Please bring it officially to Australia!
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Pretty sure Lord GabeN still holds a grudge against us from that time the ACCC sued Steam over local pricing and consumer protection laws; so we’re very unlikely to ever see local hardware releases.
I ended up getting mine through an eBay seller a year ago - no regrets so far.
Would you recommend the LCD model over the OLED model?
The OLED model has slightly better performance due to a newer version of the same APU. So it’s not just the screen that is better.
That said, I have a very early LCD model I love. The OLED is not a big enough upgrade for me to consider buying it. But if I were buying new I would get an OLED.
The only OLED feature I couldn’t go back to missing is the Wake Over Bluetooth functionality that lets you use your controller to bring up the system. Not huge for some, but when you’ve got a docked setup it’s heaps more convenient.
I own the LCD model (bought long before OLED edition existed) and it brings me joy on the train.
Sure it would be nice with a better screen, bigger battery, and slightly lighter device. But it’s not something you absolutely need.
Whenever it’s worth it for you is a very personal thing that depends highly on what you prioritise and how much money you have.
This article is just plain misleading. The LCD switch is cheaper than the Steam Deck LCD 64Gb at the moment even with the 15% off.
Good promo article though, had me checking.
The 64gb deck is $296.65 new on sale, and the switch is still $300, no? The article is weird because it says less than $390 at the top, but the 64gb is only $350 not on sale (while they last anyway).
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Uhh pretty sure I paid $300 for my switch.
Well the sale finally convinced me to pick up a SD. I got the 512 GB LED version. Hoping it comes in before the weekend, but I ordered on Saturday night and it still hasn’t shipped.
I picked up Portal 1/2 for pennies and Witcher 3 for a few dollars.
I’m super excited but no one I know seems to be interested!
Yeah but you can’t legally play Mario on it
Actually you can, as long as you own the game and are playing a backup of it.
Very much a thing within the reach of the average consumer with something like the MigSwitch Dumper. You get the game you paid for and none of the nasty bits (other than some emulation pain here and there).
You don’t. You see, Nintendo encrypts their games and basically outlaws any way to access decryption keys from your own console. In your proposal you don’t even own a Switch to lawfully or unlawfully obtain the keys from, meaning that you’ll 100% have to acquire those “illegally”.
Not that I care for the record
I own three switches for what it’s worth. I’ve purchased them legally and I purchased the games legally as well. I’m not a lawyer, but I feel like I’m operating within the law here.
You really got them!
There are Switch owners who buy Switch games, dump (in other words backup copy) that on their PC as a ROM and then play it on the Switch Deck. Even this best case scenario is a grey area in some countries. And that is something most people won’t do.
You can if you own the Mario game…
… but I just downloaded a 1TB Batocera Switch image to run from MicroSD.
You can if you own the Mario game…
Owning alone is not enough. You need to dump it yourself. Downloading others Roms, even if you own the game, is illegal. Because you are only allowed to play what you dumped yourself, not the backup copy of a different individual cartridge.
Depends on your jurisdiction.
As far as I know, that’s never been tried in court in Canada, and there’s reason to suspect that may not be the case here. (Although I’m not a lawyer, so I may be mistaken.)
Downloading Roms from others is basically taking their copy. Its not a copy of your individual cart. And that’s the thing. You have the right to make a copy of your cart and use it. But you are not allowed to distribute the copy. One could probably get away by using Roms from others, but that is open to interpretation of law for individual countries. However the distribution itself is not allowed, in any (normal) country. And I also don’t believe (believe is not knowledge, I have no knowledge of Canadas laws) distributing personal backup copies is allowed in Canada as well.
Using copies from libraries is something different BTW, as these are not personal backups and are meant to be used by many other people. But that can be complicated too, in example in case of Archive.org. It’s a library in the US, but not other countries in the world.
Downloading content is almost definitely legal in Canada, and non-commercial digital distribution has never gone to court, so its legality hasn’t been established.
I can’t find the source, but I recall reading speculation that sharing backup copies between owners of the media is likely legal in Canada but, again, it hasn’t been tried by courts, so its legality hasn’t been firmly established.
Anyway, with non-commercial digital distribution not having any legal teeth in Canada, it’s effectively legal and its literal legality is unknown.
https://www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/page-6.html#h-103344
Assuming this is the correct source for Canada’s law about copyright. In the section about backup copies 29.24 (1):
( c ) the person, in order to make the reproduction, did not circumvent, as defined in section 41, a technological protection measure, as defined in that section, or cause one to be circumvented; and
( d ) the person does not give any of the reproductions away.
So (d) means it is not allowed to distribute the backup copy. As far as I understand. This is standard in most countries in the world. Also I cited ( c ), because this is usually also standard law. Normally, you are only allowed to make backups, if you do not circumvent any protection. Well its up to the interpretation if the Switch has such protection measure that falls into this category. But still, for our topic, (d) is relevant and seems to not allow for distribution of backup copies.
Mind you, I am also not a lawyer. And not everything needs to go to court in order to have an understanding of the law. Off course, unless it is a bit of grey area like in the case of ROMs. But I think this is addressed in the above quote. I hope this is the correct source! So for the time being, I have to assume law regarding this is just the same as in most other countries, because there is nothing else for me to evaluate here.
Maybe, but who cares?
Who gives a fuck whether it’s legal?
Please do not swear at me
Actually, you can download and play roms legal in switzerland.
I don’t legally play Mario on my switch either
Reported
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Please don’t swear at me
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Reported, enjoy your ban for harrassment
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Then I will file a criminal complaint against you with the police.
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Do they pay and treat their developers fairly? https://www.eurogamer.net/new-lawsuit-accuses-valve-of-abusing-steam-market-power-to-prevent-price-competition
Uh, yeah actually: Valve is legendary for taking care of their own people. One guy got cancer and tried to resign but Newell wouldn’t let him, telling him his new job was to recover.
I’m asking about the developers, not the workers. That’s good to hear though.
Then maybe you should complain about the game company that employs those developers, not valve…?
I’m not sure why you’re so angry and I don’t think you understand that I’m asking developers who have sold through them for their experiences. For example, Google lets your games be offered up for free the moment they’re put up and limits your exposure on their search page. Apple limits your exposure as well. I was wondering how Steam treats their developers because they were sued for being bad in the EU and if it’s a consistent thing.
I’m not sure how you figure that I’m “so angry”, I thought my reply was pretty calm. All I’m pointing out is that valve treats their own employees very well, and that if you have an issue with how developers working for other companies are treated / paid, your beef lies with those companies.
Hell valve doesn’t even charge their cut on steam key sales on other storefronts even though activating the key / downloading the game still uses steam infrastructure.
Valve… employs devs? Who are you referring to???
See my other comments, lol. I don’t think you understand how this works.
lol, is there a SelfAwarewolves community here?
So, explain it to me.
You clearly have no idea wtf you’re talking about, but you’re telling other people you “don’t think you understand how this works” - it’s the sort of thing you’d see on r/selfawarewolves
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Wow, I’m asking, do they? I’m assuming by your answer, no.
Thanks. I was curious because I have a close family member that had tons of issues selling their indy game on Google and Apple and wondered if they were better. No devs are speaking up against them which probably means they’re not awful.
I don’t know about pay, but the changes to the Steam store have definitely had an impact from what I can see. As a consumer, I have a hard time finding anything new or obscure. Their old store had much better controls for that (still there if you know where to look). So for exposure of devs on the store, I think Valve is either playing games or are incompetent these days, unfortunate either way.
I wondered and was assuming that was the case judging by the astroturfing on this thread. Looks like the enshitification has begun of them too.
Yes, I have definitely noticed the enshittification. Hopefully it reverses.
