This week, we’ve seen new updates to Proton and to the Steam Deck’s stable channel. We’ll dive into both! Plus, Nintendo’s holy war continues against Yuzu. Will it ever stop? We investigate. And new updates on PlaytronOS have me even more skeptical. We’ll talk about it. All this and more right now!! Let’s get right into the news.

Nintendo’s DMCA

This week, Nintendo continued their unhinged IP crusade by hitting GitHub with 8,535 DMCA requests.

Nintendo said that these Yuzu forks, quote, “illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games.” Consequently, GitHub said:

Because the reported network that contained the allegedly infringing content was larger than one hundred (100) repositories, and the submitter alleged that all or most of the forks were infringing to the same extent as the parent repository, GitHub processed the takedown notice against the entire network of 8,535 repositories, inclusive of the parent repository.

Details and speculation has emerged from the Yuzu case, saying that one or more of the emulator’s developers had access to a Switch devkit and therefore the emulator wasn’t a “clean room implementation.” Thus giving Nintendo all the legal ammo they need to take it down.

If that’s true, then the source code for Yuzu is proverbially radioactive and it seems a firm legal footing for Nintendo to continue their holy war. But, why then, did they claim that Yuzu “illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures?” Only time will tell.

This is sure to be up your alley

The Create, Automate, and Manage Humble Bundle is out now and it’s got a whole bunch of excellent games. This new bundle features 8 games for only $15. They are: The Colonists (native), Astro Colony (Playable), Cardboard Town (Native), Mob Factory (Playable), Factory Town (Verified), Buggos (Playable), and Recipe for Disaster (Playable).

I’m looking forward to playing The Colonists and Astro Colony. Both of these games are right up my alley!

PlaytronOS

Do you remember PlaytronOS? It’s this weird commercial Linux gaming distro that supposedly will have a whole bunch of upcoming devices shipping with it. It was announced back in March and it gives me the jibbilies.

Yeah, well, we have got a bunch of information about PlaytronOS now. Sadly, it’s only through their Discord. So I’m going to quote GamingOnLinux’s article on the matter.

It is written somewhat like a Q&A. So let’s see what we can learn, here.

Why should I install PlaytronOS?

Playtron is an optimized Linux-based gaming OS that allows you to play all of your favorite Epic Games Store, Good Old Games, Steam games, and more.
Improved game compatibility compared to other devices on the market.



When will the pre-alpha launch of PlaytronOS come out?

Summer 2024.



What operating system is PlaytronOS based on?

We are based on the Fedora Silverblue family of Atomic Desktop distros. PlaytronOS is not affiliated with the Fedora Project.



Does Playtron run Linux games?

Currently, PlaytronOS only runs Windows games using Wine. Native Linux games will be supported in the future.



Is PlaytronOS open source?

At first, only the operating system code will be open source. We have plans to open source more and release API documentation to allow developers in the community to contribute and build their solutions using Playtron.



What does Playtron have to do with Crypto?

Playtron is backed by a handful of crypto companies. If game developers believe blockchain features can improve their games, we are all for it. The use of these technologies from a user perspective will be optional.

There is more to this and you can use the links below to read the full FAQ. In all honesty, it’s that last bit that has me sketched out. I believe that cryptocurrency is a scam and the fact that it’s involved here means Playtron is going to have to work extra hard to prove everything is on the up and up.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested to see where this goes… but I’m also not invested in it as all. Let me know your thoughts (and feed the engagement monster) by sounding off in the comments. You can also smash that like button to tell YouTube you want to see more videos just like this.

Microsoft closes studios

So, in an attempt to lose all market relevance, Microsoft has closed Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, and Roundhouse Games.

This is some EA-level studio murder. Studioicide? I’m coining that term right now. Studioicide.

Look, I was on the Nerd Nest podcast this week and it was a blast. This was one of the stories we didn’t end up getting to. But I have a lot to say on this topic. First, let’s talk about how Xbox is a joke. I know two people who have Xbox Series consoles. And in the previous generation, I only knew ONE person who had an Xbox One. Everyone else has PlayStations or PCs.

Microsoft is divesting from the Xbox market. Instead, they’re bringing their IPs to PC. But what IP does Microsoft actually have? I’m not talking about the stuff they’ve bought recently. I’m talking about Halo, Forza, and Gears. Those are their first party IPs. And that’s it.

Worse yet, is that their acquisitions of major publishers like Bethesda and Activision are destined to end in the same studiocide we’re seeing now. For god’s sakes, Microsoft hasn’t done anything interesting or innovative with their own IP since Halo ODST.

So yeah. This is just obscene. The fact that regulators allowed Microsoft to acquire major publishers is a crime in-and-of itself. It’s clear that bizzaro corporate Ted Nugent over here has no idea what he’s doing and is making the industry worse for his incompetence.

</rant>

Sponsored by my game

And speaking of game studios… how about mine? I’ll make this quick. My game, Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball, released on Monday of this week and I’m so proud of it. it’s basically Pong meets foosball.

Up to two players square off in a no-holds-barred brawl for points. You control one dudeling at a time on the bottom of the screen. You can make him jump, dash, punch, and more! And the objective is to get the ball into your opponent’s goal.

It’s an excellent party game, it’s really fun, and it’s well-reviewed on Steam. Check it out with the links below.

New Proton Experimental

So first off, let’s talk about the new Proton Experimental. This is a heck of a change as it makes a ton of games playable. Newly supported in this release Tekken 8, Black Desert Online, Hero's Land, Onimusha: Warlords, Warlords Battlecry III, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, Iragon, FreestyleFootball R.

Maybe it’s already time for a revisit of my video from a few weeks ago where I installed CD and DVD-based games on my Steam Deck, eh? I mean, SimCity 3000 Unlimited didn’t work at all… maybe now it will?

Proton Experimental also has fixes for the re-release of the C&C games.

There are a ton of fixes for other titles including Cities: Skylines, Age of Empires II Definitive Edition, Beat Saber, Halo Infinite and more. This is an exciting release and there will be a link to the changelog in the description. Make sure you check it out and see if your favorite game has a fix.

Steam Deck Stable Client

So this week we saw the biggest stable Steam Deck client so far in 2024. It included 43 features and fixes for Steam, many of which we’ve talked about when they were added to the Beta channel. But I wanted to review some of the most important updates here. And there are a few.

• Fixed Steam client menus opening in separate windows from main window after sleep/account change.
• Fixed crash when playing back certain media in Steam music player
• Reduced network traffic at startup and reconnect
• If a game failed to update, show why on the details page as well as the downloads page.
• Made taking screenshots more responsive
• Modified CSS classnames to reduce package size and reduce feature leaks
• Changed the default scale from 200% to 150% on a 4K monitor

Steam Input

• New Configurator feature "Swap Left with Right": While editing a Controller Configuration, you can Swap the behavior of the Left Stick and the Right Stick, or Left Trackpad and Right Trackpad etc. This should be handy for "South Paws".

There were many more fixes added to this stable release, but that’s what I found to be the most interesting. Leave me a comment if I missed your favorite.

I think that’s everything I wanted to talk about this week. Thanks so much for being here with me in these weekly Deck news videos. I appreciate it. If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check out this one. Or perhaps watch the trailer for my game! Don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date with all the fun stuff we’re doing here, and I’ll catch you next time!

-- Chapters --
00:00 Introduction
00:23 Nintendo's IP Holy War
01:47 Humble's Create, Automate & Manage Bundle
02:28 New details on PlaytronOS
04:59 Xbox continues their losing streak
07:01 Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball
07:45 Proton Experimental
08:56 Biggest Steam Deck Update of 2024