Making SteamOS available on more than one platform is probably the better decision long term plan wise.

Valve said from the start they want Steam OS on to be on everything and you can install it manually on other handhelds if you wish there is also many Linux distros based on Steam OS these days that are dedicated handheld distros along with some bigger distros offering a Deck/handheld OS with the gamescope session you can also choose between but it's nice to see more hardware shipped with it as the average user won't know or want to change the default OS of their deck.

It makes sense for manufactures ship with a free OS and cut out paying Microsoft a fee for Windows and valve wins because people access the Steam store straight away and buy games from them.

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away Sail Forth: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/sail-forth-51847e.
Next week, they'll give away LOVE.

Steam has one new deal: Roots of Pacha will be 30% off until the 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245560/Roots_of_Pacha/.

And at Fanatical the Star Wars Collection makes a comeback, with a 79% discount during 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/star-wars-collection.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 31.0.101.5085/5122 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-31-0-101-5085-5122
Highlights

• Support for 14th Gen Intel ® Core™ S/HX-Series processors.

Gaming Highlights

• Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:
  • Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Valve has taken down Portal 64 and Team Fortress: Source 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/valve-has-taken-down-portal-64-and-team-fortress-source-2/
Valve has just taken down two amazing projects, Portal 64 and Team Fortress: Source 2. This is a bit shocking as Valve has always supported modders.
Team Fortress: Source 2 aimed to to remake, improve, iterate, and create a new Team Fortress experience on Source 2 engine. On the other hand, Portal 64 aimed to demake the first Portal game for the Nintendo 64.
According to the DMCA letters, Team Fortress 2: Source had assets from Team Fortress 2 being ported to Source 2 without permission. Plus, these assets were being redistributed by Amper Software in a game mode for Facepunch’s S@box. So, this takedown notice does make sense. Amper Software could have easily avoided it by simply removing all the original assets of TF2.
About Portal 64, Valve said the project was using Nintendo’s proprietary libraries, and that’s a no-go. I’m not sure why, but that’s the reason Valve gave.

Play the classic Doom 2 with Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/play-the-classic-doom-2-with-full-ray-tracing-path-tracing/
January has been a slow month without any major new releases. Or at least the first half. As such, I’ve decided to revisit the classic Doom games. Now as you may have know, in 2022 we got a Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing Mod for the first Doom game. However, that mod wasn’t compatible with Doom 2. Thankfully, though, there is a mod that fixes that.
But let’s take things from the beginning. In 2022, sultim-t, the man behind the amazing ray tracing/path tracing mods for Serious Sam, Quake, and Half-Life, released an RTX Mod for the first Doom game. That mod added full ray tracing/path tracing effects to id Software’s classic game. However, it was not compatible with Doom 2. While you could load the Doom2.wad, the maps did not have any static lights. And that’s where the following mod comes in.
Created by ‘rellik66’, this mod adds lights for PrBoom+Raytracing. Thus, you can now enjoy Doom 2 with Path Tracing.
What’s cool here is that Doom 2 with Path Tracing can feel like a horror game. Since there aren’t a lot of “fake” lights, the game is darker than before. And, in a really weird way, it may remind you of Doom 64’s atmosphere.
Now the downside is that since the game is darker, you might end up getting lost in its maps. Thankfully, the game has a flashlight that you can enable. And trust me, you’ll need it.
>> The article has some screenshots and a 10 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Elden Ring Title Update 1.10.1 Released, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/elden-ring-title-update-1-10-1-released-full-patch-notes/
A few hours ago, the Steam servers underwent maintenance to deploy a system update. And now that the servers are back online, FromSoftware shared the patch notes for Title Update 1.10.1.

Thursday news, take two:

Actors' union SAG-AFTRA announces 'ethical AI' agreement with Replica, but industry veterans feel misrepresented: 'Nobody in our community approved this'
https://www.pcgamer.com/actors-union-sag-aftra-announces-ethical-ai-agreement-with-replica-but-industry-veterans-feel-misrepresented-nobody-in-our-community-approved-this/
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has announced a "groundbreaking AI voice agreement" as per the union's website—and despite its claim that the agreement was "approved by affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community", a lot of industry vets feel like their voices weren't heard.

Turn 10 promises big changes to address 'top three' Forza Motorsport complaints: rides, rules, and racers
https://www.pcgamer.com/turn-10-promises-big-changes-to-address-top-three-forza-motorsport-complaints-rides-rules-and-racers/
Despite some technical misgivings we rated Forza Motorsport quite highly when it launched in October 2023, but others haven't been quite as impressed. Take a trip around to Steam and you'll quickly notice a "mostly negative" user rating across nearly 5,000 user reviews. There's a range of complaints: Some users are struggling with bugs and performance issues, while others find it lacking in content and "personality," as one negative review puts it.
Three months after the game's release, developer Turn 10 says significant changes to address those complaints are on the way "in the coming months." The update posted to Steam focuses on what the studio said are "the top three areas of feedback we haven't addressed directly," including car progression, Forza Race Regulations, and AI drivers.

Diablo 4's next season is a mystery but at least we know it starts in less than 2 weeks
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-next-season-is-a-mystery-but-at-least-we-know-it-starts-in-less-than-2-weeks/
Despite having very little information about it yet, Diablo 4's next season is now confirmed to go live in less than two weeks. The current season, the Season of Blood, will close at an unannounced time (likely around 10 am PT) on January 23 and season 3 will begin within the same day.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is a charming metroidvania about defending a village with your fellow magical girls via the power of friendship and a big leaf
https://www.pcgamer.com/momodora-moonlit-farewell-is-a-charming-metroidvania-about-defending-a-village-with-your-fellow-magical-girls-via-the-power-of-friendship-and-a-big-leaf/
Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is the final instalment in the Momodora franchise—designed, as the series' creator states, to "close the book on many of the past games’ mysteries and questions". While I've not had the pleasure of playing a Momodora game before, I do like a good metroidvania—and I've been pleasantly surprised so far as a latecomer to the series.

Looks like Bethesda's Indiana Jones game now has a name
https://www.pcgamer.com/looks-like-bethesdas-indiana-jones-game-now-has-a-name/
Lucasfilm has registered several new domains for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, including one that specifically refers to the title as a game. The registrations were first spotted by X user Kurakasis and include:

Jennell Jaquays, legendary designer who shaped both tabletop and videogames, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/jennell-jaquays-legendary-designer-who-shaped-both-tabletop-and-videogames-has-died/
Tributes are flooding in across the games industry following the death of game designer, artist, and transgender rights activist Jennell Jaquays, who died yesterday of complications caused by Guillain–Barré syndrome.
(...)
But for PCG readers, Jaquays is probably more recognisable for her work at id Software, which she joined in the '90s. Not content with just shaping the destiny of tabletop roleplaying practically from its inception, she helped design all-time classic FPSes like Quake 3 and Quake 2 as a designer and level designer. Even after she left id, she continued to work on games like Age of Empires 3 and Halo Wars, and even did a stint as lead level designer for EVE Online studio CCP Games.

Intel reaffirms Xe2 Battlemage “is coming”, hardware team already working on Celestial

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-reaffirms-xe2-battlemage-is-coming-hardware-team-already-working-on-celestial

Modder shrinks GeForce RTX 4070 Ti to ITX form factor

https://videocardz.com/newz/modder-shrinks-geforce-rtx-4070-ti-to-itx-form-factor

AMD Fluid Motion Frames tech officially launching on January 24th, no more preview drivers

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-fluid-motion-frames-tech-officially-launching-on-january-24th-no-more-preview-drivers

Alleged NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 SUPER GPU Slide Shows Performance Uplifts & Value Versus Non-SUPER Lineup

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-40-super-gpu-performance-uplifts-value-versus-non-super-lineup/

I call BS on those leaked performance gains from the Super series. There's no way that the 4080 Super has such big improvements with such small improvements.

Of course, NVIDIA and Apple are the biggest spinners in the industry. They both constantly talk bullshit and their fan base lap it up.

Not just the 4080 performance there. According to this the 4070 Super would only barely beat the 4070 despite the Super version having many more cores and a higher TDP to support them. It should be the one with the biggest increase, not the smallest.

The other handy advantage is that with Steam OS, you'll be using Steam, and chances are high you already have a library on the platform, so with the OS you're good to go from the start.

I just hope they don't ever attempt another Steam machines plan, not unless they are handling it themselves, because the last time they just let the 4rd parties do whatever they wanted and that went quite badly for them, and set back the OS a number of yrs. 

I just jumped onto the 4090 gravy train. Budget motherboard here I come, lol.