Man, I remember the days when Progress Quest was just a joke and not an entire genre.

Solid state batteries don’t exist yet.

So you start with this, but then…

provide you accept that we should making zero emissions chemical fuels

Why do you think we’re magically going to find zero emission chemical fuels but aren’t going to make solid state batteries? I mean, aside from your being a pretty obvious fossil fuel stooge?

Terrible take.

Solid state batteries will get figured out well before useful non-polluting chemical fuels, rocketing BEVs beyond ICE’s wildest dreams.

The only benefit of ICE over BEV is quick refueling, and that only matters if you’re roadtripping.

The solution is fast-charging BEVs. Edmunds just released a roundup of EV charging times, and showed that with some Hyundais/Kias, you can get 100 miles of range juiced up in 7-8 minutes. Obviously, yes, that’s still slower than dumping some dead dinos in your gashole and taking off, but it’s still pretty quick.

With further technological refinements over time and infrastructure built to give you something to do during 15-20 minute charges, road trips will be perfectly feasible without ICE and will actually probably be more pleasant.

Fair points, yes, but I was speaking within the context of companies that are actually producing handheld PCs. None of the other potentially capable companies you’ve mentioned have shown any indication that they care to enter the space.

The big question with that plan, though, is what’s in it for Valve/Epic? Valve has no incentive to let anyone else in on their cut, and Epic’s is so low already there wouldn’t be any room to let anyone else in on it with them.

I suppose Epic could try to get a deal in place where EGS is installed as the default store on the Ally or Legion, but it’s not like anyone’s going to just stick with the default - first thing anyone will do is just install Steam, and everyone knows it. I don’t see a way for a deal like that to make sense for Epic to even bother with.

Author can’t seem to understand that Valve’s the only company that can properly do the console-style “subsidize hardware cost based on the cut you’ll get from selling the games” method in the PC space. Asus, Lenovo, Ayaneo - they don’t have the luxury of maybe taking a bit of a haircut on the hardware and then more than making it up on the back end via software sales. They only get paid for the initial sale and then they’re done, so their devices are going to have to be more expensive.

Why should it matter which launcher I use?

This is answered in the OP article itself:

Why don’t some publishers do this? The reasoning is pretty simple really: Valve take a cut of all sales on Steam, including DLC and micro-transactions. So if you purchased directly before, publishers will want to keep you there so any extras you purchase don’t get a cut eaten by Valve.

Luuke Skywalker is an existing thing

“Existing,” sure, but hasn’t been canon for nearing a decade now.

doesn’t look that way though.

That’s exactly what it is, though. It’s satire, and tells you as much right in the first paragraph of the “About” page:

Hard Drive is a very real video games news site that you should not question. Just absorb the information as truth and move on. JK it’s satire don’t ban us.

All them uppity French peasants?

Thrawn, moreso than any Imperial we’ve seen, is a very empathetic character. That line was him speaking from Sabine’s perspective. He’s not saying that he believes she doomed the Galaxy, he’s saying that she believes it.

The speculation for a while (and, frankly, the direction I’d love to see them go in) is that the work on the Deck was going to be a stepping stone to a standalone VR headset. Take what they learned in VR with the Index and then what they learned in portable PCs with the Deck and slap the two together to get a real Quest competitor out there.

There’ve even been numerous leaks over the years (even pre-Deck) about a standalone headset internally labeled “Deckard”.

To be clear, since the title doesn’t mention it, this is a limited time giveaway.

Loved it so far! Can only imagine how people who haven’t watched Rebels are dealing, though.

Sad that Thrawn is where he is, though, as that almost certainly rules out what I was hoping to see in the series (being vague for spoiler reasons).

Wendover did a good video that covers this a few months back.

Plane must have accidentally ran into a surface-to-air missile. Y’know, as you do.

They’re a special kind of asshole in that state.

Cue Phil Ochs’ take on the state…

Confirmed nearly two years ago.

How is the sleep/resume functionality? I’ve heard mixed reports about Windows-based handhelds ranging anywhere from “it doesn’t have anything like that” to “it works perfectly fine just like Deck/Switch”.

That is pretty much the killer feature of the Deck for me, and as far as I’m currently aware, that’s enabled by it using Linux/SteamOS. If I can’t sleep/resume a game on a handheld, I’d be much more inclined to just play on my desktop and reap the benefits of improved performance and graphics.