Is Silksong the GTA VI of Indies? Plus, the PC Handheld Problem | Ep 44

The Silksong we have indie developers

delaying their game because of Silksong.

It releases next week

Yeah, so many many indie

developers were releasing in

September but many of them

delayed their games due to

Concerns that Silksong is just gonna eat

up all their sales and I mean to be fair

I think that's probably gonna happen like

yeah if your game was releasing it and

Silksong was released next to your game

Would you delay your

game gardener? Oh, yeah?

Fun story I when I released dude links

I had the date picked out like like a two

months in advance and

then the day I released it

Supergiant games

stealth dropped Hades oh my

At least these devs have a heads up that

it's coming out, but as we all know

Rockstar has some insiders that knew that

Silksong was releasing this year, so

obviously be deleted to avoid Silksong

right? Yeah, of course, absolutely

Yeah, yeah, I mean Silksong

would eat GTA 6 as lunch so

Yeah, they probably will

Welcome to off the console the hottest

new podcast that's all about gaming and

tech news and anything nerdy

My name is gardener, and I'm joined here

today by my friend high tech lowlife.

How's it going high tech?

Well, you know I'm doing

alright man this webcam situation is

Not great, but it's whatever I guess

yeah, I noticed that

just as we were starting

Dude so we have some big stories we're

gonna talk about today

We've got Silksong causing Indies to

delay their releases of their games. We

have Sony reportedly

Planning a PlayStation 6 portable

handheld unit that's interesting

And then there's a ton of other

topics we're gonna hit on today

But we like to start to show off by

talking about the the games or the things

we've been doing this week

So high tech why don't you start us off?

What have we been doing this week?

So I've been juggling ninja Gaiden

ragebound and shinobi art of vengeance

Both are really good by the way

Yeah, I've just had less time to play

overall, but man those are good. You

should you should

definitely pick those up

Yeah, I I definitely want to check out

You see ninja Gaiden

Yeah, ninja Gaiden ragebound ragebound. I

had you know, I think you were talking

about that last week, right?

yeah, so

For those who don't know ninja Gaiden

ragebound is like a throwback to the old

like NES style of Ninja Gaiden games

Yeah, so it's a 2d like

2d action platformer

Let me just pull that up here. I think

you'd really like a gardener and it's on

GOG DRM free. Oh, hell yeah

Wow, dude, this looks

awesome. This looks like my kind of

Ninja Gaiden game

Dude, I I know you would like it for a

fact. I think James would too if you were

here. Yeah, sadly my favorite

Games in the series are the NES ones

Yeah, this is a throwback to that one,

you know the bit of a spoiler but the

prologue has you playing as a

Joe Hayabusa

Rees dad before he gets in that like

fateful duel in the beginning. Oh, yeah,

you know the iconic

cutscene. Yeah. Oh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, heck yeah, I'm

definitely gonna check this out. This is

going on my wish list here

Where's the wish list button right there?

There's also there's also a sweet new

bundle with that and it's called path of

the ninja go to bundle info

They made like new art

for like the crossover art

It's pretty sick. Oh nice and

That's the other one. I've been playing

shinobi rage back. I'm a

shinobi heart of vengeance. Oh

Cool that looks great. Yeah

Are they sit there similar games?

Well, they play they play very

differently, but they're both like 2d

action like platformers

Yeah, I'll do this looks really great too

For some reason when you were talking

about shinobi and ninja guy nice thing

I like the 3d ones which are less of my

speed, but this is

this looks really great

Yeah, I mean they're making a new they're

making ninja gotten for

the new one of the new like

3d hack and slash ones. Mm-hmm. And that

one looks pretty cool.

Don't want to pick it up, but

There's a game that's coming out and like

next week that I think most of us will

probably be getting I think

What is that we'll be talking about that

in a little bit, okay cool, yeah

nice

Dude, well, I have been playing nothing

because I've been extremely busy. I

I

Released a vlog on the heavy element

heavy element productions YouTube channel

and on the heavy element Instagram

Where I I've been like

producing podcasts for like a local

like lifestyle vlog or

lifestyle blog I should say and

We've been interviewing like local

business owners and stuff and talking

about kind of the hardships

of like the seasonality of

Main business. It's been a lot of fun.

It's very hyper nation specific

But if anyone out there is interested,

you can check it out

Heavy element productions on YouTube and

then what else have I been doing?

I've been kind of I've been screwing

around with with this guy the the

Is this the red retro pie 5?

Is that what it's called retroid pocket

5, I don't know why I said retro

But yeah, I've been extremely busy this

week. So I haven't had time

to like relax even a little bit

That's perfectly

valid, dude, you know, yeah

working on

But yeah, so with that I think we should

get into the first story this week

But before we do we gotta we gotta make

sure we call out people

we're trying to hit 600 subscribers by

the end of next month and a

Thousand subscribers by the end of the

year, right? So yes where you know, if

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you haven't subscribed yet

if you're listening to this show on

Podcasts subscribe to me and you haven't

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I think it's off the

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I'm after no, I think it's

called off the console podcast

Pull up on this let's

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You know someone mentioned that my

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Mmm, you know comments and

I mean that's totally fair

All right, so the channels just called

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Right

Okay, yeah, that's correct off the

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Actually, we just hit 600 subscribers.

That's pretty great.

We're so yeah, we I think yeah

I think we hit last episode. Okay. Nice.

I think so. Yes. So let's at

700 by the end of September

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If you know, yeah, I was

gonna say if you leave a comment

We will read the comments if they're

worthy of being read on the show

Yeah, and also we've been

thinking about doing shorts again

I know we've been kind of slacking on

that. We have all been very busy. Yeah,

James also has been very busy, too

So I was wondering if you guys really

want to see like small digestible clips

from us. Just let us

know. Let us know the comments

Yeah

People seem to engage with those so we

definitely need to get back on it

Cool well, you want to talk

about the first story today?

Yeah, we've got the silk song we have

indie developers delaying their game

because of silk song

This is this is this is the game

I was alluding to earlier when I said the

games releasing. Yes, it

releases next week. Yeah on

September the 4th, so a Thursday

Lord so many many indie developers were

releasing in September

But it's gonna be real hard but many of

them delayed their games

due to concerns that yes

So son is just gonna eat up all their

sales and I mean to be fair

I think that's probably

gonna happen like yeah

If you're if your game was releasing and

then silk song was released next year

game with you delay your

game gardener. Oh, yeah

Yeah, you better believe it

A fun story I when I released dudelings

I I had it like I had the date picked out

like like a two months in advance

And then the day I released it

Supergiant games stealth dropped Hades oh

At least these devs have a heads up it

looks like this heavy out dude

Imagine a silk song and Hades to release

on the same day. They would like

cannibalize each other sales

Yes, absolutely. So there were a couple

of games one is slot machine

rogue like clover pit. Mmm, I

Think it's interesting cuz like if this

were if these were all triple-a

developers doing this and yes

Some of them have like delayed games

because of other much bigger games. They

wouldn't mention the name

They wouldn't mention the game by name.

They would be like, yeah, like this

happened once with

Final Fantasy 14 expansion

Being delayed because of elven rings DLC

Mmm and

A lot of and a lot of triple-a developers

were playing chicken because of GTA 6

they weren't they didn't know if it was

Gonna release this year or not. Yeah. Oh,

yeah. We talked about that a couple weeks

ago. Yeah, we did. Yeah and

But as we all know

Rockstar has some insiders that knew that

silk songs releasing this year. So

obviously be deleted to

avoid silk song, right?

Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Yeah

Yeah, I mean silk song

would eat GTA 6 as lunch so

They probably will and they just

announced the price. Oh, yeah, 20 bucks.

Mm-hmm. What was the

original when they launched it?

I think they launched that at 20 bucks as

well. But it's you know, of course, it's

gone down in price sense. Yeah

Interesting so were there any other

titles that delayed looks like

um

Stomped sort of miracles here. There's

there's more in the list. There's more to

I think this article

lists all of the games

I got the lead that we know of. Mmm

A turn a turn on the loose is another

Metroidvania. Yeah, I think

It's been delayed to 2026 as a whole. Oh

And I think some of these

developers were planning post

post release content, but you know given

Given that the game is gonna be delayed

as I guess it's just gonna be part of the

launch release. Right?

Yeah, I see another one demon school not

the same type of game

Yeah, a lot of these games aren't even

the same like genre of

games. Mmm, like demon schools a

Tactical RPG not the same genre, but you

know, of course they are keenly aware

that so someone probably

just eat their lunch. Yeah

unfortunately

I

Mean but also like this is

not bad press for these games

Like I hadn't heard of any of the games

that we've talked about so far

But now because they're delayed their

game because of silk song I you know

Definitely. They're on my radar now. Oh

Look at that tweet

Can you play four by three

on your CRT like demon school

That's a good question.

That is a good question

You have a four by three CRT. I don't

actually I have well

I do I do but I don't use it very often.

I have a 16 by 9 flat CRT. Oh

Yeah, well, you know you should do when

so song releases

definitely going to try that

There is a bit of like

distortion on the side

So platformers like like 2d platformers

tend to like have some kind of

Warp warping

So they're not my

favorite games to plan that thing

At least when they're in

full like widescreen support

But if they're like 16 if they're four by

three in the center, then there's no

warping. That's it's nice to play on

Come on, you got to do for the content

even if does work a

little I know I actually set up

I have a camera that I have up here

Which I don't have set up yet, but it's

like mounted to the ceiling and so when I

do live streams from my CRT

Or if I'm playing on the the iMac G3

I'll be able to switch to that camera up

here and you'll be able to

see what I'm doing on the CRT

Monitors, so I'm

really excited about that

Dude, I gotta see it

when it happens. Oh, yeah

Bennett Fotties new game is also getting

delayed because of

still sung as well. Mmm

(Laughter)

Baby steps is that the name?

Yeah

It's the one where like you're a man

child and you're a it's a little it's the

walking simulator that

looks like you're like a

Manchild and a man diaper trying to like

walk. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah,

Bennett Foddy, right, right the

Getting over it right

and co-op co-op. Yep

Yeah, I don't know how I feel

about these type of games, but

They make for good

They make for good

Contact on dinner at least. Yeah

Literally, what is he wearing?

Dude, it's it's he's like a man child and

you're taking control of him

He has a he has to relearn how to walk

like he's in rehab. Oh, wow. Oh

My gosh, oh lord

Oh

My god, I got he got hit in the nuts

Yeah

Why?

This is gonna be fun for

about 10 minutes and then

Rage inducing. Yeah, but hey man, it's

one of those games that like

Makes you want to rate it makes you want

to keep going because you get real so

pissed off at it, right?

Mm-hmm for some people I think oh

There's more games. I think you have to

go press back in your browser to go back

to that other article. Mm-hmm

See what else? Yeah, yeah, yeah

So I'm sure there are many many more

developers that like

delayed their games, yeah

But I wouldn't know of any of them

because they're not listed in the

articles those are just

the more high-profile cases

Yeah, I think the Bennett Foddy has kind

of become like the Indy Indy celebrity

and so him

postponing his game for a while is

definitely

Yeah, yeah, they know

Yikes

But I mean again, like it's it's decent

publicity for them, right?

Yeah, it is

You know, they get a they don't have to

compete with silk song

And be you know now people know that

these games exist and got delayed

Was delayed because

of silk song so right?

Absolutely. Well, and this game has been

this game has been on our radar for a

while, right? Like I've been a fan of

Hollow Knight for ages and I know you

were talking about wanting to see silk

song get released or announced

I mean at the game

awards last year, right? I

Think that was mostly just it was mostly

us like Josh and around yeah

Was either that or half-life 3 or GTA 6

or bloodborne on PC?

Yeah, a bit of a meme, but I mean still I

wanted to see silk song

Yeah, I do find it interesting

Also, I don't think we talked. I don't

know if we talked about this

It's not in our article list, but Hollow

Knight just recently

broke its record. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's a record of concurrent players

as of recent if you go to

steam DB, you can see that

People are getting really high for silk

song and some people

That famously didn't like Hollow Knight

to begin with like like mr. Gene Park of

the Washington Post. He

likes it now. Oh, really?

Yeah, I only know this because I follow

him on Twitter and he also follows me as

well. Wow. Oh my god. Look at that

Yeah, that's juicy man that I mean they

didn't just break their record. They

absolutely smashed it

So the highest peak before this was

20,000 concurrent players in May of 2022

Was that around the time they announced

they were doing silk song or was that I

don't even know what that would have been

But I don't know either to be honest, but

now their concurrent players

in August was 65,000. So like

three times almost

Two times. I think it's it might still be

going up to be honest. Yeah, I mean

August is over for sure

So that's absolutely crazy. People are

getting really hyped for silk song which

tells me silk songs gonna do really well

Yeah. Oh, yeah, but the question

everyone's afraid of asking

is what if silk song sucks

What if it sucks that I mean I think that

there's a low likelihood of

that they've taken their time

And they've been able

to ride the success of

The original game so yes, I don't think

it's gonna suck either

Yeah, I just asked him

that because it's yeah

I mean if it sucks that would probably be

pretty disastrous for

their studio, right?

Like I think it would they would

definitely be the end

of team cherry for sure

Yeah, making they made people wait so

long for a game that

if it sucks

Then yeah, it's gonna be bad. Yeah, what

are like the the big features of

Silk song like what's bringing what I

haven't been following it too closely

Dude I have no idea. Yeah, what's new in

silk songs because they they're famously

not talking about the game as you know

Yeah, like there's like no communication.

So I don't even know what's really new

besides the fact that you play as

I don't even remember

her name. I silk something

Yeah, but you play it but she was a boss

in the original Hollow Knight, yes

Mmm, if you just horn it. Yeah. Okay, so

not silk something man

It's a game with like almost minimal

storytelling yeah direct storytelling

So I guess it makes

sense that I can't remember

I don't even remember the main

character's name in the original Hollow

Knight. Hmm. He's

called the night. Oh, yeah

Fair enough fair play team cherry. Yeah

All right, but the question is are you

gonna drop what you're

doing to play silk song?

It depends

I think I have some time next week. It's

that's when it's coming out, right?

Yes, that's right comes out Thursday

Yeah, see so I definitely want to play

it. I think I'm I

think I have time to do it

I'll probably play it on stream too, but

I also have been like

like itching to play

Gears of War

Reloaded

Which is like one of my

favorite games of that generation

And I just haven't had time to I

downloaded it. It's on my steam deck and

I just haven't had time to play it yet

Mm-hmm, but so I mean it's gonna be a

I'm after split my time equally for the

games that I well so deeply why there's

something right there

It says team cherry has stated that silk

song will be very large

200 new enemies

40 new bosses a hundred benches around

the game world compared

compared to I think you see

Over 140 over 30 and 51 respectively in

the original Hollow Knight at launch

and

Grade more supposed to be one of the

biggest areas they've ever created

So it looks to be Hollow Knight, but just

more more more more. So

Just here's the thing I

don't really like large

Levels or large game

worlds. I like a more compact and

like

Concise game world right like I prefer

Banjo Kazooie to Banjo Tooie

Banjo Tooie felt sparse and

Empty right and Banjo Kazooie was like

this dense fun world

I mean I I'm not gonna

pick cast judgment on on

This game yet on silk song, but I will

say that has me raising an eyebrow

Well, maybe you're just faster overall in

silk song. Yeah, that could be for sure

But yeah, I am excited I

definitely will be checking it out

Yeah, I think I might yeah, I mean I've

been I said I was playing

shinobi and ninja Gaiden

But I might have to add another game to

my juggling list. Yeah, how do you manage

juggling games by the

way? It's hard for me

That's a good question

Cuz like I'm not sure cuz I

Know some people have like let's say for

like some people have issues with like

juggling around

different like system controllers

Like if you switch between like a

Nintendo controller and Xbox controller

they get X and PlayStation

They would get X mixed up. I don't that

doesn't happen to me though. Mmm

Yeah, I know it's kind of instinctual

that like if I know if I have a Nintendo

controller in my hands

I know where a and B

are, you know, right?

But for me I

Find like if I have a game that I'm

playing like let's say Gears

of War for example, and then

Another game that I want to play comes

out. Suddenly, I feel a

lot of like choice anxiety

And it's just easier for

me to not play them. Oh

My gosh, I know that feeling too, but

yeah, I think at this point

I'm gonna have to rush I'm not rush

But I'm thinking just something to spend

my time focusing on one of the two games

I'm playing right now

I mean just get that yeah, I don't want

to get out of the way because

it sounds like it's annoying

But like, you know, I'm saying yeah. Oh,

no, I get it. I you know, what would be

really fun is if I do

Gears so here's that so Gears of War

played on 16 by 9 feels normal to me,

right? And so playing that on my

TV over here will take me right back to

plan it on my 360 because I had

I

Had a CRT on my 360

when I first got a 360

So doing that I think I might do that on

stream and have my camera set up over

here. So and streaming that

But then playing Hollow Knight, yeah, I

might stream it from my steam deck. Well,

you know while sitting here

And that might just be enough

Differentiation to actually play the two

games at the same time

No, I think that that I think that does

work cuz it's not like you're just

singing it could be a plane

The layout. Yeah, I get I get it though

But whatever I do

I have to avoid playing games at all cost

on my PC itself because I

this this is where I work

All right now, yeah now we got asked

James will you drop

everything to play so it's on next week

There I asked him well if he responds

during the show will just

We'll let you guys know but if not, we'll

just put in the comments down below on

YouTube. Mmm. I've seen comment

Alright, but I mean, I don't know much

what more we can say

about silk song besides

It's gonna be it's it's finally happening

man. What's next Half-Life 3?

Half-Life 3 dude. I mean, I think what's

next for playing silk song is gonna be

playing it on your portable

Sony handheld the PlayStation 6

What is this story about?

so There's a report claiming that Sony wants

to make two different

kinds of PlayStation 6's

First and foremost is your standard, you

know console more

powerful of course naturally

But they also want to make a

switch style dockable handheld

that

When docked will be more powerful than

the base ps5. So they say

And this is according to Moore's law is

dead. Mm-hmm. That's a leak site. All

right, like they mostly publish leaks

Yeah, yeah leak youtuber

right, so the

portable the portable

ps6 is supposed to have

Zen for Zen 6c cores

Realers n6 e cores and also two of those

cool and to sip two separate course for

quote-unquote system tasks

Mmm interesting so eight or eight course

total two of them

dedicated to like the no no no

No for four course for gaming and then

two those are fours. So six cores

It says oh, oh for four Zen see cores and

two further. Okay, so it is a six core.

Right, right, right?

I read yes, and it's supposed to have 16

our DNA 5 compute compute units

Hmm supposed to run a 1.2 gigahertz

handheld and 1.65 gigahertz docked and

It's supposed to retail for

$500 which is incredibly cheap for a

handheld. Yeah for sure

Like the steam deck is around that price

and this would and if the specs are to be

believed and this would eclipse the steam

Neck by a lot. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah,

this would overtake it

easily and

$500, I

Mean, I would bet that the $500 version

is like 128 gigabytes of

storage maximum like there's

They're gonna be gouging pricing with

with higher higher tier

storage. I would imagine

Oh, yeah for sure, but like 500 bucks.

That's crazy. I would

consider picking up a ps6

at a handheld one for 500 bucks

Absolutely, yes

That said there's I mean

My personal opinion though. I see a lot

of games running poorly

I'm not just not just PC

but also on consoles as well

Yeah, like Monster in a

while still runs terribly

So I and not it's not just on and it's

not just on the base ps5

but also ps5 Pro as well

which makes me wonder

Mr. Makes you wonders if if games can

really get much better and

I think Sony is seeing

The writing on the wall and that's why

they're going for a more portable

approach. Right? Well also like

Correct me if I'm wrong, but like zen 6

would be breaking with

tradition, right? Like I mean

Even when the ps5

released the the generation of

Of like CPU APU hardware was like one or

two generations old at that point, right?

Right zen 6 if they were if

they released this in 2027

Zen 6 is gonna be pretty new

Still like so that just

bought boggles my mind a little bit

I mean they look like they're really

going for like the state-of-the-art

versus like tried and true stable

CPU hardware, I

Mean, that's totally valid. But I think

for like higher efficiency games

I mean going state-of-the-art might be

the way to go for like a handheld like

this. That's what yeah

I mean that makes sense

But I mean even the steam deck was like I

know it was delayed by like six months

But like it's still like the CPU was

Older, right? I mean the CPU was older

but at the same time

though it was still like

The most at the time the most powerful

APU because you couldn't buy any APUs

with our DNA anything in them, right?

You know no handhelds had our DNA at all.

They were still all running Vega

They're all either running Intel or they

were running AMD with Vega. I think

So that's right Vega

was like the big deal for

Handhelds and for like mini PCs yeah

And yeah, and as a result the steam deck

was not only cheaper

than like the original

I a neo which was at the

time the best handheld hmm

But it was also like substantially more

powerful and power efficient

So it was the steam deck at the time

basically was the

best of like both worlds

At the time for sure. It wasn't

considered the cheap

handheld was considered

The strength of the best.

Yeah, and the cheapest yeah

I mean and if Sony if these rumors are

true, then Sony would definitely be

swooping in and stealing that

Both both badges there

cheapest and most powerful

Yes, and the steam deck should just opt

to do the same thing I'm hoping

Yeah, I'm hoping we get a

steam deck at some point I

But I mean, I don't know when that's

gonna happen to be honest

I would love to have a steam deck I

Would even take like Fremont as a console

like that would be

that would be cool as well

Well, hopefully it happens sooner than

later man, I'm sick of waiting

Hello, wait, so I

remember the OLED steam deck

Had some benchmark sleep a couple of

months in advance, right?

Yeah for the it was announced

Yeah, so maybe it'll only be a couple of

months until we get Fremont

Sometime towards the end of the year. I

would hope that it's

like in time for Christmas

Dude Fremont's gonna

be sick dude. I would

If they also come out with half-life

three at the same time boy,

howdy would that be exciting?

That would be the best Christmas of my

adult life. Let me tell you

It might be the best

Christmas of your whole life. Yes

I don't know one Christmas. I got a

little Super Nintendo keychain. It was

like it was literally a Super Nintendo

Shaped but it was like this big and it

was on a keychain and

And you would push in on the the reset

button and it would

play the Super Mario theme

Super Mario Bros theme

Super Mario world theme

And I love that thing more than anything.

I had ever loved about my entire life. So

Don't tell Emily. I know

It's crazy man, I mean

We hear so much about gaming anymore

It's crazy that they would drop this $500

Bob when you know what the prices of

consoles have been going up. I know. Yeah

Maybe maybe they've got like a really

good deal with AMD or

something. Who knows?

Yeah, or maybe

Yeah, I hope so man AMD's

right now on top of the world

Mm-hmm, which is just which does kind of

have me concerned cuz like the last time

someone was on top was Intel and we know

How bad Intel shit the bed for like a

decade? Oh my gosh. Yeah, they're still

paying for they're

still paying for their sins

Yep, they are yes

Speaking of sins Nintendo

Oh

Just Nintendo no need

to elaborate further

But no many developers at Gamescom said

they weren't able to get

switched to dev kits still

How do we how do we

feel about that high-tech?

Well, I would imagine

Nintendo would want to

make as many of these dev kits as soon as

possible and get them out to as many

developers as possible to

get third-party support because

You know remember the last the remember

the last system that didn't get that

didn't get much third

party support with the Wii U

Yeah, yeah that all that I'm not gonna

say that nearly killed Nintendo, but that

was a bad that was a bad time

It it was definitely a

heavy blow for them for sure

Yes

What but what's interesting though is

that it seems like Nintendo are just

telling these developers to develop the

games for the switch one

and rely on backwards compatibility I

Mean that's not a great response from

Nintendo is it like that I mean

Especially with it all being through

basically a proton like abstraction layer

On a handheld. I mean I'm

saying this as a steam deck fan

with I

Don't know if it feels like there could

be optimizations that developers could do

for something like the switch to that

Nintendo's just not

Putting their money into the development

for third parties and that that could

spell disaster for them

I mean it the headline here says Nintendo

seems to almost be discouraging

switch to development and

If if I were a developer who had any

interest in developing for switch to I

would feel snubbed by this I

Feel like Nintendo

I think if this were Sony they would

probably dissuade you from making ps4

versions of a ps5 game

Yeah, the opposite right yeah,

you would think so right yeah

Like I get it

You can make a switch one game and it

works on switch yeah,

but the same time though

What if I want to make a game that

doesn't run while on the switch one?

What if they did this like CD project

right to release cyberpunk?

I'm a punk was one of the best-selling

switch to games because like it was a

graphical showcase of

what the switch could do

Mmm. Yeah, switch I mean yeah

My question is is this a

strategy from Nintendo?

Because they have such a

huge install base for the switch

That they are still making a ton of

money. Maybe even a

lion's share of their income on

The switch right like sales for software

on that so maybe they're trying to like

extend the life cycle of the switch one I

mean it makes

It makes sense. Yeah, I definitely I can

definitely see that because I mean yeah

the install base is there and

There and I mean come on they literally

raised the prices of the switch one.

There's no way they're not

There's no way they're gonna like stop

anytime soon. Yeah, I

mean there's a

There's an interesting

exchange between John and Oliver on

Digital foundry

John said Nintendo seems to almost just

to be almost discouraging switch to

development to some degree where I've

spoken with plenty of developers

Where they say they were either told that

their game they should just ship it on

switch one and rely on

backwards compatibility

There's a lot of developers who are

unable to get switch to dev kits

We talked to a lot of devs at games com

this year and so many of

them said the same thing

They want to ship on switch they would

love to do switch to

versions. They can't get the hardware

It's really difficult right now, and then

Oliver said I don't really understand the

strategy because like you said even now

Developers are struggling to get systems,

and I know that some months ago

When we're you know hearing things

Through the grapevine and talking to

people there were some

weird exclusions with

Some big developers struggling to get

kits for games from what I heard so

that's just crazy man like

there are some even triple-a

Even some triple-a studios that aren't

able to get developer kits for the switch

Man those are the people you really need

to get dev kits like ASAP. Yeah, yeah,

definitely. I mean I can

understand like prioritizing

certain devs over others right

especially if

Nintendo's having a hard time even

fulfilling the request

for filling the

demand I should say of the

switch in the public, but

They're not really having that issue

right like the stocks stock for the

switch has been more

or less there, right?

Right so and yeah and another thing is

that the switch has had a history of

third parties coming out much later

On the switch, and they would unlike the

PlayStation 4 right oh, yeah

Yeah, and so this is not gonna leave you

that issue either right?

Yeah

And then there's a comment here that says

the most Nintendo thing possible

I have to agree with it. Yeah, I

certainly agree, and

there's not like that

There's not like a chip shortage or

anything like that

right not that I'm aware

Yeah, so I can't think of a reason why

they aren't just meant

I I mean I remember Nintendo was

manufactured the hell out of switch 2's

to the point where I haven't heard

But like normally if like this remember

the switch one released and like people

couldn't find them at all

And they were scalped to hell and back

when they first released. Oh, yeah, I

heard nothing of the

sort for the switch same

I'm wondering if there's just

less demand for the switch I

Mean I can see it

I mean I'm seeing people online turning

against Mario Kart world despite that

trying to be I guess the

System seller right yeah

Like I've I saw like

a real like a glut of

Super Mario world

Videos like and it was like YouTube

shoving them down my throat and

Then suddenly nothing like I'm not seeing

and I you know I'm not in those circles,

so I don't know but like

It hasn't had the same

kind of impact that I remember

any

Switch game having like any first-party

switch game that even Mario Kart 8 which

itself was a re-release of a

Wii U game right I

Mean I played it. I have it. It's it's

Thankfully I didn't get thankfully I

didn't have to pay any

dollars for it, but uh I

Mean I don't know if I

would have paid $80 Adam. It's

It's a $50 fun video game, but I don't

know if it's an $80

fun video game, right?

Do you still play it even like you know

two or three months on?

No, no, no, I've I've

Shelled my switch to you. I took it

offline. I'm waiting for a hack to come

out for it nice smart. That's good

I was going to

My friend my friend bought a second

switch, and he's been like messaging me.

He's like still in the box

You can buy it now, and

I'm like I don't know man

I I can't justify spending that kind of

money on a system. I know I won't play

very often you know like

Why does he have a second

switch? He's trying to scalp it

I think he was anticipating there was

gonna be that shortage that he could like

profit from and he bought it and he's

Kind of I think he's regretting it now

Good let him live with

All right

Yeah, I I do I really would like to play

Mario Kart world, but I all from

everything I've seen I'm like it doesn't

really look that much

different or more fun or innovative

In fact a lot of the like novel things

about it. I've seen kind of turned me off

from it like wall riding and stuff

Grinding I'm not like I don't know well

doesn't make a lot of sense

to me for a Mario Kart game I

I kind of like those features, but

honestly unless you

unless you're like really like

Intimate with the map and that it's gonna

be hard to take advantage of like wall

riding and stuff hmm

Yeah, I love some maps like

specifically designed for it

I don't think there are too many of this,

but I haven't played a

whole lot of my car world

So maybe I'm just hmm. Maybe I'm just a

Mistaken hmm. I haven't even honestly

man. I haven't even gotten to read. I

haven't unlocked

rainbow road yet. Oh really?

Yeah, that's how little I've played of

it. I probably should play more of it

Boy, I don't feel like I

don't feel like it yeah

See here's the thing. It's like I am a

huge Mario Kart fan. I love Mario Kart

It's and I like I have

my switch like over here

And I haven't turned it on in ages

I've unlocked everything in Mario Kart 8

Deluxe like I mean they're

like the carts and everything

But like I don't I

haven't felt the need to go back

I never played online

like I'm not an online gamer

So I just like the big appeal of Mario

Kart world seems like playing online, and

I'm not interested in that so oh

Thankfully there is still split screen

like hmm. I brought yeah. I was visiting

my my brother's house

He has a lot of kids mm-hmm, and we all

of them work together, so I

set up my switch to played

No, it's a great time for them. Yeah

Awesome. I mean that's

so I mean that's still

Probably the best appeal just playing

with a bunch of kids hmm. Oh, yeah

Would be a lot of fun. Yeah, my nieces

and nephews of course of course

I didn't play there because I would just

I would totally demolish them right yeah

Yeah, it is what it is. It's a lot better

than what letting them

play robots all day for sure

Speaking of watching

people play video games

Streamers are apparently earning more

money playing games than devs make play

actually making the games

This is according to a

Japanese indie developer

Can you shed some light on this high tech

this sounds very unfair almost so

There are concerns from Japanese devs

that indie devs that uh

streamers make a lot more money

from

streaming games

Then you know the developers do

themselves which yeah, I agree is totally

unfair like you didn't make the game

You're just kind of playing

it and like okay, all right

I was gonna get to go to a rant about

react content, but I also think react

content is super lazy as well

Yeah, that's why I don't tend to do it

unless we're doing like a live stream of

like a special event yeah

Yeah, something like yeah the game

awards. I tried to avoid react content

unless I feel like I

can add something to it

So yeah for but for the most part yeah

reacting is pretty lazy

Yeah

That said there are I mean like

Some of it. I don't always agree some of

the discussions. I don't always agree

with like for example

Sometimes streamers can bring more money

to a game especially

like remember among us yeah

Yeah, among us was a small game

It made a little bit of money, but I

don't think it made that much money and

then it wasn't super popular until

Streamers got a hold

of that game, and yeah

That's that right yeah

But the same time though. I

don't think it's reasonable for

Streamers to make more money off of a

single stream of playing a

game than a developer would

Yeah, I mean it's tough because it's like

I can see I could see like

Not really a royalty, but like I could

see it feeling more fair if like

platforms like twitch or YouTube

Gave a cut of ad revenue to the

developer. I don't feel like it's fair

for it to come out of the

What the streamer is earning though right

like it should come out of the platform

and not the streamer

Yeah, but Amazon's not gonna do that

And it would turn to their precious

precious ad funds that

they're trying to shove down

Yeah, shove down at one's throats and

plus they are cutting money from the

streamers anyways. Yeah, they are

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like

as as a content creator. It's like if I

wanted to highlight a game

That game that I love or whatever it

It wouldn't make sense for me to have to

pay to highlight it right and that's why

and especially because

YouTube and twitch are

screwing over creators right now

It feels like it should be they should be

forced somehow to like

to for them to make the

Payments to developers, you know, yeah,

so there's a quote a little

bit further down on your screen

Now it says a famous

streamer played the game I made

But despite their streaming getting

hundreds of thousands of

views in just one night

They didn't include a link to to a game

They didn't include a link to a game to

my game of the video description and it

didn't have any

positive impact on the game

Sales they just got a free ride from my

game made a quick buck and that's it

Supposedly this quote-unquote live

streamer had two

million subs at the time. So

I mean

Did did they get a free ride though? I

mean like if they bought the game or if

the developer gave them a key

Like that's not really a free ride

But I don't know I can understand feeling

a little like it feels

unfair to the developer though

Well, I think if they gave him

a key then you should have to

At least provide a link, right? Yeah, I

would think yeah, I would think that too

I think it's just general courtesy

because I know a lot of people

And a lot of people are curious about

What games I play in

my own videos like I?

Usually label them, but I kind of forgot

to label some games. I played in a recent

Review I did for like a controller and I

had a ton of questions asking. Oh, what

game did they play at this timestamp?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I always try. I

always try I forget sometimes

Yeah, you know the thing is one of the

things that I have found is like

There's a lot more incentive for me to

remember to put links to games

If I can like link to humble or another

site that has affiliate

Promotions, right? That makes sense. So

if if if you're worried about that

You know as a developer

Put your game on

humble put your game on GOG

give

The the streamers the incentive to link

to your game because then they can make

money from it if they have a huge

Following then they have an incentive to

be like hey use my affiliate link below

and buy the game you get a cut like it

That feels like the most fair way to do

this because then you know

If you make a shitty game that someone's

playing just to make fun of

Then you don't deserve to like make money

if your game is crap, you

know what I'm saying like

It but if you make a good game and the

streamer makes it appealing

to people for them to you know

And the streamer can make a little side

money from an affiliate link that that

seems like the virtuous cycle that

Many of us already benefit from you know

Yeah, also, it's in the game the

thumbnail the game they used. It's a let

these it's hilarious

That game right there, I know where it

is. It's called needy streamer overload

is hilarious. Oh, really?

yeah, so basically you

it's a stream it's like a

simulator sort of like streaming

simulator where you like raise a

you make a

girl, I'm a chant a streamer and

Oh my god

There's a lot of like different endings

and different like types of streams you

can do and like ways you can I think one

of them was like you

can turn them to like a

cult leader

Dude, it's awesome. It's so funny. You

need to check it out. Did okay? What's it

called needy streamer overload?

Nice, dude, it's it is insane though

Needy streamer. Yeah

But it's also like kind of

dark in many ways to yeah

Despite all the pastel pink, it's one of

those games. Yeah, I

like the kind of retro

vibe of the UI here

Interesting conspiracy theories that's oh

She's and she also

takes drugs to make her

Interesting that's going on my wish list

too. Oh, I'm not signed in

I'm on the browser, but yeah

You know

Nice 15 16 bucks that's not bad either

Well

Dude I don't know what else

about this story anything else

Nothing in particular

Just think it'd be interesting to talk

about because I mean some parts I agree

with some I don't agree with. Mm-hmm

Yeah, I mean, I would say some of... I'm

sympathetic to both sides of this as a

game developer and as a content creator.

And I think, like, on the one hand, it

makes sense. It's a little more fair. But

like I said, there's...

There are ways that aren't, you know,

bordering on extortion in order to get to

make revenue from your game.

And speaking of extortion, tariffs.

[laughs]

So postal services around the world...

That was a terrible segue. I was really

stretching for that one.

[laughs]

Postal services around the world are

suspending deliveries to the United

States because of tariffs.

And also they also removed a... They also

patched a rule out where you can ship

stuff that's worth

less than $800 for free.

Yeah, the de minimis rule.

Yes. And that was probably the backbone

of importing businesses in

America. Like Teemu, for example.

Yeah. I'm of two minds about it. Stuff

like Teemu, like the

absolute dregs, the cheapest.

I'm not gonna weep for Teemu, but I will

say that this is going to be even more

disruptive and even more inflationary.

I think Teemu has to live if we want a

market that doesn't

suck ass, to be honest.

I'm not a fan of it either, but I mean, I

know I made a video about Teemu a while

back, but like I said it

was, you get what you paid for.

Yeah.

Yeah, but anyways.

So many countries, see, service in 22

European countries, including the UK,

France, Germany, Italy, the big ones, has

suspended deliveries.

And it's not just Europeans, it's also

Asian countries as well. Australia, New

Zealand, Japan, South Korea,

Taiwan, and many more as well.

Wow.

Is this the end of importing cool stuff

from Japan to the US?

Dude, it could possibly be, yeah.

Oh no, I have to spend over

$800 for it to make sense.

Well, I mean, I think basically removing

the de minimis rule means that you have

to pay duties on anything, any good

that's coming in from abroad.

So what the de minimis rule was, I could

be wrong about this, but my understanding

is that if you bought something that cost

less than $800 or was

valued less than $800,

then it was essentially duty free, which

meant that you didn't have to pay taxes

or what's the word, not shipping and

handling taxes, import tariffs.

I don't know, something like that.

Anyway, but now, letters, according to

this, letters and personal gifts under

$100 will still

technically be exempt from tariffs.

But some services have suspended all US

postage of goods and others have

suspended postage to the US entirely.

What counts as a personal gift?

Like, you send something to your pen pal

in Korea or something like that?

I would imagine, or something that costs

less than $100 maybe.

What if I built a gaming PC and I just

declared it as under $100?

Well, that would

probably be against the law.

True that.

Yeah.

Man, I mean, it just goes to show how

entirely fragile stable democracies are.

Like, not to get too deep into the

politics, but I mean, all it takes is

like, you know, just a few little nudges

and some like, a lot of uncertainty.

And suddenly you can't receive mail from

your friends abroad.

You know, you can't ship packages.

You can't order things

from outside the country.

It's like, it just, it

boggles the mind, you know?

Ah, quite sub, man.

I mean, I don't know what to make of it

besides it's gonna mess everything up.

Things are gonna be more expensive again.

More expensive? Inflationary, right?

Inflationary?

Yeah, it's just, it's no good.

Consoles are gonna go up in price again.

Yep.

Yep.

I don't know, man.

Scary times.

I don't know what else to say about that.

Lots of scary things

happening at once, man.

Yeah.

Speaking of uncertainty, the UK Online

Safety Act is now being applied on Steam.

Basically, Steam is now requiring any

users in the UK to verify their age.

How is this going down?

So, they're doing it in

a roundabout sort of way.

Because in the UK, you have to be 18 plus

to have a credit card, right?

So, rather than doing it themselves,

Valve did the smart thing and just made

it so that you had to have a

credit card on your account.

Therefore, making the credit card

companies the ones liable for

verifying your age and stuff.

So, basically, you need a credit card

with a valid credit card number, a CVV,

expiry date, and name

and billing address.

Interesting.

So, I guess they're not really trying to

validate that the person who's inputting

the name and the credit card information

is the same person on

the credit card, right?

Is that what they're not

really trying to verify that?

I don't think so.

In fact, I don't even think there's a

place to put your real name on your Steam

account, aside from your

billing address, right?

Right.

So, no, I don't think

they're not trying for real.

Yeah, this just seems like

they're trying to get around it.

Which, I mean, good for them.

Like, you know, this... it does not make

sense... I said this when

we talked about it before.

Like, it doesn't make sense to me that

the government can pass a law that

requires private companies to collect and

store even more private, you know,

personally identifiable information.

Like, that... it's a liability for the

companies to store that information.

And, like, if the government wants to do

this, then they should have to have their

own system that Steam or whoever can ping

against to validate your age and identity

and other credentials, you know?

Maybe this is the way

to do age verification.

I know we were discussing how the best

way to go about doing,

like, age verification stuff.

Maybe this is the best way, because, I

mean, banks kind of have to have their

information anyways to, like,

do any sort of banking, right?

They do. But I don't think there's an age

requirement in the U.S.

to have a credit card.

Yeah, that's true. This wouldn't really

work in the U.S. because, I mean, I

remember seeing people in, like, middle

and high school having their names on

credit cards, so, like...

Yeah, I know. They're

really spoiled, but, like...

Yeah, it makes sense, though, that this

wouldn't really work in the U.S.

Actually, you know what, though?

In order to access Steam store pages for

mature content games, you'll need to be

logged in to an active user account and

explicitly opt in through the account

settings page for U.K. users.

This opt-in process requires age

verification. Your U.K. Steam user

account is considered age verified for as

long as a valid credit

card is stored on the account.

But this is interesting because it's a

credit card, right? So, if you don't have

a credit card, then you can't access

mature content in the U.K.

That's what Valve is saying.

I guess so, yeah, I guess...

I mean, I'm curious if the U.S. has age

requirements for a credit card.

I think to actually open up your own

credit card account, you have to be of

age, but, like, if you have an account

and you want to, like, give your kid

access to that card with their name on

that card, then I think you can add your

kid as an authorized user.

But I don't think kids can actually open

their own credit cards, so to speak. So

it would still be under, like, their

parents' name and stuff.

True. Yeah, so the minimum age to open a

credit card as the primary account holder

is 18. So, okay. So that would work in

the U.S. if Steam wanted to do that.

Scroll down. I want to see this minimum

age to be an

authorized user on credit cards.

13. Okay.

So basically, half of the banks listed

here don't have a minimum age, so you

can, like, make a credit card for your

infant if you wanted to.

But if you want to use the good shit,

like American Express, then you've got to

be at least a teenager.

Yeah. Discover in U.S. bank also 15 and

16 years old, respectively. But then Bank

of America Capital One Chase, Citi, and

Wells Fargo have no age requirement.

That is interesting. You have to be 13 to

use your dad's MX black.

Also, Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $795

annual fee and charges an extra $195

annually for each additional card. Wow.

I don't know much about credit cards, to

be honest. I only have a few, but...

Yeah, I have, like, four. Two of them are

business cards. And I'll tell you, the

business ones were a

hassle to get set up.

What are they, MX?

One of them is Chase, Inc., which is

business, and I don't

remember what the other one is.

Oh.

But, yeah, like, I have, like, an $8,000

limit, credit limit on

the business one, which...

$8,000 doesn't sound like a whole lot.

No, it doesn't. But, and the crazy thing

is, dude, my credit score is, like, an

$840 or something. It's as high as...it's

almost as high as it can possibly get.

And they still, like, banks are

turn...like, turned me down for a loan

when I wanted to buy this house, even

though I had, like, an 800...at the time,

I think it was, like,

an 810 credit score.

I mean, that's self-employed.

Yeah, they don't trust self-employed

people. They just think

they're money laundering.

Yeah. Even though...dude, even though,

like, I have perfect credit,

it's insane. Anyway. Anyway.

So, but the fact is, so if you're in the

UK and you want to, like, play

mature-rated games on your Steam account,

or buy them, I guess, or see the store

content, you have to have a

credit card on file with Steam.

Even if you want to pay for your games

with a debit card, it seems

like you need a credit card.

I don't know. How do you feel about that?

What's stopping someone from either, A,

like, stealing their credit cards, or

just have it out on there?

Mm-hmm.

Or, B, using, like, one of those

services, like, privacy? You know what

I'm talking about, right?

Yeah. Well, I think privacy.com, I don't

think they issue, like, card numbers that

register as credit cards.

Oh, what do they

register as? Like, gift cards?

They register as...maybe gift cards,

maybe debit cards, but I don't think they

show up as credit. The

brink got back to us.

Oh, did he? What did he say?

He said, "Maybe, but my

wife definitely will."

Oh, no, his wife's definitely gonna drop

everything for Silksong.

Dude...

That's funny. I know, I

don't think Emily ever played...

I don't think Emily ever played Hollow

Knight, but I think she

would probably enjoy it.

Do you think she's gonna

drop everything for Silksong?

No.

I don't.

Not like so.

Not with that attitude.

I think she would enjoy

it, though. She likes, um...

She liked, um...what's the, um...

What's the one?

She...Hades. She likes Hades. They're

almost kinda similar, maybe.

What?

Those are not.

No, you don't think so?

They're...they're...they're

kinda similar.

They're kinda roguelike. I mean, well, I

guess not. I guess Hollow Knight can.

No, Hollow Knight's not roguelike. But

the only way they're similar is that they

probably run great on the Steam Deck.

That's true. That is true.

And, yeah, speaking of the Steam Deck...

Ooh.

PC Handpelt.

They're out of control.

More specifically, the

prices are out of control.

What, uh...what's up with

this? We've got some, uh...

crazy new handhelds? Or are they just old

ones getting increased?

Um, well, no. The only one that...the

only handheld that got an

actual increase was the Switch One.

Uh, but...

But, no, they're just talking about how

expensive the new ROG Xbox Ally X is.

Oh, I got that in one try.

Nice.

You forgot the Series

X...uh...X-Bone One.

Alright, but...

Yeah, so...basically...

anything that's not a Switch 2 or a Steam

Deck is incredibly steep in price.

Or a Switch One, for that matter.

And, I mean...

On one hand, I get it. It's kind of

expensive, but at the

same time, though...

Hand...PC Handpelt were never really

cheap to begin with.

Like, they were always at minimum, like,

$800 before the Steam Deck, at least.

Like, I remember seeing the I&EO in the

various GPD devices. They were inching

towards $1,000 even back then.

Yup. I remember when I bought my GPD Win

2...uh...on...um...what was it?

IndieGoGo? Is that right?

I think that was...

I think that was a yes.

GPD Win 2. I don't remember what I paid

for it. I think it was like $800, though.

Something...I think it was like $800.

And, uh...I remember being like, "That's

steep, but I really

want to play games on it."

Did you play games on it?

Uh...I...no. Not really. I didn't

like...it was not

very comfortable to hold.

Do you remember what

that thing looked like?

I know what it looks like. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. I never had one. But

yeah, I guess it makes sense.

I liked the form factor. I thought it was

nice. The...the analog

sticks were good-ish.

But I hated the little, uh, toggle switch

to switch between mouse and gamepad mode.

And, um...also, like, the triggers were

arranged in a very strange way.

You can see here, there's

three triggers on the back.

And, uh...this is the right bumper...or

the right, uh, analog stick click.

Right? Alright! They

didn't click back then. Yeah.

So...and then...and then this was...these

were, like, super tacky, like, um...like

a mouse click. You know?

Um...they just...nothing about it felt

super ergonomic. And then it would get

really hot on

the...where your left hand was.

It would get super hot. And so it just

wasn't good to play, uh, games on.

Um...but I installed Linux on it. And,

uh...I had fun with a

little handheld Linux machine.

And this was pre-steamed, right? Yeah,

this was definitely pre-steamed.

This was, like, around the time that the

switch came out, I think.

And it had an Intel Core M3 8100Y

processor. So...and it had Intel Iris

graphics, like...or

maybe it was pre-iris.

Like, it was before that. Um...

Intel...yeah, Intel UHD Graphics 615. So

you could really only play...like, uh,

indie side-scrollers and stuff, you know?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Despite them using

pictures of Dark Souls 3, you probably

couldn't play that that well.

No. I don't...I don't...I don't think I

ever tried that, but I

doubt that would work.

So I understand the article's

frustrations, but I don't necessarily

agree with the premise, because PC

handles have always been expensive.

The Steam Deck has always been a bit of

an outlier, to be honest.

Yeah. I mean, Valve can

afford to do it. Um... Yeah.

But can they... Most of the other, like,

vendors, like, PC handheld vendors are

pretty...are fairly boutique, right?

Like, it's not like they're doing high

volumes and selling

millions of units, right?

Yeah. Most of them are not Lenovo or

Asus, so they can't...they definitely

can't afford to do volume.

But even then, like...like, GPD...like,

the GP15...I think we talked

about this a few times already.

It looks like a really cool device, but I

can't imagine it being

less than, like, 1500 minimum.

Right. Yeah. It's, uh...I don't know.

I...it makes sense because

PC hardware is just expensive.

And with high-end...you're not only

contending with, like,

high-end APUs and stuff.

You're also contending with greater

engineering that has to go into it to

make sure that it's comfortable to hold.

Because, honestly, I haven't...since the

GPD Win 2, I haven't used a device that

has been that uncomfortable to hold in my

hand because of the heat, right?

And that requires engineering. It's not

just, like, they can slap a, you know, a

Ryzen 9 into the

machine and call it a day.

They have to design it with airflow in

mind and testing and

prototyping and stuff.

So, yeah, you're gonna end

up with a higher overhead.

And at lower volumes, you

get, you know, costs are higher.

So, it's never been super inexpensive for

them to make these things, but with...I

think Valve has kind of shifted the

perception of...and along

with the Switch 2, you know?

Or the Switch, I should say. The Switch 2

is overpriced. I don't know.

I think if the Steam Deck 2 is going to

be successful, they need to

have a hit of a $400 price point.

I get it. The big bad "T" word is making

everything more expensive, and it's

probably what's causing the ROG Xbox Ally

X Series SX to be, like, close to $1,000

instead of the MSRP of, like, $700 or

$800 with the original Ally X.

But, like, I think Valve has to hit it,

and I know...I'm sure Valve would be

willing to take a

slightly bigger hit on hardware.

Yeah, because, like, think about it. How

many games have you bought on Steam that

you haven't touched?

Dude, too many. How many games have I

bought on my Steam Deck intending to play

them without actually

playing them? Too many.

Yes. That's pure profit for Valve.

Yeah.

Like, they're not even spending

the...you're not even spending their

bandwidth to download the games. That's

how...it's pure profit, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Pure profit for

Valve and the developers, too.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I think Valve could certainly

afford to take a

bigger hit if they need to.

Yes.

Now, I'm sure there's a limit to it.

They're not just gonna give away free

Steam Deck 2s just so you can...in the

hopes that maybe someone will buy stuff

on Steam, but, like...

Yeah, I think if the PS6 rumors prove

true, I think Valve will have no choice

but to undercut it

by, like, $100 for sure.

If they want to compete, yeah.

Do it, Valve. I dare ya.

Do it.

But now...but anyways, what sort of

features do we want in a Steam Deck 2? I

don't think we've actually

talked about this on air.

Mm.

I really want expansion. Like, I want USB

4 where I can connect a discrete GPU when

I connect it to my TV.

I agree. USB 4 is a must. I understand

that it was...the Steam Deck was released

in a weird state where we didn't have

Thunderbolt 4 slash USB 4,

but, like, it's a thing now.

We did have it, but AMD didn't. Like, it

was on Intel CPUs, but not...

Yeah, that's...yeah.

Yeah. But now that we

have it, I think it's a must.

Yeah.

And I think Valve would be stupid not to

do it, quite frankly.

Yeah. I would like an official docking

station that has either expansion, like a

slot that you can expand, or it comes

with, like, a dedicated GPU built in.

But that's probably very niche, so I

don't know if they

would actually do it, but...

I think if they were gonna go that route,

I think they would just stick with one

GPU inside the dock and not have to worry

about, like, multiple different...

Instead of worrying about, like, having

an external GPU, like, Caddy where you

can stick your own, like, Nvidia GPU or

whatever, I think they're just gonna

focus on having, like, a 7600X or

whatever, XD or whatever to get in.

It really...I mean, it's easier to focus

on one subset of hardware, right?

Yeah. Absolutely. Um...I don't know, what

features would you want?

Ad hoc.

Dude, ad hoc, yes. Ugh.

So, for those who don't know, or maybe

are too young, the original DS, and the

3DS, and the PSP, and the Vita all have

the ability to play multiple games.

Yep.

Wirelessly, without the

need for, like, a router.

Mm-hmm.

And I've mentioned this a couple of times

online in various different places. Some

people call me stupid because they're

like, "Oh, you can just tell me you're

fun! Well, fuck you! How about that?"

Yeah.

So, here's the deal. You can technically

do ad hoc, right, on your Steam deck, but

you have to go into your desktop, like,

you have to drop out of Steam game mode,

you have to go to your desktop, set up an

ad hoc network, and then get all your

friends to join it, right?

It's not an easy or

good experience, right?

Yeah. See, you lost

me at leave game mode.

Right.

So, my idea for ad hoc would be, like,

kind of like how they did it

for, like, the PSP or the DS.

Yeah.

Where Valve could make an API, where they

could just, where you could just have

some sort of lobby

system, built-in lobby system.

Mm-hmm.

Because that's kind of how, like, all

these old ad hoc games worked.

Like, it would make a lobby and you'd,

like, join it if you

detected the lobby within.

Yes.

And, like, yeah, do it like that.

And then you could bring back, you could

bring back land gameplay.

Mm-hmm.

So, yeah, that's how we

revive land game, land parties.

Yeah.

We just make some sort of ad hoc system.

Dude, it would be fairly

trivial for them to do, right?

Because, you know, the whole Linux stack,

really, all they'd have to do is add some

UI to maybe the quick access menu or

something to scan for, you know,

Steam ad hoc games.

And maybe, maybe the Wi-Fi hardware would

also have to support,

like, passive scanning.

Or probably not, actually.

It already can do passive scanning while

you're connected to a network.

So you just have to, like, have the API

for games to be able to, like, advertise,

"Hey, there's an ad hoc game going on."

I think the other thing that they would

have to do, though, is have

some level of download play.

So games, you know, could say, "Hey,

Steam, here are the files that you should

send over to other clients that don't

have a copy of the game already."

So that they could play, like, one little

demo level or whatever.

Mm, that could be interesting.