Valve introduces Steam Deck

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I cannot tell you how many people I've heard on teams calls in the last six months complain about Windows 11. Well over 100 in my middle sized company, in my limited scope of going on calls, since Microsoft forced the transition. Every other call, someone is still complaining about 11.

Between "just working" steamOS, their laying down a pathway to ARM, and people's hatred of win11, Valve may find themselves in a unique market opportunity.
 
Hooked on phobics said:
*proceeds to soy TF out*

Not really, but steam products are one of the LAST bastions of items that I can get fucking excited and hyped over.

I'm so glad they made another.

And If another company shuts down their controller production over some gay ass faggot copyright im going to shit in someones cornflakes.
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8bitdo and Gullikit have most of the stuff in the new controller other than the haptic and touch stuff and they’re doing fine. Hell, Gullikit makes drop-in hall effect sticks for the deck. It’s just nice that there’s a major company that’s actually pushing some of this tech considering all the complaning about stick issues since at least 2017. Hall effect isn’t even new stuff. Dreamcast had it, some ps3 pads had it. I can only assume it was a cost thing.
 
Takayuki Yagami said:
8bitdo and Gullikit have most of the stuff in the new controller other than the haptic and touch stuff and they’re doing fine. Hell, Gullikit makes drop-in hall effect sticks for the deck. It’s just nice that there’s a major company that’s actually pushing some of this tech considering all the complaning about stick issues since at least 2017. Hall effect isn’t even new stuff. Dreamcast had it, some ps3 pads had it. I can only assume it was a cost thing.
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8bitdo is good quality, I have one, but steam controller WILL be better, I'll put my nuts on that.
 
Hooked on phobics said:
8bitdo is good quality, I have one, but steam controller WILL be better, I'll put my nuts on that.
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Fell for the 8bitdo meme and bought the ultimate bluetooth model. Includes a 2.4ghz dongle but gyro is locked behind bluetooth and the controller disconnects every 3 seconds using the dongle because of some shitty sleep mode they baked into the controller unless your actively in a game, have steam open, or fix it yourself with a systemd service. Once i get the steam controller this thing is going back in its chink box where it will rot.
 
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Rust Troony said:
Fell for the 8bitdo meme and bought the ultimate bluetooth model. Includes a 2.4ghz dongle but gyro is locked behind bluetooth and the controller disconnects every 3 seconds using the dongle because of some shitty sleep mode they baked into the controller unless your actively in a game, have steam open, or fix it yourself with a systemd service. Once i get the steam controller this thing is going back in its chink box where it will rot.
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I've had 0 problems with it on my steam deck, I've had more problems with my bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Any chance your bluetooth RECIEVER kinda sucks? I believe I also have the 8bitdo ultimate that came out like 3 years ago maybe, and its worked flawlessly
 
Hooked on phobics said:
8bitdo is good quality
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My first experience with an 8BitDo was it failing to work even on a cable connection a month into owning it, not to mention how every button, bumper and trigger was all rattly. All because I was too cheap to get an XSX controller. Then I got an XSX controller and the build quality is incomparable, Microsoft actually gave a shit, and the ergonomics are definitely better on the XSX pad. At some point I encountered the Ultimate controller in a store and did a rudimentary quality check, had all the same loose button issues that the one I had a misfortune of using had.

8BitDo is a chink meme peddled by Nintendrones. They even do the chink upselling BS by smoothing out the thumbstick circularity in software to make it look more "premium" while the Xbox controller that's actually more premium doesn't give a shit because the sticks just work and a circularity test doesn't matter. You want an actual controller, get an Xbox controller and don't be a cheapskate. Or, you know, the Steam Controller once it's out and hopefully in the same price range.
 
Rust Troony said:
Fell for the 8bitdo meme
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Slav Power said:
My first experience with an 8BitDo was it failing to work even on a cable connection a month into owning it,
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What version did you get??? I got a "nintendo switch" version just because its what I grabbed, but works fine on deck, gyro is fine (or at least I hardly notice flaws) and under buttons worked ok.

Maybe the initial batch was ok but it went to shit later or something....Sorry you guys dealt with that. I'm not a fanboy of them (I only own the 1) but it worked just fine, and cheaper than a ps5 which also had gyro, which is why I got it.
 
Hooked on phobics said:
What version did you get??? I got a "nintendo switch" version just because its what I grabbed, but works fine on deck, gyro is fine (or at least I hardly notice flaws) and under buttons worked ok.

Maybe the initial batch was ok but it went to shit later or something....Sorry you guys dealt with that. I'm not a fanboy of them (I only own the 1) but it worked just fine, and cheaper than a ps5 which also had gyro, which is why I got it.
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I also got that version. Even on the latest firmware, Bluetooth seems to be the only way to use it without issues on Linux, and i don't want to have to buy a bluetooth adapter for my PC just for it. Steam controller will be coming with a 2.4ghz puck and will work out of the box without needing Bluetooth.
 
Hooked on phobics said:
What version did you get???
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Pro 2. At first it was all good, and then a month in, sudden connectivity issues I couldn't fix. Thankfully I managed to convince the seller to get a refund on it, but that, and then seeing that the Ultimate in the store had the same build quality issues have cemented my belief that 8BitDo is a trash brand of chinkshit gamepads meant to capitalize on Americans who never mentally left the 80's with their Nintendo cult.

I'd much rather get a Steam Controller and play all the emulated games on a modern gamepad, not giving a shit about "muh sovl" that 8BitDo constantly markets itself towards with gamepad replicas. And since Valve is going with the Deck approach of "sticks are right next to the D-pad/action buttons and not below/staggered" it will make for a good universal gamepad for games of all eras. At least, hopefully, since they've moved the sticks a little lower compared to Deck, they seem similar to the PS5 and it worries me that that'll fuck over the ergonomics.
 
Almighty Space Duck said:
It’s all going to come down to price, but I’m very tempted to get a base spec Steam Machine and upgrade the SSD and RAM myself.



My OLED has completely displaced my 3DS and Vita as portable emulation boxes, it is so good, especially the OLED just not lighting pixels when playing outside of the 16:10 aspect ratio. With the exception of TXR every other new game (with a price over a fiver) has come from the high seas in some way or another.
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I remember hearing from the Gamers Nexus video that the ram is soldered along with the CPU.
 
Slav Power said:
Then I got an XSX controller and the build quality is incomparable, Microsoft actually gave a shit, and the ergonomics are definitely better on the XSX pad.
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The Series X controller is very good but there's a lot of variance in build quality. My 20th anniversary controller feels absolutely perfect but the design labs one I got afterward doesn't feel quite as good. Same with their XB1 controllers, my Robot White one is excellent, but the Minecraft Creeper unit feels kinda cheap. They use different materials in different controller lines, including rubberizing some parts and not others. It's hard to nail down exactly what would be good and what wouldn't but whatever they're using for transparent plastic feels really nice.
Slav Power said:
8BitDo is a chink meme peddled by Nintendrones. They even do the chink upselling BS by smoothing out the thumbstick circularity in software to make it look more "premium" while the Xbox controller that's actually more premium doesn't give a shit because the sticks just work and a circularity test doesn't matter. You want an actual controller, get an Xbox controller and don't be a cheapskate. Or, you know, the Steam Controller once it's out and hopefully in the same price range.
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I own a lot of controllers across many different consoles (22 consoles, 4-5 each on average). 8BitDo controller quality varies a lot but they do make some good stuff and IMO they're one of the best 3rd party manufacturers. Their M30 controllers are excellent (one of their first non-clone controllers, inspired by SJ-6000 & HSS-0101, their knockoff Super Nintendo controllers are very nice, and as an aside their wireless adapters for vintage consoles and DIY kits are fantastic. I don't really like anything they've made with analog stick, even though it looks really nice I don't like the stick feel or placement on their "SN30 Pro for Android" which is confusingly an Xbox branded SNES clone controller with analogs bolted on, the more conventional "SN30 Pro" has the same analog issues.

If you're ranking controllers I'd put the Series X and Switch Pro controllers at top tier personally for all rounders for modern games, opting for Xbox layout on PC/Steam and Nintendo layout on Switch. But I'm very happy to swap out for any of a number of other options when it makes sense, a Switch Online SNES Controller is great for 2D game for ex.
 
Total Annihilation said:
I remember hearing from the Gamers Nexus video that the ram is soldered along with the CPU.
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Soggy Floppa said:
RAM is socketed sodimm
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Source: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/1088...able-but-not-where-its-wanted-most/index.html
When discussing the design, Gamers Nexus shows that, by disassembling the Steam Machine, users can upgrade the system memory to SO-DIMM RAM sticks. However, they will likely be quite difficult to access, as SO-DIMM (laptop memory) sits flat on the motherboard and is likely located beneath the large heat sink. Additionally, Gamers Nexus said they aren't sure if it's one or two RAM sticks, but they can verify the RAM isn't soldered to the board.
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It's 100% likely to be two sticks, in order to get dual-channel memory. So Day 1 we'll see some people upgrade it to 128 GB for shits and giggles, since there are 64 GB SODIMM modules now.

Unfortunately, since RAM prices shot up to around $6-7/GB, it will cost a fortune to upgrade. A Crucial 2x64GB kit is $750 right now, at a reasonable $5.86/GB.

A lot of games will be fine with 16 GB RAM, with 8 GB VRAM being the greater bottleneck. But there's a potential to improve it by adding 2x12GB or 2x16GB you happen to have.
 
Slav Power said:
Here's the thing: no one is coming to save you. You either save yourself now or suffer. Look into WinUtil. Look into Bazzite/Nobara/CachyOS. Learn something new. Do something yourself. No one is going to cut out all this work for you. Unless you buy the Steam Machine that is, then you'll get SteamOS out of the box.
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I mean Valve literally did come to save us from Microsoft. You wouldn't be able to use Bazzite/Nobara/CachyOS for gaming without Proton, and Valve did it in such a way that you can use Proton without Steam.
 
Duane Dibbley said:
The comparisons between steambox v1 and gabecube aren't apples to apples.

When the first steambox launches, Xbox was DAO and PS4 owned the market. Say what you want about sony but the cheap, discreet little box of the PS4 had quality exclusives on it.

Fast forward to today or 2026, and Xbox is dead, their next console will cost $1499 - according to Sarah Bond, and Sony are pushing their exclusives games on to PC while expecting you to pay for hardware that they bump the price up on every year, with dwindling games or reasons to play.

Nintendo are always Nintendo and will always be Nintendo and the big 3 are now Big1 ; Nintendo and 2 minnows squabbling about over scraps and PC.

Is Valve are clever and put the gabecube on store shelves for next Christmas, normies will see a shiny new toy to buy and it's goodnight vienna for both Microsoft and Sony. Sure, it won't kill Sony overnight, they're doing a good job of killing themselves, but it's competition that neither Sony nor Microsoft can counteract.

Sony and MS have, for two generations, played down the importance of exclusives and how "play anywhere" is the best option. Why then, would the average normie buy a PS5 to only play the two exclusives per generation, when they can buy a gabecube and play Xbox, PS and PC games on it?

If Valve are really smart, they will have HL3 (lol) ready to drop next year, or VR remakes of their old classics with updated graphics to relaunch alongside this.
Left4Dead used to be hugely popular back in the day.

Selling this thing for the same price of a console but emphasising on the free online play would be a smart move. And, after five years it pays for itself vs the £120/year PSN/XBL costs.

This could be a real game changer in the industry and I welcome it. Fuck Microsoft and Fuck Sony.
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Speaking of remakes, did the HL1 update they pushed out a few years back for the Steam Deck do all that much? Last time I played, something about the audio felt vaguely fucked and I was wondering if that helped at all.
 
Duane Dibbley said:
I had no idea that they had updated it. I hope they do a full VR remake of all HL's for the steambox and frame. It's been a while since I played them.
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I really hope so. The Steam Frame would be the perfect thing for it, considering it's a self-contained machine and those games aren't resource intensive whatsoever by today's standards, would be a great demo for their FEX translation layer IMO.
 
I’m starting to see people on youtube schitzoposting about Source 2 dataminers and how things in that shit point to Half Life 3. Have they done this for awhile or did the hardware stuff get everyone freaking out that badly?
 
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