Forget the ‘big 3’ — it’s just big Steam
Forget the ‘big 3’ — it’s just big Steam
Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have long been dubbed the "big 3" of gaming. After CES 2025, Valve now sits at the head of that table.
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First handhelds, then PCs, then laptops, then phones. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll finally see another OS take a big bite out of the OS market. Fuck Macs. They are a shit choice (unless you like being locked in).
Yeah, not a fan of macOS, but I really wish Apple cared more because it could totally drive forward ARM compatibility in games.
Make the software work on ARM so people can do their day to day tasks, then the games will come.
Mac OS has had a decent push for games on their Apple Silicon Macs recently. With how powerful the iGPU is even a lowly MacBook air can run modern games. It's just getting more and more developers to pay attention to anything outside of Windows (aka nothing has changed in the last 20 years). Proton is the only reason the steam deck is as good as it is. A lot of native Linux ports just straight up suck and the proton version runs better.
Day-to-day software does work on ARM, games don't. I can run macOS or Linux on ARM, but that's not going to encourage game developers to port their software to that architecture.
Apple doesn't particularly care about gaming on macOS, if they did, they'd be working directly with game developers to get games working there. They have made some attempts to improve APIs and whatnot games would need, but that's also relevant for other software Apple seems to care about more (CAD, Adobe products, etc). Gaming just isn't something they really care about.
Proton is the only reason the steam deck is as good as it is
Absolutely. I actually didn't make a Steam account until they ported their client to Linux, and back then they didn't have any form of compatibility for Windows games. It wasn't until 2018 (~5 years after initial Linux launch) that they released Proton. That's a big part of why Steam Machines failed, they were released 3 years before Proton was a thing so game selection was extremely limited. Valve hoped devs would create native ports for Linux, but that never happened, and it's why Proton is a thing at all, and why the Steam Deck launched years after the initial Proton launch (they wanted a large library of games).
Maybe, maybe, maybe we’ll finally see another OS take a big bite out of the OS market.
Which OS Market? The are several and the only one that Microsoft dominates is General Purpose PCs (Desktops & Laptops). Every other OS Market has a different major player. Nintendo owns handhelds with Valve as the secondary. Sony is on top in consoles with Microsoft as the secondary. Tablets are owned by Apple with Android as a strong secondary. Smartphones are the same as tablets.
I could type several paragraphs about why MS is still relevant, although less so as time goes on, for GP Computer OS but instead I'll point out that the reason so many games target Windows OS is simply because it gives access to the largest number of buyers.
IMO opinion the decades of continually increasing DOS & Windows PC based ownership that got the gaming industry to this point is quickly running out. Personal computer ownership has been steadily declining for years as people increasingly use mobile platforms like Smartphones and Tablets. Assuming that trend continue then it won't be long at all, maybe five years, before gaming companies find that Windows OS compatibility no longer provides a large enough target audience.
When, if, that happens there will be a rapid sea change in the gaming industry. I strongly suspect that this is why MS have invested so much money into creating platforms for game streaming. It's the only way they can stay in the game, lol, as personal computer ownership declines.