Valve introduces Steam Deck

[ZMOT]

A shittier version of a PC that doesn't already have brand recognition and the insurance that at least developers will continue to make games work well on the hardware for a few years.

being an open platform compared to your average console walled garden means you don't need to beg and pray for someone to make games for it. you're not even beholden to some shitty californian policy and other retarded publishing decisions, like delisting drive club.
as @Cardenio said lot of already released games will run on it, fuck you can probably get an emulator running from the start, which means you not only get a xboxsteamdeckhuge library of (future) pc games but also whole console game libraries (for fucking free if you want).

pc does basically everything better (and cheaper) than consoles, yet people still buy those in the millions. there's clearly demand for that kind of form factor and platform, why's that? simple, convenience. and what's more convenient than playing your steam library (and everything else) on the couch docked or while taking a shit? besides bing bing wahoo that's the switch' strongest selling point.

I was more speaking in the line of the Switch and Nintendo's exclusives, since they're one of the only ones still doing that decently, and they're actually what Valve is attempting to compete against here. But at least the PS4 did have a few exclusives, even if they weren't great. Drive club was decent in the least. The xbox had practically nothing in comparison, which is sad.

plenty of sony exclusives are appearing on pc, now remember which platform the deck is built on. nintendo's biggest exclusive can already be emulated. worst case just stream them via psnow, xcloud or whatever they're trying to push already.

outside of that there are plenty of alternatives for pretty much any exclusive nintendie/snoy/microshart release, fuck most of those are even better considering they shit they put out these days. sure, those don't have the brand power, but have you seen the last e3? that's the games you can expect the next 1-3 years. your average consumer is lazy, impatient and dumb, when microsoft can happily sell consoletards basic internet access for years there's plenty of room for someone with enough money and own brand power to reel in some of those suckers - if done right.
it's a gamble, and like any high stakes gamble there's a good chance it will fail for plenty of reasons (first of all valve being valve), but imagine if it pays off.

I like the idea of running Windows on it, but just like anything else, stuff that was built from the ground up with its own OS in mind never works smoothly with third-party OSes. Then again, Windows 11 has Android support built in because why not, and Android has a strangely very good emulation scene. And I, for one, can't wait to play NES games on a machine the size of a refrigerator.

it's a pc in a switch case, windows will have no problem running on it. the bigger issue will be that windows is a bloated piece of shit impossible to reign in or trim down, which is the complete opposite you want on a device like that.

View attachment 2354894

to repeat something explained ad nauseam: the biggest advantage of pc is also it's biggest drawback, your average normie doesn't want to deal with complicated specs and confusing technical numbers, "simple bigger number = better", that's why names like wii u and xbox one are fucking retarded. lot of those also already use a pc at work, the last thing they want is come home and keep sitting at a desk. have you ever tried mouse+keyboard on a couch? it sucks ass, and while you theoretically can get a fitting table or whatever, it makes you look like a subhuman and your average normie doesn't want that shit in the living room where your parents SO will complain about it. they might be ok with a somewhat small inconspicuous black box below the tv, but that's where it ends.

and even if your average normie wants to dip it's toes into the mustard lake, what are the options? shop for parts they have no clue about and don't want to learn? ask a friend who drops even more technical jargon and is most likely some retarded fanboi of a green/red/blue company? buy a fucking prebuilt which only exists to fleece people like that (and is one of the reasons steam machines failed)? your average consumer wants to come home, turn on that black box, maybe put in a disk, then play normie shit like destiny 2 on the couch for a few hours before going to bed, to be ready for his wageslave job the next day. when he shops around for new games he doesn't want to deal with specs and configurations either, he wants to simply put in the disc (or click the download) knowing the game will look (almost) exactly like the trailers he gets shilled.

now, if only someone big enough would release a simple singular combination of hardware to set a standard people can buy as a guideline and devs can target specifically with hardly any extra work involved...

 

[Slav Power]

The hornybrains kicked in

Spoiler: lmao

 

[ZMOT]

$399 + 1 TB ssd here we gooooo

The hornybrains kicked in

Spoiler: lmao

View attachment 2355059

can't wait for the inevitable wojack switch vs steamdeck gigachad comparison.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

I don't know why you guys are calling it a flop when the most expensive version has been reserved until Q3 lmao. I opted for the cheapest one since I'll probably just play smaller games on it.

Also, regardless of what you may think of the system itself I have to give mad props for their reservation system because fighting scalpers for this shit is so dumb, and even if the reviews are bad you can still get the $5 refunded to your steam account

 

[Game master arino]

whats the GPU

 

[Drain Todger]

I can’t wait to see Aussie and New Zealander reviewers babbling on enthusiastically about their new “Steam Dick”. Well played, Gaben.

 

[Thiletonomics]

The hornybrains kicked in

Spoiler: lmao

View attachment 2355059

I can't wait for either Sony to release another portable PS console that's somehow even larger than Steam Dick, or someone finds a way to turn Steam Dick into a PS4 emulator. Either way, that results in a picture where someone is playing TLOU2 while on the go, and the person in question watches the Owen ramming Abby's ass scene over and over again.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

$399 + 1 TB ssd here we gooooo

View attachment 2355083

I wonder if this will drive prices up for that form factor due to demand

Now hearing that you can upgrade the drive is good news though and makes me happy I went with the cheaper one.

 

[Gamepad]

I wonder if this will drive prices up for that form factor due to demand

Now hearing that you can upgrade the drive is good news though and makes me happy I went with the cheaper one.

It'd eventually happen anyways the moment Sony actually starts whitelisting M.2 nvmes for the PS5. When? No fuckin' clue, they still haven't done it.

 

[Product Placement]

I don't know why you guys are calling it a flop when the most expensive version has been reserved until Q3 lmao. I opted for the cheapest one since I'll probably just play smaller games on it.

Also, regardless of what you may think of the system itself I have to give mad props for their reservation system because fighting scalpers for this shit is so dumb, and even if the reviews are bad you can still get the $5 refunded to your steam account

I seemed to have called it wrong. happy to admit I'm wrong here because I like the idea for it but thought it would go the way of past steam products that wasn't their VR headset but so far demand is there and while it may be a niche product it looks like a very profitable one.

Not sure I will pick the first-gen model up myself, but a second or third-gen model when AMD actually has something hardware-based to compete with DLSS along with the spec boosts would be very tempting.

 

[Grey Donovan]

plenty of sony exclusives are appearing on pc, now remember which platform the deck is built on. nintendo's biggest exclusive can already be emulated. worst case just stream them via psnow, xcloud or whatever they're trying to push already

Surely people aren’t bringing up emulation as a bullet point for the Deck being competitive with the Switch.

We won’t even know its true hardware capabilities until the product is out and in consoomers’ hands. Everything we know right now is based off of Valve (who is not above PR talk) and controlled testing environments with influenced media outlets.

Also, Sony’s PC support can be counted on one hand, yet there’s already a whole slate of PS4/5 exclusives that have came out since the PS5 launch. I wonder what the average gamer is paying more attention to. Microsoft is the only console maker with reliable support with PC/Deck, and that’s only from a business model standpoint since their first-party output has been the worst out of the three companies.

Playing shovelware PC games, maybe emulated Nintendo games, and the occasional old Sony game all on the go is gonna be irrelevant to the casual majority without some real marketing. I expect stock in retail stores and Super Bowl level advertising if Valve can afford it.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Seems very cool , but valve needs to be very careful with how they market it , this thing cant compete with pcs but blows stuff like the switch and even normal consoles out of the water. I hope they improve the battery life or make it so it charges fast , that 2 hours is a massive issue.

 

[byuu]

Also, Sony’s PC support can be counted on one hand, yet there’s already a whole slate of PS4/5 exclusives that have came out since the PS5 launch. I wonder what the average gamer is paying more attention to. Microsoft is the only console maker with reliable support with PC/Deck, and that’s only from a business model standpoint since their first-party output has been the worst out of the three companies.

We're long past the era where different consoles had radically different game libraries.
99% of games are multiplats and what matters most is that your hardware plays them well.

 

[Info Player Start]

Seems very cool , but valve needs to be very careful with how they market it , this thing cant compete with pcs but blows stuff like the switch and even normal consoles out of the water. I hope they improve the battery life or make it so it charges fast , that 2 hours is a massive issue.

I for one, would go for Sega style marketing.

 

[Becomemysoulreaver]

The deck looks like a good product, and I would like to get one, but I dont know how much will it sell outside the first year, being porable gives it a bigger consumer base, but it will still have a lot of the same problems as the steam machines, not to mention the little memory, sd cards being too slow for a lot of modern and future pc games, and 400 dollars being a bit too high for a lot of people for a handheld.
I think it will be the best sold of these portable steam machines, but they could still make cheaper ones, ones dedicated only to indie and emulation for example, just put an lcd screen like the switch and drop the ram to 8gb, that could potentially drop the price to 300 and would still be more powerful than the switch

 

[The Wokest]

I for one can't wait to fire up half-life wherever I go.

 

[Kulee Baba]

View attachment 2356054

I for one can't wait to fire up half-life wherever I go.

"What's your WiFi? Gonna play some CS:GO."
"BOOM HEADSHOT!"

 

[Toolbox]

being an open platform compared to your average console walled garden means you don't need to beg and pray for someone to make games for it. you're not even beholden to some shitty californian policy and other retarded publishing decisions, like delisting drive club.
said lot of already released games will run on it, fuck you can probably get an emulator running from the start, which means you not only get a xboxsteamdeckhuge library of (future) pc games but also whole console game libraries (for fucking free if you want).

pc does basically everything better (and cheaper) than consoles, yet people still buy those in the millions. there's clearly demand for that kind of form factor and platform, why's that? simple, convenience. and what's more convenient than playing your steam library (and everything else) on the couch docked or while taking a shit? besides bing bing wahoo that's the switch' strongest selling point.

PC being an open platform means it's harder to get console normies involved even with a system like this. Plus it removes multiple of the benefits of an actual PC, such as decent user-end repairability and upgrading. Publishing issues so far have only been shown to matter to enthusiasts so I don't get how that works for attracting an actual audience.

While this has the benefits of a pc in the pricing of games, it removes the ability of doing what you want in most hardware regards unless you're decently experienced with fucking around with that kind of thing. And nothing's come out about battery life yet, we won't really know until people test the thing. The Switch was already abysmal in that regard and this thing has better hardware. Kind of makes the mobile point moot other than sitting in a corner keeping the thing charged it's entire use.

plenty of sony exclusives are appearing on pc, now remember which platform the deck is built on. nintendo's biggest exclusive can already be emulated. worst case just stream them via psnow, xcloud or whatever they're trying to push already.

outside of that there are plenty of alternatives for pretty much any exclusive nintendie/snoy/microshart release, fuck most of those are even better considering they shit they put out these days. sure, those don't have the brand power, but have you seen the last e3? that's the games you can expect the next 1-3 years. your average consumer is lazy, impatient and dumb, when microsoft can happily sell consoletards basic internet access for years there's plenty of room for someone with enough money and own brand power to reel in some of those suckers - if done right.
it's a gamble, and like any high stakes gamble there's a good chance it will fail for plenty of reasons (first of all valve being valve), but imagine if it pays off.

How long did it take their exclusives to port over? Some of it took years. Timed exclusives are still effective for the layman.
How well will emulators emulating other mobile hardware perform on this unit? Like I already said we know nothing of the power throttling even though the components look decent. Laptops already experience a good deal of this. This is more compact hardware ever more reliant on battery. Yes, in every other regard emulating older hardware it has consoles beat in some regard, but this won't steal market away. People are already hacking Xboxes to do this kind of thing, and the Switch has been broken into since nearly day one.

it's a pc in a switch case, windows will have no problem running on it. the bigger issue will be that windows is a bloated piece of shit impossible to reign in or trim down, which is the complete opposite you want on a device like that.

to repeat something explained ad nauseam: the biggest advantage of pc is also it's biggest drawback, your average normie doesn't want to deal with complicated specs and confusing technical numbers, "simple bigger number = better", that's why names like wii u and xbox one are fucking retarded. lot of those also already use a pc at work, the last thing they want is come home and keep sitting at a desk. have you ever tried mouse+keyboard on a couch? it sucks ass, and while you theoretically can get a fitting table or whatever, it makes you look like a subhuman and your average normie doesn't want that shit in the living room where your parents SO will complain about it. they might be ok with a somewhat small inconspicuous black box below the tv, but that's where it ends.

No argument on the OS side, Windows 10 is made to run on a potato even if it'll eventually bloat out to cook it. I also agree that the average person does not want to screw around with learning PC hardware. But as far as M and KB in front of a TV, that's no longer really an issue (and hasn't been for years) if you find it a pain to use default pc hardware just sitting at a couch, get a lap desk. They're cheap. Hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse and there are no issues. And if you can't fit your pc under a tv or inside a table or whatever nonsense you can hook it over ethernet or powerline ethernet and it shouldn't be too big a deal. But any laptop these days can easily hide among that mess if someone opts for one. Regardless though Micro ATX builds are basically shoeboxes made for this scenario and there are plenty of cases that blend in with all of the other black boxes that manufacturers put out. So this doesn't remove the enthusiast or general techie audience here. Unless someone's trying to actually put their RGB gamer lingo minifridge case in front of the TV for some reason.

now, if only someone big enough would release a simple singular combination of hardware to set a standard people can buy as a guideline and devs can target specifically with hardly any extra work involved...

How can they expect devs to go out of their way to optimize games for this hardware along with the billion different combinations of hardware that they already have to somehow make work with their games? It helps that it's made with parts that are fairly typical, but outside of that I don't see it until Valve has a massive base of users on this thing, if they can get that. But as for the tech illiterate gravitating to this because it's somehow simpler than a prebuilt I doubt it. They would still have to learn how to fix bugs in games regardless among many other things. It's outside a lot of people's comfort zones.

But this is all speculation and I guess we can just see what happens. Valve's track record outside of VR hardware makes me think it will not work out though.

 

[Love Machine]

Remember steam machines?
Remember the steam controller?

 

[Grey Donovan]

We're long past the era where different consoles had radically different game libraries.
99% of games are multiplats and what matters most is that your hardware plays them well.

Discounting first-party games, I can name a decent amount of third-party and indie games off the top of my head that release on Switch and not PlayStation. Same can be said vice-versa. Xbox is tricky to stand up for since most developers aren’t dumb enough to give Microsoft special treatment.

Hardware matters most? How did that work out for the Xbox One X? The Series X? Xbox has had better specs on paper for years, but more people continue to buy hardware and games from Nintendo and PlayStation.