I’ve never been one to play competitive online games since I have the hand/ eye coordination of a house plant, so I can’t weigh in on the advantages of blocking controllers that are “unfair”; but as someone who hated button mashing “A” in Animal Crossing, I can say that custom controllers can definitely have a place with a console.
In my opinion, this feels like Microsoft simply wanted more licensing money and is doing it under the guise of fair online play. It reminds me of Apple locking faster charging and data transfer on USB-C to their own proprietary USB cables.
Hopefully this does not negatively affect too many people.
The unfair advantage argument definitely holds water, mouse and keyboard can be like a sports car racing against a bicycle. But if someone had the budget to tackle this issue through software, it would be Microsoft. So I’m inclined to agree that it’s mostly just MS squeezing money out of third party manufacturers.
If they’d care only about the “unfair”, they’d put a fair, almost free, price on the official license that covers the cost of testing or whatever. Truth presumably here is also a bit more complicated, maybe third party controllers could be easier to hack resulting in an ineffective licensing system, idk. But yeah smells like money for Microsoft and a loss for consumers.
Wouldn’t the unfair advantage only hold water if they blocked unauthorized accessories only with online multi-player games and leave single-player experiences alone?
All HID input devices have identifiers that they communicate to the host to determine their functions. I guess you could potentially make a device that appears to be a controller and translates keyboard/mouse with a couple USB inputs. You could probably get a Pi to do that. But no one cares about winning on console that badly, they just go play on PC 🙄
Okay, then I’m going to default back to the fact that someone’s going to break the DRM and still make those devices, and this is only going to hurt people using accessible controllers.
You are probably right. Devices like these in the old days used to require you hook up an official controller to it to get past the drm. Likely will evolve back to that.
I guess you could potentially make a device that appears to be a controller and translates keyboard/mouse with a couple USB inputs
They control the console, the OS, the controller hardware, and can require the console to connect to them. They already have the ability to push out controller firmware updates. They can have the controller cryptographically authenticate to the console and push blacklists to the console of keys that get leaked (like if someone somehow extracts a key from a legit controller and uses it to make a knockoff).
One thing that kinda sprang to mind was accessible controllers. Ik Microsoft makes one and I’m sure there’s some approved but my thoughts are what if it doesn’t serve your needs
I wonder if QuadStick has approval. Specifically designed for people with minimal to no hand function, which their controller isn’t going to fucking work for.
I hope this isn’t Microsoft becoming more Apple-like. That said, if this leads to a restriction on the use of cheat-capable controller accessories such as the Chronos Zen then it could be a significant positive for FPS console gamers.
It reminds me of Apple locking faster charging and data transfer on USB-C to their own proprietary USB cables.
Are you sure of that? It was certainly rumoured before the release of the iPhone 15 Pro that Apple would require MFi cables for high speed data transfer but I don’t think that turned out to be true. As far as I can tell any high speed USB-C cable will allow full speed transfer from an IPhone 15 Pro. It might need to be a Thunderbolt 3 cable, especially for recording to external SSD, not sure, I’m no expert, but I don’t think it needs to be an MFi cable.
You’re correct about the specs of the device. However, after announcement/release there was controversy that the cable included in the box is only capable of USB 2.0 transfer speeds. But Marques Brownlee pointed out that the same is usually true with the included cable for Android devices too. I got a portable SSD to use with my iPad Pro and it just comes with a short high-speed cable anyway…
Edit: The included cable with the iPad is also only 2.0 speeds, even though it has a USB4 40Gbps port.
Well hell, while we’re all wishing, let’s just throw in a request for a Fallout New Vegas remaster. I would pay uncountable money for a version that I didn’t have to mod like crazy to make functional. Not holding my breath though.
It’d be pretty sick if after seeing the massive success bg3 was and how they were wildly off with their prediction, Microsoft pushes an order for pillars of eternity 3.
While I’m in this bizzaro world where Microsoft makes good decisions, I’d also like a Ferrari.
I know the first game didn’t, by the time I played the sequel (though I didn’t enjoy that one nearly as much as the first) I did recall it being an option.
Just started playing myself, annoyed that I had to start over because people who join you in multiplayer PERMANENTLY JOIN THE PARTY! No way to dismiss them meaning you’re permanently locked out of Story Based Party Members…
Brilliant…
Whoever came up with that should be fired, out of a cannon and into the sun.
For anyone else who is wondering - the game works great on the steam deck. I actually prefer it over my macbook pro because it’s easier to read the screen. I’ve gotten hours logged into the game so far.
It is a perfect update of the franchise. The storylines and writing are top notch, and the technology is blowing me away with how they managed to update everything while keeping the feel.
No thanks. We don’t need more closed and bloated spyware, what we need is more open and privacy respecing OSes like GNU/Linux and devices using it like Steam Deck.
All these new handhelds with windows seem to have completely forgot how much of a failure windows has been on mobiles in the past (other than laptops and such). I know windows mobile was a whole different ui but isn’t windows 10/11 even worse to use on small screens like this?
I really hope valve starts supporting steamOS for devices other than the deck soon so we can have the full deck experience including all the tweakable settings.
Asus and Lenovo clearly put no thought into how controlling windows desktop with a controller feels worse than pancaking your own testicles. The steam deck trackpads are far from an amazing experience for desktop input but it is at least usable and not the worst thing ever.
If this form factor is here to stay, and hopefully it is, Microsoft will probably adapt Windows to it (also hopefully). SteamOS is very good though, can manufacturers not just use that?
As long as you don’t use it for Office, Microsoft isn’t going to spend money on it. Their cash cow is M365 and Azure, they don’t even care when every single gamer pirates their OS.
Eh, this and the Ally are cash grabs, I doubt they intend to spend the money needed to support custom software long-term. They’ll just hope that Windows updates don’t mess it up and if they do, they’ll blame Microsoft.
windowscentral.com
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