Display whether user system meets game system requirements

[Skilleta]

Allow steam to collect benchmark data from user system to determine whether games in library and/or the store can run according to the game's minimum or recommended specifications to assist with lay user ability to gauge performance

[FFL2and3rocks]

Unfortunately, these gauges are often inaccuate. Developers will complain "Why are you telling people their computer can't run my game?" and users will complain "Why did you tell me I could run this game and then it didn't work?"

Also the system information is only entered as plain text, which complicates it further. Developers can pretty much write whatever they want there.

[Washell]

People can use this, an unaffiliated site that won't get sued by either dev or consumer.

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

[fluxtorrent]

As explained by the previous 2 users the issue is liability. It's fine for system requirements lab to make a tool that does that because they aren't selling you anything based on that data so they aren't liable if its wrong.

[Start_Running]

fluxtorrent eredeti hozzászólása:

As explained by the previous 2 users the issue is liability. It's fine for system requirements lab to make a tool that does that because they aren't selling you anything based on that data so they aren't liable if its wrong.

Pretty much this. There is a reason No store does this.

[Dule]

You can check youtube, you got almost all games on there(popular) and it says minimum requirement for playing, under every game on steam it says recommended and minimum, you got some sites on internet for checking is your computer strong enought to play that game, it says how much fps u will have and alot other stuff. No need to add system(time waste for steam). Enjoy!

[rawWwRrr]

Skilleta eredeti hozzászólása:

Allow steam to collect benchmark data from user system to determine whether games in library and/or the store can run according to the game's minimum or recommended specifications to assist with lay user ability to gauge performance

Recommended and minimum specs are not law. They are the developers estimation of what is needed to run the game and to provide what they believe is an acceptable experience in the game. Many times games can run on lower than what's stated as minimum or not run well at all at their recommended specs. No one is going to guarantee that a game will run on any given rig.

There is too much variability in hardware and software in the PC market to do that. It's not as simple as pinpointing a Playstation 3 vs a Playstation 4, or a Playstation vs a XBox. Even two identically built rigs can perform differently because of silicon lottery.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Steam can't really say "officially" whether a game will work because there's just too many possible weird factors specific to a machine that could affect game performance. It's not just "if you have X graphics card then you can run Y game".

However, I've suggested that Steam could set up a place for players to voluntarily report their own specs and whether stuff runs for them. Steam wouldn't be liable for any possible inaccuracy of such user-generated content, which technically can already be posted right now to reviews and the forum but there's no dedicated space for them and so the information is very spotty (and naturally you'd get more of this info from people say they can't run it, rather than those who say they can).

[Start_Running]

rawWwRrr eredeti hozzászólása:

Skilleta eredeti hozzászólása:

Allow steam to collect benchmark data from user system to determine whether games in library and/or the store can run according to the game's minimum or recommended specifications to assist with lay user ability to gauge performance

Recommended and minimum specs are not law. They are the developers estimation of what is needed to run the game and to provide what they believe is an acceptable experience in the game. Many times games can run on lower than what's stated as minimum or not run well at all at their recommended specs. No one is going to guarantee that a game will run on any given rig.

Eeyup. Though they are in fact require to post some manner of specifications and if the game fails to run at listed specs (especially if this is proven on multiple independent systems) the publisher is liable for litigation for mislabelling at the very least and likely on the hook for a full refund or more.

This is why dev/pubs typically highball the minimum specs, for their own protection.
It is in fact considered a best practice, since one also cannot assume that their app is the only thing usin g a syustem's resources.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Start_Running eredeti hozzászólása:

rawWwRrr eredeti hozzászólása:

Recommended and minimum specs are not law. They are the developers estimation of what is needed to run the game and to provide what they believe is an acceptable experience in the game. Many times games can run on lower than what's stated as minimum or not run well at all at their recommended specs. No one is going to guarantee that a game will run on any given rig.

Eeyup. Though they are in fact require to post some manner of specifications and if the game fails to run at listed specs (especially if this is proven on multiple independent systems) the publisher is liable for litigation for mislabelling at the very least and likely on the hook for a full refund or more.

This is why dev/pubs typically highball the minimum specs, for their own protection.
It is in fact considered a best practice, since one also cannot assume that their app is the only thing usin g a syustem's resources.

The risk of litigation isn't quite as tight as you suggest it to be. If not, we wouldn't have some system requirements that are kinda jokey. Not to mention that due to individual system differences it's still not a guarantee that a machine with the same specs as what the requirements specify will be able to run a game.

Furthermore, not being able to run a game is already an official example of a valid reason for requesting a refund.

Minimum and recommended specs don't have the force of law, and for good reason.

[Nx Machina]

Liability - the fact that someone is legally responsible for something

Hence why developers, publishers DO NOT commit to games running on your PC because they CANNOT test every possible PC config out there. They list min, rec specs to remove liabilty.

Valve cannot commit to another developers game running on your PC, again liabilty and would open themselves up to be sued by both the developer and the user.

Sites like "canyourunit" also do not commit to games running on your PC, they only give you a general idea.

The mantra is KNOW your PC and what it is capable of based on the current games you have.


And finally user generated reports would make Valve liable because they would be "hosting" that information.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Nx Machina eredeti hozzászólása:

And finally user generated reports would make Valve liable because they would be "hosting" that information.

Such information can already be posted on Steam -- in game forums, in reviews, in Steam chat, in curators, in groups etc..

For example, there are multiple Curators listing games that for low-spec PCs. Valve doesn't incur any additional liability from hosting this user-generated content.

[Washell]

Quint the Alligator Snapper eredeti hozzászólása:

The risk of litigation isn't quite as tight as you suggest it to be. If not, we wouldn't have some system requirements that are kinda jokey.

Those are between the publisher and the customer, and any failures to run are covered by the refund system.

And yes, it's not like everyone and their dog is going to sue Valve overnight if they implement this. But even one or two lawsuits is going to get press coverage and might scare away customers, developers and publisher to start using other stores with or instead of Steam. And getting into one with a big publisher who wants to make a point would suck up millions.

What's the business case for this feature? Customer retention? More sales? Enough to offset the task of implementing this, standardizing system requirement entries and getting the thousands of developers on steam to enter theirs correctly? What's going to be the cost of any fallout? PR management? Financial liabilities?

I don't see it adding up to anything worthwhile. There are plenty of other things Valve can spend its time on that have a far surer return on investment. I also think that Valve came to the same conclusion in the past 19 years, especially during the SteamOS/Big Screen mode/PC as a console push for the living room. It would've been such an obvious feature for that.

All that said, if they do implement it, great! This is just saying, "can you run it" is here now, don't get your hopes up and certainly don't wait around for Valve to do it.

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Washell eredeti hozzászólása:

And yes, it's not like everyone and their dog is going to sue Valve overnight if they implement this. But even one or two lawsuits is going to get press coverage and might scare away customers, developers and publisher to start using other stores with or instead of Steam. And getting into one with a big publisher who wants to make a point would suck up millions.

Except:

1. Publishers already post system requirements on the store page, which themselves aren't guarantees of what a game works on -- just simply having that hardware doesn't necessarily mean the game will definitely run. Probably? Yes. Definitely, absolutely, foolproof? No. So if there's liability in this suggestion, that liability is already present.

2. Steam users also already use Steam to provide information on what hardware they think a given game will run on. So, again, if there's liability in this idea, it's already present.

People can initiate legal actions for all sorts of frivolous things, but that doesn't mean those legal actions are going to get anywhere.

Washell eredeti hozzászólása:

What's the business case for this feature? Customer retention? More sales? Enough to offset the task of implementing this, standardizing system requirement entries and getting the thousands of developers on steam to enter theirs correctly? What's going to be the cost of any fallout? PR management? Financial liabilities?

The business case is that customers can get a better idea of whether a game they want to buy might run on their hardware.

Not to mention that many features on Steam don't necessarily have a business case behind them. As people on this forum have pointed out in the past, stuff like being able to hide forum posts from blocked users has no business case.

This doesn't even need involvement from game developers, nor does it even need any standardization. It'd just be a place where people can choose to self-report whether a given game works and what their hardware is. System requirement entries on store pages would be entirely unaffected by this.

Washell eredeti hozzászólása:

All that said, if they do implement it, great! This is just saying, "can you run it" is here now, don't get your hopes up and certainly don't wait around for Valve to do it.

Yeah, I agree that I don't expect them to implement this idea anytime soon either. Just noting that it's a possibility that makes use of content that Steam is already capable of hosting and is already hosting.

I mean, it's not like the "can you run it" stuff is any more reliable anyway.

[Draeka3]

Cool idea but probably extremely time consuming to implement.

[Start_Running]

It's not the lawsuits from buyers, its the lawsuits from their business partners ie the publishers and developers. Since you know, label tampering is generally frowned on in most legal jurisdictions. and all the dev/pub has to prove is that the system is not 100%accurate, that even one sale was reasoonably lost and they basically get 100's of thousands in pay out, just on that alone.

There is a reason NO STORE has this feature. Because with PC's you just can't be sure.