they actually backtracked on that because some nations require it

I dont give the slightest of shits about CS but have you seen the figures? It's doing absurdly well. In addition the separate economy for skins peaked at 6 billion recently.

thats not irrelevant

thats not accurate. they have improved, but the market does not look as you described

their biggest fight is this:

"what, i cant play COD online? Or Battlefield? or fifa? or Rocket League?... but thats all I play, and it costs more than a ps5?

...whats the point?"

These games have gigantic followings that ship hardware year after year. People on hackernews are substantially broader-minded than your average console gamer.

On the above basis alone, most of the regular gamers I know will not buy one of these.

"Will it play GTA6, and play it well, whenever that eventually comes out?"

That is the bar (in my opinion) today, you have to take your box over to rockstar and spec for that or you are just selling outdated hardware.

I assume people who choose a Steam Machine over PS5 know what they are doing.

On the other hand, people are probably dumber than I think.

For what it's worth, Rocket League plays just fine on Linux if you use Proton, but your point on the others still stands.

I've had to stop playing a few games once I made the switch-over (Destiny, GTA V), but am otherwise very happy with where SteamOS/ Proton is.

There are presumably mobile games which have even bigger playerbases. Most of the "regular gamers" of this sort I know will probably not buy a console either. Does it matter?

It really says most about what people you hang out with.

i think most western governments and societies at large

i found robotic consistenly underperformed in tasks and it also drastically reduced the temperature, so connecting suggestions and ideas basically disappeared. I just wanted it to not kiss my ass the whole time

Did you made a comparison?

I got did not and also had the impression it performed lower, but it still solved the things I told it to do and I just switched very recently.

the desktop app allows the taskbar icon to have notification indicators. these work offline, so i can quickly and easily glance at the bottom of my screen to see if I have any messages. these can be read offline, with the taskbar updating still.

the desktop app is considerably faster and more responsive.

the deaktop app allows OS level shortcut keys

the desktop app is easier to work with when applying parameters in programs like excluding it from my VPN or for sandboxing or for isolating network traffic. Or for looking at how much space it takes up on disk. (im not a web developer), it doesnt cause any confusion or mistakes to be made as its logical separation in OS is clear, this is also faster

the desktop app has better keyboard shortcuts that dont collide with your browser, and the same with right click menus

I can easily video call from various PCs while still not trusting my browser with camera/mic permissions

.... because the average american tech company is horrifically overvalued, and the average american worker is over twice as expensive as the equivalents

I dont have the data, but Oxford Brookes is actually an exception and I don't think the only one. It's awash with money because of the sheer volume of domestic wealthy attendees with various donations to various causes. Sheffield Hallam and most of the other polys aren't usually in quite the same position and your point stands.

I've looked at the data for some of the Russell Group and, coming from a US perspective, I was rather shocked at how reliant even top UK universities are on tuition. Apart from Oxbridge, they mostly don't have anywhere near the cashflow from endowments or alumni donations as the US Ivy League does.

I'm sure you're right (equally there's other exceptions) it was just the first ex-ploy that jumped to the top of my mind. The theme is true though.