Valve's Steam Deck

[laggyteabag]

Long rumoured, but just announced.

Steam Deck Is Valve's Portable Steam Machine, Launching in December

Valve’s portable gaming device, the Steam Deck, is real, and it’s launching in December, allowing you to access your entire Steam library.

www.escapistmagazine.com

Steam Deck :: Hardware

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

A Switch-style PC, by Valve themselves. And at a very reasonable price, no less.

Personally, I couldn't be more excited.

I think this looks amazing, and definitely fills the void of what I was hoping for, from the supposed Switch Pro.

Im interested to see what the performance is like, but I can definitely see the potential.

 

[Aiddon]

Okay. They're releasing hardware. With an iffy hardware history. During a chip shortage. And...

-Looks at the mountain of skulls outside of Nintendo's handheld castle-

Good luck with that

 

[CriticalGaming]

It looks like it has enough power to actually be pretty decent to be honest. And the pricing isn't unreasonable. So this seems like a good move. But then again....it's valve and I don't know anyone that uses their shit anymore.

How many Steam Controller users we got here?

 

[CaitSeith]

So they are going to do a second attempt on the Steam console thing, aren't they? Good luck...

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Holy shit that button layout really looks like the most uncomfortable thing. and unlike the switch, you can't get a custom controller for the handheld mode (luckily you have plenty of options for Dock mode). It's weird since valve is okay with customization but they didn't allow you to which out the handheld controller for the thing.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Holy shit that button layout really looks like the most uncomfortable thing. and unlike the switch, you can't get a custom controller for the handheld mode (luckily you have plenty of options for Dock mode). It's weird since valve is okay with customization but they didn't allow you to which out the handheld controller for the thing.

It looks like a Sega Game Gear.

 

[Worgen]

Looks pretty cool, might get it at some point, but I already have a couple laptops for portable gaming. So... its neat but probably not worth it for me.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Looks promising, actually. And it is a great idea that I always wanted to see realized. This thing seems decently powerful, and you get your entire Steam library to play with so it's not like you'll be starved for games when it's out.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

It looks like it has enough power to actually be pretty decent to be honest. And the pricing isn't unreasonable. So this seems like a good move. But then again....it's valve and I don't know anyone that uses their shit anymore.

How many Steam Controller users we got here?

Looks promising, actually. And it is a great idea that I always wanted to see realized. This thing seems decently powerful, and you get your entire Steam library to play with so it's not like you'll be starved for games when it's out.

Basically this?

 

[Chimpzy]

Cool. Tho if I got one, I'm not sure I'd be keen on playing with my Deck in public. No doubt some Karen will come demanding I let her entitled brat have a turn on my Deck.

Spoiler: fyi, the above is just a dumb joke

 

[BrawlMan]

Cool. Tho if I got one, I'm not sure I'd be keen on playing with my Deck in public. No doubt some Karen will come demanding I let her entitled brat have a turn on my Deck.

Seriously, are Karens' getting to that point now? I know if I had a deck, I wouldn't take it out in public regardless, let alone to let their brats play. Especially when they didn't pay for a God damn thing. Similar to the switch, if I ever bought one, I don't want to risk it getting stolen. The only time it's going to leave my home is if I'm going over my brother's.

 

[meiam]

They abandonned they're previous attempt at making console almost immidiatly, but at least in this case it's offering a unique niche rather than just being the worse of both a console and a PC. Battery life is going to be the big issue me think, I'm guessing 3 hours.

 

[CriticalGaming]

They abandonned they're previous attempt at making console almost immidiatly, but at least in this case it's offering a unique niche rather than just being the worse of both a console and a PC. Battery life is going to be the big issue me think, I'm guessing 3 hours.

It says about 3 hours in the article. Which isnt much worse than the switch depending on the game. There are performance options apparently that will increase battery life though.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Don't care for it, same way I don't care for the switch's mobility. I don't like handhelds really. I played my gameboy advance a fair bit when I was a kid, but as an adult handheld games do nothing for me. I bought a 3ds and I think I've played it less than 10 hours total.

I don't need mobile gaming, and if I owned a switch I'd only play it docked anyway. I'd rather Nintendo just release a "docked only" switch, sort of like when they released a 2ds version of the 3ds that didn't fold. Get rid of the screen, I don't want or need that, get rid of the battery, get rid of the joycons and ship it with a proper controller, give it much better cooling, and drop the price.

 

[Chimpzy]

Seriously, are Karens' getting to that point now? I know if I had a deck, I wouldn't take it out in public regardless, let alone to let their brats play. Especially when they didn't pay for a God damn thing. Similar to the switch, if I ever bought one, I don't want to risk it getting stolen. The only time it's going to leave my home is if I'm going over my brother's.

They have been known to do that, yes, but I was really just making a crass joke, cuz deck can be made to sound like dick. Quod erat demonstrandum:

 

[Gordon_4]

Don't care for it, same way I don't care for the switch's mobility. I don't like handhelds really. I played my gameboy advance a fair bit when I was a kid, but as an adult handheld games do nothing for me. I bought a 3ds and I think I've played it less than 10 hours total.

I don't need mobile gaming, and if I owned a switch I'd only play it docked anyway. I'd rather Nintendo just release a "docked only" switch, sort of like when they released a 2ds version of the 3ds that didn't fold. Get rid of the screen, I don't want or need that, get rid of the battery, get rid of the joycons and ship it with a proper controller, give it much better cooling, and drop the price.

So completely sacrifice the identity and concept they built the Switch around?

 

[laggyteabag]

So completely sacrifice the identity and concept they built the Switch around?

I suppose you could say that the Switch Lite is the same concept as what @Dirty Hipsters is saying, just the other way around.

The point of the Nintendo Switch, is that you can switch between docked and handheld games.

If the Switch Lite can get away with getting rid of the ability to dock the console in exchange for a cheaper price tag, I see no reason why Nintendo couldn't offer a docked-only device, for a similar price.

So long as each version of the Switch can play the same games, I don't have a problem with giving people options.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Looking at the Game Deck specs .

CPU: AMD Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)
APU power: 4-15W
RAM 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s)

Looking at even the top end £569.00 one (UK price) that's better than most gaming laptops for the price.

Hell that's better than my present laptop (an old mid range one I do game on) and on par with or better than the one I was considering getting eventually as my next upgrade.

It looks like it has enough power to actually be pretty decent to be honest. And the pricing isn't unreasonable. So this seems like a good move. But then again....it's valve and I don't know anyone that uses their shit anymore.

How many Steam Controller users we got here?

I have a steam controller but it's more for certain older games that don't have Xbox controller compatibility. Also I once used it as a remote control while watching stuff on streaming. Oh and as a controller to try playing a few games on my Fire TV.

Cool. Tho if I got one, I'm not sure I'd be keen on playing with my Deck in public. No doubt some Karen will come demanding I let her entitled brat have a turn on my Deck.

Are people really like that with handheld stuff?

 

[laggyteabag]

Looking at the Game Deck specs .

Looking at even the top end £569.00 one (UK price) that's better than most gaming laptops for the price.

Hell that's better than my present laptop (an old mid range one I do game on) and on par with or better than the one I was considering getting eventually as my next upgrade.

This is the benefit of a software company, selling hardware.

They can afford to sell you the hardware at a loss, if they can make a profit on the additional software they sell you. This is why consoles are almost always hilariously cheap compared to similarly spec'd PCs.

Provided the Steam Deck is actually any good, I think this is going to be huge.

 

[Satinavian]

How many Steam Controller users we got here?

I have one and am quite happy with it. Is there any better controller to put into your PC to play console ports around ?