this post was submitted on 06 May 2025

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Playtron wanted to take on Windows and SteamOS with their GameOS, now they're announcing a cryptocurrency (www.gamingonlinux.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Playtron can keep their GameOS, anything associated with Cryptocurrency is a hard pass. I remember a lot of cryptobros were financing the fuck out of Playtron. Naturally, this is a product I consider dead to me. I will buy a Steam Deck from Valve, as they aren't actively trying to scam their potential user base with Crypto nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Valve, as they aren't actively trying to scam their potential user base

I love Valve, but let's face the reality here. They're operating an unregulated bank and casino.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

They were sued in 2019 by a Native American tribe over that, I haven't heard much about the issue since. It's likely they are merely being neutral in the situation now, as no one is throwing up a fuss. Still, it's not cool behavior on the part of Valve.

[+] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm probably going to get the middle tier of Steam Deck as it does provide a decent value; as I play a lot of farming sims and cozy games, the Steam Deck fills this purpose well for me. Better than my Switch ever could. I was also considering the Lenovo Legion Go S, but waiting for hardware and software reviews for that device is a smart move. As it could be an amazing device, or it could be fucking shit on launch.

[+] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

But the cost is hard to justify given its age now.

Is it? When I last checked online, you'd be hard-pressed to find any other PC handheld for $400 or less, even used.

[+] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

3.5 years old isn't that old lol. My desktop CPU was almost 10 years old before I noticed any bottleneck in AAA games.

And speaking of AAA games from the last few years, all like, 2 of them, probably won't be missed by most people.

The deck is a solid computer and it's a good product that's built well and is pleasant to handle and use and playing desktop games on that OLED with HDR support is a joy and on top of a decently polished UX (as polished as you can get in PC gaming really), the tinker potential is endless, you can do with it as you please because it's yours and you own it - and it certainly feels like it. No adware, no enshittification etc.

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

OLED made some minor improvements, but $150 more for the next step up is a huge ask. You act as if there are plenty of easily available cheaper handheld PCs out there. Not that I've found. Prices for old technology are going up, not down.

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

with tarrifs the cheap handhelds are all expensive now

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

I understand what you are trying to say, I feel like it's not that old of a device in comparison to a Switch or Switch OLED. It's still going to be a decent buy at the price point; I'm not overly worried about spending that much on a Steam Deck OLED. It wouldn't take but a month of casual saving to afford a Steam Deck and given a lot of the games I buy are Deck Verified...It's not a bad deal. This thing will likely be good enough for a few more years of play, particularly with indie games. Given that there is plenty of time for further consideration, I am leaning towards waiting for reviews of the Legion device I mentioned...On the off chance it is the better buy.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 3 days ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago

Yup.

Me before the comma: Good luck to them, more options can't be a bad thing.

Me after the comma: I intend to wipe the existence of your useless company from my memory entirely, so I'm just going to point and laugh at your failure in advance and immediately move on with my life.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

This will fail. You don't start with step 1 being enshitification. That's like step 100 after something is already really good. Like if valve sold popup ads inside steam or some shit.

Coming straight out of the gate with this bullshit is a dumb idea and it will fail. Not to mention, having to make your own OS is no small feat, even if you're forking a Linux OS.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I suspect they don’t even believe in this themselves, this is just a last ditch attempt at squeezing a little more cash out of dumb investors before declaring bankruptcy eventually. Seeing how one of their investors was Square Enix, that might even work.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Anyone who is even remotely involved in developing commercial software knows this.

Step 1 is growing a customer base,
Step 2 is making that customer base loyal,
Step 3 is and in ads, free tiers with more ads, bonus currency and other BS

Everyone knows that if you're ever going to charge money for your product you charge money for your product day one. You don't have a free alpha release or something and then expect everyone to pay later on, that sort of misdirect gets up people's noses. Star citizen is an absolute master class in how to do this well, not morally of course, but definitely done well.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Peddling shitcoins in 2025. Lmao.
Cmon now, announce your gAmInG chatbot to complete the stupidity bingo.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Oh, the dream of earning crypto while I chat with AI chatbots to maybe one day buy NFTs.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

Called this a while ago https://urusai.social/@neatchee/112255667073894754

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

Through this lens it became clear: stablecoins will become a financial backbone for the $500B global gaming economy.

The people interested in alternatives to SteamOS for Linux gaming probably aren’t going to be the sort of people who are interested in cryptocurrency or more micro transactions. I don’t think they have much of a clue what their target audience likes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I'll stick with my steam deck

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So... Microtransactions.

They want more microtransactions?

Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, is there any game dev or gamer currently dissatisfied with existing payment systems? Are people in certain countries struggling with the mechanics of paymernt? Like, there are tons of ways to shoehorn in random charges or in-game ownership systems, and I don't see what crypto brings other than moving the purse-holder.

Again, devil's avocate: one could argue current platform fees (30%) are very high, but this is more of a monopolization issue than a fundamental payment system one,

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

And even then, the SteamOS has a desktop mode so you could play only games from Itch or other platforms

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Looking to be the modern day Gizmondo.