All sounds pretty sensible. I do think it might feel annoying waiting minutes to download a model for the sake of generating a line of alt text the first time, though. It would probably be quicker to write the alt text.

I think if you read through this and take it at face value, there is a pretty clear picture of what happened: https://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2024/03/30/a-microcosm-of-the-interactions-in-open-source-projects/

The redesign is literally pointless and currently achieves nothing. I find that the user’s profile button having moved to the bottom-left so goddamned weird, as is the “Activity” button moving to the no-mans-land of middle of the sidebar.

It is silly. The CMA has tunnel vision around this, and because the streaming issue was essentially the main point of contention this change in the deal puts them in a position where they’d look like hypocrites not to let it through. Microsoft just capitalizing on their ignorance (rightly so).

It’s a great base for general desktop use as well as server. Been using it on my PC for years now, and aside from a few 3rd party repositories it has everything I need. It just works and continues to work.

Even if you ignore the time it takes to download for those with low speed connections or data caps, the issue is made worse by a lack of competitively priced storage options for the Xbox Series consoles. PC owners by comparison have it much easier.

It would be to Microsoft’s advantage to change that perspective, which would reinforce why they might maintain their hard line of feature equivalence. I agree though, it appears to be the status quo.

The Series S is more powerful: https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2022-steam-deck-vs-xbox-series-s-how-future-proof-is-the-valve-handheld

But the Steam Deck is a portable console, so the design considerations are different, so it’s a bit of an apple to oranges comparison. On pure numbers, though, Series S will perform better. (Steam Deck is still awesome though 👍)

I find it hard to believe BG3 would run that poorly at that low quality but I guess time will tell. It’s up to Larian how much they want to release on Xbox

Going back to the article, I think whether it hurts MS more to keep this promise over features or not depends a great deal on what the split is between Series S and Series X consoles. I would suggest it’s worse to sacrifice the Series S audience as there’s less sunk cost there compared to the Series X audience, who we might assume have more of an investment in the Xbox ecosystem from the previous generation, and therefore it’s harder for them to make the switch to PS5.

Honestly, it’s kind of on the developer. If they’d taken the Series S as the base line during development, they would have made life a lot easier for themselves. I think Microsoft are right to stick to their guns. It will seriously piss off their consumers if they can’t land good quality versions of equivalent games on PS5.

I actually think it could be more beneficial for players across both console platforms to encourage developers to build games which scale reasonably, and at the low end target a 30 FPS minimum frame rate whilst the Series S/PS5 get 60 FPS+ or improved image quality, or both. Instead of it just being a race to the bottom on performance just so we can have a little bit of ray tracing.

Also, as far as I’m aware, Baldurs Gate 3 hasn’t released on PS5 and is not due until September. I will be very interested to see how that goes, because I think the conclusion of this article is premature until we see that.

A lot of Xbox exclusives are available on Windows, yes, but Steam Deck compatibility is something you’d need to check on a game by game basis.

I don’t think it’s hardware, more brand and exclusives. The casual player bought a PlayStation 4, so they buy a PlayStation 5. The gaming enthusiast knows that there’s just more varied and interesting games coming out on Sony’s platform. In terms of performance, the Xbox also frequently under performs against the PS5 regularly (not by significant margins usually, but still) when on paper it should be the more powerful console.

Myself, I have an Xbox Series S along with a crappy old 1080p plasma and 3 years of Game Pass, and I’m at a time in my life where I don’t have the time I used to to play loads of games all the time. I’m happy with the Series S, but if you’re coming fresh to this generation of consoles, I can’t see why you wouldn’t just buy PS5 as that’s where the games are.

Both Lemmy and Jerboa are v0 releases and as such should probably be considered unstable (assuming semantic versioning). The average user probably won’t know or care - and why should they? So it’s not great in that sense.

Feel bad for saying this, but it just looks like the most generic shooter, to me, and the only notable thing about it is UE5. That said, I do wish them the best of luck, as it can’t be easy being the first one out the door using the new tech.