I think the rise of PC over console is showing that more and more people are finding it to be not that tough of a hill to climb. And reducing some hypothetical 300 distros down to 1 that’s easy is why that hill isn’t as big as you make it out to be.
The Steam Deck is a huge part of the rise, and it’s essentially a console. It’s a specific dedicated, known piece of hardware that can’t be meaningfully upgraded.
It launches into a custom OS designed for gaming using a launcher and game marketplace under the control of the manufacturer from which the manufacturer takes a 30% cut of all sales.
But that marketplace is also a PC gaming marketplace, so all its sales count as PC gaming growth.
It can, of course, run other software, but the dev mode on the Xbox lets it do the same thing. So if the deck isn’t a console, neither is the Xbox.
I think the rise of PC over console is showing that more and more people are finding it to be not that tough of a hill to climb. And reducing some hypothetical 300 distros down to 1 that’s easy is why that hill isn’t as big as you make it out to be.
The Steam Deck is a huge part of the rise, and it’s essentially a console. It’s a specific dedicated, known piece of hardware that can’t be meaningfully upgraded.
It launches into a custom OS designed for gaming using a launcher and game marketplace under the control of the manufacturer from which the manufacturer takes a 30% cut of all sales.
But that marketplace is also a PC gaming marketplace, so all its sales count as PC gaming growth.
It can, of course, run other software, but the dev mode on the Xbox lets it do the same thing. So if the deck isn’t a console, neither is the Xbox.