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Valve announces Steam Deck


Brickman

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12 minutes ago, fox said:

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

This will play gog games though so I’m not sure what your point is? You get better deals for games on gog, epic and steam the majority of the time over e shop. The savings there will more than make up for the higher initial cost.

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It really looks like all the Switch defenders are missing the fact that while the default, shipped setup on the Steam Deck is to play Steam games, they've already admitted that you can install at least two different, alternate operating systems without issue (non-SteamOS Linux as well as Windows), leaving it up to the end user to play whatever the hell they want

As for the power of the Switch, this has always been one of the things that totally turned me off about the system.  For starters, the CPU cycles down 60% when it's not docked, even if you plug the thing into a charger (there were arguments that the dock didn't do anything special beyond supplying electrical power, but using a charger while in portable mode didn't boost CPU power back to optimum).  Next, yeah, the folks who ported DOOM and The Witcher did fantastic jobs cutting every corner they could to make the games workable on the Switch.  However, go take a good, long look at Ark running on the Switch and try to tell me again how powerful it is.

I'm sure it's worlds ahead of Nintendo's other handhelds, but realistically, that's what the Switch truly is (even with a dock feature, because hey, even the PSP had some of that built in), and to date there hasn't been a handheld that could remotely stand toe to toe with full on consoles within the same generation or so.  Sure, the Game Boy could run circles around Pong, or most offerings for the 2600, but contemporaries like the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc., whipped it completely performance-wise.

If the Steam Deck can perform anywhere near its promise (which is at least at the level of the PS5 due to the APU being used, not the PS4 that folks readily admit that the Switch doesn't match up to), it'll most likely be a decent deal and good investment for people interested in doing higher end gaming on-the-go.  The default configuration will most likely allow for more simple setup and operation such as consoles offer, but there will clearly be options available for those folks who want a "truer" PC gaming experience (with their OS and game provider of choie) while retaining the ability to just pick it up and go.

While the announcement is a neat one, I think that the immediate opening of preorders without any sort of detailed reviews, hardware analysis, etc. available at the same time could indicate some sneakiness/sketchiness on Valve's part.  I don't think that they're necessarily trying to dupe anybody, but the potential is definitely there with this out-of-the-blue announcement followed by next day preorders while everybody's still foaming at the mouth over it.  While they do only require a $5 deposit for a preorder, I'm guessing that should you decide it's ultimately not for you that you don't get a true refund but instead credit to your Steam account balance, in which case they get your money anyway.

As for Switch fans, this being a "Switch killer," etc., diehard Nintendo fans are going to remain such no matter what anybody else is offering, so this device, regardless of how great it might turn out to be, will do little to nothing to change the minds of those folk.  It'll probably have more success, but still relatively limited impact in the segment of folks who are more or less exclusively console gamers (or mobile/phone + console gamers), while the true bread and butter, and biggest number of adopters will come from the "true"/"pure"/agnostic/(whatever) gamers who just want to play good games and aren't picky about what hardware it's on.

(Please note that I'm not saying that people who play one one particular system or type of platform aren't gamers, but that people who will play games regardless of how they're presented are demonstrably more into games in general than those folks who specifically restrict how they're willing to experience games.)

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8 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

“More success” You cant possibly think the steam deck is going to sell more than 85 million units like the switch right? 

If you're talking to me, I didn't say more success than the Switch, just more success in general in "converting" people to their device.  Out of the Switch section they'll likely have minor success in converting folks (or convincing them to buy the device), more success with people who are into any/all console/mobile gaming, then most success with people who don't care what they play games on (consoles, phones, PCs, etc.) so long as they get to play.

Edit:  To respond to your 2-3 year addition, I'd need to find numbers somewhere to substantiate, but I'd have to say that the more or less totally locked down last year probably did wonders for Switch sales, seeing as they were nearly always sold out within a day or so of coming into stock anywhere.  Without some sort of event like this happening again (lockdowns being the norm again versus where we are with things now), I don't think any system/product has a big chance for that type of growth.  Compared to "gamer" PCs in general, with the right marketing, and if the hardware works as well as it looks like it should...yeah, I think this thing has a good shot of selling a ton of units.

Edited by darkchylde28
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23 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Within 2-3 years I should clarify

While I don’t think they’ll hit Switch sales I can see this selling extremely well if it does everything it promises and is fully supported by Valve. PC gamers will drop money on high end stuff in a heart beat.

We also are in the middle of a chip shortage which might dampen numbers. Either way it goes, the next year in gaming is going to be interesting.

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Events Team · Posted
3 minutes ago, Shmup said:

We also are in the middle of a chip shortage which might dampen numbers. Either way it goes, the next year in gaming is going to be interesting.

Conversely, if it's still in full effect by the time this comes out (which I imagine it probably will be, at least to a certain extent) that might actually increase the sales of it, considering the shortage is contributing to it still being borderline impossible to find GPUs brand new (or even used for a non-asinine price) and that's unlikely to change for, at an absolute minimum, the rest of the year, so I could see people who've been wanting to build a PC or upgrade their existing one getting this instead, given that it sounds like it'll have pretty good performance. Either way, I do think next year is gonna be a pretty exciting time for gaming, with the Deck coming out, a bunch of Nintendo games coming out (I don't know how much longer I can wait for Breath of the Wild 2, man) and hopefully the PS5 and Series X libraries being bolstered up a bit more.

Also, figured people might find this video interesting.

They get through some of the questions we already know the answers to at the start, but then start getting in to more specific questions later on. Battery life in particular is one thing I was interested in. Largely varies, 2-8 hours depending on what you're doing, which makes sense given that it's essentially a PC. A 2 hour minimum honestly isn't bad though for what this is, I'm alright with that.

I'm really loving the sort of "Yeah man, do whatever you want with this thing" sort of attitude they seem to be having with it, and I'm also liking all the "If you can do it on a PC, you can do it on this" answers they're giving to some of these questions. It seems like it might mostly offer the convenience of a console for those who want that, whilst also having the flexibility of a PC for those who want that, which would be awesome if they could pull that balance off effectively. Sort of a best of both worlds.

This thing really does have a ton of potential, I'm rooting for Valve that this does well.

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58 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

If you're talking to me, I didn't say more success than the Switch, just more success in general in "converting" people to their device.  Out of the Switch section they'll likely have minor success in converting folks (or convincing them to buy the device), more success with people who are into any/all console/mobile gaming, then most success with people who don't care what they play games on (consoles, phones, PCs, etc.) so long as they get to play.

Edit:  To respond to your 2-3 year addition, I'd need to find numbers somewhere to substantiate, but I'd have to say that the more or less totally locked down last year probably did wonders for Switch sales, seeing as they were nearly always sold out within a day or so of coming into stock anywhere.  Without some sort of event like this happening again (lockdowns being the norm again versus where we are with things now), I don't think any system/product has a big chance for that type of growth.  Compared to "gamer" PCs in general, with the right marketing, and if the hardware works as well as it looks like it should...yeah, I think this thing has a good shot of selling a ton of units.

Thanks for clarifying. 
 

Im more excited after reading more about it, now I can stop looking for a damn ps5 or XboxX. I’m transitioning to online for current gen anyways, and now I can just ditch them both. 

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25 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Conversely, if it's still in full effect by the time this comes out (which I imagine it probably will be, at least to a certain extent) that might actually increase the sales of it, considering the shortage is contributing to it still being borderline impossible to find GPUs brand new (or even used for a non-asinine price) and that's unlikely to change for, at an absolute minimum, the rest of the year, so I could see people who've been wanting to build a PC or upgrade their existing one getting this instead, given that it sounds like it'll have pretty good performance. Either way, I do think next year is gonna be a pretty exciting time for gaming, with the Deck coming out, a bunch of Nintendo games coming out (I don't know how much longer I can wait for Breath of the Wild 2, man) and hopefully the PS5 and Series X libraries being bolstered up a bit more.

Also, figured people might find this video interesting.

They get through some of the questions we already know the answers to at the start, but then start getting in to more specific questions later on. Battery life in particular is one thing I was interested in. Largely varies, 2-8 hours depending on what you're doing, which makes sense given that it's essentially a PC. A 2 hour minimum honestly isn't bad though for what this is, I'm alright with that.

I'm really loving the sort of "Yeah man, do whatever you want with this thing" sort of attitude they seem to be having with it, and I'm also liking all the "If you can do it on a PC, you can do it on this" answers they're giving to some of these questions. It seems like it might mostly offer the convenience of a console for those who want that, whilst also having the flexibility of a PC for those who want that, which would be awesome if they could pull that balance off effectively. Sort of a best of both worlds.

This thing really does have a ton of potential, I'm rooting for Valve that this does well.

Thanks for the video. The battery life isn’t too bad and most of the time with the Switch I am near a charger or going to a place with one so I think this would be a similar situation.

Good point on the chip stuff. I actually recently bought a 3060 because I got tired of waiting for a better card to be available. So if Valve has managed to secure a large stock I could definitely see some people grabbing this while waiting to be able to upgrade their pc.

I’m also hoping they can pull it off, competition in this space is a good thing for us as a consumer and I never like to see one company dominate.

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Events Team · Posted
16 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Thanks for the video. The battery life isn’t too bad and most of the time with the Switch I am near a charger or going to a place with one so I think this would be a similar situation.

Good point on the chip stuff. I actually recently bought a 3060 because I got tired of waiting for a better card to be available. So if Valve has managed to secure a large stock I could definitely see some people grabbing this while waiting to be able to upgrade their pc.

I’m also hoping they can pull it off, competition in this space is a good thing for us as a consumer and I never like to see one company dominate.

Yeah, competition is always a fantastic thing. Companies always (well, maybe not always, but almost always) deliver better products when they have to be competitive than when they dominate the market and become complacent. And the more good products there are, the more choice there is for consumers on what to get.

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I think their success with this device will 100% depend on them successfully marketing it as a new console as opposed a powerful handheld pc.

There are so many gamers that are turned off by pc gaming, I’m one of them, but I know plenty of others.
 

This is kind of like trying to position the  Samsung Galaxy or the Google Pixel against the iPhone. It’s a difficult thing to pull off because there are so many other Android phones that cause a lot of noise and confusion in the Android environment. Some people just want a simple and seamless solution so they pick iPhone.

Edited by phart010
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Events Team · Posted
21 minutes ago, phart010 said:

I think their success with this device will 100% depend on them successfully marketing it as a new console as opposed a powerful handheld pc.

There are so many gamers that are turned off by pc gaming, I’m one of them, but I know plenty of others.
 

This is kind of like trying to position the  Samsung Galaxy or the Google Pixel against the iPhone. It’s a difficult thing to pull off because there are so many other Android phones that cause a lot of noise and confusion in the Android environment. Some people just want a simple and seamless solution so they pick iPhone.

I'm not sure I'd fully agree with that, but I can definitely understand that thought process.

The thing is I can see this thing appealing both to people like me, who love PC gaming and all the perks that come with it, and people like you who are put off by PC gaming and may prefer consoles. The convenience of a console and the flexibility of a PC, paraphrasing what I said earlier, if they execute it well. That's part of why I think this thing has huge amounts of potential, it could do the impossible of actually bridging that gap between the convenience of consoles and the complexity of PCs on a mainstream device.

I think if they market it as a new console (which, at least in my opinion, it isn't, and would be somewhat dishonest of them to do I feel) then they might alienate folks like me who do enjoy PC gaming, and would appreciate what is essentially a portable PC in a much more convenient form-factor than a laptop. But, like you say, if they market it as a handheld PC (which, to be fair, is a much closer description of what it actually is I think) then it might alienate people like you who aren't particularly interested in PC gaming. Like the device itself, I feel like they'd kind of have to strike a balance between those two groups in the marketing, which could be pretty tough. Otherwise, if they fully committed to marketing to one group, they'd risk alienating the other.

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2 hours ago, phart010 said:

I think their success with this device will 100% depend on them successfully marketing it as a new console as opposed a powerful handheld pc.

There are so many gamers that are turned off by pc gaming, I’m one of them, but I know plenty of others.
 

This is kind of like trying to position the  Samsung Galaxy or the Google Pixel against the iPhone. It’s a difficult thing to pull off because there are so many other Android phones that cause a lot of noise and confusion in the Android environment. Some people just want a simple and seamless solution so they pick iPhone.

I think it will appeal to both.

If you want a no nonsense just works out of the box like a console then you just use the steamOS which is pre installed on it. You just browse for a game, buy it and you’re done.

If you like to mod it and change the OS and get other things working on it then that is an option but you’ll have to do it yourself.

I think that’s what’s interesting about this. You can go the iPhone route with it and just live in the simplicity of steamOS or you can go android on it and customise it your own way.

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Events Team · Posted
6 minutes ago, Shmup said:

I think that’s what’s interesting about this. You can go the iPhone route with it and just live in the simplicity of steamOS or you can go android on it and customise it your own way.

Exactly. As long as the software side of things is up to snuff, I think that's gonna be the main attraction of this. As long as they market the hell out of that fact, I could actually see this sparking some interest in PC gaming from people who are predominantly or exclusively console users, even though I do think this will probably attract already existing PC gamers more.

I have to admit, the more I've sat down and thought about it, the more I've realized how much potential this concept does have. When I first saw that it was announced I just thought "Oh wow! That's really neat!" but then, especially thanks to the discussion that's been happening in this thread, I realized that this actually could be a game-changer if they play their cards right. If it's successful enough, other companies could follow suit over the years with similar products, and this could pave the way for a whole new line of products in the PC space. You could have Desktops, Laptops, and then... whatever these sort of devices would be called.

Granted, that's an extremely optimistic, best case scenario outcome, and in the timeline we live in that doesn't tend to be the outcome that happens, but that would be really really awesome to see regardless, having this be the start of, essentially, an entirely new form factor for PCs that up to this point has been relatively untapped.

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The good news is that it has to do at least as well as Steam Link and Steam Box, right?

As for calling it a Switch killer: Yeah, I remember when Game Gear was called the Game Boy killer, the PSP the DS killer, the Vita the 3DS killer. 

Edited by Strange
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46 minutes ago, Strange said:

I guess I’m just jaded but I feel like we’ve seen this shiny new toy song and dance come and go in various iterations with various companies. We’ll see but I’m not holding my breath just yet

Yep I agree. I can’t even pre order this in my country so I’ll have the benefit of seeing if it’s even worth it. But having said that I am cautiously optimistic.

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Events Team · Posted
25 minutes ago, Strange said:

I guess I’m just jaded but I feel like we’ve seen this shiny new toy song and dance come and go in various iterations with various companies. We’ll see but I’m not holding my breath just yet

Oh yeah, this thing could totally go down in flames and just end up being a weird, mostly forgotten gadget down the line, just like the Steam Machines and Steam Controller, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

The thing is when other companies have tried to do this sort of thing... well, first of all most of them were pretty small companies that most people had probably never even heard of before, which meant that most of them only had a moment or two in the spotlight, if even that, they never really got the chance to become a mainstream device. Plus, at least from what I remember, most of them literally were just handheld PCs with nothing particularly different about the software, or at least nothing massively different, whereas it seems like this does have custom software that's specifically made for it, while still leaving open the option for the user to install other stuff like Windows on to it if they want.

I'm not necessarily saying it will be great, there are plenty of things that could go wrong and be deal-breakers, but there's no denying that this thing could be great. Unlike basically every other attempt at this sort of device where I've thought "Huh. Neat" and moved on, this feels different. This has serious potential.

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Events Team · Posted
14 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Yep I agree. I can’t even pre order this in my country so I’ll have the benefit of seeing if it’s even worth it. But having said that I am cautiously optimistic.

That's probably a blessing in disguise honestly. As much as I know pre-orders are generally frowned upon, certain games I'm perfectly OK with pre-ordering if I know I'm going to enjoy it no matter what, such as Breath of the Wild which I did indeed pre-order. Actual hardware like this is in a whole other ballpark though, stuff like this you should always wait for reviews on I think, especially with relatively unique devices like this.

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I preordered the 256gb version. I haven't gotten the Xbox x or PS5 yet and with my addiction to handheld gaming I just don't see me sitting at a desk playing PC games or in the office playing games alone. I really enjoy being able to sit with my wife before bed, watching tv on the couch or laying in bed together and playing and hours of games before falling asleep. 

I've been waiting for something like this to get main stream support. There's a ton of handheld Linux PCs that have been on my radar but w.o guaranteed window of updates and support I just could never pull the trigger. I'm looking forward to it honestly and glad the handheld market is starting to become serious again. Takes me back to the Gameboy Gamegear games. 

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Administrator · Posted
1 minute ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I've been waiting for something like this to get main stream support. There's a ton of handheld Linux PCs that have been on my radar but w.o guaranteed window of updates and support I just could never pull the trigger. 

FYI Valve are NOT known for good customer support, nor for keeping their hardware updated. Every single piece of hardware they've released is basically abandonware. 

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Events Team · Posted
7 hours ago, Gloves said:

FYI Valve are NOT known for good customer support, nor for keeping their hardware updated. Every single piece of hardware they've released is basically abandonware. 

That's definitely just not true. I don't know how their customer support is in terms of hardware since I've never had to deal with it, but the only two pieces of hardware they've released you could honestly consider abandonware are the Steam Machines (which were a flop from the start) and the Steam Controller (which was getting support from Valve for a little while if I recall.) The Steam Link was incredibly successful, and the Index has also been incredibly successful, and as far as I know they're still supporting it. And the things that are no longer getting support from them still do function just fine, such as the Controller, the Link and probably the Machines as well if you wanted to use one for whatever unholy reason.

It's fine if you don't personally care for Valve, but that's no reason to be going around spreading misinformation like that 😛

Edited by ZeldaFreak
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Events Team · Posted
7 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I preordered the 256gb version. I haven't gotten the Xbox x or PS5 yet and with my addiction to handheld gaming I just don't see me sitting at a desk playing PC games or in the office playing games alone. I really enjoy being able to sit with my wife before bed, watching tv on the couch or laying in bed together and playing and hours of games before falling asleep. 

I've been waiting for something like this to get main stream support. There's a ton of handheld Linux PCs that have been on my radar but w.o guaranteed window of updates and support I just could never pull the trigger. I'm looking forward to it honestly and glad the handheld market is starting to become serious again. Takes me back to the Gameboy Gamegear games. 

If I do get it, I'll probably get the 256GB version as well, and pair it with a 512GB MicroSD card. We'll see though, I may decide to opt for the base model instead.

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