Latest news with #SteamDeck
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
How CD Projekt Red did the impossible and ported Cyberpunk 2077 to the Nintendo Switch 2
We sit down with CD Projekt Red's Senior VP of Technology, Charles Trembley, to talk about the miracle that is Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on Nintendo Switch 2. To learn more about how Cyberpunk 2077 for Nintendo Switch 2 on day one was made possible, we go straight to the source with an interview with CD Projekt Red. It wasn't long ago that the idea of a game as graphically intense as Cyberpunk 2077 running on a handheld device seemed unfathomable. But then the Steam Deck came along roughly three years ago, leading players who prefer to take their games on the go to ask, 'will it run?' all over again while testing the limits of what's possible. However, a portable PC device is one thing and a dedicated console platform another, hence why Nintendo fans were left equally surprised and curious about how Cyberpunk 2077 would run on Nintendo Switch 2 when it was revealed in April of this year. Well, now it's here, and it's safe to say that most players are enjoying their time exploring Night City on Nintendo's hybrid successor. But how much work exactly did it take for CD Projekt Red to get Cyberpunk 2077 – including its critically acclaimed Phantom Liberty expansion – shrunken down to a single Nintendo Switch 2 cartridge? We recently visited the studio's head offices in Warsaw, Poland, speaking to Senior VP of Technology, Charles Trembley, to discuss why it was important for the game to be there at launch, how much Nintendo were excited about the prospect, as well as the game's legacy overall. Why was it important for you to release Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch 2 on day one? We had a visit from Nintendo here in the HQ where basically they were talking about, 'okay, we have this new platform coming'. I think we all looked at each other in the room. No one actually said yes though. We all were looking at each other in the eyes and everybody was like, 'yeah, it'll be cool'. Everybody was excited [but] we didn't commit necessarily yet to make it for day one. Basically, what happened is since I was in the room I inherited the task to figure it out – if it was possible to make this game. I was in the secret room and trying to figure out, 'okay, does it make sense to make Cyberpunk? Will it actually run? Will be a good experience?'. And we quickly decided that it was definitely possible. And then, after we discussed that with Nintendo and marketing, everything started to align. We decided to try and be ambitious. 'We'll try to be there at launch'. A lot of studios weren't lucky to acquire dev kits so early. I trust this wasn't an issue for you? For us, it was fine. We didn't need necessarily an army of dev kits. We just needed one or two to just get us started. And then when we needed more, we communicated with them and we aligned when, and we just scaled up as the project went . What were the main difficulties with porting Cyberpunk 2077 to Nintendo Switch 2? What surprised me is that it didn't take us that much time to get it running. So, from the inception of me working, making just the infrastructure to make it work, I had a triangle on screen. So it didn't take us like that much time. Of course, it was difficult to know the difference between the beginning and the theory. Is it going to work on when you're connected to the TV, in handheld or in docked? I think it took us a few months to get everything running. And then after that, the last challenge was the cartridge. At first it was quite clear what the limitation of a cartridge was. [Nintendo was] quite upfront: this is going to be 64GB cartridge. With Phantom Liberty back then [the game] was at 90GB, and we wanted to have both together. As gamers, we all knew it's not very good to have the game as a code in the box, so we tried to figure out how it works. And one of my engineers, Adrian, is a physical collector, so it was what he really wanted. There's a lot of assets that were duplicated for various reasons, so we could limit the number of duplications there. There are few movies that are high resolution. And we had to decide, 'okay, it's too high resolution', so we did reduce the quality there a little bit. We did a lot of experimenting to limit as much as possible. Finally, the language was another big issue that we need to resolve because it's one of our unique selling points, right? We have a lot of languages, and we want to continue having other languages, but every language with all the voiceover is very expensive on disk. We needed to make a choice, and we decided to limit the number. On cartridge you have the default language, but then you need to download the language that you want [separately]. We thought it was a good compromise. Cartridge constraints is a big Switch 2 talking point. Do you foresee this continuing to be an issue? I think Nintendo is quite good at managing their hardware, so I'm expecting that for their product, they will still be fitting in cartridge. I don't think we'll have to be scared about that. I think the main issue is when you get to our universe a little bit, where we go forward, but really the new consoles will be coming in a few years, right? The PC. It's never stopping and unfortunately sometimes the quality of assets is very hard to keep into 64GB for Cyberpunk and going forward it's definitely a challenge. I can imagine that in our next title if we want to get more ambitious, more quality, it would be extremely difficult to be on 64GB. For sure, downloadable will always be an option. However, of course, having 256GB on drive, an SSD on the console makes it very difficult to have more than one game, right? We had the same issue also on the original Nintendo Switch. The Witcher 3 was 32GB, so it's difficult to download it. Hopefully the micro-SD express cards will be bigger and bigger so people will be able to have bigger games, but I can definitely imagine that in our universe, with third parties, if you want to have the game running it might be difficult to fit on 64GB card. And finally, on the legacy of Cyberpunk 2077, how are you as a studio feeling about the game overall? The main problem we had before was the mechanical hard drive, which was very, very hard for us to deliver all the content that needs to be streamed to the on the consoles. So when we moved to the next generation with the SSD, that really helped us a lot to now finally fix these issues. And I think that with lots of work when we got to the Edgerunners update, which was great because then we also had a lot people coming back to the game, you know giving us another chance in all fairness, I think the team really was appreciative to get back to the game. Then we had 2.0, which again, gave another breadth to the game. I think that at this stage, we can think that, as a company, we were finally where we always wanted this game to be. Then when we get Phantom Liberty on top of it, which is also like, 'now we know exactly how to make this game, how to make those quests, how make everything to make it the best experience of Cyberpunk'. The reception was great from the community. We're pretty grateful for that community. At the end side, if you think about it, if the success of the game would have been what we originally expected, would it be the same game that we're playing today? I don't think so. Which is weird when you think about it because of all the problems that we had, but then basically we ended up pushing so much energy in this game and I think now it's a much, much better game that it would not have probably been otherwise, so I'm pretty happy about the result. I think this game will pass the test of time. Cyberpunk 2077 is available on Nintendo Switch 2, complete with the new Update 2.3, right now.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gabe Newell's daily routine is 'get up, work, go scuba diving,' says he's been 'retired for a long time' but works 7 days a week: 'The things I get to do every day are super-awesome'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corporation and the driving force behind much of the company's unique philosophy, has had a much less public-facing role in recent years. Newell still turns up for things like the Steam Deck launch and official documentaries, but much of his time now is spent on one of his (several) superyachts, and on his other companies' projects: He co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces (popularly known as "brain chips"), and Inkfish, a marine research operation. Newell also remains magnificently quixotic, popping up every so often to talk about things like when a shark went for him, and now he's re-surfaced to do an interview with a YouTube channel that has 19 subscribers (Valve confirmed to PCG that the interview is legit). Zalkar Saliev "shares powerful interviews and lifestyle stories with successful men across the US," and his channel has previously played host to employees of Amazon and Microsoft. And now Gabe Newell's on there: well, some short clips are on there, with a full interview to follow later. The ocean-loving billionaire is asked, "What is the daily routine for Mr Gabe?" I'd hesitate to call Newell "Gaben" to his face so Mr Gabe is quite the framing. "My daily routine," begins Newell, "I get up, I work, I go scuba-diving, work some more, [then] either go on a second scuba dive or I go to the gym and work out. I live on a boat so I just hang out with everybody on the boat. Then I work. "I work seven days a week: I'm working from my bedroom as you can tell. I like working, it's fun, to me it doesn't feel like work. The kinds of things that I get to do every day are super-awesome." Indeed, we can see from the clip, which alternates between Saliev's Macbook view and the camera feed, that Newell appears to be sitting on the end of his bed. The view makes it impossible to say for certain, but the IRL Saxton Hale is looking good for his age and more trim generally: clearly all the scuba-diving and gym-going has paid-off. Newell goes on to say that he's effectively retired, inasmuch as he only does stuff that interests him now, but the man's work ethic is clearly second-to-none. "I've said it before but, when you retire, you want to like stop doing your horrible job and go do what is sort of most fun and entertaining," says Newell. "In that sense I've been retired for a long time." Newell goes on to give some examples of what's currently taking up his time. "In one of the companies we're working on an aerosol pathogen detection device so you can see all the pathogens that are in the air. Brain-computer interfaces are incredibly cool and all of the associated neuroscience is incredibly cool." The upshot? Talk about life goals: "I just work all the time," ends Newell. "But it's not like 'oh my god I'm up late at night slaving away on stuff.' It's more like 'I can't go to sleep because I'm having fun', you know?" Expect more to come from this interview, even if Newell's current interests have moved (somewhat) away from pc gaming. Newell's spectacular success and unusual perspectives have created an intense cult of personality around the man's pronouncements, but as the above shows some of it is really quite simple. As a Valve exec once observed, Newell's real superpower is in how he "delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did." Solve the daily Crossword
The Verge
6 days ago
- The Verge
Lenovo Legion Go S review part two: you were the chosen one!
Valve's Steam Deck has dominated the handheld gaming PC space since its 2022 debut. But even as more powerful Windows handhelds arrived to keep up with more demanding games, none have beaten the Steam Deck's combination of ease-of-use, ergonomics, power, and battery life at an affordable price. That still hasn't changed. The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is not the Steam Deck killer that some headlines would have you believe. This was supposed to be a moment for handhelds. When the Legion Go S was revealed as the first authorized third-party handheld to run SteamOS, with a $499 starting price, it looked like a true Steam Deck competitor was finally on the way. It even had the blessing and support of the Steam Deck's creators — something we'd never seen before. With an actual price of $599 and tradeoffs galore, the base Legion Go S with SteamOS is not a match for the $550 Steam Deck OLED. The more powerful AMD Z1 Extreme model is not half bad, but it's far more expensive at $829. But within the disappointment, there is some good news: it's better than the $730 Windows version with the same hardware that came out last February, and SteamOS is definitely a better experience than Windows. 5 Verge Score 7 Verge Score Back in February, I couldn't believe just how poor the Windows gaming experience was on this handheld's AMD Z2 Go chip. A $550 Steam Deck ran Cyberpunk 2077 faster on battery than a $730 Lenovo did while plugged in at maximum boost! And as usual, Windows was a pig: the less you know about the Windows out-of-box experience and wake / sleep issues, the better. Thankfully, SteamOS washes away the Windows stains. Imagine just pressing a power button to pause a game, then seamlessly resuming the next time you press it! Imagine simply picking a language and scanning a Steam Guard QR code to log into your handheld for the first time, instead of spending 45 minutes batting away upsells for Microsoft 365 Copilot and kin. And even though the Windows version has also (slightly) improved since I first tested it, the Legion Go S is so much faster with SteamOS: roughly 17 percent faster, in my tests. SteamOS's performance increase can translate to better battery life, too. On the Windows model, playing 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla at 720p resolution and 60fps at low settings required an average of 36 watts — enough to drain the Legion Go S's 55 watt-hour battery in 1.5 hours. But with SteamOS, the same 60fps gameplay requires just 22 watts, giving you an entire extra hour of gameplay (55 watt-hours divided by 22 watts = 2.5 hours) just by installing a different OS. Not all games see as dramatic a boost, but the same is true of Cyberpunk 2077: if you play at 50fps, you get up to an extra hour of battery life from SteamOS. SteamOS also makes it so much easier to change those power modes, map out new control schemes, and monitor your performance and battery life. You can simply hold down a button and flick a joystick to change your screen brightness or summon a virtual mouse, so there's no need to dive into menus. You can even install Decky, the unofficial SteamOS plugin loader, on a Legion Go S, to flesh out your Steam Library with game art or more easily install Epic Game Store titles. But all that is also true of the Steam Deck, which costs less, excels at games that don't require the horsepower of Cyberpunk 2077, and makes it easier to play decades of PC titles that weren't built for gamepad controls. The Steam Deck has two large, responsive touchpads that can emulate a trackball, pull up a radial menu, or each act as an extra set of four buttons to map your keyboard commands. The Legion Go S has a single ultra-tiny touchpad that puts up such a fight whenever I try to use it that I've already given up. The Steam Deck has four back buttons, enough so you can bind ABXY and never have to take your thumb off the right analog stick; the Legion Go S only has two. More importantly to me: perhaps because of these differences in controls, the Legion Go S is missing the mountain of community controller layouts that Steam Deck, PlayStation, and Xbox controller users have been creating for years. Those layouts, which map the games' commands to the controllers' buttons and joysticks, make it a cinch to play mouse-and-keyboard games on a handheld without the tedious work of figuring out a control scheme from scratch. On a Steam Deck, or on any PC with a common controller plugged in, those layout options show up automatically if you go looking. With the Legion Go S, the repository of custom controller profiles is totally empty. The Legion Go S's layout is nearly identical to Xbox, so why doesn't it pull up Xbox controller profiles at least? This honestly feels like an oversight, and I hope it'll be fixed. As I explained in my review of the Windows Legion Go S, though, this hardware does feel great. It's solid, reassuringly well-built, with my second-favorite screen on a handheld after the Steam Deck OLED. While it doesn't have the true HDR or deep blacks of Valve's OLED, the 8-inch IPS touchscreen makes the Steam Deck's 7.4-inch screen seem cramped by comparison, to say nothing of the 7-inch ROG Ally X. And like the Ally, Lenovo's 120Hz variable refresh rate can make for smoother gameplay, particularly on the model with AMD's Z1 Extreme chip. The Steam Deck's one notable disadvantage is that its performance has only slightly improved in three and a half years as games continue to get more demanding. Big hits like Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3 have pushed it out of its comfort zone, and where rivals like the Legion Go S can unlock better performance when plugged into the wall or draining their batteries at very high rates, the Steam Deck can't. The Legion Go S officially brings those 'turbo' modes to SteamOS, as well. But if that's why you're buying, don't get the $599 Z2 Go model. It's not that the Z2 Go is slower than the Steam Deck overall. At max boost on wall power, the base Legion Go S can offer up to 35 percent better framerates. But the Z1 Extreme model offered up to 72 percent faster framerates than the Steam Deck and was 29 percent faster on average than the Z2 Go model. That's enough to make a game feel smooth that was barely playable — like Expedition 33 at the lowest settings — or comfortably go up an entire graphics preset in most games when you're plugged into the wall. (If you do plan to plug the Legion Go S into the wall, you may want to turn on fast charging in the BIOS — hold down Power + Volume Up when booting, then change Charging Speed Selection — and get yourself a 100W power adapter, because Lenovo's stock 65W adapter isn't enough to keep the battery from draining while you're playing full bore.) The Steam Deck OLED can't do turbo at all, but its custom chip can hold its own against the Z2 Go in unplugged 'balanced' power modes. When I capped both at the same 15 watt power draw, the Steam Deck won in Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and tied in Cyberpunk 2077, even as it lost in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Returnal. Another surprise in the Steam Deck's favor: I played a lot of fiendish mansion-building mystery Blue Prince while testing the Legion Go S, and it's far choppier on Lenovo's handhelds. I don't know if it's had Steam Deck-specific optimizations, but I found I needed turbo mode on the Z1 Extreme for it to run as smoothly as it does on the Steam Deck. If you do find yourself choosing between the two Lenovo Legion Go models, you won't sacrifice much battery life by picking the beefier chip. In my tests, the Z1 Extreme model only drew 1 to 3 watts more than the Z2 Go on battery power — we're talking about five minutes shorter battery life in the most intensive games and 15 minutes in less intensive ones. But in those less intensive games like Dirt Rally or Balatro, the Steam Deck OLED is still the champ. Despite having a smaller 49Wh battery, it lasted over 50 minutes longer than either Legion Go S in my Dirt Rally battery drain test (where I set each handheld's screen to the same brightness using a calibration tool) and managed two extra hours of magic poker game Balatro with battery-saving tweaks: 9 hours for Steam Deck vs. 7 hours for the Legion Go S. I have to hand it to Lenovo and Valve: after tangling with the Windows model, I thought the entire Legion Go S lineup was going to be dead on arrival. But that's not the case. Even the Z2 Go runs faster and more efficiently than it did on Windows, and the Z1 Extreme version is a legitimately good handheld if you get it with SteamOS. (You can technically install SteamOS on the Windows-based Legion Go S, but Valve tells me that's not officially supported, and I ran into several issues when I tried it in early June.) Valve and Lenovo have also moved swiftly to address some of the bugs the SteamOS version launched with. In the month and change since release, it's fixed wonkiness around the power modes and the variable refresh rate screen, and how both the tiny touchpad and joystick LEDs can sometimes stop working when the handheld goes to sleep. (We're still waiting on a way to control those RGB joystick LEDs in SteamOS, though.) But while you might be happy with the $829 Z1 Extreme model around your home or otherwise close to an outlet, it's not the best handheld you can buy. The Steam Deck OLED has it beat on price vs. performance and battery life for less intensive games, plus those community controller profiles and twin trackpads. It's the pick if you don't need beefy turbo modes or a big screen. You might also try installing Bazzite on an Asus ROG Ally X: I find it slightly less comfortable to hold, but with the same Z1 Extreme chip and a far larger 80Wh battery, it's a better option than the Legion Go S for intensive games away from a plug. Truthfully, though, I wouldn't buy any PC handheld at this particular moment. Lenovo's greatest achievement with the Legion Go S was to prove the superiority of SteamOS over Windows for handhelds, but prices are unusually high right now and Microsoft is about to fire back. Even if you have no interest in an Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X this holiday season, it seems like Microsoft is finally trying to fix handheld Windows. I, for one, would want to know how the updated OS fares, and which devices will get it, before I buy a new handheld. Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Miami Herald
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Ember and Blade Demands Blood in Free Steam Demo Starting July 17
LINE Games is unleashing a brutal taste of its upcoming action roguelite, Ember and Blade, with a free playable demo launching on Steam this Thursday, July 17. Over two hours of relentless demon-slaying awaits those brave enough to take on the role of Fenrix Haven: a former human now bound by immortality to hunt the infernal horde. Demo features: Horde vs. Hunter: Dive into non-stop combat against waves of demons and challenging soulslike Builds: Unlock randomized angelic blessings and field buffs to craft your own sword-and-magic The demo includes full gamepad support-ideal for seamless run-and-gun action. Following this demo, Ember and Blade will return during Steam Next Fest in autumn, offering a vertical slice build with new progression mechanics, boss encounters, and community features. A Steam Early Access launch is scheduled for Q4 2025, and the full game aims for a global release in 2026 on Steam Deck, with console builds under consideration. The demo delivers a first glimpse of Ember and Blade's adrenaline-fueled world: razor-sharp combat, strategic build crafting, and rogue-like depth wrapped in vivid, hand-painted visuals. It's a promising blend of hack-and-slash thrill and survival-horde pacing that veterans of the genre won't want to miss. Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Hindustan Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Xbox's gaming handheld leak reveals shockingly high prices
The upcoming ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming device may end up costing a lot more than many expected, according to a recent price leak. Asus and Microsoft introduced the device last month, but there were lots of questions about how much it would actually cost. Now, numbers spotted on an Asus site by a Spanish gaming publication 3DJuegos suggest the Xbox Ally could be priced at 599 euros (about $700 or ₹ 58,500), while the higher-specced Xbox Ally X might reach 899 euros (about $1,050 or ₹ 87,900). These Euro prices are not always an exact match when converted to US dollars or Indian rupees, but generally, hardware makers often price the same models with similar numbers across regions, regardless of currency. European prices usually include tax, so if you remove VAT, the actual price before tax is lower. However, for Indian buyers, import duties and GST typically push up the cost even more, making it likely the device will be on the higher end of premium handheld pricing. How expensive is the new ROG Xbox Ally? For comparison, the ROG Ally that launched in 2023 retailed at around $700 in the US, and the Ally X launched at $800. The new Xbox Ally and Ally X are expected to carry newer AMD processors and improved specs, including a 7-inch 120Hz display and up to 24GB RAM. Early looks promise a user experience that brings Xbox's console feel to a handheld, moving away from the clunky Windows-only interface seen on previous devices. There are also concerns the final price in India could be even higher, especially with new tariffs on consumer electronics expected to come into play from August. The US has already seen Xbox console prices increase due to tariffs on goods coming from China, and similar costs could impact devices made in Vietnam and shipped to India as well. What's notable is that in the handheld gaming market, the Xbox Ally and Ally X are pitching themselves directly against competitors like the Steam Deck. However, one big issue remains Windows optimisation. Many of these Windows-based devices still struggle with battery life and performance on games compared to the streamlined Linux-based Steam Deck. Xbox seems to be tackling this by introducing a new user interface more suited for gaming on the go, rather than using a standard Windows setup. Microsoft and Asus have not confirmed these leaked prices, so things could still change before the official announcement. Both the Xbox Ally and Ally X are expected to launch later this year, likely before the holiday season, but how much they will actually cost when they hit Indian stores remains to be seen. First Published Date: 15 Jul, 16:58 IST
