I’m just adding historical context that those games were exclusives. If them being exclusive meant “the ps5 has games” then timed exclusivity didnt really help in this case.

The handheld PC and things like SteamOS have crossed the moat that console games used to have as a defense. The PC is coming to the living room, attaching to your TV, and playing games controller-first. The question will be how well will those games play and will they be exclusive.

The other defense, exclusive games, consoles themselves have given up. PlayStation has been publishing to PC to make up revenues thinking that it’s safe because it’s not their competitor Xbox, and Xbox bet on gamepass (and has now lost the console almost entirely, hoping to make its money back via Windows licensure).

FF7 Remake, Rebirth and FF16 were timed exclusives, though all have since left and Square Enix said “never again, it wasn’t profitable enough.”

Valve relies on Visa/Mastercard to process billions worth of transactions occur every year. They’re not going to rock the boat unless they want to risk the whole business.

Their (relative?) silence, to me, is indicative of just how bad this duopoly is, and that Valve sees no alternative worth publicly mentioning at this juncture.

As someone who lives in Oregon, and ignoring the community I’m in for a moment: Overall, good.

For context: ODOT is laying off people who maintain or improve roads due to budget constraints which will only tighten as the federal government either tightens its belt for everyone or just those for blue states. Funding has to come from somewhere, Trump isn’t going to share, and we must still have roads.

Oregon, generally, has well-maintained roads which are repaired comparatively quickly when damaged, and most road improvements in cities I see make a point to try to provide equitable and safe access ways for pedestrians and cyclists. Keeping road infrastructure is important in any future, and I’ll gladly support more road/travel improvements which reduce the incentive for cars and at worst, reduce the amount of time whatever car remain sit around idling.

EDIT: Noticed the OP edit the post, and I agree with those points as well.

No. Distribution is left to the developer.

But the silver lining is that you’re outside of a walled garden and outside of a company’s control.