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Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #242 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-11-27 18:59:01
Imported:
2025-11
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Hi there - apologies for the late post, but it's been a long day! We are "speccing out" DF Direct Weekly #242 and looking to tape it tomorrow morning. It's going to be Rich (ie me) and Alex at the mics, along with John, who will be taking a break from playing Xbox 360 games to join us.

Topics? Ghost of Yōtei's addition of VRR and balanced mode support kicks off proceedings, but we'll also be discussing other topics, like the surprise rating of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach for PC, while John really wants to talk about evoWin9x! Other potential topics currently on the docket? Cyberpunk 2077's redemption story culminating in 35 million sales is pretty amazing, while the announcement that Panic Button is responsible for many of Nintendo's Switch 1 game upgrades for Switch 2 made us smile.

But is there anything else you'd like us to discuss? Please do suggest your own topics below and - of course - pose your questions for the team. Deadline is 8am GMT Friday morning.

Files

Comments

Evan

Watching the DF coverage of the Tomb Raider port made it look like it was a Switch port with the Switch 2 being an afterthought. Is it possible this is do to the lack or late arrival of Switch 2 dev kits on the market? Do we think that this will cause more poor Switch 2 ports by smaller developers in the short term?

TheGreatJumanji

Greetings! Given that the PlayStation 6 is presumably targeting 2027, do you think the system’s memory configuration will be affected by the current cost explosion? I would hope that the PS6 will have more than 16GB of VRAM, but the outlook for the near future seems bleak and 2027 is right around the corner…

Aaron Udy

Cyberpunk 2077 is the reason I bought a RTX 3090. Is it weird that it's the game that makes me want a RTX 5090? What other games have scaled in such a way in recent times?

The Potential

I can’t stop thinking about the Steam Machine. I have a more than capable AMD 9800X3D and Geforce RTX 4080 desktop, but I love idea of being able to play most of my PC games natively in my living room with my kids and friends. Sure I could build a small form factor PC for my living room but it wouldn’t have the same experience nor be as power/noise efficient. Could the killer feature of the Steam Machine be that it will make for a perfect little second “gaming PC” for a family home?

Kyle G

Thoughts on when we might see a new Low Profile single-slot card release? Now that the RX6400 in this form factor appears no longer available, where do SFF builders turn?

Evan

With the news that Sony is considering no longer porting their games to PC, do you think that will put them at a competitive disadvantage as more and more PC-like devices enter in the market? Or are the PCs now Sony's main competition and they should be doing what they can to differentiate their platform?

Macaco84

Hi DF team. On the subject of cyberpunk, i noticed the other day my time played is nearing 100 hours on this fine game. And yet I've barely made it past the first few missions. This is because I mainly play cyberpunk to lose myself in its incredible atmosphere, especially when you turn on all the graphical bells and whistles. Just driving and walking around, taking in the sights and sounds. Which made me wonder, do any of you play games just to roam around and unwind, soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying the spectacle rather than just playing to completion? And if so, what games do you play like this?

Orcacle

Hello founders of digital media! Just a few hours before the Call for Questions post I saw a rumour that, in response to memory price hikes, Nvidia is considering removing memory from the GPU bundle that board partners receive - therefore lumping the cost onto them, and thus us the consumers. When do you think this memory price debacle will be over? I think it's getting rather ridiculous. Many thanks to you all

Chicken Point

Can you link to the news that Sony is considering that? I'm interested to see where that piece of news came from.

Chicken Point

That idea occurred to me. There are lots of people who built up large Steam libraries who went on to have a family and children and who don't have as much time to PC game. An idiot-proof living room box would facilitate them enjoying that library with their family.

kingpenumbra

Gentleman options on Silksong?

FrametimeSommelier

Following up on last week’s discussion about PC game setting presets: why not push developers to include a “Digital Foundry Optimized” preset directly in their games? Your settings are consistently sensible, well-tested, and deliver excellent results. At this point DF’s reputation should be strong enough to convince (some) studios that such a preset would add real value for players.

FrametimeSommelier

I have a similar setup and I use the Steam app on Apple TV to stream my pc to either the bedroom or living room TV when playing something with the kids. That works very well.

TheAdam

Hi Tech and Gaming Masters. Since Google is opening its proprietary TPUs to the third-party market, it seems like an exciting setup for a new competitor in the GPU/CPU space. After all, Google already dabbled in gaming with their cloud gaming efforts. ​Or is the TPU architecture just not comparable to standard GPUs and CPUs? If that's the case, what would need to change architecturally? Also, would you guys welcome a new, huge player with deep pockets? ​As always, thanks for your time, passion, and content!

TMoney58

Gentlemen, this week is American Thanksgiving. What piece of tech are you most thankful for in 2025?

AMH

Hello Gents You’ve mentioned that an easy solution for replacing Switch 2 ‘Game Key Cards’ would be to use cheaper, slower cartridges that rely on mandatory installs. (Maybe download option as well) My question is: does this kind of memory actually exist in a commercially viable form? On Switch 1, the 32 GB cards were barely used (only around five titles like The Witcher 3), and higher-capacity cards were considered expensive and publishers avoided them. So is there truly a ‘cheap but slower’ cartridge-grade NAND option available today that Nintendo could use at scale, or is that theoretical rather than practical? I’m not a memory expert

Eric Benoit

No question, just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for the hard work and great content from Digital Foundry and thankful for your hard earned independence and the great community here.

FlowEffect

Hello and happy pre-holiday-phase Foundrymen! What are your thoughts on the newly introduced Game Profiles for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally devices? Providing help with optimizing performance and power management sounds like a great step to bring some more console-convenience to PC, but could there be potential caveats? Keep up your amazing work and stay bespoke! P. S.: Sooo jealous of John to get paid for playing Xbox 360 all day, while having a boss that makes sure, this can be done without distractions :D

Fuzzyloaf

Well wishes to “The IndependGENTS”! While watching the podcast, I was pondering on how Alex seems to regularly have to discuss the less desirable topics on PC—such as micro‑stutter, Windows issues, badly optimized games and engines, etc. Like magic, in the video Alex suddenly said, “I always sound like a curmudgeon on this show.” In light of this, for the Alex fans, will Alex share an experience with PC gaming that made him happy.

marsmage

Hello Gents, With a variety of outlets (like Gamers Nexus) doing more content on benchmarking Linux, and the general awareness of the linux ecosystem being much more present to gamers right now thanks to the steam machine announcement (and the apparent gold rush in the scrapyards of hardware vendors to build your own local steam machine being almost a fashionable sport right now), do you want to share your thoughts on how a wider proliferation of linux systems for gamers might (or might not) change your workflow? Do you think the widening of the PC platform on the operating system level would even change how you approach to cover pc releases?

RE647

Not to beat a dead horse, but why is the community celebrating an unsubsidized PC made from bottom-shelf parts that with 8gb of VRAM and no fp8 is trapped in 2022? With its up to 30% cut and the PC platform never being more popular, Valve had a chance to move PC gaming forward in a meaningful way. But instead we’re stuck with 8gb, FSR3 fizzle-pop mediocrity. Why aren’t more people upset about this? Is Valve’s special mix of cool aid-copium really that strong? Even just going to 10gb and a 9600 with fp8 would have been a game changer…

Marcus

Hiya foundrymen. Ubisoft just came out with information about assassin‘s creed shadows on the Switch 2 discussing some of the choices they made on the graphical front. Do you agree with their comments? Anything you think sticks out as being weirdly reasoned? Thank you for all your work!

Solljak

'Sup gents? The coverage on the Gabecube has been electric! I am excited for what Valve can bring to my couch gaming experience. The thought of either having this replace my rig in the living room, or even having it as a little bedroom box to stream my games from to my Legion Go S at lower wattages really excites me (sure, i can do that now, but power prices in the U.K burns a hole in my wallet!!) My concern is obviously the price, given the trend of DRam pricing, and storage also being affected I would actually benefit from Valve just releasing a SKU that does NOT include both the DRam and storage, I have a spare sodimm stick of DDR5 just sitting on my desk and many m.2 drives I could use so I suppose my question is; Should Valve do a "barebones" package that removes both storage and DRam so that people can get their own? I can only imagine other tinkerers out there would be up for this option and Valve would benefit by passing off the cost of these components / use them for the units/customers that actually need them.

Alex's Retro PC

Hi all. The DLSS transformer model is fantastic, but even using it DLSS Ultra Performance often looks suboptimal, but sometimes is needed when piling on RT effects and higher resolutions. Do you think there's an space for a DLSS "Super Performance" option that sits below Performance but isn't quite so harsh on the eyes as Ultra Performance? Something like 1900x600 at 4K output, for example.

Karim El

Hello Fourndymen! Long time listener first time caller! With the rising cost of memory and GPUs do you still believe that the high end PC makes sense? Games that would run on these specs are less exciting today and unoptimised while a console purchase to access the modern day library is arguably less infuriating. Any thoughts on the future of the gaming market with today’s economics? Cheers and amazing job as always!

Wotans Cry

No it is totally the right decision. No more gimping PlayStation games to make them fit on substandard PCs.. Also getting rid of PC ports is EXACTLY the way to DIFFERENTIATE their Plattform. Porting to PC did no good for MS and it will not for Sony. They invest billions in a new console only to then not make use of their costly property tech like their still vastly superior I/O Block is just wasted money. There is a reason why only early gen games for PS5 games made use of it. Now all PS Games are gimped from the start of development to fit on subpar PCs with their inefficient streaming .. I hope the news are true. Fuck PC. Sony does not need PC.

astonish

Regarding the Steam Frame’s use of ARM being precursor to Steam Deck & Machine moving to ARM, could the choice of ARM instead be about aiding VR devs? Profitability in VR is likely hard, and the Quest is a platform VR devs can’t ignore. In the Steam Frame, Valve has provided devs a better Snapdragon processor and the standards-based APIs (Vulkan/OpenXR) Quest uses that should make porting games trivial vs. the time, cost, and compatibility testing of porting a VR game to PC.

Paul Trainor

Hi DF, Just a comment really. Whist as DF watchers we want lots of pixels on our screens and lots of sprites on our comsoles. For me the appeal of the steamcube is the availability of the library. It could be PS5 pro spec equivalent and its not going to make any difference to me playing left for dead or project zomboid. In terms of value over time i think the box will be paying for itself every time i play a game for a few hours, i spent four quid on in the sale. Would m5ove to hear your thoughts on this. Cheers Paul

CABBAC

Hello men of the Foundry. At Digital Foundry, you cover the most impressive tech in the known Universe and beyond. Therefore my question is, where's the full on tech analysis for the most impressive piece of tech on the planet, the VMU Pro?

1040STF

I find hard to believe Nintendo gave the source code of some major Mario games to an external company. How do you think Panic Button enhanced those games? Through a "layer" like the FPS and Res boosts on Xbox, tricking the games into thinking they had a higher res or fps? Or is it impossible they didn't had access to the source material?

DudleyTheGentleman

Hello Digital Gents. Every year is dubbed "The Year of Linux," with Valve's upcoming devices making 2026 fit that title even more. There's an issue though, Nvidia gpus make up greater than 90% of the consumer GPU market share. For Linux gaming to get more serious adoption across the consumer space, will we eventually need to see Nvidia Steam Machine variants? Do you see Nvidia taking Linux driver development more seriously, as it pertains to game support and performance, if the upcoming Valve devices do well in sales?

Kipters

Howdy gentlemen! Since the Steam Machine/GabeCube is so small and adorable and it doesn't have an optical drive, can we say Valve released an adorably all digital machine before Microsoft?

Mr Bespoke

Hi DF Crew! I was planning on buying a new AMD motherboard to replace my recently deceased board (RIP). When I was shopping about I came across a few variant in the motherboard series letter. Now I Know about differentials between series B and X motherboards with one being the "basic" and the other one being for "overclocking" etc. But how does the Z series compare to the X? Is there any advantages other than the pricing? Is overclocking the Z series boards make it more faster than the X boards in terms of performance etc? Any advice/info on this confusing jargon nonsense would greatly appreciated and lets not get started on Intel and there motherboard models and lettering jargon. Thanks for your time and keep up the awesome work!!

Alan

Hi Guys, Nintendo has announced it is to acquire Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, which has worked on Splatoon and Pokémon. Nintendo must be looking to boost development and get more games out faster, as the lack of first-party games in the Switch 2's first year is worrying, in my opinion.

Mr Bespoke

Hi John! What's has defeated you the most this month? The Thanksgiving dinner or the hours of game play you have poured into the Xbox Circle 20th Anniversary video? Thanks and keep up the Retro Goodness "And stay retro!!"

Alan

Hi Guys, Is Kirby Air Riders the game Mario Kart World should have been?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

Is the Steam Machine going to be an AI casualty? 24GB of RAM no longer seems viable for a budget PC and I'm not convinced Valve is a big enough manufacturer to have secured supplies at early 2025 prices. If they can't price it below, say, $700, should they simply cancel it? It would be a loss, but perhaps better unreleased than a damp squib that kills the demand for such a machine.

Chicken Point

Oh! I listened to that whole XB2 podcast, forgot about that remark haha. I would like it if Sony stopped releasing PC ports, but that doesn't seem like their direction of travel. They went from PC ports, to Switch ports, to Xbox ports, and now they're making games that aren't even releasing on PS5 at all.

Kaveh PG

With seemingly every PlayStation game getting a PC release, and rumors of the next Xbox supporting Steam games, what are the odds I could skip buying a Steam Machine and just play my Steam library on my PS5 Pro? At least the PlayStation games right? If Valve is gonna eat Sony's lunch Sony's gotta bite back.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight LADS! So Nintendo were not fibbing when they mentioned their intention to make developer acquisitions.. who do you all think would be a good fit for them to buy next; and in the current uncertain climate, do you think that there's any single company that "most developers" would prefer to be bought buy than Nintendo?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight GENTS! Did Ubisoft make the right calls with Assassin's Creed shadows, it looks like unlike with Outlaws' RT solution; they have fully baked the lighting.. and DLSS of some variety is in tow.. Would you have liked to have seen at least a sprikling of RT?

Soyokaze

Hello everyone. I've been pondering, much has been said about the steam machine's effective performance level. some say too little, some say enough. What I see though is a broadly PS5-like machine that might gather a following despite pricing concerns. We've seen the Deck garner attention from devs as a target for bespoke settings despite not selling massive amounts of units, so my question is, if the Machine is successful, could it further cement a PS5-like performance target for games well into the next cross gen period?

monkfruit ninja

Hey there DF crew, Arc Raiders is currently enjoying a "lightning in a bottle level" of success. And it is excellent! From what we are learning about the AI behind the Arc's intelligence, could this be just the beginning in gaming. Ai that is trained and let loose with in the game. That adapts to your tactics. More intelligent and life like than ever before. Where do you see it going? Thanks for all that you do and congrats on your recent Independence:)

Christian

I really like that idea! (Plus, it could turn into a fun and reliable stream of extra income ^^)

CottonBird

I went back and rewatched your coverage on the current gen console reveals. You seemed very surprised to hear that PS5 and XSX would have NVME SSDs and hardware accelerated RT! What's the most unexpected feature that you remember being announced for a product?

Christian

Greetings, Digitale Gießerei! (Alex will understand.) Brand-new Patreon subscriber and first-time question-poser here! Although, admittedly, this isn’t really a question — more a very grateful shout-out to say how glad I am that you now offer annual memberships on the Digital Foundry Supporter Program, which finally tipped the scales for me to become an official supporter myself. Cheers, and keep up the amazing work! :>

BespokeEP

There is zero indication that Sony is porting every game to PC, in fact the most recent official statement from PlayStation indicated that they were going to be even more selective going forward as to not devalue the console. PlayStation's goal is to make PC gamers buy a PlayStation with FOMO

Someguyperson

Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope Rich had his fill of turkey and pumpkin pie today, like every red-blooded American.

AfreemTheDream

Greetings, Foundrymen! John mentioned way back when the Switch 2 first launched that there was potentially a way to improve its screen through an update. Has there been any progress on this front or has anyone from Nintendo reached out to discuss? Cheers!

Someguyperson

I still don't quite get why people think the Switch2 hasn't been greatly supported by Nintendo. This year, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Kirby, and Metroid all will have a release this year. Nintendo also paid to have Hades 2 exclusivity on console, so there's a big tentpole release basically every month this year. Nintendo certainly has more AAA first-party titles than Sony does this year, so I don't know what your unreasonable benchmark is.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello there! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating! What are your favorite gaming memories from the holiday season? Is there a particular game that immediately comes to mind — or one you always return to around this time of year?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hi Jedi Survivor’s survivors! EvoWin9X looks awesome. Since it was the era of point-and-click games, what’s your favorite title from the genre? Cheers!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey DF Crew! Last week’s discussion about the kind of stagnation in hardware builds across the board (with AMD ruling most console or console-like hardware) got me thinking — maybe it’s not the worst thing that could happen. Hopefully, it means development times will get shorter, and perhaps more devs will realize there’s more to games than just graphics (physics, anyone?). One can dream, right?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Happy Thanksgiving! Just wanted to say that I’m really grateful for all the high quality content you produce. And also, since both Alex and Tom play guitar could we please one day hear some video games medley (Halo:CE, the Last of Us, Bastion, Clair Obscur etc.)? Wink, wink.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello there! A question for John — what do you think when you see that lovely old LCD screen in Alex’s background?

marsmage

or, in retrospect, what feature did you not expect to 'pop off' (as they say), but that clearly made an impact on how you perceived that specific console or generation? I guess for me it was WiFi on the nintendo DS. Network gaming without additional costs or adapters, this really opened up a lot of new experiences on that device i did not expect to make such a radical impression back when the device was initially released.

Lexxington87

Today is National Alan Day - (seriously). Shoutout to A1an I think should be on the cards! Happy Alan day A1an!

marsmage

what we've seen with the deck, is, that this always comes down to individuals at the developing companies caring enough to put in the effort. Some of these ambitious solutions (like the native client for baldurs gate 3) was a project worked on by an individual at the company in their own time. While providing preset-settings is (assumed) to be much more straight forward than that, it still comes down to someone caring enough to implement them and sharing them through official means. I'd guess that most affine individuals would argue, that simply posing what they changed in the settings in a blog post or similar matter would be well enough of a service to share the settings, than implement a system to spread a specific option preset (that has to go through QA, etc. the whole 9 yards)

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think they Need to send John to knock on some doors in Kyoto, he's got the language skills, the eyeballs.. and needs a break from playing 360 games 24/7.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Sneaked up on us that wifi.. invisible.. ubiquitous.. and now nobody notices that it once did not exist.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think price is going to be everything though.. especially when the base PS5 Digital is as low as £279 around various black friday deals. Also looks like it will not have great support for FSR4 - perhaps even less than what PS5 PRO will effectively have via the upcoming FSR4 derived update to PSSR. I think it will find a niche of people who want a "console like PC experience" - i.e. more streamlined, optimised, and less buggy than the average windows experience.. but not as singular and inflexible as a console. That niche does exist, but I think it will be similar to that found by the Steam Deck that precedes it - and really, this box is about spurring on 3rd party boxes that run the OS.. and really it's a vehicle for the OS... but honestly.. i really think they need a more potent forward looking box in the next year or two to really take the fight to microsoft.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think they need to maintain a time lag of at least over 1 year delay. 2 years seems more sensible to really keep the console prioritised. At least this is one perk of Microsoft's Magnus system, you'll likely be able to play Sony's Steam releases on Microsoft's Magnus "console-PC hybrid" .. Question is.. will the extra horsepower over the PS6 make up for the complete lack of optimisation.. somehow I doubt it.. ?

DaJaCo (Dan)

From what I've seen it's not even in the same conceptual universe.. it's bonkers. However perhaps from a graphical fidelity point of view?

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think it's because there's "no new Zelda or Mario" at launch.. although I think this is fans being myopic. DK Bananza IS the big Mario game at launch (it's even in the same engine!), it's just that the main character happened to not be the plumber himself.. which i think was the right decision; it moved platforming forward with new destructible environment mechanics.. (that suit DK's big smashing fists perfectly) and for me is the best platforming game I've ever played, followed very closely by astrobot.. and then the Mario Galaxy games. (I also loved the "journey to the centre of the earth" vibes in DK) Also Nintendo seems to have hit a home run with the 3rd party support compared to the original Switch - it's getting way more current gen big hitters at launch (and soon after), and many of them are getting significant levels of elbow grease, optimisations, custom controls, and all of the DLC thrown in for good measure!

DaJaCo (Dan)

Hopefully it will be eased by production capacity increases.. I heard SK Hynix is looking to increase capacity 8 FOLD !

DaJaCo (Dan)

Quite Possibly! - I think they should do a special edition with a big lunch box handle on the back, and a Cuboid Emblem of Gabe's face on the front.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Maybe one for John's new Retro escapades..?

DaJaCo (Dan)

I see you used a Valve to let off some steam. Good Choice Sir.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think Star Wars Outlaws, and Ghost of Yotei could happily fall into this category.. or even Assassins Creed Shadows, especially as the missions, dialogue etc. are actually it's weak point, versus the stunning visuals / world building.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I view it as more of a vehicle for their OS. The real game changer would be having their software experience on any PC.. Then you could build a much punchier SFF, install their OS, and have the best of both.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I'm playing it on switch 2 because i struggle to put the hours in to big RPGs on home consoles or PC, and sometimes I zoom into the character models with whatever silly cyber zoom vision there is.. and think "I wonder if any game will surpass this level of detail on Switch 2, and if so when..?"

DaJaCo (Dan)

Rule of Thumb - Whatever price shocks screw Sony - Will screw microsoft more. Look at the Consoles NOW - PS5 aggressively cutting prices around black friday, while Xbox keeps raising the prices as it's hardware presence evaporates. They did not plan ahead to avoid price fluctuations and tariffs.. and their next console-PC hybrid is looking like a very expensive chip.. it could really kill their next machine if Sony is massively undercutting them again, in a generation where the diminishing returns will be more diminished than ever.. and the cross-gen period; longer than ever.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Could be, but it seems like a bit of a lazy cash-in port all round - they've mostly taken the approach of "ruthlessly cut" rather than optimize / change rendering method / scale / prune / etc. Hopefully you are right, and they'll port future games with more of focus on the Switch 2 hardware capabilities.

Snorlax cat

I am too late but the truth is that I am not ok with the fact that Kirby gets a 45 minute direct and there is still no review of Garfield kart 2: ALL YOU CAN DRIFT

Aaron Udy

I have it on Switch 2 too but mainly because I had to see it for myself 🤣

Daniel Avery

Hello DF family, long-time listener here. Please excuse the luddite nature of this question, it's simply nothing more than a fun thought experiment. From recently re-visiting your PS360-era DF Retro content, I've been struck by how much the industry has been focused on chasing image quality ever since. I'll admit to being a hopeless nostalgist but do you ever wonder how differently games might have evolved if screens had never moved beyond the CRT generation? I love to think about a utopia where there's a level playing field for resolution, forcing developers to concentrate on art style and performance. Apologies to Alex who I suspect will hate this question! Thanks for all you do. Daniel

Lucio Aquino

My experience with the Steam Deck has improved a lot since launch (fewer crashes, smoother updates), but even after almost three years SteamOS still feels inconsistent and far behind the UX polish of a Switch or PS5 – especially when docked, where some parts of the Store/UI still seem to expect touch input. If Valve hasn’t managed to deliver a truly cohesive UX on a single device in this time, how realistic is it to expect a future ‘Steam Machine’ to offer a robust, console-like living-room experience?

quickgiant

Hello Founders of the Digital! Do you think we'll start to see PC handhelds in thinner form factors? I could see this coming from two directions, either from Valve's work with SteamOS on ARM, or from optimized AMD chips bringing Steam Deck-level performance at lower TDPs. So far, I haven't seen any that feel sleek in the way that a Switch does, and there could be a market for that.

BespokeEP

Not necessarily, because Magnus is a closed box and will have some custom hardware in it, and because of that games will need to be verified, similar to Steam Deck. I mean most games will work just fine, but nothing will stop Sony from putting code in the game that prevents it from working on Magnus. There is also the possibility that Sony does its own launcher that can't be installed on Magnus. Or what I think is Sony just doesn't care if Magnus can play PlayStation games, because Xbox makes $0 off that, and Sony makes 70%. Nobody is leaving PS and switching to Xbox because it can play some PlayStation games +1yr later lol. The Xbox user base keeps shrinking and Magnus will only accelerate their demise. I don't see Magnus even breaking 7m units. And it will be the end of Xbox. They lose too much money from Xbox

BespokeEP

And the extra horsepower hasn't really helped them this generation, the overwhelming majority of games either run better or the exact same on PS5. There are literally only a handful of games that run better on Series X. There is also a ton of unknowns about PS6 specs, but the PS5PRO gives us a lot of insight. Like the pro, used the WGP's as cache. And not only does the pro essentially have 100's of MB's of cache because of it, it's way faster. The problem is games can't really take advantage of it because the base PS5 doesn't. The Pro consoles are essentially real world tests for future hardware. Another thing that people don't seem to want to accept is, PS6 will likely include something from RDNA6, especially with Mark working directly with AMD on future improvements simultaneously. How fast will the PS6's storage and IO be? Will it be so fast that it can act like RAM especially for the OS. The PS6 could literally have the full amount of GDDR7 reserved for games, where as Xbox will need between 4-8GB just for the OS. I also think the 3 large Zen cores on Magnus are for the OS. I mean if PS6 has 2LP cores for its OS, 3 big makes sense for windows and multiple other store fronts running simultaneously, quick resume, etc. And since we are in the age of SSD. The PS6 will likely only need 1TB of storage, Magnus will likely have 4TB. Another big negative about Magnus will be, it will likely need the memory cards again lol or is Xbox going to tell all those users that spent $400 on 2tb that they can't use them anymore lol. I mean did they not pay attention to the Vita?

HarryB

With all the steam machine specs chat, do you think there are games out or on the horizon which are already “too big for Steam Machine?”

Jimbojones

I think a truly seamless undocking and docking experience (like with how the Switch handles it) is probably not possible as it's changing in-game graphics settings and and not just the output resolution. I'd love it if they could figure out a way around it but sounds like something devs have to build in or account for when developing specific games.

Jimbojones

In fairness a lot of people did have to deal with extra costs and adapters just to get WiFi working on Nintendo DS as WiFi at the time was not that widespread in people's homes. I was lucky at the time I invested in a wireless router a few years before.