of less popular ones.

For gaming, you're seeing more support for Mac and Linux because the major engines support those platforms, and so it makes sense to release for all platforms possible. That's definitely the good news. I think many game developers (including myself) would LIKE to see Linux doing better as a hedge against MS, so go out of their way to support it when feasible.

If you're waiting for MS to die, though, it's going to be a long wait. They've wisely started focusing on things like cloud services, Xbox, new high-end hardware, and so on, and of course, they still completely dominate in the business world (for PCs and productivity software). They've also got a lot of cash reserves. They're no longer the dominant player in the industry like before, but they're hardly becoming irrelevant.

TL;DR: Wake me when Linux on the desktop breaks 1%.

(disclaimer: I run Ubuntu 16.04 on all three of the computers that I use-- two at home and one at work)

Speak of the devil: I just logged into Steam and it gave me the hardware survey.
Linux is about 0.8% of the machines running Steam.

It's kind of a chicken-and-the-egg problem.
But the game industry, and Valve in particular, are in a difficult spot as Microsoft moves to force everyone to go through their app store.

I, for one, applaud Valve for bringing awesome games (about 80% of my Steam library runs natively on Linux) and great technology to Linux.
Hitman just released for Linux. Deus Ex came out for Linux not too long ago. The Total War series runs very well. XCOM, XCOM 2, The Witcher 2, Torchlight, Talos Principle, Stellaris, Rocket League and so on and so on...
I have more and better games than I have time to play. Thanks, Valve.

Neither I nor anyone else can twist your arm to switch to Linux-- just don't complain when Microsoft puts ads on your desktop, tracks your every move, forces updates down your throat whether you want them or not, and eventually moves to make you pay a subscription just to use your computer.

Here http://store.steampowered.com/... let me fix that for you and http://store.steampowered.com/.... Yeah not so much any more and if you check you steam library you will find out exactly which Mac OS and Linux games you already own, just waiting to be downloaded and installed.

The desktop is a dying market except for power users, hobbyists, scientist. Business is making the shift to smart terminals and for less secure communication purposes simple disposable notebooks (no windows in site lust secure locked doors, nobody wants the employees wide open to the prying eyes of potential competitors who pay for M$ for access).

It could have been a shrinking market with windows but M$ killed that, so the desktop will become a shrinking market with Linux and of all companies, Apple, still a good solid professional market, pretty much back to its main professional market prior to consumer PCs which in reality when technology caught up is smart phones (fitted VR micro glasses for gaming), smart TVs, tablets for the smart TVs and disposable notebooks for communications (not gaming).

Whoops no gaming console, yep, pretty much no gaming console.

Here http://store.steampowered.com/... let me fix that for you and http://store.steampowered.com/.... Yeah not so much any more and if you check you steam library you will find out exactly which Mac OS and Linux games you already own, just waiting to be downloaded and installed.

The desktop is a dying market except for power users, hobbyists, scientist. Business is making the shift to smart terminals and for less secure communication purposes simple disposable notebooks (no windows in site lust secure locked doors, nobody wants the employees wide open to the prying eyes of potential competitors who pay for M$ for access).

It could have been a shrinking market with windows but M$ killed that, so the desktop will become a shrinking market with Linux and of all companies, Apple, still a good solid professional market, pretty much back to its main professional market prior to consumer PCs which in reality when technology caught up is smart phones (fitted VR micro glasses for gaming), smart TVs, tablets for the smart TVs and disposable notebooks for communications (not gaming).

Whoops no gaming console, yep, pretty much no gaming console.

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-m...
http://gs.statcounter.com/os-v...
http://store.steampowered.com/...

As far as PC games go, Microsoft Windows dominates although if you go to Steam and look at the number of games available for Linux and SteamOS there are over 5,000 and some are AAA. Good luck finding the time to play them all.

And yet the trend is backwards towards less Linux users... Linux used to have something like 1% when SteamOS was being hyped, today it's at 0.8%. You keep talking it up, I'm telling you users aren't buying it.

In the motherboard BIOS there is an option for "Other OS" and I initially installed Fedora 24 (now 25) on the Z170 (takes Sky Lake) without any problems so I don't forsee any issues with the motherboards for Ryzen (when it comes out) or Kaby Lake which has the same LGA 1151 socket as Sky lake and will run on Z170, H170, B150 and H110 series motherboards

Well except that AMD has explicitly said there won't be any chipset drivers for Ryzen on Win7. That Kaby Lake is supported is more of an accident because it's so similar to Skylake and even Skylake support was only after a business uproar against Microsoft.

The majority of people will not upgrade to Windows 10 unless Microsoft use the same tactics when they made the OS a free upgrade if you had a legitimate copy of Windows 7 or Widows 8.1. If you wish to upgrade now you have to pay for Windows 10 and most people will not do that unless they replace their PC which in the majority of cases the new PC will come with Windows 10 as the default OS.

In other words they will move to Windows 10 one way or the other. Who cares if they don't upgrade? It means they still use Windows software and when their Windows box finally dies they'll get a new one. That's what I said, the total number of Windows users is flat. A WinXP/Vista/7/8 user disappears, a Win10 user appears and hardly any new Mac/Linux users.

I made a street-fighter-style game for high school, with stick-figure graphics!

These days Street Fighter needs 20 GB of disk space and a GTX 960.

Can we no longer trust Valve to tell us when a game contains 3rd-party DRM?

Never did: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/T...

I'm not sure how much control Valve have over third party DRM notifications. I suspect it's a "Please indicate" but not mandatory.

http://forums.steampowered.com... does have a commentator suggesting that Denuvo isn't DRM. I'm not sure how they reached that conclusion but it may be worth sanity checking Valve's definition for DRM too - could be that Denuvo slips through a crack.

For as long as I can remember, Steam listed on a game's store page what, if any, 3rd-party DRM was included in the game.

Arkham Knight's page does not mention 3rd-party DRM, just a 3rd-party EULA. Scanning the EULA, neither "DRM" nor "Denuvo" are mentioned.

Can we no longer trust Valve to tell us when a game contains 3rd-party DRM?

Steam would have to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak, and release some of their own titles for Vive. I'm pretty sure a Vive version of Portal would be interesting.

You mean like this?

You're a known Linux troll, so this is going to really fry your taters.

First place: Windows 10 64 bit @ 48.97% (+0.60%)

Dead last: Linux @ 0.80% (-0.08%)

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

With consoles, they expect you to upgrade much sooner than you would need to with a PC.

They do?

Original Playstation 1995
PS2: 2000
PS3: 2006
PS4 2013

You're telling me you didn't upgrade your PC between 2006 and 2013?

You can't just swap out the GPU on a console to play the "next-gen", you have to literally buy an entirely new console and start from scratch.

You do? That's not quite as true as one might think:

PS2: backwards compatible with PSone games.

PS3: ALL PS3's can play PSone discs. CECHA, CECHB, and CECHE models are also compatible with PS2 games (and SACD's).

Now the PS4 is different, with the change of Architecture to x86_64 and the decision to not slap a PS3 Cell/RSX or PS2 EE/GS in there to keep the cost down that means no hardware compatibility. Some games have been re-released/re-mastered on PSN. In some cases it is cross buy if you already had the PS3 version, you don't have to pay for the PS4 version.

Playstation NOW, while a fee-based service is also a way of playing older games on a PS4.

Plus, games are MUCH cheaper on PC -- that alone is worth it.

No, they're not. New games cost pretty much the same. In some cases even older games have the same price on console and PC Example, Rocket League.

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Rebel Galaxy:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

Stardew Valley:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

https://store.playstation.com/...

If you getting REALLY cheap games on the PC it's because you're waiting for some length of time for them to become $5 on Steam Sales or something. There are also similar sales on the console online stores but if you only do PC gaming, you wouldn't know about that.

For example, SteamWorld Dig is currently $9.99 on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $1.99 on PSN, it is cross-buy so that $1.99 also gets you the Vita version:

https://store.playstation.com/...

Watch Dogs 2 is $59.99 on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/...

But it is on sale for $40.19 on PSN:

https://store.playstation.com/...

That, and the fact that they are backwards compatible with literally every era of gaming.

How many DOS games from 80's do you actually play?

Oh and you can also do literally everything else that is possible on PC (i.e. software), which you can't do on consoles.

Sure you can, because it is a general purpose device that runs Windows. You CAN game on it, but the platform wasn't originally designed for gaming...but business applications. Yes, you COULD game on 8088 PC with a monochrome screen...but

Sprouting ammunition developed by the DoD (Department of Death) was an important plot device in Tim Schafer's renowned adventure game Grim Fandango (1998) . It is rather strange how reality takes after fiction, I wonder if there are Grim Fandango fans at the DoD.

I bought Minecraft in early Alpha mid 2010, and I have played and enjoyed it for a number of years. However, I was really hoping with the MS purchase that they would do a 2.0 since the graphics and 1M cube block resolution with 8 bit quality textures makes my eyes hurt these days (I like pretty things).

As MS milks Minecraft for every penny it's worth, I have moved on to a new game to satisfy my creative adventuring with more complexity and far prettier graphics, Empyrion. It is an Indy still in Alpha (5.0), but has a lot of potential and is a cross between Minecraft and what No Mans Sky should have been. (this is just my own personal opinion, but if you like Minecraft or the idea of No Mans Sky, you should check it out.)

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Im going with steamOS being the pusher, and valve's clout behind it.

I think that the reason is more simple than that. Steam got a client on Linux before SteamOS became a thing. Ever since then, the number of Linux games on Steam has doubled each year. SteamOS got a lot of press (and I am sure that has had some effect), but just offering an easy way to sell and install Linux games made the platform more viable for the smaller developers.

Add to this the ease to develop for Linux by just selecting another target platform with the game engines (which also now have free versions). Where you would once have to make a carefully considered decision to support the OS, now it is almost a no-brainer. You don't have to be an expert in porting games to Linux. You don't have to deal with the complexity of installing to different flavours of Linux. You don't have to make your own store (or use some lesser known one) to be able to sell to gamers on Linux.

If SteamOS had been a driving factor in all this, then surely Value would highlight its use on the Steam Survey. Instead, it is an unlisted also-ran in the already tiny proportion of gamers that use Linux. This small number of users is why it has to be so easy for developers to be able to support the OS, as there simply aren't enough gamers on it to make it worth the expense of much more than ticking an extra box on their development system to add support for Linux.

the highest earning f2p game that does not have valve's name on it (and so, not earning valve both sales AND commissions) is Warframe. considering that steam is perhaps the least-used platform warframe is available on, that's a pretty huge thing. (warframe is also on ps4 and xbone, and available as a standalone installer, which most pc players use)

To avoid "no true Scotsman" fallacies, please define "modern" first

A fair criticism.

Windows 10 recommends a minimum of 2GB of RAM (64 bit). I couldn't (quickly) find an authoritative source for a 'recommended' requirement, but this article from PCAuthority from 2014 compares performance for 2GB, 4GB and 8GB and mentions "typically, today’s budget PCs come with 4GB of RAM".

Apple sells Macbooks and Macbook Pros with a minimum config of 8GB of RAM and has done so for some years. The Mac Mini and Macbook Air have 4GB as a minimum conifg.

Steam users are not necessarily typical - gamers may well have higher specced machines - but the hardware survey is at least another data point. Currently over 80% of users have 4GB of RAM or higher.

I would argue that 4GB of RAM is a reasonable definition of a modern system.

I am concentrating on RAM as that is the only statistic that APK has mentioned. He links to the Super User thread you do as well as another source that shows uBlock using 60MB of RAM and Adblock Plus as using 100MB. This is between 1-3% of RAM on a system with 4GB

I'm happy to continue in this vein to try and work out what could reasonably be called a 'modern' machine in terms of CPU and IO, but as there's even less evidence for host file improvement for these specifications, it seems moot.

I've read the Super User thread you link to - APK links to it, frequently. Someone comments that disabling their adblocker seemed to increase browser speed. Someone else links to a 2011 article from Mozilla that shows a 250 millisecond difference in startup time. There's some discussion about Firefox memory use ... etc. It's subjective (and that's both 'it seemed to speed things up and 'there's no difference) and not well attested.

I agree that turning off an adblocking extension is going to use less resources than when it is on. I've yet to see anything that suggests that this is more than a negligible improvement, even if it is perceptible.

The claim that listing favourite sites in the hosts file speeds performance is similar.

I know of three popular sites that use ClarityRay-like scripts: WIRED, the INQUIRER, and The Atlantic

I'm using uBlock Origin, SafeScript and PrivacyBadger in Chrome on Windows 7, located in Australia. None of these sites (I assume the Inquirer is http://http//www.theinquirer.n...) balked at my adblocker. Even disabling SafeScript didn't cause a problem (although now the cookies nag showed up). I could browse the articles and no ads were displayed, nor did I get a nag screen asking me to turn my adblocker off.

As far as I can tell extension detection is a cat and mouse game that eventually gets abandoned.

YT

http://store.steampowered.com/...
http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico...

Later is in a current Humble Bundle, the former has been on Humble bundle before. I have additional copies.

You could always try searching for "Steam refunds" and selecting the first result.

How about some lateral thinking. Better gift for geeky children. How about some family MMO play time, parents spending some real time with their children, getting them started on an MMO and playing with them. Not just once but for many hours over many days. Plenty of MMOs to choose from and caring and sharing time is worth more than an crappy nick nack no matter how temporarily educational. So http://store.steampowered.com/..., LOTRO seems to play well for families and graphically is still hanging in there but there are many to choose from. So best gift quality parent time, caring and sharing and family fun.

It's about that standing up thing. After the initial thrill, it just isn't going to happen for more than a few minutes a day.

Also the weight of the headset, which is why I see the HTC Vive as a joke. At least the Oculus Rift is light enough to not notice wearing it for long periods of time, and the base-model only comes with a single sensor, which is all you need while sitting at a desk. Using an Oculus while sitting at a desk seems like a viable computer monitor replacement.

As an anecdote, try playing this game for longer than 5 minutes with an HTC Vive. You have to hold your head down at an angle, causing almost all Vive players neck strain. However, I have been able to play it comfortably with an Oculus Rift for over an hour while sitting at my desk.

The funny thing is that the $3 (*) PC game called Grav: Reborn already had some of those features over a year ago.

* $3 when on sale; normally $10

There are a lot of Steam gamers already with Oculus or Vive rigs.

No, there aren't. In fact, almost nothing you've claimed is born out by the statistics.

1) There have only been about 140,000 Vive unit sales so far according to HTC. That was as of last month.

2) Vive represented 60% of SteamVR gaming according to the latest survey. If we generously assume (for your benefit) that all 140,000 Vive users were active in SteamVR this last month, that'd mean that the other 40% number about 95,000. Put together, we can say that...

3) There are less than than 235,000 active SteamVR gamers. And again, that's if we make some generous assumptions for your benefit. In reality, the actual number of active SteamVR gamers is likely MUCH lower. But either way...

4) Not even one-fifth of 1% of Steam gamers have used SteamVR in the last month. Steam had over 125,000,000 active users in early 2015. If we ignore (for your benefit) the fact that the number has likely grown since then, we can see that less than 0.19% of Steam gamers have used their VR rig in the last month.

5) Even if every single active SteamVR user was a closet Mac/Linux dual booter who would go back to Mac/Linux if SteamVR was available, it'd only shift the OS statistic by, at most, 0.19% away from Windows. Mac/Linux dual booters are clearly not throwing a wrench in the statistics like you claimed.

6) Contrary to your suggestion that Mac and Linux gamers are staying booted into Windows for SteamVR, their numbers are actually higher today than they were before VR. Mac and Linux have been growing at Windows' expense all along, with VR having no noticeable impact.

7) As for consoles, the Playstation VR is on track to outsell both the Vive and the Oculus by the end of the year, despite there being far fewer PS4 owners (~40M) than active Steam users (125M). So, no, VR is not "a much larger percentage of the PC gaming market than it is if you factor in consoles". But even if you had been right, so what? If VR was even less significant in another market, that doesn't make it significant in this market.

Finally, there's this (emphasis mine):

[...] they would be people capable and possibly willing to run SteamVR on the Mac if they were able to, with no new computer purchase.

And what Mac model would these people be using, exactly? One of the big complaints from Mac users when it comes to VR is that there isn't a Mac with the horsepower to run VR. The Mac Pro was last updated in December...of 2013. It's woefully insufficient. The iMac, MacBook Pro, and most other lines have seen updates, but they all use mobile-class dedicated graphics or integrated graphics, both of which are currently insufficient for VR. Given that the hardware doesn't exist, I think it's safe to say that today's Mac users aren't influencing the numbers by booting into Windows for SteamVR.

Mind you, I say this as someone who has continuously used a Mac as his primary machine since the late '80s, including for gaming. My current Mac is my primary gaming machine, just as the one before it and the one before it and so on. So I'm speaking from experience when I say that we're a vocal group, but that we don't account for much.

As for VR, it has a lot of hype, and it may eventually amount to something, but it's barely even a rounding error at this point, so your assertions that it's affecting those numbers in any sort of a meaningful way are demonstrably false.

Fuck off with your caveat emptor bullshit.

Don't blame the victim.

If someone doesn't realize that game advertisers have been exaggerating their product since the first day Pong hit the store shelves that's not being a victim, that's being utterly naive and stupid about how the whole advertising industry works. Buyer beware.

I would also use a different term than "victim" for people who failed to use Steam's no-questions-asked refund policy on all game purchases within 48 hours; or within 14 days and less than 2 hours of game time. http://store.steampowered.com/...