Steam Deck Price Surge, 007 First Light, and MGS4 News
The Steam Deck Market Crisis
The episode opens with a shocking discussion regarding the recent, significant price increases for the Valve Steam Deck.
• The 512GB model rose $240 to $789, while the 1TB model saw a $300 increase.
• While global memory and storage scarcity are clear factors, the team expresses concern that Valve is being particularly vulnerable due to its smaller relative scale in the hardware supply chain compared to industry titans like Apple, Sony, and Nintendo.
• Speculation suggests this price hike might be a preemptive attempt to manage consumer expectations for the future Steam Machine pricing, casting doubt on the financial viability of Valve’s future hardware ventures.
007 First Light: Technical Assessment
The team evaluates the performance of the latest Bond title across different platforms, highlighting a stark contrast between console efficiency and PC inconsistencies.
• Consoles: The PS5 and upcoming Xbox versions are performing admirably, with the team praising the smooth, stable experience achieved on the base hardware.
• PC Issues: The PC version, however, is suffering from unoptimized upscaling. Specifically, the DLSS implementation is underperforming compared to FSR, causing significant headaches for owners of mid-range hardware like the RTX 4060.
• Missing Features: The absence of native dynamic resolution scaling and questionable cutscene handling for ultra-wide monitors detract from the high-end PC experience.
Future Releases and Industry Trends
"The concept of producing a new expansion... on the one hand it's kind of crazy, but on the other hand it's going to do extremely well."
• Modern Warfare 4 (Switch 2): The announcement of Call of Duty launching day-and-date on the Switch 2 is viewed as an ambitious milestone, supported by high-resource dev teams.
• The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past: CD Projekt Red is releasing a new expansion for the aging classic. The hosts discuss the strategy of revitalizing legacy titles rather than investing solely in expensive new IP.
• Metal Gear Solid 4: News of a new port running on modern hardware is celebrated, as it marks the long-awaited liberation of MGS4 from the restrictive architecture of the PlayStation 3.
The State of Tech Coverage
The show concludes with a sobering reflection on the difficulties of modern games journalism, particularly regarding Xbox whitelisting policies. The team notes that the current necessity for Microsoft to manually whitelist hardware for pre-release code access is causing significant delays in Xbox coverage compared to other platforms, ultimately hindering visibility for the brand.