this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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Sony may block PlayStation Steam games on new Xbox console, dashing hopes for a cross-platform system (www.notebookcheck.net)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The comparison to GeForce Now is wild, because that's a service running "your" games on someone else's hardware. Of course Sony can walk up to NVIDIA and say "fuck off, we don't authorize you to run God of War for your users" and NVIDIA will say ok we won't run God of War anymore.

Steam distributes game installers. Sony can't make Valve produce a special version of Steam for the Xbox that tells its store that it's on an Xbox, especially if the Xbox in question is literally a windows PC with a UI skin and a lock on administrator access. I can run Steam right now on my android phone via winlator and download+install a Steam game.

What Sony could do is patch restrictive DRM software into all their games that checks the hardware info and fails to boot if you're on "an xbox".

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Sony has a habit of cutting off their nose to spite their face when it comes to cross-platform releases. They're still closer to Nintendo in it, but for every step they have taken forward, then end up taking two steps back and then shooting themself in the foot making taking a step forward again harder.

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

What Sony could do is patch restrictive DRM software into all their games that checks the hardware info and fails to boot if you're on "an xbox".

They'd definitely do that, they've already used what amounted to a Rootkit for DRM in the mid-2000s, so your idea wouldn't even be the worst they've done lolol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Problem with that is, if the xbox is a PC with sideloading capabilities (instead of being a much harder thing to engineer: a true "console experience" that just adds Steam), then all Sony's current games can be pirated on the thing. Future titles would have whatever lock and also probably Denuvo, for sure, or Sony could just stop putting their games on PC. Sony probably wasn't seeing a future where anyone but "sweaty PC nerds" would be playing Steam games in their living room with controllers, and Microsoft has the perfect opportunity to say "alright, whatever. We lost the exclusives arms race to Nintendo and Sony so let's just do what we do best and maintain the biggest gaming platform in the history of the medium but make it as easy for Joe Rando to use as an Xbox 360 was".

Microsoft has such an opportunity to learn the right lessons from the Steam Deck - make good convenient hardware with a lot of compatibility, slap a user-friendly interface on it, and do nothing to stop tinkering and customizing other than making it easy to restore back to stock.

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

I'm struggling to understand how Sony could force it on a technical level when Microsoft controls the default PC OS. Could maybe try a legal route, but I'm not sure how they would argue it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

We seriously need to ditch console exclusivity. No consoles today (other than the ones Valve has made/are working on) are even remotely worth having exclusives for. Just let people play games on whatever platform they prefer.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Between this and infinity nikki actively blocking non SteamDeck devices I have a feeling that Valve will bring the hammer down on this sometime soon.

When people buy a game, the store front says it should run and then it doesn't they're not going to yell at the developers. They're going to yell at the store and I doubt Valve wants to bother with the extra support workload that entails.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hope Valve blocks this block

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

Sure! Just install SteamOS, and the verified Sony games will run just fine!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

yeah but people who buy this next xbox shouldn't have to jump through those hoops to play a game they purchased (a license to) on compatible hardware

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It would be hilarious if sony was ok with Steam OS though. Can you imagine MS selling consoles at a loss only for people to turn around and abandon their cancerous telemetry nightmare to use open source instead of ~~trash~~ windows. That would be so good!

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

Or if MS let their xbox (which is just a PC with a custom UI) dual boot Linux or desktop Windows. Beat that.

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

Single boot to steamOS to avoid MS telemetry ;)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Nah, let them make money off of the data of people that leave it on default settings. Sell 'em Gamepass too.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

It really just depends on how xbox approaches it. If its a PC with new xbox branded software... They shouldnt be able to fight it.

Like what microsoft actually needs to do (which would also save windows) is to develop a compatability layer that would allow xbox games to be playable on PC(windows), the digital ones anyhow...

Then users would get the best of both worlds, skyrocketing their market and mind share.

Easier said than done im sure.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Honestly, I don't think it would be all that difficult. From my understanding, under the hood the Xbox Series X/S are basically just a normal x86 PC. They even say the OS is 'Windows 10 Core', and some stuff is already fully cross-platform.