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Comment by basfo | Hacker News Reader

I bought an Asus Rog Ally X on a recent trip to NYC (i'm not from the US, and the steam deck isn't sold on regular retailers).

I can't believe how awful the user interface is, they are bascially installing windows 11 in a computer shaped as a portable console, with really small icons and imprecise touch controls, onedrive and microsoft 365 offers, crazy.

If you can install Steam OS on it, all those consolized PCs will end up using native Steam OS, and the next step is the living room (console like desktop pcs).

Microsoft must be really thinking about an Xbox OS, or at least a native and usable gaming interface for windows 11. Valve is trying to remove microsoft as a dependency for their bussines. And i think microsoft sees valve as it's bigger competitor on the gaming space, not Playstation as everyone thinks, that's why they are going with the "everything is an Xbox" ads and rumors about "third party xboxes".

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Even the XBOX UI is problematic. I’m stunned that so many games have an additional layer of user onboarding just to get up and running. So many games require that you create an account “typing” your info in an on screen keyboard with an Xbox controller, and verify with email then return to the Xbox and sign in. What should have been a single-sign-on using your gamer tag profile is a clunky fragmented mess.

The fundamental problem is that games require an account... be it Microsoft, Sony or a game specific account.

Yes. And games are built as multi platform so they don’t want to tie themselves tightly to the XBOX ecosystem. But the UIs for that enrollment are almost always horrible. You can tell they are designed for PCs with keyboards and mice. The scaling is all wrong for a TV based interface.

You missed the point. They should not require an account.

Or are you talking about multiplayer IAP fests? I'm not sure we should call those "games".

I'm not even sure it's an 'or' at this point; I've recently gone (multiple times) through the surreal experience of having to install a client and register an account having already bought a game through a storefront for which I had to install a client and register an account and which had already ostensibly installed. In the first case it was for a game I had actually previously played before the publisher decided to slap an account on top of its offering, and I decided I didn't care enough to keep going.

Let me guess, Ubisoft ?

lmao yes; specifically Far Cry 3.

More like U-no-soft !

This is a fundamental problem of technology, not just software, not just games games. Too many products unnecessarily tether you back to the manufacturer through an online account. When I buy something, hardware or software, I shouldn't have to check in with the developer forever, just to use it.

This is the buy vs rent discussion all over again. By tying your “purchase” to an account with T&S they have ensured you only have a license to use it on their terms which they can revoke any time they want

I’m a loyal steam customer because Valve has shown themselves to be the most trustworthy and user-focused of any platform, but even then I know I have decades of games on my account that can vanish in an instant.

For gaming, RetroPie is a cool solution (it doesn't require raspberrypi).

I have a setup using HP Pro Mini 400 G9 that boots directly into EmulationStation. It's perfect for playing with my kid, covering everything from NES to more recent consoles, and also Steam and Minecraft (via https://github.com/minecraft-linux/appimage-builder/releases) if needed. The offline aspect of non-steam games is a big plus for easier parental management too.

I've got to say I prefer the raw Retroarch interface over the EmulationStation launcher. EmulationStation is pretty but the seams between it and Retroarch were just too big for me.

They are: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/7/24338778/microsoft-xbox-ha...

Yep, probably that will be the future of xbox, it will become like steam so you can use and play your xbox library on every device. There may be some Microsoft branded Xboxes, like they have the "surface" PCs, but will be just another device that runs the xbox client.

That is my guess too, they will still release both a console and a portable but it will be open. Phil Spencer has also talked about allowing third party stores on these future Xbox consoles.

That's kind of what they have now; just with console and (every windows machine). Better dedicated mobile hardware would be appreciated.

It is nice that GamePass can be used on my Desktop, XBox, or Laptop from my moms kitchen.

Well... they want that, but aren't there from my point of view.

From the xbox library (including 3rd party games you got on xbox, old 360 games and so on) only a handful of titles are actually playable on pc, around 10% in my experience (those labeled as "play anywhere", mostly "newish" first party games... 3rd parties want to sell you another copy to play on pc even using the xbox pc client).

And the look and feel of "the platform" is quite different on pc than the console, i think they will try to make the whole library playable and have the same experience (booting up directly to it or running it as a client on any supported device, similar to steam big picture mode)

> only a handful of titles are actually playable on pc, around 10% in my experience

https://gg.deals/games/xbox-game-pass-games-list/

Currently if I'm filtering right; 553 games are 'free' under Game Pass Ultimate currently, 223 are available on PC. ~42%. That's not great; but not horrible either.

Full Game Pass is 331,461 titles currently, and 240,596 installable on PC; so a bit better ratio.

Yeah, i'm taking as base my own library of xbox games, built over many years. Most games i bought digitally for xbox.

Probably for gamepass they select games that can be used on pc and console, and the store has xbox and pc versions of many titles, but that doesn't mean that if you bought the xbox version you have rights over the pc version.

They are improving this tough.

they should have done this years ago, it may be too late now

Yep, users try to consolidate their gaming library in a particular platform. If you have 100 games on steam, why you would get the newest fifa-718 on xbox instead of steam, where you have all your games?

They plan game pass to get users to the xbox ecosystem, but i'm not sure if it will be enough.

Agree. The Steam Deck user experience it’s clearly superior compared to full blown windows. It’s going to be an interesting “battle”.

I have zero faith in Microsoft's ability to pull this off in a way that's even close to cohesive.

The issue is they would need to get rid of xbox live and allow installing apps outside their store. PC gamers will not accept having to pay for online and many play games that are not in the xbox store: all valve games, indie games, mods etc.

I highly recommend SteamFork for now! It's very close to upstream SteamOS unlike other derivatives and is easy to install. The experience is just much much better.

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