Off The Console

This week we’ve seen massive market cap wiped from the stock market thanks to Google’s AI, Valve is being sued on behalf of gamers, a third of the gaming industry lost their jobs in 2024/2025… and why has High Guard’s reception been so poor?

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Jeff Bezos wants to kill the home PC, but the RAM crisis might beat him to it. From modders soldering their own memory to Valve’s new Steam Machine “Verified” ratings and Tim Sweeney’s latest PR disaster, we’re breaking down the most chaotic week in tech. Is ownership officially dead?

Find the Bonus Level episode and show notes here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/148483629

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Find links to all the stories in this episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/147343024

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Join @games_revealed , @HiTechLoLife , and @gardiner_bryant as we discuss this week’s hottest gaming and tech news. We also have special guest @ThePhawx !

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Read the show notes and watch the bonus episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/147343024

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Join the community and get the bonus show here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/146811924

Our latest episode of Off The Console covers this week’s tech disasters… plus some kinda neat stuff! We explore the collapsing pillars of the gaming industry and the bizarre tech “advancements” no one actually asked for. Today we’re discussing the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 disqualification drama, the potential “SEGA-fication” of Xbox, Nvidia’s quest for perfect, total enshittification, and the moment 300 terabytes of Spotify’s library hit the 🏴‍☠️pirate🏴‍☠️ seas 🦜.

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The Death of AAA Gaming: A deep-dive essay on why the $200M budget model is a suicide pact for developers.

2026 Predictions: From the “Next-Gen” Switch to the total collapse of live-service clones, we’re calling our shots for next year.

The Uncanny Valley Ruining Lives: A terrifying study shows how minor video call glitches are costing people jobs and even parole.

The SSD Miracle: The story of the lucky Redditor who ordered 2 Samsung 9100 Pro SSDs and received two full palettes worth over $5,000.

More Toll Roads: Why America is obsessed with charging you to drive on your own streets.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Find links to all the stories in this episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/146322382

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Read the show notes and watch the bonus episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/145243790

Bonus Show Timestamp:

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Welcome to this special ‘Off the Console’ episode! We’ve compiled a collection of our favorite moments from past episodes, including hilarious highlights, insightful guest interviews, and intriguing discussions on gaming tech and beyond. Enjoy clips featuring Gardner’s unique insights, high-tech analyses, and even a former Master Chief’s real-life experiences. Stay until the end for an amusing AI chat with iconic characters and a deep dive into the latest in gaming industry news. Let us know your favorite moments in the comments and be part of our awesome community!

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Join @HiTechLoLife , @games_revealed , and @gardiner_bryant as we discuss this week’s hottest gaming and tech news.

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Get ready for a massive episode as we dive deep into one of gaming’s biggest events of the year! The Game Awards!

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Link: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

Valve announced a TRIO of devices. A TRIO. THREE. DEVICES. A new Steam Controller, THE Steam Machine, and finally, The Steam Frame which was once called the Valve Deckard.

The Steam Controller is an evolved Steam Controller featuring all of the inputs the Steam Deck has, but in a controller form, and with some additional bells and whistles.

The Steam Machine is Valve’s return to bringing Steam to the living room… this time with more confidence in their work on Linux and Proton. The landscape’s changed drastically since their first attempt over a decade ago with Proton existing as a core part of Steam on Linux.

The Steam Frame is Valve’s standalone VR headset. Not quite a true successor to the Index but it’s something more. A standalone ARM headset designed to play full fat PCVR games, with the ability to sideload Android APKs. What’s more interesting too is SteamOS on ARM. It includes FEX-EMU, a translation layer designed to run x86 binaries on ARM on TOP of Proton translating Windows calls to Linux calls. One has to wonder how performant games will run on the Frame.

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Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/valve-says-it-has-a-pretty-good-idea-of-what-steam-deck-2-is-going-to-be-explains-why-its-holding-off-for-now

The Steam Deck 2 is still happening, it just isn’t happening now because as valve claims “there’s no offerings in that landscape”. Valve apparently isn’t interested in performance gains as low as 50% at the same battery level. They want more. More more more. Battery life is a major consideration, otherwise we’d have extremely powerful handhelds without the battery to keep them alive for long.

Link: http://pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/steamos-launching-for-arm-fex-translation-layer/

https://www.theverge.com/news/818672/valve-android-apps-steam-frame

Valve states that with the release of the Steam Frame, they will also release an updated SteamOS with ARM support. Now I doubt you would be able to run this on just any ARM based system, like a modern smartphone, but there may be a place for SteamOS on various Snapdragon based handhelds, such as the AYN Thor and whatnot. More testing required but SteamOS for ARM will include FEX-EMU for running games. Word has it that you’ll just be able to run Android apps on here and even sideload Android APKs too.

Link: https://www.thegameawards.com/news/nominations-live-on-monday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_Awards#Video_games_and_media

We won’t have nominees announced by the time this podcast releases, but we’re gonna take our best shot at predicting who’s gonna be nominated, and later on we’re gonna predict who’s gonna win. Should we live stream this?

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Link: https://thegamepost.com/sony-destiny-2-sales-user-engagement-not-reached-bungie/

Destiny 2 was in a good spot before the Sony buyout, which is why Sony bought the studio for a big sum of cash… but Destiny 2 is now in dire straits. The lowest player count it’s ever seen and Marathon isn’t looking too good for prospective players either. All of Bungie hinges on the upcoming Star Wars themed expansion for Destiny 2… Renegades.

Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/this-is-a-blatant-unapologetic-act-of-vicious-union-busting-hundreds-of-rockstar-employees-sign-letter-to-management-demanding-fired-colleagues-get-reinstated

A number of employees had their employment grand thefted in what appears to be union busting. Hundreds of Rockstar employees PISSED and signed a letter to management demanding they get reinstated.

Link: https://thegamepost.com/sony-concord-playable-again-custom-servers/

Concord, the catastrophic live service failure, has returned thanks to a community made server. Concord released last year and lasted only two weeks before shutting down and all purchasers were issued refunds, with the studio itself going under soon after. Of course it’s work in progress but there is evidence of the return of Concord, at least not by Sony.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant