X-Box One update failure raises awkward questions about the future prospects of console hardware
(www.gamesindustry.biz)
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That is always going to happen at some point, no matter what. There's a reason why so many are against DRM, single-player games requiring online, inability to host private servers, etc. Every game that fights that will be dead. It's why I buy everything on GOG I can and archive it, and why I'm totally loving my short lived Linux gaming experience so far, because it's just so good at making shit work.
Have you tried it recently? I was extremely surprised. I basically have a Steam Deck now.
I simply typed in "usb wifi linux" on Amazon and bought the first result for like $20 and it worked immediately with no installation as soon as I plugged it in. Don't see why you'd have to pretend something basic like wifi is still as difficult as it might have been a decade ago.
What distro are you running?
I'm on Mint and for 90% of games Proton just works, for 8% there's maybe 15-20 minutes of figuring out which version it works for and two clicks to change it and maybe 2% just don't work, but those games are usually stuck on Game Pass which is locked down like an entire nunnery.
Bazzite. It's really just Fedora with default Steam Game Mode built in. It gets Fedora updates and all. It wasn't my intention to go that way, but I started looking in how to put SteamOS on any old PC and it kept coming up.
So essentially, it boots up just like a Steam Deck into a console-like space. All the Steam stuff works fine in there and if you're all Steam you could fairly easily just use it as a Steam console at that point.
I have much more from GOG, so I go into desktop mode, basically just a Linux desktop and into Lutris, where I can install GOG games. I've done quite a few with a lot of success so far. I even installed an Epic Store freebie game, and while a bit more cumbersome it actually works, and they way it works, EGS runs inside it's own walled garden and only when the game is running. Lutris will link the games to your Steam, so in general all of my gameplay is via the Steam console-like interface. This works with emulators too, but I haven't really tweaked those yet.
I left a Windows 11 dual boot for games that have issues. That was really 75% of the work getting it set up was getting the dual boot right. The only things I've needed that for so far are games that require Xbox app (e.g. the Forza games) and one EA game that I think could be made to work with more effort, I spent a full 10mins on it tops. I've heard the usual suspects for kernel anticheat, like Valorant, won't work in Linux--because Linux doesn't allow kernel access.
I'm glad this is at the top. I am a big proponent of having offline backups of all software. Making sure games that are purchased should be playable offline. The one thing I hate the most, and is notorious with Nintendo Switch games, is a download being required for a physical game. 2K and WB does this with just about all of their Switch games. 6GB is on the cartridge the other 34GB is on a server. The whole thing should be on a cartridge. If you lose online access then say goodbye to playing that single player game.
Most gamers don't see this or care because their consoles are constantly connected to the internet and they've always had the luxury of not losing their internet connection. I've been there before. I've been in places for days or months where my only internet was what's on my phone. This is why I now have a 100TB media server. All of my software, both PC and consoles, is backed up to it. I take no chances.
Exactly, for some reason the article is written as if the consoles have suffered a hardware failure or something.
"the situation raises awkward questions about the future prospects of console hardware reliant on an internet connection to fully function" - it actually doesn't though? Things that require online services do in fact require those online services. Wow, shocker. Ultimately, what the console can do while offline is all the console itself is really able to do.
Speaking of Linux, this is also why I'm leery of package managers and looking into ways to archive installed packages before I'd even consider switching.
I don't really bother with archiving just day-to-day software so I don't care too much about keeping packages. I think you could, if anything from the days of offline Linux. It would be a total pain in the ass though.
Most of the games I've gotten going were my GOG games I installed right off my external HDD or disc(s) where I had stored them. Lutris let me point to the exe file of the installer and did the rest. How well it's all worked has far exceeded my expectations, and I'm only a couple weeks in.
Fucking LOL. That's almost as rich as "20[xx] will be the year of desktop Linux!!!"