I have to say I'm very happy with it for the price I paid. Could it be better, sure, I wish the screen was better but I'm still very happy with it. I actually bought it on a lark because I'm 49 and I never really hand held gamed. Never got in to it beyond the beep-boop led games of the 70s/80s with boring family road trips. I watched many hand held platforms come and go and never could get in to using them. Always preferred the laptop, probably because with having a game thing I always needed my laptop.
When I would travel I carry a work laptop and a personal laptop and... Then lugging around another device, no thanks... Then that changed with the steam deck, my daughter mentioned it and I was like hell I have money to waste so I bought it. For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop... but one day I kicked it in to desktop mode to load some mods for a game. It dawned on me, I don't need a personal laptop anymore.
Now when I travel I carry my work laptop, my portable keyboard and monitor (which I always did anyway) and the steam deck with a dock. This perfect,less weight over all smaller form factor etc... Using the deck with the external monitor and keyboard let's me do everything I needed my personal laptop for, plus portable gaming. It goes everywhere with me now.
Could it be better, absolutely, but for the price I'm very happy with it. That's really how I evaluate things price for value. This is way more powerful than a similar priced laptop and more flexible.
you.. carry a monitor? how is a steam deck, a keyboard and a monitor better than just having a laptop? also how does the monitor survive this, do you put in in the original box?
Not OP but I guess they carry a portable monitor to use as a second screen for their work laptop. A usb-c powered 13inches portable monitor looks mostly like a tablet. It's very easy to bring with you.
It's not, the steamdeck subreddit is full of these people. But I think the Steam Deck overall is much more attractive than a gaming laptop, and once you get a Deck, you don't want to then reinvest into a laptop powerful enough to compete, and so you end up with weird setups like this.
See ThinkVision M15 or Arzopa Portable Monitor as an example for a portable monitor. Comes with a case that doubles as a stand, it's +1kg in your backpack but is great when you are at a desk.
I also don't understand how he would work on his lap/when no desk is available though.
I don't think the OP carries the monitor with them, but it's just an option at home. Kind of like you can plug Switch at home and get a TV-based console - you can plug the Deck and get a computer.
> For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop...
Same for me, I did never realize before that I wanted to play Grindstone while laying on the couch just being in the company of my SO, semi-watching the same TV show as she is, instead of being in another room.
That was the selling point for me. The Steam Deck lives next to my chair in the den so when I want to play a game I'm up in the family room with everyone else. It's super convenient.
We actually have two, one for me and one for my son (though he has a gaming laptop and tends to use that).
I've docked the deck and played games just fine on it as well, no regrets here, I love the thing.
Valve is a pretty amazing company that consistently innovates and makes long-term, strategic decisions. Its a real model for a great tech company. Its unique capital and management structure has insulated it from any real competition. Companies like EA have to constantly turn a profit, cut corners where they can, and think in very short timeframes. Valve is completely private, with mostly (if not complete), owner/manager ownership. There's no managerial hierarchies. Ideas are both welcome and constantly challenged. If it was a public company we would likely see Google-like growth since its inception.
Linux-based gaming became a focus for the company for at least the past ten years. Steam Deck is the culmination of a focused, persistent strategy--the type most highly leveraged, public companies with unreasonable growth requirements are completely incapable of facilitating.
Valve is cool, but they're only able to afford this style of development because they take a 30% cut of all PC gaming revenue. Not profits, revenue. When you're making that much money you can do whatever you want and still stay afloat. They've mismanaged some games (Dota 2), abandoned other games (TF2) and completely messed up other games (Artifact 1 and 2).
They have my loyalty as a consumer because they've treated me right. But let's not pretend that their success is tied to their culture or that the culture would work elsewhere. I reckon you could do anything and be successful if you had Steam's revenue rolling in.
It's not like they have some artificial monopoly though. Developers put their games on Steam (well, some do) because Valve has a huge audience. Valve's audience exists because Steam is a good client and has excellent features, and places the consumer first. Valve has no artificial monopoly, does nothing to keep people on their platform, refuses to even do things like sign exclusivity agreements, and the past decade have seen multiple big publishers (EA, Ubisoft) and developers leave to start their own thing, and then ultimately come back, because they couldn't do as good of a job. It isn't like Apple or Google where you can't be on the platform (phones) without paying a tax. And in the case where Valve actually controls the platform (SteamOS 3), they do nothing to stop other stores from being on it. I can still buy games on GoG, and install and play them on SteamOS. I just choose not to because GoG won't invest in making it as good of an experience.
Valve's 30% is well earned, not forced. There's nothing forcing me to buy the next game I buy from Valve, other than that I want to. And they have made me want to by offering an incredible product.
>I reckon you could do anything and be successful if you had Steam's revenue rolling in.
I disagree completely. Most people in a company like that would completely take advantage of the monopoly they have and make everything miserable as hell for the end user.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything else over the past 20 years that hasn't sold out or been turned to utter trash in one way or another. Steam continues to be absolutely top notch. They have essentially lowered the price of all PC games over the years and added great features like family sharing etc. It just works. It's not some convoluted garbage interface that they try to keep updating every year to stay up with the pace of "modern design". They don't bombard you with crap when you aren't using steam, you don't get random pop ups (like Epic games...) and all that.
Anyway- I get what you are saying. Obviously they have some massive revenue to work with.. but I don't think it's as easy as you think to stay successful in the way they have to the end user.
EA and Activision are a great counter-example of how "you could do anything" with revenue can vary from company to company. I think Valve's success being tied to their culture is pretty easy to prove, since as you say "they have my loyalty". How many other gaming platforms have done the same (particularly those aged 25< years)? I'm sure developers would love to pay less than 30%, but how is that cost compare to Valve's competitors? Valve is a for-profit venture and make their decisions based on the current economic environment.
Steam is just a better product, period. It does not spy or beg for your defaults like Windows. The review system is great, downloads are fast, and the community is awesome. No other platfrom provides this.
• Hardware is good enough and that's perfectly fine
• It's repairable and can be easily opened
• Software is open which is increasingly rare there days
• Ability to play on TV, on couch (with headphones) and on monitor with keyboard/mouse is awesome
• Being able to play old games is great (I finally finished Assasin's Creed 2)
• It's still a PC where I can switch to Linux Desktop and tinker with stuff
• Battery life isn't the best but I almost always have power source near me
• Valve did awesome job with handling controls in games with Community layouts etc
• I finally found sense in USB-C where I switch between Deck and Macbook with a single cable
• Hacker community is vibrant
• It's an emulation heaven :)
Me too! It's the handheld gaming device I dreamed about when I was a kid. It's become my favorite platform, especially considering I don't game as much as I used to. It's perfect for a quick pick-up-and-play. I stopped using my PS5 last year, and the one time I did, I used remote play (chiaki) on the Steam Deck. And if I'm playing something that my kids want to watch, I can cast the screen to the TV via steam link. None of the other big companies will ever be able to produce something like this, especially with all the tweaks that can be made.
I need Thunderbolt! I don't hook up my Deck because my desk is built around a TB3 dock. That and USB-C at 4k 60hz isn't a given. Not that I'd run games at that resolution but it's sure nice for desktop mode.
The next generation of gaming platforms is really going to be heated. We basically have two philosophies in the field now. The Switch and the Steam Deck sacrifice high end hardware for portability and versatility. The PS5 and XSX are about as portable as a LAN party, but can theoretically push 4k@120hz for the cost of a graphics card.
Is there room for everyone next gen? Each of Valve, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the expertise to field a machine serving one or both philosophies. But I don't think the customer base is there to support so many consoles. Which configurations will we see?
Is the next Switch as popular when the indie games can release on the much more open Steam Deck instead? Will Microsoft choose to compete with Sony, or with Valve? They've always been after Sony's market, but Steam Deck puts them on defense.
Steam deck is an extension of the already existing PC gaming market. I suspect that almost all Steam Deck owners already have a PC they game on. Steam Deck just makes it so those PC gamers will care if a game runs well on Linux.
The point isn’t to take over the console market but to defend the PC gaming market from console exclusivity and Steam itself from e.g. Microsoft Store
I dont pc game. I dont have space for a giant tower, etc. My main computer is a laptop (x1 carbon). The steamdeck allows me to enjoy all the awesome pc games, stores in a drawer, its portable if i want it to, and i dont need 4k 1000fps, 1080p and 30 to 60fps is plenty to single play with q screen on my couch. I am not a professional gamer, i dont need a full desk worth of gear. I am also busy, its nice not to worry about hardware, just plug and play (i did upgrade the ssd myself though). Its a great device.
I'm considering getting rid of my PC in favor of just gaming on my Steam Deck no matter where I am. If they somehow figure out how to create a dock with an external GPU then I'd 100% buy it and sell my PC since I need to play some games on low to medium setting when I want to play at 1080 to 1440.
>I suspect that almost all Steam Deck owners already have a PC they game on.
I don’t know if I’m in the minority or not, but I have never owned a gaming PC, and have not had a console since I was a teenager with an Xbox 360. I’m now 30, and I bought the Steam Deck precisely because of its portability.
That was initially the case for SteamOS/Steam Machines, but the MS Store has been a _resounding_ failure in the gaming market. It's use is largely limited to PC Game Pass subscribers, who use it as the download backend for the Xbox app (which is the primary interface for installing/managing games).
If anything, it's a way for Valve to hedge against streaming platforms.
I think while Steam Deck is an extension of PC gaming market, but more specifically an extension of this market to wannabe casual PC gamers. There is just nothing out there that beats mouse and keyboard for more competitive sessions of dota, csgo, starcraft. For a very long time a €1000/$1000 nominal would buy a rather capable PC gaming rig. Then cryptocoins happened and suddenly it was 1k for graphics card alone.
I guess the target audience is those previously gamers with an extensive collection of games to play "someday" who now have kids that would like something to game on. The deck fills this market very nicely and Switch has already paved the initial road.
It’s important to recognize that while the Steam deck is awesome, it’s sold 1 million compared to the 100 million of the Switch. Nintendo has massive name recognition and exclusives of course, but also price. The cheapest Steam Deck is 400 dollars, whereas the Switch is 300. For people who don’t already have big steam libraries and don’t care about open hardware, the Switch is where they’re going to go for a mobile console.
Then Sony and Xbox compete on exclusives but ultimately I think there’s room for everyone in the space regardless. Gaming is probably the most lucrative entertainment sector at this point, and mobile gaming hasn’t eaten console gaming yet. A generation or two more from the next one…harder to say.
The price argument is completely reversed if you factor in that you need to buy games to play. Nintendo games prices are horrendous even for very patient gamers while Steam has big discounts on the regular. The same game on Switch vs Deck will routinely be 4-5x more expensive.
Hasn't console gaming always outperformed PC gaming marketshare?
I'm not sure people even really compare costs for videogames. If they did, they'd notice that everytime you buy a new Nintendo system, you have to re-purchase all of your old games if you want to run them on the new platform. You don't have the same problem with PC games.
I'm finding that even 10+ year old PC games are still enjoyable today. Maybe more so than originally because my own hardware has advanced and I can pump up the graphics quite a bit. My back catalog of games in Steam isn't something you get from traditional console makers.
Sony used to have hardware and software for this, as you could cross-buy a title for a PlayStation 4 and a PlayStation Vita, and then sync the save data through the cloud. Unfortunately Sony abandoned the handheld gaming market just before the Switch and Steam Deck blew it up.
>but can theoretically push 4k@120hz for the cost of a graphics card.
While a desktop computer can't get anywhere near that price range for similar performance (because, other than Intel ARC, video card prices are still ridiculous across the board...), the cost of a decently performant desktop computer actually isn't as high as most would think if you just use low- to mid-tier hardware instead of going for the high-end stuff.
Anyway, as far as the question of market share space: It's still the same players, with the small addition of Valve potentially carving a niche for itself. Sony hasn't delved into mobile since the PS Vita, and Microsoft has flat out never bothered with mobile gaming. As for Nintendo, they'll do Nintendo things as they always do.
There is a third category worth considering and that’s cloud gaming with a thin client.
Since January GeForce now supports 4k@120 and the hardware required to render that is probably going to be much less than the next gen kind of switch will have. I would not be surprised to see tv sticks + controller given away for basically free. Like stadia but properly this time.
It won’t be for everyone and I have no idea how quick they can scale this but it’s nonetheless an interesting development.
Currently there’s a bit of a hybrid thing going on with ideas that combine cloud gaming with Xbox or PlayStation but here the consumer still has to pay for more hardware than necessary for streaming only
I think there is enough room for each. The switch basically exists because there is no reason not to have a portable form factor if your console is going to be so underpowered (compared to Xbox, PlayStation).
Both Nintendo/Sony sold ~3x more than Microsoft last month
Steam Deck numbers are nothing compared to what these 3 are selling, if i remember correctly, it was 1 million reservations total for a whole year, that sounds like a flop to my book when you compare with the 3 existing players
I think next gen we'll see Sony getting back into the handheld market, Nintendo coming up with a second version, and Microsoft coming up with a cloud stick
Microsoft doubling down on cloud gaming might kill their Xbox brand, it's too early for that, they'll miss the handheld market just like they missed the smartphone era
It would be a flop for a traditional console, but the Steam Deck isn't a console, it's a PC. The reason that consoles need massive sales is because consoles have a limited repertoire of games (at best, they might be backwards-compatible with the previous-generation console), so they need large sales to demonstrate an install base and convince developers to make games for the platform. But if you're compatible with PC software, you don't care about that. Valve doesn't need to entice anyone to make PC games; the install base for the Steam Deck is the entire PC market. And with the help of emulators, a PC has access to multiple orders of magnitude more games than any existing console.
So the metric for success for the Steam Deck isn't to compare it to a console, rather it's to compare it to other specific PC form factors (e.g. a specific model of laptop).
Flop is a strong word. I think they sold 1M in ~6 months, with a lot of supply side constraint. That being said, I they're nowhere near the tens of millions of Switches sold last year. But I don't think Valve was trying to. They've done very little advertising, you can only buy it through the Steam store, and (I own one by the way) it feels a bit like it's still aimed mainly at the enthusiast crowd right now. Then again, it was the top selling item in the Steam store for most weeks since launch.
My take is that Valve is using the early adopter crowd to help iron out the kinks (of which there were many at launch) and will then push harder later. Whether later means later in this console's lifetime, or in a few years with a new iteration I'm not sure.
Sony building a Switch competitor for the next generation, in addition to a PlayStation 6? That sounds very unlikely to me. With the Switch form factor, it would have to be a lot closer to the PlayStation 6 than the small PSP was to the PlayStation 3. I don't think Sony wants to have two similar consoles on the market; they would compete with themselves. And the memories of the PSVita misfortune will deter them further.
No, I think they just do an ordinary PS6 and nothing else. They could, theoretically, make the PS6 itself a hybrid like the Switch, but that would be a really bad strategy, since they'd give up their stationary dominance to Microsoft just to compete with a market where Nintendo is dominant.
Microsoft is definitely pivoting towards making most of their money from their subscription game pass, with the idea that even if their consoles do sub-par they can also gain money from PC users and try and eat into Steam’s market share. Given how many game studios they’ve been buying, I don’t know whether it’s smart to bet against them (even considering their spotty history with studio acquisition).
While I have a hard time imagining Sony making another play at the handheld market after two failures, maybe they’ll realize that if they actually market it well and don’t use weird non-standard hardware like the PSP’s did they’d stand a better chance.
I'm catching up on the last 20 years of gaming I've missed for not having a Windows machine :) Bonus points for most of the old games being super cheap now.
I'm really happy with mine. Games just work, no tweaking or weird configurations necessary, gamepads and other controller schemes work well, and; it's running Linux in the back! Once you configure something like Syncthing in desktop mode, it carries on working in the regular console mode.
I really can't say enough good things about it, but one thing I'm wary of is the DRM stuff Steam uses. Never had a problem with it, but my Switch doesn't need to phone home to believe I own the games I've bought, and it worries me that even the "offline mode" needs to check-in every three weeks :/
Steam doesn't require DRM, some games purchased on steam can be run without steam running.
Valve provides a very simple (and easy to bypass) DRM which many games on steam use, this is likely what you're referring to.
Other games use third party DRM such as Denuvo which is hard to bypass and generally hated (can cause performance issues). These games have warnings on the store page.
Ultimately Steam had (has?) a monopoly on the PC distribution market and didn't really take advantage of it to do anything anti-consumer (instead this period introduced a number of prosumer changes like refunds) so while it is a company it's one I trust more than most.
The worst part about the Steam Deck is Steam; I'm eagerly looking forward to some more general Linux communities building alternative OS setups in the future, although Steam Input still doesn't seem to have a good Open Source alternative.
Aside from that, the device is fantastic, I have very few complaints. The portable form-factor is transformative for a lot of older PC games, it's an emulation powerhouse, gyro controls make first-person shooters actually playable (which was my big concern with not having a mouse). It's repairable, it's running Linux.
I don't know if I would recommend it for everyone, but it's pretty much the perfect console for me (or will be if I ever figure out how to replicate the OS experience without Steam).
When you're catching up on all the games you couldn't even consider before, a bonus side effect is all the chaff has gone through the sift of time ;) So there are many games that got struck off my list as time went on.
The only ones that remained, I bought, and were actually _good_: Uncharted, Resident Evil 2 (Remake), South Park The Stick of Truth.
Ones I bought still thinking they should be good, and was disappointed: Horizon Zero Dawn, Borderlands 3, Brutal Legend, Yakuza 0, Metal Gear Rising. They're not bad games, just not worth my very limited time. I probably would have loved them when I was younger though.
I love mine. It's rekindled my interest in PC gaming. Previously I was buying games I had on Steam to play on Switch and now I've started to do the opposite. The fact that suspend works is amazing. Often just alt-tabbing or accidentally hitting the Windows key would cause a game to be unrecoverable in Windows, let alone sleep but it just works. It's really easy to customize controls PER GAME which is awesome when the devs do something dumb and only let you A&B to jump and attack and not A&X.
Its also pretty good as a mini PC when paired with a dock.
That said it's still a PC and you will occasionally run into little foibles. Docking is not as smooth as a Switch, at least with my monitor the resolution isn't quite right when plugging in and I have to quit to get it to use the whole thing. Sometimes there will be minor issues even in verified games like them not actually using the correct controller layout or occasionally borked sound on resume for whatever reason. But still, it's great. Favorite PC by a mile even if my desktop will curb stomp it visually.
I like mine as well I’ve used it a quite a bit and it works great after my first one had some battery life issues. I contacted support tried a bunch of things to no avail. But they got me a working one in short order.
Minor issues is that it could use a usb a port. One of the things I tried was reinstalling the os from a usb stick for my initial battery issue..
The screen is great. The software sometime asked me how the game experience was as its running under wine/proton.
There is https://www.protondb.com/ for compatability checks but steam now lists games that “run great on the deck” which means new ones will probably test on it. There is a plug-in I was told about that integrates those scores into the steam software.
The screen is great except for board games which benefit from screen size, but it’s a portable.
Overall a great device, especially if you have a stash of steam games you got and been meaning to play..
I had zero expectations for the Steam Deck and thought it was underpowered and silly when it was first announced. Boy was I wrong - I ended up buying it on a whim and I've gotten a ton of use out of it. I played through multiple AAA games that came out just last year on it on vacation without wanting to tear my hair out, and the installation workflow is near perfect. Valve has finally made Linux a console experience.
it makes a lot of sense actually, the problem with desktop linux is the GUI. and windows compatibility/similarity, exchange of data (word, etc), user preferences.
the problem with games is only windows compatibility. nothing else matters. valve has been attacking that problem head on with proton and financing wine development. GUI or data issues, or user preferences don't matter. Steam is the same on both, the games are the same too, and more and more of them run on proton/linux. Steam users can switch from windows to linux without noticing any difference whatsoever. desktop users can't.
It’s the best gaming system I’ve owned and the one I’ve enjoyed the most since the PSP. It’s big, but I love the form factor.
Quite literally the last thing I want to do after work is sit at my desk and the with Deck I don’t have to. It’s not as much of a commitment and it’s easier to pick up for ten minutes and then put down.
Graphics? Doesn’t matter to me, it’s good enough and being able to use it in the hammock in my backyard is more important. Most of what I play on it is ps2/1 games anyway and it runs them perfectly.
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When I would travel I carry a work laptop and a personal laptop and... Then lugging around another device, no thanks... Then that changed with the steam deck, my daughter mentioned it and I was like hell I have money to waste so I bought it. For the first few months I didn't do much with it. Kind of shrugged and continued to use my laptop... but one day I kicked it in to desktop mode to load some mods for a game. It dawned on me, I don't need a personal laptop anymore.
Now when I travel I carry my work laptop, my portable keyboard and monitor (which I always did anyway) and the steam deck with a dock. This perfect,less weight over all smaller form factor etc... Using the deck with the external monitor and keyboard let's me do everything I needed my personal laptop for, plus portable gaming. It goes everywhere with me now.
Could it be better, absolutely, but for the price I'm very happy with it. That's really how I evaluate things price for value. This is way more powerful than a similar priced laptop and more flexible.
and if so, how big is your luggage? :)
I also don't understand how he would work on his lap/when no desk is available though.
Same for me, I did never realize before that I wanted to play Grindstone while laying on the couch just being in the company of my SO, semi-watching the same TV show as she is, instead of being in another room.
We actually have two, one for me and one for my son (though he has a gaming laptop and tends to use that).
I've docked the deck and played games just fine on it as well, no regrets here, I love the thing.
What about the GameBoy (my first and last handheld console)? From what I remember, Laptops back then were not really a thing.
[0] https://www.bigscreenvr.com/
Linux-based gaming became a focus for the company for at least the past ten years. Steam Deck is the culmination of a focused, persistent strategy--the type most highly leveraged, public companies with unreasonable growth requirements are completely incapable of facilitating.
They have my loyalty as a consumer because they've treated me right. But let's not pretend that their success is tied to their culture or that the culture would work elsewhere. I reckon you could do anything and be successful if you had Steam's revenue rolling in.
Valve's 30% is well earned, not forced. There's nothing forcing me to buy the next game I buy from Valve, other than that I want to. And they have made me want to by offering an incredible product.
I disagree completely. Most people in a company like that would completely take advantage of the monopoly they have and make everything miserable as hell for the end user.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything else over the past 20 years that hasn't sold out or been turned to utter trash in one way or another. Steam continues to be absolutely top notch. They have essentially lowered the price of all PC games over the years and added great features like family sharing etc. It just works. It's not some convoluted garbage interface that they try to keep updating every year to stay up with the pace of "modern design". They don't bombard you with crap when you aren't using steam, you don't get random pop ups (like Epic games...) and all that.
Anyway- I get what you are saying. Obviously they have some massive revenue to work with.. but I don't think it's as easy as you think to stay successful in the way they have to the end user.
• Hardware is good enough and that's perfectly fine • It's repairable and can be easily opened • Software is open which is increasingly rare there days • Ability to play on TV, on couch (with headphones) and on monitor with keyboard/mouse is awesome • Being able to play old games is great (I finally finished Assasin's Creed 2) • It's still a PC where I can switch to Linux Desktop and tinker with stuff • Battery life isn't the best but I almost always have power source near me • Valve did awesome job with handling controls in games with Community layouts etc • I finally found sense in USB-C where I switch between Deck and Macbook with a single cable • Hacker community is vibrant • It's an emulation heaven :)
Is there room for everyone next gen? Each of Valve, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the expertise to field a machine serving one or both philosophies. But I don't think the customer base is there to support so many consoles. Which configurations will we see?
Is the next Switch as popular when the indie games can release on the much more open Steam Deck instead? Will Microsoft choose to compete with Sony, or with Valve? They've always been after Sony's market, but Steam Deck puts them on defense.
The point isn’t to take over the console market but to defend the PC gaming market from console exclusivity and Steam itself from e.g. Microsoft Store
I don’t know if I’m in the minority or not, but I have never owned a gaming PC, and have not had a console since I was a teenager with an Xbox 360. I’m now 30, and I bought the Steam Deck precisely because of its portability.
That was initially the case for SteamOS/Steam Machines, but the MS Store has been a _resounding_ failure in the gaming market. It's use is largely limited to PC Game Pass subscribers, who use it as the download backend for the Xbox app (which is the primary interface for installing/managing games).
If anything, it's a way for Valve to hedge against streaming platforms.
I guess the target audience is those previously gamers with an extensive collection of games to play "someday" who now have kids that would like something to game on. The deck fills this market very nicely and Switch has already paved the initial road.
Then Sony and Xbox compete on exclusives but ultimately I think there’s room for everyone in the space regardless. Gaming is probably the most lucrative entertainment sector at this point, and mobile gaming hasn’t eaten console gaming yet. A generation or two more from the next one…harder to say.
The Switch's entry price is actually $200 for the Switch Lite. I think it's even had small discounts on occasion too.
I'm not sure people even really compare costs for videogames. If they did, they'd notice that everytime you buy a new Nintendo system, you have to re-purchase all of your old games if you want to run them on the new platform. You don't have the same problem with PC games.
I'm finding that even 10+ year old PC games are still enjoyable today. Maybe more so than originally because my own hardware has advanced and I can pump up the graphics quite a bit. My back catalog of games in Steam isn't something you get from traditional console makers.
It's the only ecosystem in the list where you can buy a game and have your progress synced between a performance device and a portable device.
Just a reminder that console streaming exists, which can work really well. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/consoles/remote-play
While a desktop computer can't get anywhere near that price range for similar performance (because, other than Intel ARC, video card prices are still ridiculous across the board...), the cost of a decently performant desktop computer actually isn't as high as most would think if you just use low- to mid-tier hardware instead of going for the high-end stuff.
Anyway, as far as the question of market share space: It's still the same players, with the small addition of Valve potentially carving a niche for itself. Sony hasn't delved into mobile since the PS Vita, and Microsoft has flat out never bothered with mobile gaming. As for Nintendo, they'll do Nintendo things as they always do.
Since January GeForce now supports 4k@120 and the hardware required to render that is probably going to be much less than the next gen kind of switch will have. I would not be surprised to see tv sticks + controller given away for basically free. Like stadia but properly this time.
It won’t be for everyone and I have no idea how quick they can scale this but it’s nonetheless an interesting development.
Currently there’s a bit of a hybrid thing going on with ideas that combine cloud gaming with Xbox or PlayStation but here the consumer still has to pay for more hardware than necessary for streaming only
Steam Deck numbers are nothing compared to what these 3 are selling, if i remember correctly, it was 1 million reservations total for a whole year, that sounds like a flop to my book when you compare with the 3 existing players
I think next gen we'll see Sony getting back into the handheld market, Nintendo coming up with a second version, and Microsoft coming up with a cloud stick
Microsoft doubling down on cloud gaming might kill their Xbox brand, it's too early for that, they'll miss the handheld market just like they missed the smartphone era
https://www.vgchartz.com/
It would be a flop for a traditional console, but the Steam Deck isn't a console, it's a PC. The reason that consoles need massive sales is because consoles have a limited repertoire of games (at best, they might be backwards-compatible with the previous-generation console), so they need large sales to demonstrate an install base and convince developers to make games for the platform. But if you're compatible with PC software, you don't care about that. Valve doesn't need to entice anyone to make PC games; the install base for the Steam Deck is the entire PC market. And with the help of emulators, a PC has access to multiple orders of magnitude more games than any existing console.
So the metric for success for the Steam Deck isn't to compare it to a console, rather it's to compare it to other specific PC form factors (e.g. a specific model of laptop).
My take is that Valve is using the early adopter crowd to help iron out the kinks (of which there were many at launch) and will then push harder later. Whether later means later in this console's lifetime, or in a few years with a new iteration I'm not sure.
No, I think they just do an ordinary PS6 and nothing else. They could, theoretically, make the PS6 itself a hybrid like the Switch, but that would be a really bad strategy, since they'd give up their stationary dominance to Microsoft just to compete with a market where Nintendo is dominant.
While I have a hard time imagining Sony making another play at the handheld market after two failures, maybe they’ll realize that if they actually market it well and don’t use weird non-standard hardware like the PSP’s did they’d stand a better chance.
I'm really happy with mine. Games just work, no tweaking or weird configurations necessary, gamepads and other controller schemes work well, and; it's running Linux in the back! Once you configure something like Syncthing in desktop mode, it carries on working in the regular console mode.
I really can't say enough good things about it, but one thing I'm wary of is the DRM stuff Steam uses. Never had a problem with it, but my Switch doesn't need to phone home to believe I own the games I've bought, and it worries me that even the "offline mode" needs to check-in every three weeks :/
Valve provides a very simple (and easy to bypass) DRM which many games on steam use, this is likely what you're referring to.
Other games use third party DRM such as Denuvo which is hard to bypass and generally hated (can cause performance issues). These games have warnings on the store page.
Ultimately Steam had (has?) a monopoly on the PC distribution market and didn't really take advantage of it to do anything anti-consumer (instead this period introduced a number of prosumer changes like refunds) so while it is a company it's one I trust more than most.
Aside from that, the device is fantastic, I have very few complaints. The portable form-factor is transformative for a lot of older PC games, it's an emulation powerhouse, gyro controls make first-person shooters actually playable (which was my big concern with not having a mouse). It's repairable, it's running Linux.
I don't know if I would recommend it for everyone, but it's pretty much the perfect console for me (or will be if I ever figure out how to replicate the OS experience without Steam).
What are your top 10 games that you have caught up on so far? (please exclude any recent blockbusters from this list)
The only ones that remained, I bought, and were actually _good_: Uncharted, Resident Evil 2 (Remake), South Park The Stick of Truth.
Ones I bought still thinking they should be good, and was disappointed: Horizon Zero Dawn, Borderlands 3, Brutal Legend, Yakuza 0, Metal Gear Rising. They're not bad games, just not worth my very limited time. I probably would have loved them when I was younger though.
However once your Switch _can_ connect to the internet Nintendo can just erase all your games.
Its also pretty good as a mini PC when paired with a dock.
That said it's still a PC and you will occasionally run into little foibles. Docking is not as smooth as a Switch, at least with my monitor the resolution isn't quite right when plugging in and I have to quit to get it to use the whole thing. Sometimes there will be minor issues even in verified games like them not actually using the correct controller layout or occasionally borked sound on resume for whatever reason. But still, it's great. Favorite PC by a mile even if my desktop will curb stomp it visually.
Minor issues is that it could use a usb a port. One of the things I tried was reinstalling the os from a usb stick for my initial battery issue..
The screen is great. The software sometime asked me how the game experience was as its running under wine/proton. There is https://www.protondb.com/ for compatability checks but steam now lists games that “run great on the deck” which means new ones will probably test on it. There is a plug-in I was told about that integrates those scores into the steam software.
The screen is great except for board games which benefit from screen size, but it’s a portable.
Overall a great device, especially if you have a stash of steam games you got and been meaning to play..
the problem with games is only windows compatibility. nothing else matters. valve has been attacking that problem head on with proton and financing wine development. GUI or data issues, or user preferences don't matter. Steam is the same on both, the games are the same too, and more and more of them run on proton/linux. Steam users can switch from windows to linux without noticing any difference whatsoever. desktop users can't.
Quite literally the last thing I want to do after work is sit at my desk and the with Deck I don’t have to. It’s not as much of a commitment and it’s easier to pick up for ten minutes and then put down.
Graphics? Doesn’t matter to me, it’s good enough and being able to use it in the hammock in my backyard is more important. Most of what I play on it is ps2/1 games anyway and it runs them perfectly.