I think we have a bit of a degree of “Yep, that’s Microsoft alright” mood as a whole because it’s accepted that things are going to get worse for their users perpetually, so I personally stopped giving a shit because I already left before win10 EOL anyway. I’m guessing there’s a similar mood among others who already saw the writing on the wall.
Microsoft approved PCs are becoming consoles.
“We have steam deck verification at home”
That’s 7th generation. 8th generation is PS4, Xbox 1, and Wii U.
Steam as a platform is easy to crack (that’s why so many steam game repacks circulate), but there’s a degree of expected stability due to their reputation for the Steam platform’s longevity built over two decades. Additionally, their status as a private company with no external pressure puts them ahead of MS, Sony, and Nintendo in terms of future turbulence.
When I think of portable ARM devices, my mind immediately snaps to cell phones and the Android ecosystem (which is what the Switch was compared to and even successfully hacked to run Android on).
The main reason I used the comparison is because no PC analog outside of Apple’s space (Unless you count Linux on PowerPC?) used the architecture. x86 has a strong association with Windows, PC gaming, and “PCs” as a whole, while PowerPC’s most iconic use in the personal computing space was in consoles and in Apple’s lineup. Because of that, I chose to mention the PowerPC Mac line.
Yay! Make sure to check out some of the cool couch gaming indies - Enter the Gungeon and Duck Game are some of my favorites.
Come to the PC world then. We have free mods, no online subscriptions, DRM-free gaming, and open-source software no one can take from you.
I mean… Yes… But you wouldn’t be able to run steam or install games designed for the PC platform on the hardware, which is what the 8th generation consoles (at least a hacked PS4, Xbox 1 is unhacked) are able to do. I suppose even with that in mind, the Original Xbox and PS2 would count because Doom, but still.
Not all Xbox players, clearly. With Microsoft doubling down on not having any physical media containing the full retail game on disk from Xbox 1 onwards, every one of those accounts are hosed unless they have an archive of all the downloaded files needed.
My advice to them - mod your consoles (360 and below) if you have them, rip your discs, and get ready for when Xbox services (for console hardware) are sunset.
I think the bar is effectively “x86 architecture and could theoretically at least run linux” (in which case the original xbox would qualify)
Emulation General Wiki Check the Xbox category section.
If you have physical media there are ways to rip them using a commodity DVD/Bluray drive so you can back them up, load them in the emulator, and prevent data rot on the actual disks.
If you’re asking for a direct way to play straight from an XBOX handheld (native play) that’s unlikely to happen for the 360 because of it’s unique architecture, and the Xbox One and beyond I believe have some significant departures from the standard x86 architecture that would make it impractical (it would be more logical to give you steam codes instead lol).
Have been since the 8th generation, unless you count Nintendo, whose 8th gen (Wii U) was a PowerPC Architecture (Mac), and 9th gen onward is a glorified Android phone with a dedicated GPU.
I’m a patient gamer :)
Also, name 10 PS5 exclusives that aren’t remakes of prior generation games (since those can be upscaled and played via emulation)
Wouldn’t that lead to a “Clipper Chip” situation where somone figured out how to isolate the issue? I think the Graphene team already did it.
Correction: GrapheneOS has implemented permission controls for sensors. It also has sandboxing and permission scopes to prevent many of those leaks.
However, Graphene is not available to everyone, and it’s still problematic due to bystanders/passerby.
Cheers, love that this a thing now.
Fortunately on the modding front, the community’s already been cooking:
OSS Nexus Mods loader article