this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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Steam Deck

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This is an interesting take, especially coming from a non-gaming focused tech website like Ars Technica. I feel like it's been too long since people were truly hyped about half life 3 though, and this wouldn't be enough, even if Valve did go through with it.

People are increasingly unhappy with windows though, and the EoL of windows 10 may push people to Linux anyways.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

Also, make the names of save files case sensitive, and name them like:

  • aaaaaa
  • aaaaaA
  • aaaaAa
  • aaaAaa
  • aaAaaa
  • aAaaaa
  • Aaaaaa
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's always funny to see periodicals talk about Valve like they're a normal puplicly traded tech company.

Valve is private. That fact alone is neither inherently good, nor bad. What it means though, is that Valve will very likely behave very differently than other companies in the same market. Heck, I very much doubt half life Alyx would exist if they were public. If we get HL3, it will likely be a similar case.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Valve is private. That fact alone is neither inherently good, nor bad.

I'm leaning towards being a public company is inherently bad, so being a private company is preferable as the primary "not bad" option.

My main experiences with public companies lately is that they prioritize quarterly and yearly profits over long term health of the company and a good relationship with their customers. I don't think that approach will be healthy for the company long term, and hurts consumers short term.

Privately owned companies can be just as shitty as publicly owned companies, but they're not required to put short term shareholder profits first. The well run ones (especially family run ones) are more likely to prioritize building a good reputation and consumer loyalty, which is how you get companies that don't suck to interact with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You make good points, but I doubt you'd continue to feel that way if you were a shareholder

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

won't somebody think of those poor poor shareholders

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

I think Valve knows better than to make an exclusive. Now will they optimise it for SD? I don't think there's any doubt about that.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Exclusivity is bad for gamers. We should reject it at all times.

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[–] priapus 27 points 4 days ago

Genius way to create a ton of ill will towards Valve, SteamOS and Linux as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

There is no chance Valve will make HL3 SteamOS or Linux exclusive.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

There is no chance Valve will make HL3 ~~SteamOS or Linux exclusive~~.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I think it will get made someday but likely will suck and/or be too late for anyone to really care

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (4 children)

It won't suck because Valve playtests the hell out of their games, but it might be bland/old fashioned feeling. The biggest issue with Valve is that they've really lost their edge. They used to be this young scrappy company that would innovate as easily as breathe, but over time they've begun to become so senior-heavy that now they just foster promising talents more than actually produce games.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

is everyone forgetting that they made half life alyx? valve hasn't lost their edge, they just operate on doing things they want to do, and they don't want to make "half life 2 episode 15"

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It's already too late. HL1 came out 27 years ago, HL2 came out 20 years ago.

Only old people will be hyped. Old people don't hype well.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

alyx was really good though. Like still top 10 VR games ever made.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Only a few people have VR, and its easy to get into that top 10 when there are maybe 15 good games for VR on the steam store total.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

But, maybe we can make a super clickbaity article anyway?

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 5 days ago (3 children)

No. Exclusives suck for everyone in the long run. In this case, it would also be pretty heavily set against the Linux / FOSS ethos, too.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What would be the point of actually making Half Life 3? The void caused by that game's non-existence is too culturally important to ever replace!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

slithers away

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Making HL3 only GNU/Linux exclusive would be the gigachadest thing ever done. Well even better than exclusivity. Make the game playable on windows but only with a downgrade in performance or need of emulation, like the whole industry has made with GNU/Linux.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Imagine if the Windows version requires WSL to work.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 5 days ago

This is not only dumb, but also manages to ignore Gabe's past declarations on the matter. It even ignores the fact they even released CounterStrike (of all things) on consoles.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 days ago

There won't be exclusives. That isn't good business for Steam or Linux.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

There are grown ass adults born after the last main story Half-life game.

While I have no doubt there would be some hype for a Half-life 3, I don't think it would be the firestarter this author is thinking.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago

Ewww exclusives.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Horrendous idea, sorry.
If anything making it exclusive would just make your average Joe resent SteamOS

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

It's more than enough to make HL3 a Steam exclusive. And make it run well on the Deck. If Valve really wants to gild the lily, they could put a little side-story just for the Deck's controls. A follow-up to Aperture Desk Job, perhaps.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 days ago (3 children)

As much of a Linux fanboy as I am, I just kinda hate platform exclusives in general when it comes to gaming.

Something fun could be Steam items you can only gain through playing the game on Linux, Like the promotional in-game items you got for playing TF2 on the launch of the Mac and Linux versions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

the obvious thing to me is just treating linux as the primary platform and treating windows like everyone else treats linux.

"yeah sure you can run it on windows if you want, try WSL or something i guess. good luck!"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I think it would be cool as a freebie to steamOS users. Would encourage people to try out installing steamOS to get the game for free.

Could either be that they just need to try it once to claim the game, or the game is free to play as long as they stay on Linux/steamOS to encourage them to use it long enough to finish the game.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

I think if they did a special launch on SteamOS and made it super polished it would be a nice demonstration... Or maybe an exclusive demo or minigame or something along those lines. They did some nifty stuff for VR this way and it got people pretty hyped about it for a while back when Vive launched.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

Exclusivity can eat my ass.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago

We already got half life 3. It was called half life alyx specifically to get away from the massive pressure that came with the meme.

Its also important to know valves strength is that they don’t need to pump out games, they make profit enough though steam. This makes sure they can put time in exploring new concepts and innovation and only release games that maintain the perception of excellence, which they could lose fast if they released a “mid” tier game.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We all know Valve can't count past two.

[–] bitwolf 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

I stand corrected.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago

I'll copy what I said on Mastodon

I don't know, even though Valve are pushing Steam OS they still treat all their platforms equally, and I don't think asking gamers to replace their OS (or install alongside their existing one) or buy a new PC in order to play Half-Life 3 is a good marketing strategy. Half-Life Alyx is a great example: as great a game it is, few people actually bought VR headsets to play it.

PS: I'm one of those guys who bought a headset for HLA, but I know I'm part of the minority here.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The same could be argued about HL:Alyx for VR, yet here we are...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

VR has a major physical problem that no one has been able to solve: Nausea.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I feel bad for people who do but I’ve never gotten nauseous from VR. Maybe it doesn’t need to be for everyone? I haven’t played HL Alyx but from what I’ve heard it’s heavily crippled and reduced compared to something like Boneworks because it tries to accommodate those with motion sickness etc

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah, I can play Alyx just fine with point and click movement, aside from my head getting ridiculously hot, but full-motion like boneworks wrecks me in 10 minutes.

Even if Alyx is "crippled" it's by far the best VR content that exists, by an incredibly wide margin. (I'm too lazy to check but I also think you can change it to full motion.)

It should be noted that I don't get motion sickness in other contexts like in vehicles, rollercoasters, acrobatic aircraft, etc.

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