[Gigachad]

>However everything other than the hardware is what makes consoles special. They're a special-purpose device which is specifically designed to only be used with a game pad on a big screen. That means stupid stuff like a pop-up which needs mouse interaction or the system getting confused about window focus, issues which have always plagued living room gaming PCs, just categorically can not exist.

This is exactly the problem Valve has solved. SteamOS presents a just works managed OS that is fully usable with a console controller. You hit the middle button on your game controller and the steam machine just turns on, wakes your TV, and switchs the input. The UX difference between Console and PC is shrinking to near zero.

[mort96]

Yeah, until you try to launch Trackmania and its launcher needs mouse input to function.

[cassianoleal]

Valve has also solved that by incorporating trackpads to the controller. I bet the PS controllers's trackpads can also be used for that.

[mort96]

You can't seriously argue that using a keyboard/mouse interface using the controller track pad is as nice an experience as just using a controller-focused interface.

And since the Steam Machine doesn't come with a controller, I would bet that a large fraction of users will be using an xbox controller or something.

[cassianoleal]

> You can't seriously argue that using a keyboard/mouse interface using the controller track pad is as nice an experience as just using a controller-focused interface.

I didn't.

[mort96]

Then what did you argue? What was the point of your comment? How is the problem "solved"?

[cassianoleal]

The parent to my comment said:

> launcher needs mouse input to function

I said the trackpads solve for that. Nothing else. I didn't claim it was great, I didn't claim it was better than all alternatives, I didn't claim it works as well as a high-DPI mouse on an FPS. Whatever else you may have read on my comment was your own extrapolation.

[Gigachad]

Of course games that don’t have controller support won’t work with controller. The steam store marks this with a label / rating system. If it’s for a green mark then everything will work with a controller.

[mort96]

It's a game with great controller support! I play it a lot with a controller. It's just that in the PC gaming space, "controller support" doesn't necessarily mean that you can log in to the launcher and launch the game without a keyboard and mouse. The assumption is that you always have a keyboard and mouse, and some people also happen to have a controller in addition.

[Gigachad]

I got a steam deck 2 years ago and I haven’t run in to any games like this. They all either skip the launcher or have a controller navigable one.

I just had a look at the steam page and valve has listed a long list of usability issues with this game. I guess if it was a console they could just reject it and make the devs fix the issues. But it’s still cleanly presented to the user that there’s issues here and up to them to decide what to do.