There’s still no official word or reports yet on whether XIM or Cronus controller-spoofing mouse and keyboard adapters will be banned as a result of these policy changes, but manufacturers like Brook Gaming who build unlicensed, but fair adapters for fighting game sticks seem to be caught in the dragnet. We’ll be sure to update you on further changes.
I think XIM and Cronus are the reason they’re doing this, especially since the main games on Xbox are shooters.
Cronus allows you to run scripts which give you an unfair competitive advantage, from using exploits and humanly impossible controller inputs to fire weapons ultra fast, to removing weapon recoil, to going auto-prone when you fire your weapon, to quickscoping, to other things.
XIM on the other hand lets you plug in a mouse and keyboard. While this allows you to play games on console that otherwise don’t support M&K controls, it also gives you serious unfair competitive advantages by making the console think you’re a gamepad player whilst giving you superior M&K controls and aim assist at the same time. With a XIM device you can go seal clubbing in console-only lobbies.
My other hypothesis is that they want to safeguard their console from firmware exploits that could bust the security of their console wide-open and allow for software piracy.
They’ve already nuked driver support for certain “unauthorized” 3rd party Xbox accessories out of windows 10 and higher, so this isn’t necessarily a solution for the average user either
It may, but it would still require the driver for the device to be allowed to install on windows.
First example that comes to mind is a bit older but the unauthorized replicas of the Xbox 360 wireless adapters can no longer be used with Windows 10+ without the following steps
unpacking the driver
modifying the signature and device version it reports
This is true, but my comment was for the average user. I run Linux on a couple systems (not including my servers), but if I put my partner infront of it, I’d be providing support every day for a year. It’s far better than it used to be but outside of steamos, I don’t think it’s “average user” ready yet
No? Nvidia and AMD have been the main competitors for a while in the high end space, and Intel recently entered that market after dominating the integrated GPU space.
Lose one? I’m not sure what you’re talking about, to be fair. Are you thinking about EVGA no longer making GPUs? They’re just making the boards, not the chips, many competitors exist.
We have 3 major players providing GPUs in the PC market: Nvidia with a significant lead, AMD, and the newcomer Intel.
If you count integrated GPUs (which still absolutely dominate the non-specialist PC and laptop market), Intel are hardly a newcomer. Their foray into discrete GPUs is new, but the distinction is fairly arbitrary from a technical perspective.
The Intel HD Graphics block inside a Core i5 is very architecturally different from an Intel Arc GPU.
Both Intel Arc and the integrated SOC GPUs use Intel’s Xe architecture. There are obviously big differences between integrated and discrete GPUs, but they’re largely implementation rather than base architecture. Implementing something on-die is a different task than implementing something on its own wafer, but that’s not where the serious design legwork goes.
EVGA, that’s who I was thinking of. So we still lose them really from the forefront. Also like Intel and AMD isn’t pushing for further control. Exactly what I meant.
Evga is an AIB(and a single one in a goant pool), not a GPU designer like Nvidia/Intel/AMD are. The equivalent in console terms would be like madcatz dropping out of the accesory creation game. The only difference is that the accessory makers also have a hand in the hardwares design, but not the actual compute core itself.
I appreciate you clarifying that, they were one of the largest would you not agree? Anyway point still stands, not enough competition in the gpu designer market would you agree?
one of the largest yes, but the latter part of your statement is completely off.
just talking about nvidia AIBS alone off the top of my head, theres: MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Zotac, Galax, Colorful, Inno3d, PNY, Gainward, Palit.
and this is just nvidias optioins. There’s a lot of competition. EVGA was a favorite to those living in the U.S due to having reletively better customer service, but it was far from not having competition.
I assume he meant EVGA. They’re a hardware company that used to manufacture graphics cards designed by Nvidia but exited the GPU market because of unfavorable contract conditions eating into their profit margins.
Plenty of other third-party manufacturers exist like Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor, Zotac, ASRock, Inno3D, Colorful, MSI and ASUS.
As for the main companies that design (and also manufacture) GPU’s: AMD, Nvidia and more recently Intel.
I think the moment that happens, it’ll truly become the year of the Linux desktop.
Over the course of fifteen years, we went from WINE being able to run nothing but World of Warcraft in a playable state, to thousands of games now being playable through Proton with equivalent or even sometimes better performance than Windows.
Valve were wise to put their eggs in the Linux basket, because they’ve evolved Linux as a gaming platform by leaps and bounds. Steam Machines may have flopped but the Steam Deck has sold millions and given developers legitimate reason to support Linux (or at least SteamOS.)
There’s been talk about Microsoft plastering ads all over Windows 11 or making Windows 12 a subscription-only OS. Linux is free, open source and ad-free.
because having a stable, unchanging platform is a lot easier to code on and extract performance from than the 100,000,000,000 billion possible combinations of PC hardware.
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You can get angry over it all you want, it doesnt change the fact that its the truth.
In fact, the state of games in general is shit because a lot of you fucking goblins with more money than sense keep running out and pre-ordering/day1ing games and fawning over them no matter how much of a broken piece of shit they are, and white knight against any and all criticism. Maybe if YOU stopped creating a market for shitty, broken, badly performing games, They’d stop fucking releasing shitty, broken, badly performing games.
But no, you don’t want to be responsible for your actions, So you want to take it out on everyone else… because god forbid it ever be mommies special little angel thats at fault.
So remember that next time you want to scree about consoles or whatever else. Cause they are not the problem. People like you are.
I don’t have a lot of time for gaming, and my desktop computer I built 12 years ago still works for what I need it for (and the occasional Rocket League rounds), so the PS5 is just easier. Plug and play when I want to.
Been playing games I got through the PS+ Extra for two years, and haven’t purcy for a single game since, as I’m a patient gamer, and the selection of games is right up my alley!
Oh, and if I’d have the money (and time), I’d get aPC instead. Maybe when the PS6 is released.
Your graphics card might be cheaper than a whole console, but you still spent more money on a computer initially, so you would have to compare the cost of two consoles to one new computer and an upgrade.
And it likely is better performance now on PC versus console now for only a bit more money, but PC’s haven’t caught up on price for equivalent performance and likely never will.
And I say this as someone whose last console that was bought for its performance was a PS3.
Consoles are initially sold at a loss or no profit to incentivise people to buy games on their platform, where the real profit is made. However, at this point in time, yes, you can buy pre-built gaming PCs for around $500 that will run circles around an XBOX Series X or PlayStation 5. You can even buy a $300 office computer then pop an A580 or something in it and make it a fully-equipped gaming PC. Even more so if you use your own hardware and build it yourself.
If you’re just looking for something that works out of the box when you buy it, there are tonnes of people on Facebook Marketplace selling custom-built gaming PCs for around that price range that will still outperform lastest-generation consoles.
Don’t forget, when comparing performance, consoles generally use a mixture of medium/high settings to guarantee a steady 60 FPS whereas PC testing is traditionally done on Ultra/High presets.
I will say that PCs do require a bit more technical knowledge and maybe some tinkering to get the best performance though. If all you do is game and you know nothing about how to do anything else on the computer, I would recommend the console ten out of ten times.
PCs have other benefits too, such as free online access that would require a subscription on consoles. Unrelated to gaming, a PC can be used for other things too. The only non-gaming use for a console is as a home media player. A PC can do that and much more. A gaming PC also makes an excellent productivity machine, whereas you can’t exactly edit spreadsheets and presentations on most consoles (except the Steam Deck).
I gamed on PC for many years and basically only moved to a console when I had kids a few a years back.
Both have benefits. For me, I like the not being distracted by other stuff on the console. Like if I sit down to game, on PC I’d often just end up on YouTube, twitch, check reddit, emails, whatever. I like that my console I just use for gaming.
I still play on my PC from time to time and there’s obviously games that are only on PC, but my preference is console for the current phase of life and that’s fine for me.
As a consumer, having certified static hardware configuration means you know exactly how it’s going to run off reviews on the same hardware. You know that you are going to get support the manufacturer and aren’t going to have to worry about the manufacturer of the motherboard pointing fingers at the manufacturer of the GPU or RAM or CPU if you have a problem. Updates and driver support is all handled by the OS.
But probably the biggest reason is that consoles already have the best name recognition, higher user adoption, and hardware is sold at a discount compared to comparable PCs.
While there some advantages to that static more gate kept setup that we all could argue about for years on end, the answer to your question boils down to money and control like pretty much everything else.
Console developers sell at a loss specifically to tie you to their ecosystem and get as much money from you as possible. Which is why it’s so complicated to get a PC equivalent in specs to, say, a PS5 at the price of an actual PS5 - unless you go to the used parts route and learn how to assemble parts by yourself.
Like, say you build a gaming PC that’s comparable to a PS5. I think it would be extremely hard to come up with a combination of PSU, ram, mobo, GPU, CPU, wifi, storage, case, keyboard, mouse, and game controller that costs less than a PS5 and has comparable performance. Even if you picked entry-level components. And you still have to pay the Windows tax probably. And all of that was much more difficult than just buying a PS5 – not everybody has the time.
Then again, rebuying all your games and paying way too much for them is something to take into account. But admittedly, the PS5’s thing where you can play some PS4 games is pretty neat.
Theres actually a single one on the PS5, it essentially has a chip to hardware accelerate storage to ram loading speeds that PC speeds cant fully tap into yet.
Playstation devs are just badly leveraging the sole advantage it has.
You’re absolutely correct about this chip - but it’s actually possible to replicate on PC with modern GPUs and CPUs, as they have really fast decompression blocks for specific algorithms that would work for game assets.
The issue is that for compatibility reasons developers don’t rely on them.
it has some of the speed, but it’s not quite the same. direct storage is something the Xbox would have access to, but xbox is not directly hardware accelerated in the same way the PS5 is. Think similar to FSR VS DLSS. one utilizes special hardware in order to achieve its result.
Back in the day, Nintendo got big on quality control. That’s less of a selling point now that almost every big publisher is pushing for yearly releases and devs need to rush out unfinished games to meet corporate expectations. A console was also just miles ahead in user friendliness that a computer up until around the PS4/Xbone.
The way forward for consoles these days is to have more interesting hardware, but Microsoft is resistant to just having gyro in the xbox controller so don’t hold your breath for the next xbox being anything worth looking at.
As a user of third-party controllers on the PS4: yup, the DualShock 4 security is a pain. And the DualSense security hasn’t been cracked yet - the closest gadget I’ve found actually uses Remote Play to bypass the authentication requirement.
Going to have a controversial opinion here, but as someone who primarily plays competitive FPS games this is a huge win. Strike Packs have been dominating console lobbies for years now. Controllers that do scripting won’t work anymore, and that’s a massive W.
It’s not universally good, and they’ll need to expand the authorization program, but imo it’s well worth it to ban the cheaters using 3rd party controllers.
Edit: Downvote as much as you want. I’m fed up dealing with console players cheating with controllers they can buy from walmart. This is a huge positive for anyone who wants people to stop cheating.
Most software cheats do. Hardware cheats are much more common on console. Strike Packs can be bought at the local Walmart. There’s no barrier to entry at all.
Baldur’s gate 3 for me while I waited for the mac release. Valheim before that. I only use it for probably three or four months a year, but I got the founders rate at five dollars a month so it’s more than worth it to keep paying for it.
Enshittification advances. Consoles already are the prime example of devices that act as if they are still owned by the company rather than the customer, but they somehow find even more ways to make it worse...
“it’s all just for your protection!” I’m amazed that people actually believe this shit. That’s the same argument as with various countries fighting against CSAM, seeing that as an excuse for total privacy invasion. Like come on…
No one believes it, but in the world of PR you just go with the thing people are least likely to argue against or most likely believe “for the children” or “because safety”. PR doesn’t really even matter when you’re so enormous.
I never gamed on console because I like more control over my environment…and that started 25 years ago. Super glad they were just approved to buy Activision/Blizzard, “more choice” was what their grinning exec said in a consolidation purchase.
Seems like any customer rights now only exist in direct defiance of corporations and whatever unreasonable unilateral rules they set without consulting anyone else.
Where was this outrage when Xbox blocked the ability to use third party headsets? This just seems like a continuation of their long-held policy and is likely only happening now that they have their accessibility controller on the market.
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