I have to say I'm very happy with it for the price I paid. Could it be better, sure, I wish the screen was better but I'm still very happy with it. I actually bought it on a lark because I'm 49 and I never really hand held gamed. Never got in to it beyond the beep-boop led games of the 70s/80s with boring family road trips. I watched many hand held platforms come and go and never could get in to using them. Always preferred the laptop, probably because with having a game thing I always needed my laptop.
When I would travel I carry a work laptop and a personal laptop and... Then lugging around another device, no thanks... Then that changed with the steam deck, my daughter mentioned it and I was like hell I have money to waste so I bought it. For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop... but one day I kicked it in to desktop mode to load some mods for a game. It dawned on me, I don't need a personal laptop anymore.
Now when I travel I carry my work laptop, my portable keyboard and monitor (which I always did anyway) and the steam deck with a dock. This perfect,less weight over all smaller form factor etc... Using the deck with the external monitor and keyboard let's me do everything I needed my personal laptop for, plus portable gaming. It goes everywhere with me now.
Could it be better, absolutely, but for the price I'm very happy with it. That's really how I evaluate things price for value. This is way more powerful than a similar priced laptop and more flexible.
you.. carry a monitor? how is a steam deck, a keyboard and a monitor better than just having a laptop? also how does the monitor survive this, do you put in in the original box?
> For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop...
Same for me, I did never realize before that I wanted to play Grindstone while laying on the couch just being in the company of my SO, semi-watching the same TV show as she is, instead of being in another room.
Valve is a pretty amazing company that consistently innovates and makes long-term, strategic decisions. Its a real model for a great tech company. Its unique capital and management structure has insulated it from any real competition. Companies like EA have to constantly turn a profit, cut corners where they can, and think in very short timeframes. Valve is completely private, with mostly (if not complete), owner/manager ownership. There's no managerial hierarchies. Ideas are both welcome and constantly challenged. If it was a public company we would likely see Google-like growth since its inception.
Linux-based gaming became a focus for the company for at least the past ten years. Steam Deck is the culmination of a focused, persistent strategy--the type most highly leveraged, public companies with unreasonable growth requirements are completely incapable of facilitating.
Valve is cool, but they're only able to afford this style of development because they take a 30% cut of all PC gaming revenue. Not profits, revenue. When you're making that much money you can do whatever you want and still stay afloat. They've mismanaged some games (Dota 2), abandoned other games (TF2) and completely messed up other games (Artifact 1 and 2).
They have my loyalty as a consumer because they've treated me right. But let's not pretend that their success is tied to their culture or that the culture would work elsewhere. I reckon you could do anything and be successful if you had Steam's revenue rolling in.
• Hardware is good enough and that's perfectly fine
• It's repairable and can be easily opened
• Software is open which is increasingly rare there days
• Ability to play on TV, on couch (with headphones) and on monitor with keyboard/mouse is awesome
• Being able to play old games is great (I finally finished Assasin's Creed 2)
• It's still a PC where I can switch to Linux Desktop and tinker with stuff
• Battery life isn't the best but I almost always have power source near me
• Valve did awesome job with handling controls in games with Community layouts etc
• I finally found sense in USB-C where I switch between Deck and Macbook with a single cable
• Hacker community is vibrant
• It's an emulation heaven :)
Me too! It's the handheld gaming device I dreamed about when I was a kid. It's become my favorite platform, especially considering I don't game as much as I used to. It's perfect for a quick pick-up-and-play. I stopped using my PS5 last year, and the one time I did, I used remote play (chiaki) on the Steam Deck. And if I'm playing something that my kids want to watch, I can cast the screen to the TV via steam link. None of the other big companies will ever be able to produce something like this, especially with all the tweaks that can be made.
I need Thunderbolt! I don't hook up my Deck because my desk is built around a TB3 dock. That and USB-C at 4k 60hz isn't a given. Not that I'd run games at that resolution but it's sure nice for desktop mode.
The next generation of gaming platforms is really going to be heated. We basically have two philosophies in the field now. The Switch and the Steam Deck sacrifice high end hardware for portability and versatility. The PS5 and XSX are about as portable as a LAN party, but can theoretically push 4k@120hz for the cost of a graphics card.
Is there room for everyone next gen? Each of Valve, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the expertise to field a machine serving one or both philosophies. But I don't think the customer base is there to support so many consoles. Which configurations will we see?
Is the next Switch as popular when the indie games can release on the much more open Steam Deck instead? Will Microsoft choose to compete with Sony, or with Valve? They've always been after Sony's market, but Steam Deck puts them on defense.
Steam deck is an extension of the already existing PC gaming market. I suspect that almost all Steam Deck owners already have a PC they game on. Steam Deck just makes it so those PC gamers will care if a game runs well on Linux.
The point isn’t to take over the console market but to defend the PC gaming market from console exclusivity and Steam itself from e.g. Microsoft Store
It’s important to recognize that while the Steam deck is awesome, it’s sold 1 million compared to the 100 million of the Switch. Nintendo has massive name recognition and exclusives of course, but also price. The cheapest Steam Deck is 400 dollars, whereas the Switch is 300. For people who don’t already have big steam libraries and don’t care about open hardware, the Switch is where they’re going to go for a mobile console.
Then Sony and Xbox compete on exclusives but ultimately I think there’s room for everyone in the space regardless. Gaming is probably the most lucrative entertainment sector at this point, and mobile gaming hasn’t eaten console gaming yet. A generation or two more from the next one…harder to say.
>but can theoretically push 4k@120hz for the cost of a graphics card.
While a desktop computer can't get anywhere near that price range for similar performance (because, other than Intel ARC, video card prices are still ridiculous across the board...), the cost of a decently performant desktop computer actually isn't as high as most would think if you just use low- to mid-tier hardware instead of going for the high-end stuff.
Anyway, as far as the question of market share space: It's still the same players, with the small addition of Valve potentially carving a niche for itself. Sony hasn't delved into mobile since the PS Vita, and Microsoft has flat out never bothered with mobile gaming. As for Nintendo, they'll do Nintendo things as they always do.
There is a third category worth considering and that’s cloud gaming with a thin client.
Since January GeForce now supports 4k@120 and the hardware required to render that is probably going to be much less than the next gen kind of switch will have. I would not be surprised to see tv sticks + controller given away for basically free. Like stadia but properly this time.
It won’t be for everyone and I have no idea how quick they can scale this but it’s nonetheless an interesting development.
Currently there’s a bit of a hybrid thing going on with ideas that combine cloud gaming with Xbox or PlayStation but here the consumer still has to pay for more hardware than necessary for streaming only
I think there is enough room for each. The switch basically exists because there is no reason not to have a portable form factor if your console is going to be so underpowered (compared to Xbox, PlayStation).
Both Nintendo/Sony sold ~3x more than Microsoft last month
Steam Deck numbers are nothing compared to what these 3 are selling, if i remember correctly, it was 1 million reservations total for a whole year, that sounds like a flop to my book when you compare with the 3 existing players
I think next gen we'll see Sony getting back into the handheld market, Nintendo coming up with a second version, and Microsoft coming up with a cloud stick
Microsoft doubling down on cloud gaming might kill their Xbox brand, it's too early for that, they'll miss the handheld market just like they missed the smartphone era
I'm catching up on the last 20 years of gaming I've missed for not having a Windows machine :) Bonus points for most of the old games being super cheap now.
I'm really happy with mine. Games just work, no tweaking or weird configurations necessary, gamepads and other controller schemes work well, and; it's running Linux in the back! Once you configure something like Syncthing in desktop mode, it carries on working in the regular console mode.
I really can't say enough good things about it, but one thing I'm wary of is the DRM stuff Steam uses. Never had a problem with it, but my Switch doesn't need to phone home to believe I own the games I've bought, and it worries me that even the "offline mode" needs to check-in every three weeks :/
Steam doesn't require DRM, some games purchased on steam can be run without steam running.
Valve provides a very simple (and easy to bypass) DRM which many games on steam use, this is likely what you're referring to.
Other games use third party DRM such as Denuvo which is hard to bypass and generally hated (can cause performance issues). These games have warnings on the store page.
Ultimately Steam had (has?) a monopoly on the PC distribution market and didn't really take advantage of it to do anything anti-consumer (instead this period introduced a number of prosumer changes like refunds) so while it is a company it's one I trust more than most.
The worst part about the Steam Deck is Steam; I'm eagerly looking forward to some more general Linux communities building alternative OS setups in the future, although Steam Input still doesn't seem to have a good Open Source alternative.
Aside from that, the device is fantastic, I have very few complaints. The portable form-factor is transformative for a lot of older PC games, it's an emulation powerhouse, gyro controls make first-person shooters actually playable (which was my big concern with not having a mouse). It's repairable, it's running Linux.
I don't know if I would recommend it for everyone, but it's pretty much the perfect console for me (or will be if I ever figure out how to replicate the OS experience without Steam).
I love mine. It's rekindled my interest in PC gaming. Previously I was buying games I had on Steam to play on Switch and now I've started to do the opposite. The fact that suspend works is amazing. Often just alt-tabbing or accidentally hitting the Windows key would cause a game to be unrecoverable in Windows, let alone sleep but it just works. It's really easy to customize controls PER GAME which is awesome when the devs do something dumb and only let you A&B to jump and attack and not A&X.
Its also pretty good as a mini PC when paired with a dock.
That said it's still a PC and you will occasionally run into little foibles. Docking is not as smooth as a Switch, at least with my monitor the resolution isn't quite right when plugging in and I have to quit to get it to use the whole thing. Sometimes there will be minor issues even in verified games like them not actually using the correct controller layout or occasionally borked sound on resume for whatever reason. But still, it's great. Favorite PC by a mile even if my desktop will curb stomp it visually.
I like mine as well I’ve used it a quite a bit and it works great after my first one had some battery life issues. I contacted support tried a bunch of things to no avail. But they got me a working one in short order.
Minor issues is that it could use a usb a port. One of the things I tried was reinstalling the os from a usb stick for my initial battery issue..
The screen is great. The software sometime asked me how the game experience was as its running under wine/proton.
There is https://www.protondb.com/ for compatability checks but steam now lists games that “run great on the deck” which means new ones will probably test on it. There is a plug-in I was told about that integrates those scores into the steam software.
The screen is great except for board games which benefit from screen size, but it’s a portable.
Overall a great device, especially if you have a stash of steam games you got and been meaning to play..
I had zero expectations for the Steam Deck and thought it was underpowered and silly when it was first announced. Boy was I wrong - I ended up buying it on a whim and I've gotten a ton of use out of it. I played through multiple AAA games that came out just last year on it on vacation without wanting to tear my hair out, and the installation workflow is near perfect. Valve has finally made Linux a console experience.
It’s the best gaming system I’ve owned and the one I’ve enjoyed the most since the PSP. It’s big, but I love the form factor.
Quite literally the last thing I want to do after work is sit at my desk and the with Deck I don’t have to. It’s not as much of a commitment and it’s easier to pick up for ten minutes and then put down.
Graphics? Doesn’t matter to me, it’s good enough and being able to use it in the hammock in my backyard is more important. Most of what I play on it is ps2/1 games anyway and it runs them perfectly.
I'll be the minority here and say for me it is the current ultimate gaming machine. I love that it runs Linux. It's convenient, runs my already purchased library of games and is consumer friendly for modding. On the other hand my PS5 is gathering dust.
I know a few people who have the Deck and enjoy it, but "ultimate gaming platform" seems like a stretch. I look forward to Valve continuing to improve and iterate on the platform, though I haven't owned a device exclusively or even predominantly for gaming in about 10 years, so I probably won't ever buy one. Still, the knock-on effects for the rest of the Linux ecosystem are positive.
I used to play games on: a Windows desktop, a Mac laptop, a PS2, a Wii U, a Switch, a GameCube. Now I play all the same games and more on just the Steam Deck. If that isn't ultimate idk what is. Every single other gaming device in my house is toast now.
If anyone knows of a historic archive of data for the Steam Hardware Survey, it would be interesting to see whether or not the Steam Deck has made a dent in the overall Windows percentage since last year (Windows is still sitting pretty at 96.02%, but that just means there's a lot of room to grow, eh? :P ).
I've had mixed success with apple tv (including newest model) when feeding a 4K TV (no 120 Hz support, decoding chokes on resolutions above 1440p regardless of encoded bitrate). I have a 13700k+3070, so it's not for want of encoding horsepower.
The most common use case of the deck is similar to mine of the link: couch gaming. It might be nice to free up the living room TV and have a max res/max framerate solution on the deck with little power usage. My main concern is latency. I have scanned through all setting permutations and I can't get what feels like a sub 100 ms experience on an apple tv decoder even when the telemetry reports sub 25 ms end-to-end latency. Now that I think about it again maybe it's the TV not being in game mode.
I guess I'm the minority who's Steam Deck is gathering dust. It is a nice device but it failed to get me to game more (which is what I wanted out of it), mainly because it's rather fiddly, in a similar way to a VR device. It takes effort to get me to pick it up, I have to make sure it's charged, I have to make sure my key bindings are configured correctly, etc.
What actually has worked far better for me is Xbox Game pass. It means I can easily give games a try without paying a lot of money upfront to buy them. Instead I can dip my toes in and see if a game takes my interest.
Just my 2 cents as someone that has gamed a lot in their childhood but largely stopped past their 20s.
> My wild guess is that there’s between 1 and 2 million units already shipped out there.
While there was a lot of initial hype around the Steam Deck, it almost sounded as if it emerged as a serious Switch competitor. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Its sales are around an order of magnitude below the Switch, which sold 13.12 million units in its first year (and 122.5 million total).
So despite its modest success, the Steam Deck is still somewhat a niche product. Many people likely haven't even heard of it. I'm puzzled why Valve doesn't want to sell it in stores.
I hate saying anything negative about the Steam Deck at this point because no matter how well articulated a point, you get drowned out by fanatics who refuse to believe anyone would not love every single aspect of it...
But honestly Valve didn't seem to break out of their main patterns for the Steam Deck: It still very much feels like very smart people worked on all the fun parts of solving a very hard problem and did great, but then kind of skimped the boring parts until the last minute.
So the end result is something that the tinkerer in me loves... but the product person in me doesn't see as ever having even had a sliver of a hope of becoming an actual platform.
I was hoping Steam was going to position the Deck as a full blown platform play. Yes some devs have thrown it breadcrumbs with graphics settings and control schemes, and sure Valve is committing working with developers. But what I was hoping for was something extremely polished that would entice other publishers.
Right now Steam Deck feels very much destined to be a quirky computer, not really its own platform. Handheld PCs in general are kind of having a renaissance moment, but no one has made something so compelling that publishers are banging on the doors to get in, and Valve was the only company I could have seen do it.
> I'm puzzled why Valve doesn't want to sell it in stores.
Selling in stores comes at a price (retail will easily charge you 20 to 30% for the privilege) and my guess is that Valve has fairly limited production runs anyway which makes the proposition unattractive.
I suspect the price of the base model might make it difficult, Valve has commented that hitting that price point was painful and so there may not be enough margin to sell it in stores without raising the price.
Most of that year has been catching up to the orders they already got. My bet is that they can't make it at a big enough scale to sell directly to stores.
This is Valve's first success at this whole console thing after all.
I find the killer feature to be the ability to pause games. Sure, I could do that on my PC, but since this whole Deck is dedicated to just running the game, and I can set it aside, do the thing I need to do (maybe on my PC) and come back and start right where I left off, it feels different, more integrated, because for a little while, the game state and the deck state are the same. It is less like the Deck is running the game and more like the Deck is the embodiment of the game.
I like my Deck. I wish more games could adjust to the small screen better.
TEXT!
Text designed for giant flat screen TVs or even just modern monitors cannot just shrink down to that small screen. I do not have perfect eyesight. It is too often unreadable.
Do something about the text and the Deck will be as close to perfection as I could hope.
My deck has actually ruined gaming on my desktop for me in a lot of ways. There are some games that are just a LOT better on on the deck due to the controls and having the screen right in hand. The gyro controls on the deck are great, and they make a lot of games that I would normally never consider playing on a controller very playable, and in fact even more fun than with mouse+keyboard. (Mass Effect for example)
Metal: Hellsinger is another one that's just great on the deck. It feels way more kinetic to be on the deck with motion controls than sitting waving your mouse around.
As far as ergonomics go, I find it plenty comfortable to use, and so does my wife, and we're at opposite ends of the human size distribution. I don't really use it lying down like I used to do with my PSP, but that's not much of a loss to my mind considering how much more advanced games I can play with it on the go.
I'm a bit bummed that I haven't been able to find a good factorio-ish building/optimization game for it that actually works well without mouse+keyboard, but I'm sure one will show up eventually. I haven't really experimented with an external monitor+mouse+keyboard with it as I'd just switch to the computer at that point.
All in all super happy with it, it does what it's designed to do incredibly well.
Yeah just another post to say how happy I am with mine. Maybe for a different reason. I'm not a big gamer, but I'd always have to keep some kind of PC gaming situation around (as a Mac user) because of nerd FOMO. Steam Deck is a much more reasonable secondary "PC" than a whole gaming PC or even a laptop or futzing with dual-booting (not even a thing with ARM).
[+] [-] elmerfud|3 years ago|reply
When I would travel I carry a work laptop and a personal laptop and... Then lugging around another device, no thanks... Then that changed with the steam deck, my daughter mentioned it and I was like hell I have money to waste so I bought it. For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop... but one day I kicked it in to desktop mode to load some mods for a game. It dawned on me, I don't need a personal laptop anymore.
Now when I travel I carry my work laptop, my portable keyboard and monitor (which I always did anyway) and the steam deck with a dock. This perfect,less weight over all smaller form factor etc... Using the deck with the external monitor and keyboard let's me do everything I needed my personal laptop for, plus portable gaming. It goes everywhere with me now.
Could it be better, absolutely, but for the price I'm very happy with it. That's really how I evaluate things price for value. This is way more powerful than a similar priced laptop and more flexible.
[+] [-] bergheim|3 years ago|reply
and if so, how big is your luggage? :)
[+] [-] thefz|3 years ago|reply
Same for me, I did never realize before that I wanted to play Grindstone while laying on the couch just being in the company of my SO, semi-watching the same TV show as she is, instead of being in another room.
[+] [-] Semaphor|3 years ago|reply
What about the GameBoy (my first and last handheld console)? From what I remember, Laptops back then were not really a thing.
[+] [-] karmakaze|3 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.bigscreenvr.com/
[+] [-] boh|3 years ago|reply
Linux-based gaming became a focus for the company for at least the past ten years. Steam Deck is the culmination of a focused, persistent strategy--the type most highly leveraged, public companies with unreasonable growth requirements are completely incapable of facilitating.
[+] [-] nindalf|3 years ago|reply
They have my loyalty as a consumer because they've treated me right. But let's not pretend that their success is tied to their culture or that the culture would work elsewhere. I reckon you could do anything and be successful if you had Steam's revenue rolling in.
[+] [-] pkrefta|3 years ago|reply
• Hardware is good enough and that's perfectly fine • It's repairable and can be easily opened • Software is open which is increasingly rare there days • Ability to play on TV, on couch (with headphones) and on monitor with keyboard/mouse is awesome • Being able to play old games is great (I finally finished Assasin's Creed 2) • It's still a PC where I can switch to Linux Desktop and tinker with stuff • Battery life isn't the best but I almost always have power source near me • Valve did awesome job with handling controls in games with Community layouts etc • I finally found sense in USB-C where I switch between Deck and Macbook with a single cable • Hacker community is vibrant • It's an emulation heaven :)
[+] [-] aceazzameen|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Steltek|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] a13o|3 years ago|reply
Is there room for everyone next gen? Each of Valve, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the expertise to field a machine serving one or both philosophies. But I don't think the customer base is there to support so many consoles. Which configurations will we see?
Is the next Switch as popular when the indie games can release on the much more open Steam Deck instead? Will Microsoft choose to compete with Sony, or with Valve? They've always been after Sony's market, but Steam Deck puts them on defense.
[+] [-] ushtaritk421|3 years ago|reply
The point isn’t to take over the console market but to defend the PC gaming market from console exclusivity and Steam itself from e.g. Microsoft Store
[+] [-] NineStarPoint|3 years ago|reply
Then Sony and Xbox compete on exclusives but ultimately I think there’s room for everyone in the space regardless. Gaming is probably the most lucrative entertainment sector at this point, and mobile gaming hasn’t eaten console gaming yet. A generation or two more from the next one…harder to say.
[+] [-] ccouzens|3 years ago|reply
It's the only ecosystem in the list where you can buy a game and have your progress synced between a performance device and a portable device.
[+] [-] baby|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dalewyn|3 years ago|reply
While a desktop computer can't get anywhere near that price range for similar performance (because, other than Intel ARC, video card prices are still ridiculous across the board...), the cost of a decently performant desktop computer actually isn't as high as most would think if you just use low- to mid-tier hardware instead of going for the high-end stuff.
Anyway, as far as the question of market share space: It's still the same players, with the small addition of Valve potentially carving a niche for itself. Sony hasn't delved into mobile since the PS Vita, and Microsoft has flat out never bothered with mobile gaming. As for Nintendo, they'll do Nintendo things as they always do.
[+] [-] aloer|3 years ago|reply
Since January GeForce now supports 4k@120 and the hardware required to render that is probably going to be much less than the next gen kind of switch will have. I would not be surprised to see tv sticks + controller given away for basically free. Like stadia but properly this time.
It won’t be for everyone and I have no idea how quick they can scale this but it’s nonetheless an interesting development.
Currently there’s a bit of a hybrid thing going on with ideas that combine cloud gaming with Xbox or PlayStation but here the consumer still has to pay for more hardware than necessary for streaming only
[+] [-] yCombLinks|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fnands|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nonethewiser|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kukumber|3 years ago|reply
Steam Deck numbers are nothing compared to what these 3 are selling, if i remember correctly, it was 1 million reservations total for a whole year, that sounds like a flop to my book when you compare with the 3 existing players
I think next gen we'll see Sony getting back into the handheld market, Nintendo coming up with a second version, and Microsoft coming up with a cloud stick
Microsoft doubling down on cloud gaming might kill their Xbox brand, it's too early for that, they'll miss the handheld market just like they missed the smartphone era
https://www.vgchartz.com/
[+] [-] ghusto|3 years ago|reply
I'm really happy with mine. Games just work, no tweaking or weird configurations necessary, gamepads and other controller schemes work well, and; it's running Linux in the back! Once you configure something like Syncthing in desktop mode, it carries on working in the regular console mode.
I really can't say enough good things about it, but one thing I'm wary of is the DRM stuff Steam uses. Never had a problem with it, but my Switch doesn't need to phone home to believe I own the games I've bought, and it worries me that even the "offline mode" needs to check-in every three weeks :/
[+] [-] zacmps|3 years ago|reply
Valve provides a very simple (and easy to bypass) DRM which many games on steam use, this is likely what you're referring to.
Other games use third party DRM such as Denuvo which is hard to bypass and generally hated (can cause performance issues). These games have warnings on the store page.
Ultimately Steam had (has?) a monopoly on the PC distribution market and didn't really take advantage of it to do anything anti-consumer (instead this period introduced a number of prosumer changes like refunds) so while it is a company it's one I trust more than most.
[+] [-] metalliqaz|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danShumway|3 years ago|reply
Aside from that, the device is fantastic, I have very few complaints. The portable form-factor is transformative for a lot of older PC games, it's an emulation powerhouse, gyro controls make first-person shooters actually playable (which was my big concern with not having a mouse). It's repairable, it's running Linux.
I don't know if I would recommend it for everyone, but it's pretty much the perfect console for me (or will be if I ever figure out how to replicate the OS experience without Steam).
[+] [-] b555|3 years ago|reply
What are your top 10 games that you have caught up on so far? (please exclude any recent blockbusters from this list)
[+] [-] tylersmith|3 years ago|reply
However once your Switch _can_ connect to the internet Nintendo can just erase all your games.
[+] [-] goosedragons|3 years ago|reply
Its also pretty good as a mini PC when paired with a dock.
That said it's still a PC and you will occasionally run into little foibles. Docking is not as smooth as a Switch, at least with my monitor the resolution isn't quite right when plugging in and I have to quit to get it to use the whole thing. Sometimes there will be minor issues even in verified games like them not actually using the correct controller layout or occasionally borked sound on resume for whatever reason. But still, it's great. Favorite PC by a mile even if my desktop will curb stomp it visually.
[+] [-] acomjean|3 years ago|reply
Minor issues is that it could use a usb a port. One of the things I tried was reinstalling the os from a usb stick for my initial battery issue..
The screen is great. The software sometime asked me how the game experience was as its running under wine/proton. There is https://www.protondb.com/ for compatability checks but steam now lists games that “run great on the deck” which means new ones will probably test on it. There is a plug-in I was told about that integrates those scores into the steam software.
The screen is great except for board games which benefit from screen size, but it’s a portable.
Overall a great device, especially if you have a stash of steam games you got and been meaning to play..
[+] [-] laidoffamazon|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thiht|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BizarreByte|3 years ago|reply
Quite literally the last thing I want to do after work is sit at my desk and the with Deck I don’t have to. It’s not as much of a commitment and it’s easier to pick up for ten minutes and then put down.
Graphics? Doesn’t matter to me, it’s good enough and being able to use it in the hammock in my backyard is more important. Most of what I play on it is ps2/1 games anyway and it runs them perfectly.
[+] [-] Balvarez|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Razengan|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raisin_churn|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] herpdyderp|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kibwen|3 years ago|reply
If anyone knows of a historic archive of data for the Steam Hardware Survey, it would be interesting to see whether or not the Steam Deck has made a dent in the overall Windows percentage since last year (Windows is still sitting pretty at 96.02%, but that just means there's a lot of room to grow, eh? :P ).
[+] [-] willis936|3 years ago|reply
I've had mixed success with apple tv (including newest model) when feeding a 4K TV (no 120 Hz support, decoding chokes on resolutions above 1440p regardless of encoded bitrate). I have a 13700k+3070, so it's not for want of encoding horsepower.
The most common use case of the deck is similar to mine of the link: couch gaming. It might be nice to free up the living room TV and have a max res/max framerate solution on the deck with little power usage. My main concern is latency. I have scanned through all setting permutations and I can't get what feels like a sub 100 ms experience on an apple tv decoder even when the telemetry reports sub 25 ms end-to-end latency. Now that I think about it again maybe it's the TV not being in game mode.
[+] [-] dom96|3 years ago|reply
What actually has worked far better for me is Xbox Game pass. It means I can easily give games a try without paying a lot of money upfront to buy them. Instead I can dip my toes in and see if a game takes my interest.
Just my 2 cents as someone that has gamed a lot in their childhood but largely stopped past their 20s.
[+] [-] cubefox|3 years ago|reply
While there was a lot of initial hype around the Steam Deck, it almost sounded as if it emerged as a serious Switch competitor. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Its sales are around an order of magnitude below the Switch, which sold 13.12 million units in its first year (and 122.5 million total).
So despite its modest success, the Steam Deck is still somewhat a niche product. Many people likely haven't even heard of it. I'm puzzled why Valve doesn't want to sell it in stores.
[+] [-] BoorishBears|3 years ago|reply
But honestly Valve didn't seem to break out of their main patterns for the Steam Deck: It still very much feels like very smart people worked on all the fun parts of solving a very hard problem and did great, but then kind of skimped the boring parts until the last minute.
So the end result is something that the tinkerer in me loves... but the product person in me doesn't see as ever having even had a sliver of a hope of becoming an actual platform.
I was hoping Steam was going to position the Deck as a full blown platform play. Yes some devs have thrown it breadcrumbs with graphics settings and control schemes, and sure Valve is committing working with developers. But what I was hoping for was something extremely polished that would entice other publishers.
Right now Steam Deck feels very much destined to be a quirky computer, not really its own platform. Handheld PCs in general are kind of having a renaissance moment, but no one has made something so compelling that publishers are banging on the doors to get in, and Valve was the only company I could have seen do it.
[+] [-] ekianjo|3 years ago|reply
Selling in stores comes at a price (retail will easily charge you 20 to 30% for the privilege) and my guess is that Valve has fairly limited production runs anyway which makes the proposition unattractive.
[+] [-] mantecademani|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mahmoudhossam|3 years ago|reply
This is Valve's first success at this whole console thing after all.
[+] [-] ARothfusz|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fooker|3 years ago|reply
Arch Linux on a cute handheld you can play games on? Valve made the year of the Linux 'Desktop' happen.
[+] [-] ustamills|3 years ago|reply
TEXT!
Text designed for giant flat screen TVs or even just modern monitors cannot just shrink down to that small screen. I do not have perfect eyesight. It is too often unreadable.
Do something about the text and the Deck will be as close to perfection as I could hope.
[+] [-] daedalus_j|3 years ago|reply
Metal: Hellsinger is another one that's just great on the deck. It feels way more kinetic to be on the deck with motion controls than sitting waving your mouse around.
As far as ergonomics go, I find it plenty comfortable to use, and so does my wife, and we're at opposite ends of the human size distribution. I don't really use it lying down like I used to do with my PSP, but that's not much of a loss to my mind considering how much more advanced games I can play with it on the go.
I'm a bit bummed that I haven't been able to find a good factorio-ish building/optimization game for it that actually works well without mouse+keyboard, but I'm sure one will show up eventually. I haven't really experimented with an external monitor+mouse+keyboard with it as I'd just switch to the computer at that point.
All in all super happy with it, it does what it's designed to do incredibly well.
[+] [-] jxdxbx|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nailer|3 years ago|reply
Do games just work like a console? Or do I have to mess around like on a PC?
I’m old, and don’t have time to game. I don’t want to spend 20 minutes of the first hour in a settings menu.