Community MetaSteam | January 2022 - With a new year comes great responsibility, BOY!

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thekeats1999

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Dec 10, 2018
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I think my best time was about 28 minutes
I'm curious if there's a hard limit?
Either way, the library seems indeed easier!
I believe what happens is that a Reaper is summoned around the 30 minute mark. If you manage to survive another 2 minutes another one is summoned. I believe Reapers one shot you. I had fully ascended Daggers, Fireballs, magic wand and something else. So slow moving kept me going at that point.
 

LEANIJA

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May 5, 2019
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Manjaro patched it already, and as I understand, most major distros did as well
And it is, according to the commenters, mostly a local security flaw, you wouldnt need to worry if you dont share your Linux machine with anyone.
Still, probably a nightmare for sysadmins (reminds me of that exploit that let anyone take over Windows when they plugged in a Razer mouse^^)
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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Manjaro patched it already, and as I understand, most major distros did as well
And it is, according to the commenters, mostly a local security flaw, you wouldnt need to worry if you dont share your Linux machine with anyone.
Still, probably a nightmare for sysadmins (reminds me of that exploit that let anyone take over Windows when they plugged in a Razer mouse^^)
Yes, it's not exploitable remotely so a user would need an authenticated account on the system. Most major distros are patched and you can remove the executable flag from the binary to stop users running it if required. We're going to have to double check our dual-boot machines but any malicious local user wouldn't be able to do much anyway, maybe disrupt a couple of renders. oh noes!

Malicious or even just curious local users could be a bigger issue for many other places though especially if Linux isn't their main concern and they just have a couple of linux machines sat there working away with no real need for people to admin them. I expect there's a lot of places like that.
 
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Mor

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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Mihoyo is releasing some waifu wallpaper app on Steam today. Maybe Genshin Impact will eventually show up at some point.
I mean, Genshin will come, the question is when (which likely is when game is dying :evilblob:)
 
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Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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Crusader Kings 3 introduces Gay Marriage:
Assholes on Era: "Hurr durr, the fanbase is probably going bonkers, muh historic accuracy!" "You know how the fanbase of those types of games is."

fucking hell, Crusader kings had ahistorical womens rights and gay traits for decades.
They paint the player base as a bunch of alt rights, even though these kind of reactions aren't exclusive to Grand Strategy games.
 

Arc

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Sep 19, 2020
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Oh, jesus. That's like the 202x version of those desktop apps that had the animated women walking around your desktop and sitting on your windows.
Everything truly comes back around again doesn't it? lol
I was thinking Bonzi Buddy but with an anime girl. Same concept though.

I mean, Genshin will come, the question is when (which likely is when game is dying :evilblob:)
I can agree with that. Part of me kinda thinks that it might come sooner rather than later and that Epic might have paid to keep it off Steam for a period of time, especially since it's one of the most popular games on EGS. Of course I have absolutely nothing to base that on. It's still nice to see Mihoyo interested in Steam, especially with the rumor that Honkai Star Rail might come to the platform too.
 

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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I have heard of it before but never paid attention until now. Just got the first game after watching the trailer. ;)
Ah, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Some basic tips that I think will help to avoid frustration and/or confusion:

1. Left of the starting area is a hot spring where you can heal. The other main way you recover health is to collect green orbs from enemies, which add to the blue gauge underneath your health bar and once that's full it will completely restore your health.
2. You have different degrees of air control depending on whether you're on an upward or downward trajectory, if you're jumping from standstill or while moving, or if you walk off an edge. Being mindful of the different ranges of movement is key to staying alive.
3. Be sure to read each tablet you come across for essential information. Using the screenshot key liberally will help!
4. There is a hard mode you can (but shouldn't) activate some time after starting, but the game will signpost it clearly
5. There is a solid Steam guide that's hint-based rather than outright giving you answers.
6. Reading the manual is kinda important, especially understanding room layout rules as explained on page 19,. Giving the rest a quick skim is also a good idea. It should be linked on its Steam library page as additional content.

If the health recovery mechanic starts bothering you, there's a mod out there that will auto heal you at each save point and I can dig it up for you if you'd like it.
 
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Aaron D.

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It just feels like the opinion of someone who only played it more recently and/or is judging it in the context of modern standards. Which to be fair, you can absolutely do, but then it is important to frame your thoughts around that, otherwise you sound akin to someone who writes off a film from the 1950s for not using the standards of today and fails to acknowledge the limitations of the time and the ways we only get the standards of today from the lessons of the past (sometimes very subtly, which is also telling that the only two games picked as being directly influenced by HL2 are FPS games and no games from other genres).

I think that a lot about HL1 (which I actually only ever beat on Ps2 back in the day :lampblob: don't revoke my PC gamer card), but it is one of those games that folks playing for the first time are increasingly likely to think , "is that it?" not appreciating the context of when it came out and how it influenced games in ways that you cannot easily look at, especially when the genre is not FPS.
This always drives me nuts when younger gamers are unwilling/unable to contextualize eras of gaming to give older titles their due.

Usually comes up around GOAT conversations. Someone will come in and say, "Yeah, LttP may have been good back in the day, but it has no business being anywhere close to a modern Top 10 list. We've moved on and things have gotten better."

It's completely understandable but at the same time feels so myopic. Like, no s**t things have gotten better. That's the nature of evolution. But without LttP you don't get the "better" modern take on that style of game.

Classics don't cease to exist as time marches on. Nor do their relevance from a historical perspective.

I guess you can't expect someone to truly appreciate milestones set in a time they weren't around to experience. But it's not that hard to use your imagination.



By modern standards this is a weak-ass viewing experience. Yet while I wasn't around at the time, it's not lost on me how absolutely mind-blowing this must have been for audiences making the leap from a radio-only lifestyle.

I'll concede that it's a tough nut to crack in the sense that aging classics don't need dominate the top of every Best Of list in some static form. There does need to be room there for revolutionary new experiences, like Minecraft for example.

I just wish that people who have big proclamations on this topic were more well versed on the subject sometimes.

Now if you'll excuse me I'll be over here yelling at the clouds.
 

Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
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Ah, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Some basic tips that I think will help to avoid frustration and/or confusion:

1. Left of the starting area is a hot spring where you can heal. The other main way you recover health is to collect green orbs from enemies, which add to the blue gauge underneath your health bar and once that's full it will completely restore your health.
2. You have different degrees of air control depending on whether you're on an upward or downward trajectory, if you're jumping from standstill or while moving, or if you walk off an edge. Being mindful of the different ranges of movement is key to staying alive.
3. Be sure to read each tablet you come across for essential information. Using the screenshot key liberally will help!
4. There is a hard mode you can (but shouldn't) activate some time after starting, but the game will signpost it clearly
5. There is a solid Steam guide that's hint-based rather than outright giving you answers.
6. Reading the manual is kinda important, especially understanding room layout rules as explained on page 19,. Giving the rest a quick skim is also a good idea. It should be linked on its Steam library page as additional content.

If the health recovery mechanic starts bothering you, there's a mod out there that will auto heal you at each save point and I can dig it up for you if you'd like it.
Thank you for the tips! This game is surely old-school, with how useful (and colorful) the manual is! I bookmarked your post so I can refer to it once start playing.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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If you think about it, how much has the TV experience changed in the last 20 years alone? Surely these idiots can see that?
From watching cable, to netflix, to people watching things alone on their phone/tablets?
How often to families actually sit and watch the same thing anymore?

I've gone from HUGE TV with tiny screen and 3 broadcast channels, to 4 broadcast channels, VHS & Betamax, to 5+ broadcast channels, to satelitte TV to cable TV to HD & 4K to subscription TV and watching on wall sized screens ( That some people say are still too small ffs! ) or everyone in a room watching a different thing on their own phone or tablets. From no renting movies, to renting tapes, to renting DVDs, to renting streams for example too.

Excuse me, i have to go that cloud needs to get the fuck off my lawn.
 

dex3108

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Dec 20, 2018
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Only Nintendo can release game that looks like 2 generations behind (at least) and not getting bashed for it XD
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Well, you can bash them if you want but Nintendo have been doing their own thing since Gamecube now so people should know what to expect.
I assume you're talking about some of the screens in the Arceus leaks?
 
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dex3108

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Dec 20, 2018
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Well, you can bash them if you want but Nintendo have been doing their own thing since Gamecube now so people should know what to expect.
I assume you're talking about some of the screens in the Arceus leaks?
Yeah, some of those are really bad.

Also after this i am not expecting some PC specific improvements


That game really misses better AO because some of the scenes really could use some. It is most noticable when you get scene with lots of vegetation and basically no shadows between them. Also that market scene where places like under merchant stands are still too bright. They have baked GI but it's kinda lacking in some areas.
 

pinson

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Well, you can bash them if you want but Nintendo have been doing their own thing since Gamecube now so people should know what to expect.
I assume you're talking about some of the screens in the Arceus leaks?
I don't know the specifics of it all obviously because I'm just a scrub videogame fan, but I miss the times when Nintendo was using super custom engines instead of using what's available on the market (like the UE). When you look at a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 1 on Wii for example and compare it to 2 on Switch, it's night and day. Yeah sure there are more fancy "modern" effects in 2, but it runs like trash and looks aliased to hell and back. Then you have 1 on Switch, which sure isn't as complex, but at least it runs well and feels like it was built for that console.

Same thing with a lot of Gamecube games. A lot of them were 60 fps and super crisp to look at. They felt like they were made for the Cube and it showed. I know it's probably really hard to do today since game dev is more expensive but still, it's a shame. I feel like the Switch could push really great graphics if only engines were more custom-tuned for it.
 
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SaberVS7

Average Date a Live Enjoyer
Jan 23, 2020
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Crusader Kings 3 introduces Gay Marriage:
Assholes on Era: "Hurr durr, the fanbase is probably going bonkers, muh historic accuracy!" "You know how the fanbase of those types of games is."

fucking hell, Crusader kings had ahistorical womens rights and gay traits for decades.
Don't try and reason with them, those people are set in their ways with their perception of historical games on the whole.

I think I've mentioned on the Discord before that I got banned from one of the Era servers before for "Racism" for regularly talking about CK2 and EU4 campaigns I was playing. Well, that and falling afoul of the PopEra asshole clique because I said mean things about His Holiness, Elon Musk, Omnissiah of the infinitely safe Self Driving Car which totally isn't accelerating the erosion of working class bargaining power by replacing human drivers with drones that don't have the gall to demand a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Being an aggressive Proletariat voice among one of the most Bourgie subcommunities of Era probably helped accelerate my forced departure from that particular server. Thankfully I had the last laugh in the end since over the years since most of that group did things to get themselves permabanned from Era itself.
 

ezodagrom

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Nov 2, 2018
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I don't know the specifics of it all obviously because I'm just a scrub videogame fan, but I miss the times when Nintendo was using super custom engines instead of using what's available on the market (like the UE). When you look at a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 1 on Wii for example and compare it to 2 on Switch, it's night and day. Yeah sure there are more fancy "modern" effects in 2, but it runs like trash and looks aliased to hell and back. Then you have 1 on Switch, which sure isn't as complex, but at least it runs well and feels like it was built for that console.

Same thing with a lot of Gamecube games. A lot of them were 60 fps and super crisp to look at. They felt like they were made for the Cube and it showed. I know it's probably really hard to do today since game dev is more expensive but still, it's a shame. I feel like the Switch could push really great graphics if only engines were more custom-tuned for it.
Nintendo uses their own in-house rendering engines though, I can't think of any game developed in-house by a nintendo studio that uses a 3rd party rendering engine.

When it comes to Xenoblade 2, if I'm seeing this right, it used an upgraded version of the rendering engine used for Xenoblade X, and for the Torna DLC they created a new rendering engine which they will be using for future games.
Also seems like the Xenoblade Chronicles remaster was made with the same rendering engine as the Torna DLC.
 
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pinson

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Nintendo uses their own in-house rendering engines though, I can't think of any game developed in-house by a nintendo studio that uses a 3rd party rendering engine.

When it comes to Xenoblade 2, if I'm seeing this right, it used an upgraded version of the rendering engine used for Xenoblade X, and for the Torna DLC they created a new rendering engine which they will be using for future games.
Good to know. When I mentioned UE I was thinking specifically of Yoshi's Crafted World, but that might be an exception.

All this to say, I really miss those smooth and crisp GameCube-era visuals. :(
 
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Avern

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So for people playing Vampire Survivors, what strategies are you using to handle the Mad Forest?

I've mostly been grinding in the Inlaid Library, because it's approximately 1 zillion times easier and I can get near or to the 30 minute mark on most runs. But even when I refund my powerups and distribute them for power instead of metaprogression, I still struggle to get past the 15 minute mark on the Mad Forest. Enemies are just so tanky, drop so little exp, and the open environment makes it hard to manage the hordes. I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to grind out more powerups.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I started playing Virgo Versus The Zodiac today. This game is surprisingly hard to get into. The world and premise is interesting and original, but the game just throws players into it without any explanation. Stats management is also confusing because there is a whole bunch of parameter. The combat being difficult certainly does not help either. Going to take some time to learn everything as I see real potential here.
I gave it a quick try a while ago and intend to dig into it for real for the backlog blitz and it is indeed quite hard to get into.
I'm debating whether to put the combat on easy. It feels like the difficulty on normal is tuned to the assumption that you will hit every combat quick-time event, but they are really unforgiving. I had a fight earlier where it took 4 or 5 times to win (and I'm still only like 30 minutes into the game) and the difference between win and lose always only boiled down to whether I could hit the quick-time events, not strategy (it's not like you have that many options at this point).
And yeah, I do feel like there's something interesting undereath all this though.

Edit: Oh it looks like you can change quick-time speed and enemy difficulty separately, that's neat.
 
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TioChuck

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So for people playing Vampire Survivors, what strategies are you using to handle the Mad Forest?

I've mostly been grinding in the Inlaid Library, because it's approximately 1 zillion times easier and I can get near or to the 30 minute mark on most runs. But even when I refund my powerups and distribute them for power instead of metaprogression, I still struggle to get past the 15 minute mark on the Mad Forest. Enemies are just so tanky, drop so little exp, and the open environment makes it hard to manage the hordes. I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to grind out more powerups.
Forest is pure luck, you need to be nicely upgraded by the 15min mark or else is gg, garlic for early game, and bible for late game is a must most of the time, evolved axe and normal cross is pretty good, I didn't test yet, but the rainbow bird should be good also.

For passive, book, medalion, salary, candles, armor, crown, magnet all good.
 

fantomena

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Dec 17, 2018
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Did you guys play Guardians with kb/m or controller? Cant' decide what feels best. Got a Dualshock 4, Dualsense, Xbone, Steam and Switch Pro controller.
 
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CommodoreKong

Mercenary in the Badlands
Jun 15, 2019
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Good to know. When I mentioned UE I was thinking specifically of Yoshi's Crafted World, but that might be an exception.

All this to say, I really miss those smooth and crisp GameCube-era visuals. :(
Gamecube was a pretty powerful system back when it came out and was in the same league as the PS2 and Xbox.

The chip in the Switch is an underclocked chip that wasn't even top of the line when the Switch released.
Good to know. When I mentioned UE I was thinking specifically of Yoshi's Crafted World, but that might be an exception.

All this to say, I really miss those smooth and crisp GameCube-era visuals. :(
Gamecube was a pretty powerful system back when it came out and was in the same league as the PS2 and Xbox.

The chip in the Switch is an underclocked chip that wasn't even top of the line when the Switch released.
 
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Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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So for people playing Vampire Survivors, what strategies are you using to handle the Mad Forest?

I've mostly been grinding in the Inlaid Library, because it's approximately 1 zillion times easier and I can get near or to the 30 minute mark on most runs. But even when I refund my powerups and distribute them for power instead of metaprogression, I still struggle to get past the 15 minute mark on the Mad Forest. Enemies are just so tanky, drop so little exp, and the open environment makes it hard to manage the hordes. I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to grind out more powerups.
The big stat check in forest does come pretty early in the werewolf / ghost swarm around like 12-15 minutes. After that you're golden mostly until the end. So you have to be ahead of the curve really to make it through. Using the +XP character alone makes it much more doable, but generally unless you're really unlucky you should manage to have 1 or 2 evolved weapons to carry you through that (I love book and heavily recommend book because it's great early and mid and can help a ton there). The evolved fire wand can absolutely tear through that as well. In the library you can get away with trying to go for some late-game choices earlier on but in forest you have to get up and running for that rush.

One guide I saw also used the clock lance because you can just run through frozen enemies without taking damage. The downside is that then you're stuck with the clock lance which isn't more damage but it's an alternative to the laurel or garlic in a way, and very functional for getting out of those situations.

As much as I love the lightning ring and the bombardment birbs, you have to get lucky to get anywhere in the forest if you take them early.
 

pinson

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Gamecube was a pretty powerful system back when it came out and was in the same league as the PS2 and Xbox.

The chip in the Switch is an underclocked chip that wasn't even top of the line when the Switch released.

Gamecube was a pretty powerful system back when it came out and was in the same league as the PS2 and Xbox.

The chip in the Switch is an underclocked chip that wasn't even top of the line when the Switch released.
Oh sure, I understand. But personally (and it might just be me) I think that some upscaled Gamecube/Wii games can look almost as good as what's being done on the Switch at a fraction of the processing cost. So my pipe dream would be to see this kind of visuals mixed with the processing power of the Switch.
 
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thekeats1999

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So for people playing Vampire Survivors, what strategies are you using to handle the Mad Forest?

I've mostly been grinding in the Inlaid Library, because it's approximately 1 zillion times easier and I can get near or to the 30 minute mark on most runs. But even when I refund my powerups and distribute them for power instead of metaprogression, I still struggle to get past the 15 minute mark on the Mad Forest. Enemies are just so tanky, drop so little exp, and the open environment makes it hard to manage the hordes. I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to grind out more powerups.
My preferred style is to use Mordecai (skeleton dude). He gets a bonus projectile every 20 levels to a maximum of 3.

After that I tend to go for a mix of Magic Wand/Holy Books/Garlic/Daggers. Garlic acts as a damaging shield and useful early on as you can slowly walk through most mobs. The books add a bit of knockback (I think). Daggers are thrown in the direction you are facing and magic wands fire in the nearest monster. Main thing is they also all have ascensions. It is worth trying some of the other characters as well. For example the barbarian that has the daggers will unlock the ascension item for Garlic if you survive for 5 minutes with him.
 
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fantomena

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Not suprising, but both MS and Sony (and other pubs and devs) uses Steam to reach people in China.

We often live in a bubble here in the wes tin regards to many things, like thinking everyone has game pass, not realizing game pass is not even available in many countries, including China, making Steam the only way for Chinese people to play MS games. And thre's nothing pointing to game pass being available in China due to their strict rules. Remember, China has around 1,4 billion people. An audience Sony nor MS has managed to reach out to with their consoles or their services (like game pass).

 

TioChuck

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Not suprising, but both MS and Sony (and other pubs and devs) uses Steam to reach people in China.

We often live in a bubble here in the wes tin regards to many things, like thinking everyone has game pass, not realizing game pass is not even available in many countries, including China, making Steam the only way for Chinese people to play MS games. And thre's nothing pointing to game pass being available in China due to their strict rules. Remember, China has around 1,4 billion people. An audience Sony nor MS has managed to reach out to with their consoles or their services (like game pass).

MS will not leave Steam anytime soon, lol.
 
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fantomena

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MS will not leave Steam anytime soon, lol.
It's funny that some people think they will (I remember seeing an ERA thread about it last week). China, Korea and in general Asia is a gigantic market, but they are mainly using PCs and phones, not consoles, they mainly just don't care about consoles. Steam is so far the best way to reach those regions.

Looking at Twitch streams, China and Korea is growing and they are mainly playing games via Steam and of course, on PC in general.
 

Gintaro

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Y'all first world folks better enjoy it. Index is not available here and I doubt it will ever be, so I guess I'll stick to building PCs forever lol
Same here in Malaysia but I'm more optimistic with the Deck since the target market is bigger than Index. If the Deck sells well enough then which I think it will its more possibility for Valve to expand to more regions compared to Index

Potentially it might be possible to partner with retailers too.
 
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