And also, whenever the next one comes along that library will still be there
Every other console you have the concept of “backwards compatibility” as a feature rather than an expectation.
To be fair that’s because software on consoles is designed for specific hardware. With newer hardware the old games won’t just work, because they were complex for very specific hardware. So for BC you end up with emulation which requires a lot more processing power than the original hardware, and is not perfect.
Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC. And as time went on they removed that hardware to save costs and BC went with it.
PC gaming however, and by extension portables like the Steam Deck however are running software developed more generically for wider ranges of architecture to begin with. It means less hardware optimization, but it generally means compatibility out of the box as hardware improves since it wasn’t designed with extremely specific hardware anyway.
This is less true since the PS4/XB1 era, since it’s just pretty standard x86 hardware, much like a PC. Although it may still apply to the Switch if they go in a different direction for the Switch 2.
Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC.
And the PS2 likewise literally had PS1 hardware to handle BC.
Many PS2 titles also used the PS1 hardware for game functionally so some PS2 titles have bugs on newer PS2 models with the hardware removed.
I’m surprised the difference isn’t much higher, but I guess there’s a ton of shovelware on the Switch.
It is much higher. Those are just the officially approved numbers. You can get a lot more games than that working though. Most will probably run out of the box anyway, or with just slight tinkering, assuming the performance of the Deck suffices of course. You may have to create custom control mappings though.
Slight tinkering and slight annoyances. Like some text is hard to read or unreadable, button/key prompts are wrong. Frame limiting being wonky, sound glitches. But all in all still amazing to be able to play your stuff on the go.
Yup. I’ve just been purchasing games without the Verified tag now because I’ll just be like: “yeah that seems like it’d work and it typically does”.
I made the mistake of installing Stardew Valley on it for 1.6. Oof, I’m playing it everywhere. Very bad when you can’t handle your addictions well.
Some aren’t even that egregious. A game having a launcher, or requiring you to manually bring up the keyboard, for example, keeps it from being verified.
So Monster Hunter Rise, a game that works flawlessly, launched as “playable” because it required you to manually evoke the keyboard when typing your name in character creation.
Yeah, a few examples from my own Deck include Rymdkapsel (works perfectly, not verified or marked as Chromebook Ready), Surviving Mars (playable, but not rated) and Turmoil (explicitly unsupported, but works fine).
respectfully, how have you not seen the infinite rivers of shovelware on steam since they stopped vetting the store ~10 years ago?
That seems to be the point being made by the person you replied to; the difference should be higher (in favor of the Steamdeck) because of the vast quantity available on Steam. The shovelware is precisely why it should be higher. I think they’re expressing surprise that the Switch even comes within the range it does, hence bringing up Switch shovelware as a possible source for this.
Shovelware? That’s a new term for me… Is that what they call the games made in Roblox and the like?
Shovelware means games that are really low quality that some studios spam to try and get any money with little effort. Like garbage free to play games on mobile.
It’s quite a lot more than that if you count all the titles that work but aren’t verified, I imagine!
And you can emulate the Switch on the Deck.
Also I can emulate a steamdeck on my desktop without being sued!
Because the games that run on the Steam Deck are PC games, no emulation required. It’s a joke.
It’s a joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe’s_law
OP is also the guy who thinks it is weird to pre-heat your oven. https://fedia.io/m/showerthoughts@lemmy.world/t/763821/Are-the-people-who-read-terms-and-conditions-the-same#comments
Depending on their Desktop’s architecture it might be required, arm systems do need to utilize CPU emulation to run programs made for x86-64. It’s not usually as involved as emulation of a console platform but it’s emulation no less.