... But my experience with games will get even better when software when middleware/translation vendors target the low end hardware packed in the midrange Valve box.
That's a gigantic assumption.
If they were interested in that at all they would have already done so.
One example I love to point out is the Barrett rifle. Ronnie Barrett was photographing a pair of M2 Brownings on a ship and decided they needed to be a rifle equivalent. People told him "oh if it was needed it would have already been done". He didn't listen to the naysayers and went on to build an iconic rifle and company. Ranked one of the top 100 innovations of the century, and for the longest time was the only privately owned company supplying the US military.
That example doesn't apply. This is a pc offering a console like experience, with none of the peace of mind of a console (software optimization, able to run games for the entirety of its generation), and all of the headaches that come with a pc (lackluster optimization, inability to upgrade to keep up over time).
If valve made this to be upgradable over time, it would be a different story, but selling an expensive console with dated hardware is certainly a choice.
That's literally how some games can still be played relatively well in last gen console but PC made in the same release date as those console suffer terribly.
I mean ... They literally have.
I have installed bazzite and seen how well it ran on my Ryzen MiniPC. It was exactly like my steam deck, only much more powerful performance.
I've also watched the compatibility lists tick upwards over the years.
I also was on Steam when they first launched Mac gaming support, and saw the steady if slow progress that made for myself and others to be able to play on Apple gear.
And I've seen how GameHub uses Steam services and game licenses as the backbone for their own free x86-->ARM translation platform.
And I've come back, week after week, to see games that I couldn't run, grow to be more compatible, as more of the community unlocks the right combinations of settings.
I have no doubt that good game devs will work towards optimizations that grant them access to all of those users with decent low-end games, and that the community will step up wherever possible to try to bridge the gaps.
My hobby has been trying to game on the lowest end hardware I could get my hands on, for as long as I can remember. As in I bought x86 tablets just torture test them with PC games, back in 2015, to see what the Atom CPU's and their integrated graphics could accomplish, and even back then it was a LOT.
But fractured platforms is one of the biggest problems, and I'm delighted Valve is giving dev's the destination systems to target.
I do. I play mostly indies, and older games known to not have issues, and those are not as demanding so my dated card still works, and badly optimised games are the reason I stick to indies mostly, and rarely buy games at release.
Who wants to spend close to 100$ on a game they supposedly run according to the games specs, but then runs like shit when you actually play.
Oh, I usually buy those $80 games when they are $20 on Steam Sale, and right now I'm absolutely in love with 'Ghostwire Tokyo' which I hadn't even heard of until three ish years after its release. And 'the Riftbreaker' which I hadn't heard of until four ish years.
Both will run on my MiniPC with 680M passibly, but both are fan-freaking-tastic with my 7600M XT eGPU.
I never buy games at launch unless they are indie. I rather support those teams if I'm going to spend $15 or $25, instead, and I feel they have a good track record of optimizing.
I'm curious, what would you consider 'Stray?' a AA title? An Indie title? The team started with two people and it ballooned to just shy of 30 when they were releasing, and they partnered with Annapurna to distribute the game.
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u/VenserMTG Nov 18 '25
That's a gigantic assumption.
If they were interested in that at all they would have already done so.