> ... they still have dedicated hardware for sound decompression in their SoC packages Do they? Even if they do, it's typically useless for an application lik

> ... they still have dedicated hardware for sound decompression in their SoC packages Do they? Even if they do, it's typically useless for an application like a game, because the game will need to filter and/or mix that audio in ways that the hardware probably can't handle on its own. (Sure, maybe your hardware can decode one MP3 at a time, but can it decode two dozen MP3s at once, apply a bunch of environmental filters to them, and mix them down to a single stereo output? Probably not.)