Valve announces Steam Deck

[Brickman | 3,983]

What are people's thoughts on this? https://www.destructoid.com/valve-steam-deck-portable-gaming-pc-reveal/

I'm interested in this as I find the Nintendo Switch and PC are my most played systems these days (outside of retro stuff) and portable gaming is just so much easier these days. Not so sure on the joystick placement, looks like it could be a little uncomfortable for long sessions but we'll see. Looks like Valve are trying to take some measures on scalpers too, requiring one per customer and a Steam purchase prior to June.

[guitarzombie | 924]

Looks really interesting.  I have a couple of friends that will probably get one.  Im interested too but ill make my decision after I play theirs haha.

[RH | 4,903]

Daaaaaaaang... this has the potential to be a Switch killer.

I only skimmed the article to see the MSRP. Is this a Windows machine or will it have to have special builds of games.

Honestly as cool as this is, I don't use Steam. Now if GoG made something like this, it's be a no brainer purchase for me.

[Gloves | 11,776]

1 minute ago, RH said:

Daaaaaaaang... this has the potential to be a Switch killer.

I only skimmed the article to see the MSRP. Is this a Windows machine or will it have to have special builds of games.

Honestly as cool as this is, I don't use Steam. Now if GoG made something like this, it's be a no brainer purchase for me.

Yeah not a fan of Steam/Valve in general, personally.

I don't see it outright killing the Switch, there's always going to be a place for 1st party Nintendo games and I don't think I see them admitting defeat and moving to PC.

As has been said all over the internet too, Valve has a tendency to make things and then just drop em. We'll see how it goes long term, but I see this as less a competitor and more an interesting side thing.

[Brickman | 3,983]

1 minute ago, RH said:

Daaaaaaaang... this has the potential to be a Switch killer.

I only skimmed the article to see the MSRP. Is this a Windows machine or will it have to have special builds of games.

Honestly as cool as this is, I don't use Steam. Now if GoG made something like this, it's be a no brainer purchase for me.

They're making a SteamOS for it and I agree on the Switch killer. Yeah technically you won't be able to get Nintendo games but I'm sure this will be modded in like two seconds haha.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately if it sucks) my country isn't in the initial release so I'll have to see what the reviews say.

[RH | 4,903]

Just now, Gloves said:

Yeah not a fan of Steam/Valve in general, personally.

I don't see it outright killing the Switch, there's always going to be a place for 1st party Nintendo games and I don't think I see them admitting defeat and moving to PC.

As has been said all over the internet too, Valve has a tendency to make things and then just drop em. We'll see how it goes long term, but I see this as less a competitor and more an interesting side thing.

 

Just now, Shmup said:

They're making a SteamOS for it and I agree on the Switch killer. Yeah technically you won't be able to get Nintendo games but I'm sure this will be modded in like two seconds haha.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately if it sucks) my country isn't in the initial release so I'll have to see what the reviews say.

I can agree than Nintendo has a strong 1st party following (which includes me) but Nintendo is already behind the 8 ball for the next couple of years since this holiday season they are simply releasing a Switch with no significant upgrades. A device like this might entice the people thinking about holding out for the OLED Switch.

If this were released within the first 2-3 years of the Switch, I would definitely think that Nintendo had the killer device, but as much as I love my Switch, if this has significantly updated hardware (and it might not) then yes, this can eat a lot of Nintendo's potential sales this season  The potential.

[Aguy | 772]

2 hours ago, RH said:

Daaaaaaaang... this has the potential to be a Switch killer.

I only skimmed the article to see the MSRP. Is this a Windows machine or will it have to have special builds of games.

Honestly as cool as this is, I don't use Steam. Now if GoG made something like this, it's be a no brainer purchase for me.

According to Valve, they say it can do anything a Linux based pc can do, including playing games from the Epic store. So it would stand to reason GOG would work too.

[Brickman | 3,983]

1 hour ago, Aguy said:

According to Valve, they say it can do anything a Linux based pc can do, including playing games from the Epic store. So it would stand to reason GOG would work too.

Just a follow up to this comment I found this interesting article: https://www.windowscentral.com/steam-deck-software-explained

The gist for those who can’t be bothered reading. It will be possible to install Windows if you want or use other Linux programs to play GOG, Epic Store, Game Pass etc. not to mention emulators that will probably work too (handheld ps2?!).

As long as Valve don’t give up on it I think this will be a game changer, especially for us who like the portability of the Switch.

[phart010 | 1,707]

5 hours ago, RH said:

Daaaaaaaang... this has the potential to be a Switch killer.

I only skimmed the article to see the MSRP. Is this a Windows machine or will it have to have special builds of games.

Honestly as cool as this is, I don't use Steam. Now if GoG made something like this, it's be a no brainer purchase for me.

It comes preloaded with a custom build of Linux. But you can install Windows. It will work with Proton, meaning that Windows games don’t need you to install Windows.

As a non-pc gamer, I have always wanted to get into Steam, but the pc interface has always kept me from stepping forward. This being in a dedicated console form factor may be what it takes to bring me into Steam gaming

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Apparently it has a variant of the CPU/APU used in the PS5 and Xbox One X under the hood, so it should be reasonably powerful, although I haven't ever been able to find a direct benchmark comparison of those processors versus "proper" PC ones.  (The reason I went looking is a friend showed me where AMD is selling some sort of mini system boards with PS5 APUs onboard with failed onboard GPUs, but no reference to how their performance compares to desktop or mobile PCs.)

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Definitely tempted.

I've watched the various Chinese micro-gaming-laptops for the last few years -- but aside from the demo unit Dell posted a couple years ago, this is the first one that looks like it has any chance of having meaningful customer support.

Also the price is nuts.  Stupidly cheap for a small gaming PC.

[Pendragonx | 117]

Heh, I was amused at Hard Drive Mag's tweet

In all seriousness though, I don't see it being a "Switch Killer".. There's waaaaay too high an install-base for Nintendo and the pricepoint advantage for them will surely contribute to that imbalance. 

I use Steam everyday, but don't really see any need for this

 

[fox | 1,667]

They said they aiming for PS4 level graphics, which puts it on par or slightly better than switch.  I wouldn't call that a "Switch Killer."

$400 for basic b1tch model.  But sounds like you'd want the $530 or $650 model for more storage, SSD, and better screen.  Dock, mouse, keyboard not included.  That's a lot of money.

They said there is Steam presets, but you never know how good PC games are going to run or control on it.

It sounds pretty cool, but seems aimed at those already invested in the Steam ecosystem.  What even are the big Steam exclusives?  Dota 2?  I feel like 98% of the stuff I'd want to play comes out on PS5/Switch.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,522]

I'd pay $300 for GOG handheld since most of my PC interests are from 20 years ago.

Of course they all require a mouse and keyboard...

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

I think this is awesome! I probably won't get one myself, since I rarely use the portability of the Switch these days and as such this probably wouldn't see very much use from me, but even though I'm not getting one, I can see the massive amount of potential this has, and how this could certainly appeal to a lot of other people.

I don't see this being a "Switch killer," since the whole appeal of Nintendo is all of their IPs and amazing exclusives. It may certainly steal some sales from Nintendo, but long-term I don't necessarily see this as being an alternative to the Switch. I don't see that as a bad thing though, I don't think this needs to be a Switch killer, I think this thing (and potentially others like it in the coming years) could absolutely stand on their own as similar, but distinctly different to the Switch.

Valve has definitely had some duds in the hardware space, like the Steam Machines and Steam Controller, but it's good to not forget they've also had some hugely successful hardware as well, such as the Steam Link and the Index. Obviously it'd be a good idea to wait and see how this does and if Valve does continue supporting it, but I don't see any reason to jump to the conclusion that Valve is just going to put this out and then immediately dump it, it would be silly to do that with a product that has this much potential.

I also really like that they seem to be encouraging other manufacturers to take a crack at this type of product if they want, it would be awesome to see this type of thing properly flourish in the market. Products like this have existed for a long while now, but they've never really been all that successful or popular, so I do hope that this changes that. It's also very good that you can install your own OS on it if you want, and that you don't exclusively have to use Steam if you don't want to. They seem to be leaving all these options on the table so you don't completely lose out on the... I guess customizability, for lack of a better word, of proper desktop PCs, which is a huge plus.

Honestly my only real complaint with this is that the placement of the joysticks and buttons look a bit uncomfortable to me, I've always preferred the Xbox/Switch way of having the joysticks and buttons be offset from one side to the other, but we'll see how it feels once it comes out, it may be more comfortable than it looks. I also do wish the dock came with the higher end models, at least the $650 one, but I kind of feel like this type of thing appeals to people who already have a PC so it could be kind of redundant. Still would be very nice to include, though.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

29 minutes ago, fox said:

They said they aiming for PS4 level graphics, which puts it on par or slightly better than switch.  I wouldn't call that a "Switch Killer."

$400 for basic b1tch model.  But sounds like you'd want the $530 or $650 model for more storage, SSD, and better screen.  Dock, mouse, keyboard not included.  That's a lot of money.

They said there is Steam presets, but you never know how good PC games are going to run or control on it.

It sounds pretty cool, but seems aimed at those already invested in the Steam ecosystem.  What even are the big Steam exclusives?  Dota 2?  I feel like 98% of the stuff I'd want to play comes out on PS5/Switch.

Well the Switch isn't even as powerful as the PS4 or Xbone from what I remember, let alone the PS5 or Series X, so it's certainly quite a bit superior to that in terms of performance. It would need to be anyway if they want it to be capable of running newer games at reasonable settings.

Honestly, most of the stuff that comes with the higher end models don't really seem to be anything that significant to me. The faster storage is certainly nice, but honestly nowadays even 256GB can get eaten up really really fast with how massive newer games are. 512GB I'd say is a bit more reasonable, but the point remains. I think a good amount of people are probably just going to use an SD card. And the screen on the $650 model... I'm not convinced it's going to be a huge game-changer, at least not something that's so much of an improvement that it's worth spending $250 more on it, but that's something we'll have to wait and see on when it comes out.

And you could make the same point about a proper desktop PC, with a mouse, keyboard and monitor not included with the actual PC, therefore driving up the cost. The difference is that those are all required to actually use a PC, whereas that stuff would all just be bonuses with the Deck. You would only really need that stuff if you wanted to use the Deck as an actual PC, it looks like (well, hopefully, at any rate) it'll work just fine as a standalone product without all that stuff, so I feel like that's unfair to the Deck. Plus there's what I said in my other post (and again in this one) about how I feel like this type of thing appeals to people who already have a PC, so they'd likely already have that stuff anyway (other than the dock, which like I said I do wish was at least included in the higher-end models.)

Also, I don't think this thing is meant to have exclusives in the same way the Switch is, I don't think that's the right way to look at it. I see this more so as something for people who predominantly play stuff on PC anyway, who would want something similar to a Switch for those games, which I've definitely thought about in the past.

[fox | 1,667]

Switch is a more powerful than it gets credit for, some of the better ports like The Witcher and Doom run pretty close to the PS4 versions.

Even if the parts are suppose to be close to PS5, I don’t expect it to run that well.  PS5 isn’t just a tank, it is the entire aircraft carrier, you can last a small plane on it.  How are they dealing with the heat sink without modern cooling systems PCs have?  You aren’t cramming that into a handheld without the thing bursting into flames.

Part of the genius of the Switch was that it was an all in one package.  You got the handheld unit, but also the dock and detachable controllers were included.  If those are just “bonuses” then you can get a Switch lite for $199, half the price.

I’m not invested in the Steam brand, so that name only means nothing to me.  Nintendo and Sony are known for their killer exclusives.  PS5 is going play third party games best.  Switch is my go to for indies and portable gaming.  Feels like I got all bases covered, what can the Steamdeck do that they can’t?

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

8 minutes ago, fox said:

I’m not invested in the Steam brand, so that name only means nothing to me.  Nintendo and Sony are known for their killer exclusives.  PS5 is going play third party games best.  Switch is my go to for indies and portable gaming.  Feels like I got all bases covered, what can the Steamdeck do that they can’t?

The games themselves (for any of the 1:1 indie releases) are going to be consistently cheaper on Steam given the much greater propensity for deep-discount sales on the platform (or for those of us with massive Steam/PC back-catalogs).

 

Though most PC "exclusives" tend to favor a mouse and keyboard.  The Steam controller navigates some of that surprisingly well -- so if that functionality makes it to the "Steamdeck", that will be nice to be able to play more portably.

 

It's going to come down to how flexible the software is, out of the box -- since there is a pretty big difference between the level of gaming flexibility you get from a traditional Windows configuration, and whatever Steam supports via their Linux options.

That may still provide decent DosBox access to play GOG releases -- but will need to wait and see what gets done with it, and what "more traditional" PC games can be played (i.e. thinking of classic CRPGs, for instance, many of which have nothing close on any console from any generation).

 

 

Kind of silly to frame this whole discussion as some kind of console-war, though.

People that play any variety of PC games can be interested in having genuine attention given to portable gaming hardware without it taking anything away from console gaming.

This thing wouldn't replace the specific games I want to play on the Switch, for instance -- but it would give me some selection of my PC games to take on flights or trips without needing to lug along a second laptop (or own a 2nd Switch).

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

7 minutes ago, fox said:

Switch is a more powerful than it gets credit for, some of the better ports like The Witcher and Doom run pretty close to the PS4 versions.

Even if the parts are suppose to be close to PS5, I don’t expect it to run that well.  PS5 isn’t just a tank, it is the entire aircraft carrier, you can last a small plane on it.  How are they dealing with the heat sink without modern cooling systems PCs have?  You aren’t cramming that into a handheld without the thing bursting into flames.

Part of the genius of the Switch was that it was an all in one package.  You got the handheld unit, but also the dock and detachable controllers were included.  If those are just “bonuses” then you can get a Switch lite for $199, half the price.

I’m not invested in the Steam brand, so that name only means nothing to me.  Nintendo and Sony are known for their killer exclusives.  PS5 is going play third party games best.  Switch is my go to for indies and portable gaming.  Feels like I got all bases covered, what can the Steamdeck do that they can’t?

Well I'm just talking objective specs in terms of the performance of the Switch, it indeed is not as powerful as the PS4 and Xbone, although it probably isn't that far behind. And while it is true that the ports of stuff like DOOM and the Witcher are pretty damn impressive and run relatively well, that's only due to the developers of those ports working their asses off to make it work on the platform. Porting something to other consoles probably isn't nearly as difficult since they have more power to work with, so you don't need to work as hard to make it run well. I'm obviously not saying the Switch runs bad, I think it runs well enough for what it needs to do, and it can just about run modern, more demanding games as long as the devs are willing to put in the work (although they're definitely going to need to upgrade the hardware a good bit for whatever they do after the Switch) but I suppose my point is that the Steam Deck is definitely quite a bit more powerful than the Switch, which will help a lot with the performance of games. Plus it helps that it's coming out 5 or so years after the Switch, so of course it's going to have better hardware inside it.

Yeah, you're always gonna have compromises with the hardware with anything handheld. We'll have to see how the cooling system handles it, it definitely wouldn't surprise me if it gets pretty toasty. I know some gaming laptops can get pretty darn hot in some places, and those have a lot more room to work with for cooling.

Sure, but I would argue the whole appeal of the Switch is the whole console/handheld hybrid. It totally works as just a handheld, but it feels like you're kind of missing out on the main selling point if you can't hook it up to a TV or monitor. With the Steam Deck, like I said, I feel as though you'd only need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, the Dock, etc, if you wanted to use it as, essentially, a Desktop PC, which I think at least a decent amount of the people buying this wouldn't really need.

What can the Steam Deck do that they can't? Well, what can PC games do that console games can't? What appeal does PC gaming have when the PS5/Switch covers 98% of what you play anyway? If PC gaming in general doesn't appeal to you, then this almost certainly won't either, and I don't really see why it should when, at least to me, it seems that this is aimed squarely at those who are indeed in to PC gaming, or at least have an interest in it.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

12 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

This thing wouldn't replace the specific games I want to play on the Switch, for instance -- but it would give me some selection of my PC games to take on flights or trips without needing to lug along a second laptop (or own a 2nd Switch).

That's actually a really really good point I hadn't considered, I could definitely see this working as an alternative to a gaming laptop (many of which are pretty expensive) as long as the battery life is acceptable.

Hm... y'know, now that I look at it like that, I may actually pick one of these up if the reviews are good.

[Brickman | 3,983]

Some great discussion here. I also don’t think this will kill the Switch and I would hope it didn’t because I love that console. But let’s be honest the oled switch is an absolute joke and it’s a classic case of Nintendo up to their old tricks. People want a pro or Switch 2, modern games run like garbage on it now compared to Sony and Xbox.

I hope this does well so it forces Nintendo to actually listen to its fan. Crap online service, no Bluetooth, joystick drift etc. these need to be addressed in the Switch 2.

I think this is very much aimed at people like myself who enjoy the Switch experience but want a bit more power and features.

The price on these are pretty good with the specs they have and you save heaps in the long run if you’re an indie fan. Now you don’t have to pay LRG or scalpers for a $10 indie title going for $80+

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

14 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Some great discussion here. I also don’t think this will kill the Switch and I would hope it didn’t because I love that console. But let’s be honest the oled switch is an absolute joke and it’s a classic case of Nintendo up to their old tricks. People want a pro or Switch 2, modern games run like garbage on it now compared to Sony and Xbox.

I hope this does well so it forces Nintendo to actually listen to its fan. Crap online service, no Bluetooth, joystick drift etc. these need to be addressed in the Switch 2.

I think this is very much aimed at people like myself who enjoy the Switch experience but want a bit more power and features.

The price on these are pretty good with the specs they have and you save heaps in the long run if you’re an indie fan. Now you don’t have to pay LRG or scalpers for a $10 indie title going for $80+

I don't mind the OLED Switch myself, since it's clearly intended for people who don't have a Switch, but it was definitely the wrong time to announce something like that with everyone hoping for some upgraded hardware, even if only marginally upgraded.

I think if anything, if they introduced the OLED model around the time the model with the slightly improved battery life came out, and then came out with a proper Switch Pro by now, people would have had less of a problem with it.

The Switch definitely has it's fair share of problems, but like you say, those issues could pave the way for a really fantastic follow-up to the Switch, should they choose to go that route and not just go off the walls and do something completely different like Nintendo always does.

Either way, I do agree that I think the Switch and the Deck can definitely co-exist, and the prices on these are honestly really really good, especially given the current climate in the PC space with the whole GPU situation improving, but still being pretty awful.

Edited July 16, 2021 by ZeldaFreak

[fox | 1,667]

@arch_8ngel

I usually add eshop stuff to my wishlist and wait for a sale.  Not as good as the bundle deals, where for every good game you get 10 other games tacked on as filler.  
 

When I think PC exclusive I think like RTS or other mouse/keyboard games that just wouldn’t translate well to a handheld.  Glad to hear the Steam controller is a pretty solid alternative though.

Lots of CRPGs modern and remastered are hitting the Switch.  You dig into any of those?

[fox | 1,667]

21 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Now you don’t have to pay LRG or scalpers for a $10 indie title going for $80+

So instead of downloading it from the eshop, you download it to Steam and then it is tied there instead?  If you don’t want physical, you are just trading one DRM service for another.

At least gog is DRM free

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

2 minutes ago, fox said:

@arch_8ngel

I usually add eshop stuff to my wishlist and wait for a sale.  Not as good as the bundle deals, where for every good game you get 10 other games tacked on as filler.  
 

When I think PC exclusive I think like RTS or other mouse/keyboard games that just wouldn’t translate well to a handheld.  Glad to hear the Steam controller is a pretty solid alternative though.

Lots of CRPGs modern and remastered are hitting the Switch.  You dig into any of those?

You don't need bundle deals from Steam to hit dirt-cheap sales a couple times per year.

 

Classic-style CRPGs (both dungeon crawlers and iso-style) have essentially zero footprint on consoles of any generation. (with the exception of that one series of dungeon crawlers on DS -- though those were ultimately quite a bit grindier than they needed to be)

Also, classic 4X games are generally the territory of PCs.  (and Master of Magic has a new release coming out)

 

Oh, and the other pretty-much-PC-exclusive are true-Roguelikes (ADOM, DoomRL/Jupiter Hell, etc).  Though those are quite a bit trickier to configure for controller-based play given the keystroke command complexity.

 

Most of the indie games that have made it to consoles, though, I generally prefer in their PC incarnation, as the platform that is a lot more straightforward for the devs to keep updated.

 

But beyond all of that -- for pretty much anything cross-platform, i would usually rather own it on the PC to know that I'll definitely be able to play it far in the future, versus the perennial uncertainty of any digital releases on console platforms.

 

I get a console like the Switch for the console exclusives, not anything cross platform