neoncat

Worth noting if batteries are your concern, all XBox controllers have a user accessible battery slot and take standard AAs. I use Eneloop rechargeables with mine. 

Beats said:

One idea I thought of was a 16-bit console running on a cheap Arm chip. This would make it the fastest console in history with low res graphics which would boom the indie-indie market. 

You might want to look up the history of the Ouya. It is exactly what you propose. And it crashed and burned spectacularly. 

The rest of your comment essentially proves the point of the article. 

"Comparatively, XBOX Game Pass Ulitimate will run you $15/month but you get a helluva lot for your dollar: access to all of those $60-$70 AAA games on PC, console, and mobile."

It's worth noting that Microsoft runs all sorts of deals and specials on Game Pass. When I got my Series X, I was able to convert three years of XBox Live Gold into three years of Game Pass for no extra charge. So, $60 a year for Gold, times 3 is $180, divided by 36 months, means I'm enjoying Game Pass and all it offers for (wait for it)... $5 a month. After three years, yes, it'll go back to $15 a month, but there are ways to bring that price down too. And that conversion "deal" is open to anyone, as long as you've never subscribed to Game Pass in the past. 

I think if there are people who like Apple Arcade, good for them. They should enjoy it to its fullest. But compared to the wider gaming universe? It's an awful value for very thin games. 

The root of this idea—polite, even super-polite people get the most rewards from customer service—is not that unusual, I don't think. Several years back, my wife worked in customer service for a well-known clothing manufacturer with a strong direct-sales presence. It was absolutely a written policy that if someone called with an order, warranty, customer service, quality, or other problem, the moment that caller became a dick, the goal was still to drive to a solution, but no free stuff, period. No free shipping, no free replacements, no bonuses, etc. If you were really nice, there were all sorts of perks the CS agents were allowed to give. 

 I don't know if it was specifically because of this policy, but my wife had a cracked screen replaced on her 6 Plus (this was several years ago) at an Apple Store twice, for free, once out of warranty. No AppleCare or anything, nor did we ask for it. We were just patient and super polite: "boy, really busy today! Thank so much for helping us, here's the broken iPhone..." blah blah blah. They were just immediately, "this is on us, one sec" boom.

j2fusion said:

Could this replace Fortnight’s unreal engine?

That's a bit like asking "Could broccoli replace an orange?" They're not the same thing. Octane is a set of 3D rendering tools, not unlike Blender. Unreal Engine is a set of code libraries and tools specifically for creating games and game graphics. One is a piece of end-user software, the other is for developers.