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Valve Steam Deck

• jbverschoor 5y ago
  Does it run the Epic store?
  • ihuman 5y ago
    You can if you install windows, or somehow get it running on linux
  • peterlopen 5y ago
    it is possible to run Epic game store using lutris: https://lutris.net/games/epic-games-store/ https://lutris.net/games/epic-games-store/ There is also alternative launcher: https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher some games need more tinkering to run as versions in epic store seems to be less linux friendly
• mankyd 5y ago
  What os does it run? And the more important follow up: what games can it therefore run? I _assume_ it's linux, but that must limit the games to protondb and linux compatible games which, speaking from a lot of experience, misses quite a few.
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  • dillon 5y ago
    If you click to the site and go to the Software tab it talks about it being SteamOS with Proton etc.
• caslon 5y ago
  First impressions: Really good hardware for the price. They fixed the worst thing about SteamOS: It's now got an Arch base. They're definitely overcharging for storage, but I imagine it'll be easy enough to modify one, so it probably doesn't matter much. Why is any company having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 these days? Going with a relatively low resolution compared to modern ones is actually a surprisingly smart move, given how small the display is.
  • NegativeLatency 5y ago
    USB 2 on a mobile device might be for limiting power consumption?
    • caslon 5y ago
      Nope, it's on the dock. One USB-3, two USB-2. There's no power consumption reason for the dock.
      • mikepurvis 5y ago
        Internally, it might be a single USB 3 interface routed to a hub chip that breaks out one USB 3 and dual USB 2, or maybe even three with one of them going to a GPIO controller or some other random peripheral.
    • ukd1 5y ago
      USB 3/C has really fine grain power control - using "PD" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#USB_Power_Delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#USB_Power_Deliver...), it's possible to negotiate the rates pretty finely - so I don't think it's that.
      • NegativeLatency 5y ago
        I meant that there’s probably a usb 2 controller with lower power draw reqs compared to a usb 3 controller, but I now see that the ports are on the dock like others said.
      • LeifCarrotson 5y ago
        In a mobile device, it's not necessarily about the power delivered over the Vbus wire, but about the energy required for the transceiver and serdes logic in the controller. USB 1.0 "low speed" had a clock of 1.5 MHz, and USB 1.1 "full speed" is clocked at 12 MHz. You can communicate at that frequency with a microcontroller on an ancient process node on a coin cell. USB 2.0 "high speed" runs at 480 MHz. Running a processor at that frequency requires significantly more power, but is not too egregious. USB 3 is clocked at 5 GHz, which requires more power still. Just having a transceiver capable of that frequency enabled will draw a significant load from a battery, regardless of whether you're using the bus for power delivery.
• jsnell 5y ago
  https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ might be a better link? Has pricing information, for one. The rumors were discussed a couple of months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288653
  • dang 5y ago
    (We've merged from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846843 now, which points to that link)
• aschearer 5y ago
  Very cool. Seems like a steam-powered Switch. Wonder how the other console manufacturers will react.
• smbv 5y ago
  I wonder what this will mean for Linux support on the Steam store in general? Since this is SteamOS[0], then manufacturers will have to support Linux / Proton in order to have their games on this machine. [0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/software https://www.steamdeck.com/en/software
  • jvzr 5y ago
    It is! A new version, in fact. It includes Proton. (I'm not sure if SteamOS v2 and below were already Arch-based, but it's interesting to know that v3 is, given that the Steam Linux Runtime is mostly Ubuntu-tested)
  • jsnell 5y ago
    It is indeed SteamOS, though they're claiming that Proton will be improved for this: > For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors.
  • MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    I noticed one of the screen shots was using KDE on the connection to another screen. Honestly that got me to realize it's another PC and made me consider getting one. Worst case scenario, I just have another PC that's marginally better than those small box office PCs. Edit: I read further, it is a fully fledged PC. You can install or do whatever you want to it.
• Arrath 5y ago
  Glad to see two sticks in addition to the trackpads. The Steam Controller with its one pad/one stick approach was...interesting but I just couldn't adapt to it for most games.
• hn8788 5y ago
  Storage seems like it'll be an issue unless you only want to play indie games. It says it's got the hardware to play AAA games, but even last gen AAA games like Doom Eternal won't fit on the base model, and the next step up with more sufficient storage is more expensive than the next gen consoles.
  • fetus8 5y ago
    microSD cards are pretty cheap though.
    • onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
      Does anyone play AAA titles off of SD cards? Wouldn't it take forever to load stuff?
      • philliphaydon 5y ago
        On switch it isn’t an issue for 12gb games. But I couldn’t imagine trying to load an 80gb game. Especially if you needed to load stuff while playing.
        • onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
          Yeah - I imagine that the games are designed thinking most players probably have an SSD or - at worst - an HDD. An SD Card - especially a not-good one - can be 100x+ slower than an HDD for small reads. Any games that depend on this would effectively not be playable.
          • minsc__and__boo 5y ago
            Micro SD cards are up to about ~290 MB/s for read times these days, IIRC. That's the same as low-end SSDs.
            • onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
• have_faith 5y ago
  > Deck What an uninspiring name! (with unfortunate mispronunciations). Looks very interesting though, price point (starting at £349) seems very competitive.
  • justinsaccount 5y ago
    The closest competitor to this is called the switch. Other competing products are called a station and a box.
    • have_faith 5y ago
      Steam Deck just doesn't seem to roll off the tongue, maybe it will grow on me.
      • queuebert 5y ago
        Sticking with the ship metaphors, it was better than Poop Deck.
  • bserge 5y ago
    I'd like to believe they named it that simply so kids could pull a "My Deck is bigger than yours!".
    • reificator 5y ago
      > "My Deck is bigger than yours!" Ah, the rallying cry of EDH/Commander players everywhere.
  • jazzyjackson 5y ago
    It’s a term used a lot already for DIY’d portable computers in a kind of cyberpunk aesthetic, apparently from the game series Shadowrun https://hackaday.com/tag/cyberdeck/ https://hackaday.com/tag/cyberdeck/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/ https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberdeck https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberdeck
• least 5y ago
  I really hope that this market picks up steam (heh) and we get to see even more bigger names coming up with devices. The Aya Neo [1], OneXPlayer [2], and GPD Win3 [3] have all come out relatively close to each other with different ideas of what people want in a handheld gaming PC. Valve seems to want to get in on a price that is more competitive with the Nintendo Switch, so its hardware specs are a bit worse it seems than the others in the market. The plus side to this is that the base model comes in at just $399, though that is with eMMC storage, while the next bump up uses NVME. The other specs seem to be identical across the 3 SKUs, though. The trackpads a la the steam controller seem appropriate for the types of games that require a mouse on PC, which is unique in this product market. Gyroscopes are also built in, which I'd presume would work similar to the Wii U and Nintendo Switch for aiming. I don't think it'll be as good as a mouse, but I've found that aiming with gyroscope on the Wii U was much easier than using just the analog stick, so hopefully it makes FPS games with a controller more pleasant for me. I also think it's interesting that it is using SteamOS, which had been kind of abandoned by Valve for quite some time. This also means that it is depending on Proton for game compatibility, which in itself is a huge statement on their confidence in the maturity of it. Without it, this would be a complete failure like "Steam Machines" were. If it works out well, maybe we'll finally see a real product instead of a tech demo from Dell and other PC manufacturers. Exciting. [1] https://www.ayaneo.com/aya-neo https://www.ayaneo.com/aya-neo [2] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/onexplayer-best-performing-handheld-game-console#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/onexplayer-best-performin... [3] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd-win3-the-world-s-1st-handheld-aaa-game-console#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd-win3-the-world-s-1st-...
  • shadilay 5y ago
    I'm surprised they went with a custom AMD part. Seems expensive for what is likely to be a low volume product. Why not just do a laptop in a handheld form factor.
    • ocdtrekkie 5y ago
      I don't think you come at the Nintendo Switch expecting low volume. Whether another company can be successful at it is a good question, but if you build expecting low volume, that's what you're going to get.
• danso 5y ago
  Well I guess their time developing the Steam controller isn't all for naught. Looks similar in concept, except with dual joysticks and thumbpads (instead of just 1 each) and extreme deemphasis the traditional X/Y/A/B buttons, and 4 (instead of 2) back paddle triggers. Which is great, I loved the paddles on my Steam controller.
  • Arrath 5y ago
    I wonder if the triggers are also two-stage, like the Steam controller's. I loved that feature, found some niche uses in some games.
    • dm319 5y ago
      The IGN video seemed to suggest that.
• Shadonototro 5y ago
  Finally a linux gaming console Now valve, for the love of god, PUSH NATIVE LINUX GAMING, proton only as a way to supplement the library.. Reduce your steam tax for the companies that provide a native linux build I will not buy this if your main selling point is "proton" As for the price, 419€.. very bad marketing, 399€ would have been perfect... you got greedy for 20€, that'll hurt sales
  • Forbo 5y ago
    It looks like it is $399 USD, so the price point may mostly be a conversion thing. Edit: Just looked up the conversion rate, right now 399 USD is 288 GBP? Weird. The mid tier is 529 USD, so something like 382 GBP. Upper tier is 649 USD, or 468 GBP.
    • Shadonototro 5y ago
      Ah, 399 USD sounds already better
    • madpata 5y ago
      1€ ~= 1.18$ US So, probably not just a conversion thing
    • levital 5y ago
      $399US is ~338€ though. Even adding in 19% VAT we'd come out at a nice round 400€, so I don't really understand the 419€, which is just a weird number from a marketing perspective as well. That we're getting overcharged on this side of the Atlantic isn't new though, but happens with basically everything.
      • _flux 5y ago
        And if you add 5% for import duty, you get a number very close to 419 EUR. I don't however know how much the import duty is, it seems to be a number that is very difficult to find :).
      • Ekaros 5y ago
• Tajnymag 5y ago
  The pricing even doesn't seem unreasonable. If the device is of a good quality, this could sell pretty well.
  • trey-jones 5y ago
    I don't disagree, but I think the $399 version might be their undoing. 64GB is about 1 AAA game, and 0 in some cases. So people are going to get this one for their kids for Christmas, the kids are going to say it's shit, and it's going to get a bad reputation, even if the high end models are good. Maybe they have solutions lined up for the problems that will come with low/slow storage, but we'll see!
    • hobofan 5y ago
      The Switch has had the same problem, which causes me to basically never keep AAA games installed for long, but they are still quite successful. The Switch also tops out at 64GB with the new OLED model, whereas that's the starting point for the Steam Deck. There is also a history of consoles being offered with a wide variety of different storage sizes (Xbox 360), and I don't remember that causing any serious problems for them (if you ignore the humongous size of the Xbox dashboard at the end of its lifetime, which is an avoidable problem).
      • ascagnel_ 5y ago
        One caveat, at least for me, is that Switch games tend to be designed around cartridge limits, and the transfer speed there isn't too much faster than the Switch's UHS-I SD card reader (although I can't find any tests or specifications on the cartridge port). PC games nowadays tend to be designed around either a SATA-III SSD or a PCI-E SSD (over NVMe), which will be much, much faster than a UHS-I port, so PC games over an SD card won't be anywhere near as performant as a Switch game.
    • minsc__and__boo 5y ago
      >64GB is about 1 AAA game, and 0 in some cases. They will just use an SD card. Yeah it's not as fast as SSD but it's the low end device.
• txdv 5y ago
  Valve, you created a lot of products that were great but then you dropped them for some or another reason. I would like for once for you to keep working on a singular product, release multiple iterations, make it better and make it the market leader.
  • AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    In many ways this is clearly their second-take on Steam Machines. They learned the first time around that licensing the name to third party hardware vendors didn't work (a lesson they could have learned from the 3DO), and that people didn't really like streaming games from PC to TV.
  • not_math 5y ago
    It was pretty clear why they dropped them, which is most people hated it (while a few very much loved them). I loved my Steam Controller but right now I'm using mostly my Xbox controller for PC. The Wii U was a failure, but I feel (and I guess the sales can confirm that) that Nintendo learned from their mistakes.
  • lonjil 5y ago
    Steam Link and Steam Controller were dropped because they weren't selling very well, but the steam link application continues to be updated, and the Steam Controller continued to get firmware updates until 2018. If this Steam Deck thing sells well, they'll probably make another one. If it sells poorly they'll probably keep the software updated and use put discounts on it to clear out stock.
  • thefunnyman 5y ago
    To me this seems like a decent combination of all of their past hardware experiments. It’s a steam machine, but in a portable form factor. It has the streaming capabilities of the link, and the touch controls of the steam controller. If this takes off, I’d expect to see them continue to release accessories and iterations of it. Maybe we’ll eventually new steam controllers for use in the docked mode.
  • 0-_-0 5y ago
    I'm looking forward to the 2nd generation of Steam Deck. There won't be a 3rd as we all know.
• seneca 5y ago
  Valve has a pretty bad track record with hardware, do they not? I'm not very aware of this industry, but the vague impress I have is that they've tried this a couple of different ways and it hasn't gone well for them. I'm curious why they would make this play again.
  • Bayart 5y ago
    They've got a good record with making hardware, but not making it mainstream.
  • mindvirus 5y ago
    I think their hardware has been great. The Index VR headset is high quality, and so was their controller although it didn't seem to find market fit.
  • Reubend 5y ago
    The people who have used their VR hardware say it's excellent.
    • porphyra 5y ago
      I have a Valve Index VR headset. It was clearly the best on the market when I got it last year. The controllers and headset tracking are great and the video quality was a notch above the competition (though recent newer headsets have closed the gap). However it did have some hardware issues such as crackling audio in one of the speakers, so I ended up removing the headset speakers and wearing my own headphones. Anyway, overall I'm satisfied.
  • kawsper 5y ago
    They have a tendency to drop their hardware quite early - I had a Steam Link so I could play computer games on my television, it works really great.
    • malfist 5y ago
      Steam link and the controllers were great. Too bad they dropped support for them so quickly. Went looking to replace one that finally broke down and found you couldn't buy them anymore.
• mikl 5y ago
  Typo in the title. It’s “Steam Deck”, not “Steam Desk”. Interesting that Valve is diving deeper into hardware. Remember when they still made video games? Remember when there was still a hope they would some day release Half-Life 3?
  • User23 5y ago
    My understanding is that their Index VR hardware is quite good too.
    • mmastrac 5y ago
      I can confirm this. The index is a marvelous piece of tech in so many ways. It's a premium bit of kit (with the associated premium price) and I have zero complaints about it.
    • criddell 5y ago
      Does the Index VR work with the Steam Deck?
      • dkdbejwi383 5y ago
        Yes. It’s a PC running Linux and can do anything a regular PC can. It’s probably a little lacking performance wise for VR though. It’s optimised for the native 1280x800 resolution.
  • sascha_sl 5y ago
    Don't forget Alyx exists.
    • mikl 5y ago
      Alyx is a VR game, not a video game in my book.
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
• AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
  https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech > Operating System: SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based) > Desktop: KDE Plasma This is sure to excite the Linux community.
  • vbernat 5y ago
    And they switched from Debian to Arch. Can't say I don't understand them, but I would have thought there would have been better bases than a rolling distribution (Gentoo, NixOS, Fedora).
    • petepete 5y ago
      They'll surely host their own repository rather than use Arch's directly. There's no reason to question stability when they're in control of both ends, and Arch is light with excellent tooling. It's a good fit.
    • MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
      I find that odd too, but in my recent experience, Manjaro has been the best Linux experience I've had since Ubuntu 14.04. Just install and everything works. Although Gnome was a bit of a hassle, xfce and Cinnamon run beautifully.
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    • chme 5y ago
      Both Debian and Arch are very fine distributions. Your other three options aren't really good for what Valve is going for. Gentoo is source based, and while distribution of binary packages is possible with it, why would they do that? NixOs ignores FHS, and while it is possible to install a steam compatible runtime, why would they do that? And Fedora belongs to RedHat, and why would they do that, when they actually try to switch away from a OS distribution controlled by one company? I am not saying those distributions aren't good, just that it would not make sense for Valve to use any of those. Debian (via Ubuntu) and Arch are probably the most well tested Linux distributions by gamers, that do not belong to a single company.
• paxys 5y ago
  Tech specs – https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech 800p resolution is a bit disappointing, but I guess that's the only way to get a good frame rate without a massive power-hungry GPU.
  • Shadonototro 5y ago
    7", bigger resolution would be useless, and a waste of ressources tbh, it's a portable console, i'd rather have better FPS and better battery life than higher resolution with lower FPS
    • Majestic121 5y ago
      You can plug it to a bigger screen, so a bigger resolution could be useful
      • Shadonototro 5y ago
        but you'll have to make a bigger "portable" console as a result, and it would cost way more than $399 it's a trade off the main selling point here is it's portable, let's not forget that
      • Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
        Maybe the 800p thing only refers to the console's display, as it's in the "Display" section, and it could output more resolution when plugged to an external display? If it can't do at least 1080p on a bigger screen, it would be a deal breaker for me, to be honest. I'm considering reserving one but it would see plenty of big screen use.
      • pilsetnieks 5y ago
        It does have a bigger resolution when connected to an external display, 800p is only for the internal one. Tech specs say "up to 8K @60Hz or 4K @120Hz" for USB-C display.
    • paxys 5y ago
      It's about the same size as a large smartphone. Having a screen with half the ppi of an iPhone would definitely be noticeable.
• Animats 5y ago
  What, no 5G? Just WiFi? That seems surprising.
  • smbv 5y ago
    I was more disappointed that it didn't support 802.11ax.
• LatteLazy 5y ago
  The site Crashed my browser (chrome) as soon as I scrolled down.
  • Joker_vD 5y ago
    All the more reason to buy Steam Deck, I guess.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• post_break 5y ago
  This looks great. A Nintendo switch with more than a handful of AAA titles and shovel ware and power. I’ll be buying I think since the Nintendo DS is dead, switch isn’t for me, Sony gave up. This looks like a winner.
• 63 5y ago
  Sort of an unfortunate name since it's so similar to "Stream Deck." I imagine there might be some confusion between the two if this takes off.
  • ocdtrekkie 5y ago
    I initially clicked this link thinking it was a Valve-branded Stream Deck. Only then did I realize it was a Valve-branded Switch instead. :P
• ketzo 5y ago
  There’s obviously a lot of people who like playing games in a more mobile format, as evidenced by the huge popularity of the Switch Lite / mobile gaming. Giving the PC games market access to that form factor seems, on its face, like an extremely good move. But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?” Frankly, I feel like it’s probably a decent number of people? Enough for this product to do okay, if not change the whole market. But people have been very confidently incorrect about almost every iteration of mobile gaming in the past. I guess we’ll see.
  • goda90 5y ago
    The Shield was Android with GameStream. This will run games directly on x86 Linux which, with all their Proton work, will result in a much bigger game library out of the box. There have been more niche handheld x86 devices, but they were even more money, and different form factors. Steam being as big as it is, I think this has way more potential than anything done before.
  • wayoutthere 5y ago
    This is different than the NVidia Shield handheld in that hardware has come a loooong way since 2013 and it’s actually possible to run modern AAA games at 1200x800 using what is effectively a mobile chipset. No streaming from a PC required. If I played more games I would absolutely buy one of these. I already own the NVidia Shield that plugs into your TV because it’s a great streaming box even if you ignore the gaming aspect.
  • caslon 5y ago
    You have to consider that PC hardware is currently spiraling out of control in terms of price, and $400 for the specs it has presently is a fairly decent buy even if you don't care about the form factor.
    • ketzo 5y ago
      That’s a really good point, viewing this as an accessibly-priced entry into PC gaming makes it even more attractive.
• kmnc 5y ago
  Whoever named this an idiot, my first thought was reading “Stream Deck” and I thought it was streaming device. Valve makes good hardware but their marketing is terrible leading to abandoned hardware that enthusiasts rave about. The marketing page is white... it is Valve... why is the marketing site white?!?!
  • _flux 5y ago
    I guess that would be a reasonable complaint if it wasn't so that Steam is already Valve's main product, and that this device is intended for playing games from Steam!
  • vimacs2 5y ago
    This seems more like an opportunistic rant about Valve's marketing than a sincere response to the particular situation. The name makes perfect sense given its a slab that plays steam games and if you'd pay attention to the website beyond the background colour (???), you may notice how it has several pictures, animations and videos illustrating the product in far more detail and clarity than many console launches. It worked for me anyway because I studied the site cover to cover so to speak. Granted, I agree that Valve did a genuinely poor job with the Steam Controller and Steam machines but in the former case, it was because even Valve themselves didn't quite understand what they had just made and in the latter, things were complicated by having to deal with multiple third parties.
• Minor49er 5y ago
  The button placement seems really high, but it might be comfortable to play while resting the bottom on a table.
  • notjustanymike 5y ago
    Huh yeah that is odd. Valve is typically pretty good at ergonomic hardware, maybe the buttons aren't the primary interaction tool for this.
  • notjustanymike 5y ago
    I just hit the site on my desktop. Like the steam controller before, it's got a lot of back buttons that you can likely remap (R1 to R4 and L1 to L4). So yes, the front buttons are backups.
    • Minor49er 5y ago
      Judging by the image in the "Speeds and feeds" section, there are only four shoulder buttons. Also, looking more closely at the placement, it looks like they're putting more emphasis on touchpads over the joysticks, and certainly over the D-pad, much like the Steam Controller.
      • notjustanymike 5y ago
        Two shoulder, four back buttons.
• echelon 5y ago
  This looks like it will trounce the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo doesn't even have new hardware in the pipeline other than an iterative OLED screen. Now that Nintendo depends on a single portable console, is there a risk that they'll go the way of Sega?
  • timw4mail 5y ago
    I wouldn't count on the Switch going anywhere. PC gaming is a fairly small market compared to consoles these days.
    • doctorsher 5y ago
      Source? The console market (~45 billion) is larger than the PC market (~37 billion) [0], but I wouldn’t describe PC as ‘fairly small’. Maybe you have different data though? [0] https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/newzoo-games-market-numbers-revenues-and-audience-2020-2023/ https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/newzoo-games-market-num...
  • kevinventullo 5y ago
    I believe the Switch itself is evidence that Nintendo’s success is driven by strong IP, not strong hardware.
  • duxup 5y ago
    Considering their immense success with the Switch so far, I think worrying about Sega seems miles away. Raw spec peeping is something enthusiasts like to do, but I think they're a small chunk of the market.
  • AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    I doubt it. Nintendo hasn't dominated in hardware specs for several generations. They survive by primarily being developers of great games that just happen to only be available on their whatever-hardware-we-could-get-for-$250 platform.
  • wlesieutre 5y ago
    This will trounce the Nintendo Switch as soon as Pokemon, Zelda, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros are released on Steam. Which is to say "never."
• ezoe 5y ago
  >SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based) What? So they ditched Debian? >1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) Yeah... that's like 2000s. Seriously who what this? For those who can spend fortune for the PC games, they have better options. Those who can't spend that much, Nintendo switch is probably better for the gaming.
  • davidwparker 5y ago
    Probably someone like me. I have a pretty crappy PC for gaming, but I have 100s of games via Humble Bundle I've bought over the years. I already have and enjoy my Switch, but having another option (plus all the games I have already) would be nice.
  • rkido 5y ago
    It's a 7" screen, so this resolution is comparable to an Apple Retina display in terms of ppi.
• AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Gotta admit, I never saw that coming. I thought SteamOS was dead after the failure of Steam Machines and Valve was only continuing with their Linux efforts because it's still a useful hedge against Microsoft locking everyone in the App Store. I totally did not expect them to copy the Switch use-case with it. I'm anxious to see how this turns out. Valve's history with hardware is not so great, so it could go nowhere like Steam Machines, Steam Link, and the Steam Controller did. On the other hand, it could end up all but killing off PC gaming if it is super successful. If it lands somewhere in the middle it will at least be yet another boon for Linux gaming brought to you by Valve as more developers will port or ensure compatibility with Proton.
  • superkuh 5y ago
    I love Valve but it seems like they create these hardware projects to occasionally remind platform owners like microsoft/playstation/nintendo that they can't completely abuse their users and software devs (Win10 store lock-in, etc) and retain all of them. Valve just wants to protect steam and credible hardware platform competition is how they do it. I don't think they have any real plans to produce and support hardware long term.
    • belltaco 5y ago
      And yet it looks like you cannot use the Steam Deck without logging into a Steam account. Looks like we are trading in one lock-in for another.
      • kaetemi 5y ago
        You can install any OS on it, it's just a PC.
      • sudosysgen 5y ago
        Seems like you can access the KDE desktop, so I think using the Steam account isn't mandatory. Not 100% sure though. Previous Steam machines allowed full control, even changing the OS.
      • 5y ago
• dyingkneepad 5y ago
  Will these be as hard to find as the PS5 currently is? I suppose this should be affected by the silicon shortage as well...
• NegativeLatency 5y ago
  Is this going to be locked down? Can I use a web browser or install my own Linux apps?
  • boomboomsubban 5y ago
    They show it running htop and a normal desktop. I'd assume so.
  • sliken 5y ago
    Quotes from the announce and FAQ: "Steam Deck is focused, of course, for running Steam but also advertised as an "open PC" that can run other software too." "That said, Steam Deck is a PC so you can install third party software and operating systems."
  • schmorptron 5y ago
    You can. You can even install Windows, if you so choose. Or probably another Distro.
• everyone 5y ago
  So, I guess its plays only games from Steam? I'm curious, does every game on Steam run on SteamOS? cus SteamOS is Linux.
  • Underphil 5y ago
    I've had great results with their WINE/Proton layer.
    • IggleSniggle 5y ago
      Just thought I'd mention, that I have not had great results with this. But presumably it'll be a different story when supporting one known specific hardware shared by many Steam users.
  • dantondwa 5y ago
    Thanks to Valve and Proton/Wine, my games run great on Linux now, in most cases. So, I can say I'm really satisfied. We're certainly miles ahead of, say, 5 years ago.
  • heelix 5y ago
    I ran Steam on Centos. You had to do some conversion to get the Steam app into an RPM format (or use one of the relases that did it for you). I've messed with it on Centos, Ubuntu, and even played with SteamOS. Last time I did this with Centos 8 and the AMD proprietary drivers, it looked like this sudo yum update -y (reboot) sudo yum install -y kernel-headers-`uname -r` kernel-devel-`uname -r` sudo dnf -y install --nogpgcheck https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.... https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-8.noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-relea... https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8.noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree... sudo dnf config-manager --enable PowerTools sudo yum -y install dkms sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-steam.repo https://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-steam.repo sudo dnf -y install steam kernel-modules-extra libva-intel-driver (reboot) ( https://www.amd.com/en/support https://www.amd.com/en/support, grabbing the RX580 driver) tar -Jxvf amdgpu-pro-19.50-967956-rhel-8.1.tar.xz cd amdgpu-pro-19.50-967956-rhel-8.1/ ./amdgpu-pro-install -y (reboot) Mind you, you don't need the AMD propriety drivers. I'm also still trying to figure out what my long term home will be for my workstation once Centos 8 becomes Centos Streams.... so will be seeing if Rocky or one of the others becomes my long term home.
• duxup 5y ago
  The size of that thing looks like half a laptop... I'm wondering about how comfortable that beast is? I would love to see more competition in portable land, but it will take a lot to pull me away from the Nintendo Switch. I'm also wary as Valve hardware has had an up and down history.
• deeviant 5y ago
  I really wonder what the point of this is. Mobile gaming is a meme at this point. It's a thing but phones and tables have it well catered too. We don't need another mobile gaming thing that will surely be in the bargain bin in as couple years.
  • sinstein 5y ago
    Nintendo Switch sales figures will prove otherwise.
    • deeviant 5y ago
      I own a switch. I have never played it in mobile configuration in the years I have owned it, neither do any people that I know that have it, neither do my nieces or nephews. I would trade switch mobile capability for 4k in a second. The reason why the switch is popular is the same reason why a long line of absolutely craptastic Nintendo hardware is popular: exclusive Nintendo software, which this platform will obviously not have.
      • rdtwo 5y ago
        Must be you I used it almost 100% mobile
        • deeviant 5y ago
          Regardless, without Nintendo's library, this thing is going to sink. And frankly, if the switch had no Nintendo exclusives, it too would have sunk.
          • rdtwo 5y ago
            I agree but mostly I think it’s because most games need a special GUI to use a controller. I would buy it if playing factorio and rim world felt natural and intuitive on a mobile platform but it’s not.
  • RankingMember 5y ago
• mrpippy 5y ago
  CPU: AMD APU 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) RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 Display: 7", 1280x800, 60Hz OS: SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based), KDE Plasma desktop Storage: Onboard 64GB eMMC/256GB NVMe/512GB NVMe, microSD slot
  • xaduha 5y ago
    AMD has its hands in all kinds of console pies. Best Intel has in this area are Compute Element things, last heard about in that KFC Console.
    • mastrsushi 5y ago
      They really have this level of Moxie that gives Intel Jeb Bush vibes.
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    • ksec 5y ago
      All previous CEO refuse to lower their margin. Not just console but also for iPhone. Which leads to Intel losing everything except their highest margin Server and PC market. Let's see how Pat Gelsinger do.
  • cynicalreason 5y ago
    so I imagine the games will be ran via stadia ?!
    • progbits 5y ago
      What makes you say that? That is quite beefy machine, very capable of running most modern games on reasonable settings (the resolution is a lot smaller than what people are used to which means lot fewer pixels to push). The only concern I would have is thermals and cooling but I'm sure they have it figured out.
• Vaslo 5y ago
  Hope there are enough chips to support this in today's supply chain mayhem...
• lemoncookiechip 5y ago
  The resolution, the weight, the battery life and potentially the cooling are all sub-par. There's also the fact that this can't compete with the Switch due to the simple fact that games are optimized to run at a stable framerate by the developers or subcontracted companies for the Switch, while this will just run games from Steam at a low-res and hope for the best.
  • hellotomyrars 5y ago
    Even some first party Nintendo games can't be relied on to run at a stable framerate so I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Link's Awakening has some nasty and inconsistent stutter issues, Breath of the Wild runs better than on the Wii U but it still has its moments. Then you have games like Hyrule Warriors where it just feels actively bad. Lots of Switch Games actually run a lot better under even a very mild overclock (Nintendo even officially lets the CPU get OC'd during loading screens for limited periods of time, to great effect). This is beating the Switch on most aspects outside of first-party Nintendo library.
    • ThatGeoGuy 5y ago
      I think a lot of the performance problems on the switch occur when you set the resolution of the device to anything outside a fixed 720p. I've definitely had issues with 1st party titles, but after going into the settings and forcing 720p, some did go away. At the end of the day I mostly play my Switch in docked mode with an mClassic, so the forced 720p doesn't typically detract from the experience. However, many 3rd party titles on the Switch are just actively bad ports. Omensight, for example, which is an otherwise good game has the most atrocious port I've ever seen on a console. I would agree with you that the thread parent is off-the-mark in saying that Valve will do worse here -- PC settings are notoriously better than what you get from traditional consoles since you can actively choose to optimize them to your environment, instead of hoping some developer took the time to even try.
  • jogu 5y ago
    > There's also the fact that this can't compete with the Switch due to the simple fact that games are optimized to run at a stable framerate by the developers or subcontracted companies for the Switch I have a pretty extensive Switch library and can definitely say that performance of ports is really hit or miss. This is also missing that PC games are already designed with a broad range of hardware in mind and nearly every game for PC has extensive settings to control graphical quality vs performance. Sure, maybe a device like this might have performance issues but I don't think the Switch completely trumps this in terms delivering playable experiences.
• legitster 5y ago
  As a long-time user of Big Picture Mode, I am pretty skeptical how happy I would be long term with one of these. When it comes to things like basic controller support or options for unusual resolutions, it's still the wild west in the Steam library.
  • fermentation 5y ago
    Agreed, support is very much not standardized across games. If this thing takes off then I'm sure the story will be different in a few years, but the early adopters will surely face some headache in games that aren't "officially supported".
  • MetaWhirledPeas 5y ago
    Sure when you're talking about older games. But for newer games I'd say support for XInput is pretty consistent, and resolution support is usually OK too.
• hobofan 5y ago
  I know giving predictions against Nintendo is always a bit of a gamble due to their strong 1st party IPs, but with the announcement of the Switch OLED (and with that basically killing the hope for a Switch Pro), they might have seriously bungled it. At least for me, I know when my Switch finally kicks the bucket (and maybe even before then) I'll seriously consider a Steam Deck instead. I've been using my Switch almost exclusively for indie games, and even though there is quite the selection of them for the Switch I could have played basically all of the indie games earlier (and then some) if would have had access to my Steam catalog. So unless you really want Nintendo's 1st party (expensive, never-dropping-in-price) games, this really looks to be a no brainer.
• tyingq 5y ago
  Pretty nice specs for a handheld battery powered device... Processor AMD APU CPU: 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) Storage 64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4) 512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4) All models include high-speed microSD card slot Though it does weigh 669 grams (~1.5lbs). https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
  • oever 5y ago
    Desktop: KDE Plasma KDE Plasma visible in this video of a docked SteamDeck: https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamdeck/images/video/crusader-kings.mp4 https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamdeck/images/vide...
    • pantalaimon 5y ago
      It runs Arch btw
  • ds 5y ago
    Im not sure how apples to oranges it is, but a GTX 980 (Released in 2014) has 5 TFlops. Genuinely curious how powerful this might be for GPU intensive games. (Call of Duty, Rust, etc..) Maybe this is equivalent to something like a MX-150 or GTX1050? Should be totally fine for Valves games though (CSGO, TF2, Etc..)
    • newsclues 5y ago
      Switch is 390ish-500 GFlops (higher is when docked) It’s about perf/watts
      • jcelerier 5y ago
        but the switch's graphics are terrible
• whateveracct 5y ago
  Can I run NixOS on it?
  • OnionBlender 5y ago
    Elsewhere in this thread someone linked to the developer docs that said you can install other operating systems, including Windows.
    • whateveracct 5y ago
      That seals it - gotta get one of these. Hackable console!
• moralestapia 5y ago
  It would be AMAZING if you could run some linux distro on this, somehow. Edit: I mean, a linux you could control, ssh into it, install stuff etc... Edit 2: Wow! Apparently, you can do all of this out of the box.
  • jamesfmilne 5y ago
    It's already running Linux, in the guise of SteamOS. https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
  • caslon 5y ago
    It's...just a Linux PC, running a Linux distribution (SteamOS 3, Arch-based). It says that on the site.
• mmastrac 5y ago
  This is a pretty amazing. Given the ports on the back, will this support the Valve Index? I love my index, but having to boot up a PC and keep myself tethered to the desktop is a bit of an effort that I'd love to skip. EDIT: Found a half-answer to this: "Pierre-Loup Griffais: I mean, it has all the connectivity. You would need [a lot] to do that, but that's not really what we're optimizing the performance for." [1] [1] https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-valve-faq-big-questions-answered https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-valve-faq-big-questi...
  • aneutron 5y ago
    I have a lot of doubt about it supporting the Valve Index. Mainly because it's a 15W CPU. Sure, you can optimize for it, but VR is extremely performance heavy as far as I can understand.
    • Kaze404 5y ago
      Depends on the game. It used to be very performance heavy, but these days any low-mid end gaming pc can handle a decent amount of games.
      • Dumblydorr 5y ago
        I always got motion sickness using those during demos a few years ago during the hype phase, is that still an issue today?
        • peebeebee 5y ago
          Depends on person, the game mechanics and the hardware. Oculus Quest 2 is very nice HW for its price. Shame you are locked in with a mandatory FB account.
        • pault 5y ago
          It depends, running less than 90 fps is borderline and anything under 60 is a vomit comet. Most people have some issues with motion sickness at first but after a few days your brain adapts to it (so called “VR legs”). I regularly play games with lots of fast locomotion for 4+ hours at a time and have no nausea at all. Subnautica with an xbox controller in particular would send most people to the toilet after 60 seconds, which is a shame because it’s the most profound VR experience I’ve had.
• donkarma 5y ago
  I can't buy this until it runs Windows, too many games need it
  • minimaxir 5y ago
    Proton supposedly works well with Windows only games, and you can apparently install Windows on it as you would a normal PC.
• remir 5y ago
  Seems like all the pieces are in place for this to be good at least on paper. If the demand is there, this could be a huge success for Valve.
• ortusdux 5y ago
  I always felt their controller was a bit of a weird product. Turns out they were just dipping their toes in the water. I wonder if they are going to produce this fully in house like the controller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCgnWqoP4MM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCgnWqoP4MM
  • CobrastanJorji 5y ago
    Valve wanted to compete with consoles. Consoles go in the living room and are played with a controller. Your home's PC is not in the living room, so how does Valve fix that? The Steam Link. Okay, but PC games are frequently designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard. There's lots of stuff to click on. So how do you play that from the couch without some elaborate lap pad with a mouse and keyboard on it? The Valve Controller. I see how it could very well have worked. Consoles are expensive, and if you already have a PC, it's an awfully cheap way to play games with better graphics for less money.
    • grawprog 5y ago
      >So how do you play that from the couch without some elaborate lap pad with a mouse and keyboard on it? The Valve Controller. I see how it could very well have worked. I guess maybe in a world where every console controller isn't compatible with most PC games, cheaper than the valve controller and more ergonomically designed than the valve controller...maybe if Logitech, 8bitdo, Razer etc. didn't exist and didn't produce cheaper or better controllers it could have worked....
      • CobrastanJorji 5y ago
        Most first person shooter PC games, sure, but there are thousands of PC games that assume you have a mouse and a keyboard. Point and click adventures, that sort of thing.
        • grawprog 5y ago
          Yeah i know. Playing an RTS or a Moba game or something with a controller would be a nightmare. Most 4x games like Civilization would suck a lot. Games like Dwarf Fortress, Cataclysm or pretty much any non mobile roguelike would be unfeasible to play with a controller. Even some games you'd think should work well with a controller don't really. Unepic's a 2d side scrolling action-adventure game, you'd think it'd be controller friendly, and there are console ports of it, but the PC version uses 10 hotkeys for various spells and abilities. I managed to map i think 4 or 5 of them to controller buttons, but it meant more going through the game menu and reassigning spells than it would have using a keyboard.
• lampe3 5y ago
  Does it run Crysis? \s
  • arendtio 5y ago
    I don't know if Proton runs on SteamOS, but if it does (it should), yes, then it should be able to run Crysis ;-) https://www.protondb.com/app/17300 https://www.protondb.com/app/17300
    • AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
      This thing is banking on Proton pretty heavily. It's even mentioned in the marketing material for developers: "Steam Deck runs SteamOS 3.0, and thanks to Proton, your build will likely work right out of the box."
    • sangnoir 5y ago
      Valve authored Proton for SteamOS - so yes it runs on SteamOS. I can separately confirm that Crysis 1 & 2 run on Proton at max settings, at 4k (:
• fermentation 5y ago
  At a cursory glance this thing seems to be well-equipped to handle emulation. There are a lot of (sometimes sketchy) portable emulation devices on the market but most are pretty underpowered. This seems significantly more powerful (at a higher price point of course). I'm curious if more folks interested in portable emulation will go for this or wait for an FPGA-based Analogue Pocket.
  • rchaud 5y ago
    What kind of emulation? Android phones handle N64, SNES and PSP emulation very well, with a compatible game controller you don't need anything else.
    • VortexDream 5y ago
      Honestly, I'd prefer the Steam Deck over my phone, simply because it's a dedicated gaming device with integrated controls. I'm always forgetting my gamepad and I hate fiddling with putting the phone in the holder. It's just so awkward. A gaming device in the form of a tablet like the Switch is so much more convenient.
  • dm319 5y ago
    That's a good point. I reckon it'd be fairly trivial to get EmulationStation working nicely on it.
• eloff 5y ago
  Bringing PC gaming to a portable form factor will probably be successful, but I don't game on my phone, so I don't think I'd buy this. I am in the market for a gaming laptop that can dual boot Linux as my work machine. If they did an Alienware or ROG style build I'd very likely buy that. Btw if anyone has recommendations for me, I'm looking right now. Looking for a 15-17" heavy ass laptop with minimum 32gb ram, quality 4k or close display, and as much performance as I can find.
  • disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    Get a Thinkpad. You probably want one of the W Series.
• afterburner 5y ago
  Does that not look uncomfortable to anyone else?
• Bancakes 5y ago
  Wow that's as powerful as a base model PS4.
  • FinalBriefing 5y ago
    Yea, that's a great base to aim for. Lots of great games will look respectable with those specs. I'd have loved a full 1080p screen, but at least its larger than the Switch's 720p.
    • Bancakes 5y ago
      It's far below the average Steam hardware survey system.
• spoonjim 5y ago
  Won't these guys get in trademark trouble with Elgato's "Stream Deck" which is also a piece of hardware targeted at the gaming market?
  • Ekaros 5y ago
    Don't think so. Steam in this market segment is well known enough name. So they are very likely to get away naming anything Steam something.
• Urgo 5y ago
  As someone who has a stReam deck[1] sitting on their desk this is a very confusing name. Before I realized this new product was steam not stream I was trying to find if valve bought elgato or something. [1] https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• ortusdux 5y ago
  If I were them, I would launch a 2nd version of the dock around Dec-2022 that has an integrated GPU. Use a GPU than can push 2k content and call it the Steam Dock 2K. 4K version in 2023.
  • robotnikman 5y ago
    If the USB C port supports USB 4 or Thunderbolt, that would definitely be doable
    • MikusR 5y ago
      It has neither.
• AceJohnny2 5y ago
  Curious what the battery life will be. Bummer the charging port is on top. That's inconvenient if you're playing and charging at the same time. Still, an exciting device!
  • ericcholis 5y ago
    40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours
  • dcdc123 5y ago
    I game on a Switch a lot and wish the charging port was up top. On the bottom _sounds_ good, but the cable ends up being in the way all the time. Up top really is better.
  • wraptile 5y ago
    > Bummer the charging port is on top. That's inconvenient if you're playing and charging at the same time. I'd argue it's the opposite. I always struggle with my switch as the cable get in the way or smushes into my belly. Top port is the way to go!
• css 5y ago
  From the FAQ [0]: - What OS is Steam Deck running? SteamOS 3.0, a new version of SteamOS based on Arch Linux. - Will people be able to install Windows, or other 3rd party content? Yes. Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes. [0]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq
  • modeless 5y ago
    That is a great link. Perhaps even more interesting is this: Valve is working with anti-cheat vendors for Linux (Proton) support. So one of the biggest remaining obstacles to Linux gaming may soon be addressed as a side effect of this.
    • dkdbejwi383 5y ago
      I hope they put some effort into anticheat on Linux for their own games. Team Fortress 2 has been barely playable for the past year because of cheaters running bots using widely available software which Valve seemingly can’t detect on Linux.
      • CreepGin 5y ago
        With YOLOv4-based aimbots on the rise, it's really a losing battle even for the most anticheat infused games.
        • episteme 5y ago
          Not sure what the connection is between YOLOv4 and difficulty of detection? Isn't YOLOv4 about object detection? No matter how good your object detection is, you need to read the game and influence the input which is the part an anticheat is trying to detect, no?
          • sudosysgen 5y ago
            There is no way to defeat an aimbot that just reads the screen, detects enemies, and moves a mouse.
• gigel82 5y ago
  I try Proton a few times a year and the experience is almost always disappointing; I'm not even a hardcore gamer, so mostly playing 2-3 year old games which I'd expect good experience with. However, if they ramp up investment and actually make Proton viable for the majority of titles, this is very bad news for Microsoft / Windows.
  • fartcannon 5y ago
    I play old and new games. It's nearly flawless. The only things that don't work, don't work because they're locked into special DRM. The achievement here is nothing short of astounding.
  • azornathogron 5y ago
    While we're reporting our experience, I'll say that my experience with Proton has been highly mixed. By which I mean I have seen several games work pretty much flawlessly, and several that were pretty much totally busted, and many in between. I think there are also quite a lot of games that benefit from customising the Proton setup instead of just using the default configuration (there are often guides online for particular games, advising what version with what tweaks will make things work), but tbh I rarely have the motivation to go down that route. I usually check protondb before buying things. For what it's worth, I no longer have a Windows install. If a game doesn't have a Linux version and doesn't work on Wine/Proton, I just live without that game. I will say that I give Valve major kudos for their work on Proton even with its limitations. It's one of the primary reasons that I continue to use Steam and haven't done much with GOG or other sources (despite GOG's admirable stance on DRM)
  • ttctciyf 5y ago
    > make Proton viable for the majority of titles Protondb[1], which collects user reports, says: 18,811 games reported 15,261 games work which is about 81% - a bit more than a simple majority. 1: https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/
  • phendrenad2 5y ago
    Yeah this will be an interesting test. They're eliminating all of the variables but one (which game is running). No more "works on my machine" protondb reports! It either works on Steam Deck or it doesn't. Excited to see what they can do with that power.
• toddmorey 5y ago
  I know from first-hand experience as a dad of a gamer that AAA PC games aren't optimized for space in any way and 64GB of storage is nowhere near enough. I know they are trying to hit a price point, but for all practical purposes, this thing starts at $529 (where you get what I'd consider the minimum of 256GB).
  • throwaway378037 5y ago
    I thought the same at first, but then again, a lot of people play indie games first and foremost which tend to be smaller, and it also has the sd card slot
• ulysses 5y ago
  Looks nice, but... It doesn't appear to be set up to work without logging in to Steam first. That really reduces the portability.
  • LegitShady 5y ago
    It's literally a pc.
• OnionBlender 5y ago
  I've been wanting to try to write games for the Switch but this looks like a good alternative.
  • AuryGlenz 5y ago
    Good luck getting a dev kit. I had a relatively successful game/app on the Wii U, wanted to make a sequel, and have been rejected 3 times without reason.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• nikstar 5y ago
  A bit worried about the screen. 1280x800, 400 nits, 7 in - nothing to write home about, and marketing on the website does not focus on display at all. Everything else looks really strong though.
• modeless 5y ago
  I don't see any mention of VR. I wonder if they will support plugging in a Valve Index. Seems like it should be possible through the dock. Oculus headsets wouldn't work though, since they don't support Linux. Unless you can install Windows on this thing somehow... Edit: Yes you can install Windows: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq This might be a good companion for an Oculus Quest headset. $299 for Quest plus $399 for this and you get access to the Steam library of PC VR games in addition to the Quest library.
  • nameless912 5y ago
    Not a chance in hell that this runs SteamVR with acceptable performance, though. I'm not convinced that this will work as a VR rig at all.
    • autoexec 5y ago
      they say you can, but good luck to you: IGN: Can I play VR off of it? Pierre-Loup Griffais: I mean, it has all the connectivity. You would need [a lot] to do that, but that's not really what we're optimizing the performance for. IGN: So you can try it, but your mileage may vary. Pierre-Loup Griffais: Yeah.
    • fomine3 5y ago
      This Ryzen is faster than Snapdragon XR2 (855) that's core on Quest2, so there are no reason it can't run VR but is it practical is different story. XR2 is excellent for integrated device, but if it shouldn't integrated, gaming desktop is better rather that this portable machine.
  • traspler 5y ago
    I‘m not sure this delivers enough performance for decent PC level VR but you can install Windows, they say you are free to reinstall whatever OS you want.
• ugjka 5y ago
  I don't think the 64gb version is going to fly with AAA titles
  • moretti 5y ago
    it has a microSD card slot: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
• dimitrios1 5y ago
  There's enough demand for a more powerful handheld gaming device. Nintendo continues to let down their most avid and vocal fanbase by not producing a "Pro" model of the Switch that can run AAA classics. I think this will do really well.
• ProfessorLayton 5y ago
  Battery: 40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay Having the battery as low as 2hrs is brutal. I know the early Switch consoles weren't much better running AAA titles like BoTW but they've revised the chipset a few times since, and newer models floor at ~4.5hrs (3hrs for the lite). I'm all for more competition, but I'm not clear on who the intended audience is for this device.
  • thomascgalvin 5y ago
    It's not great, but I'd wager it's enough for a two-way train ride for most people, and almost certainly enough to commute in, charge at work, and commute home.
  • wongarsu 5y ago
    If the Steam Deck is successful I imagine that will give less demanding titles that will be much closer to 8 hours battery lifetime a nice boost. I'm suspect games like Among Us, Mindustry, Poly Bridge or Human Resource Machine or Life is Strange will boast a good battery runtime (just scrolling through my steam library). USB-C charging also opens the door to some quite large battery packs (Dells sells a 65Wh power bank)
    • rpmisms 5y ago
      Risk of Rain 2 boutta be lit on this thing.
  • ip26 5y ago
    A popular portable platform to target provides an incentive for PC game developers to improve their power efficiency. I wouldn't be surprised if PC games mostly didn't even measure power consumption.
• gfaure 5y ago
  Many people I know have bought more games on Steam than they could ever play (a behaviour encouraged by seasonal Steam sales). This strikes me as a great chance for people to discover and play titles that have sat in their collections for years.
  • samstave 5y ago
    How many arrows to the knee must I take?!?!?!
  • thomascgalvin 5y ago
    I really need to get around to beating Darkest Dungeon some year.
    • weatherlight 5y ago
      don't we all :) That game is hard!
    • Fire-Dragon-DoL 5y ago
      Omg. Darkest dungeon on this thing will feel amazing
  • mikepurvis 5y ago
    Guilty. For various reasons, I just don't find gaming on my laptop or media computer an enjoyable experience. Too much dealing with thermals, audio/controller issues, random driver crashes and updates (thanks AMD), etc etc. I know I can get it to work, but when I'm at the point in the day where I just want to play a game for an hour before bed, the PS4 can have me into it in 10 seconds or less with a very low likelihood of drama. Anyway, I know this isn't universal, but it's enough of a thing for me that I've even re-bought Humble Bundle games on PSN just so I can enjoy playing them that way. Maybe Steam Deck would be polished enough to change my mind?
    • TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
      I ditched my PC for a PS4 a few years back, and the quality of life improvement was tremendous. No more endlessly updating... everything, down to the MOUSE DRIVERS. Just hit the button, and pick up where you left off. I used to worry about the thermal cycle of playing Civ 5 on my MBP, but it's a 2019, and I WANT it to wear out early -- if such a thing is possibly -- to justify upgrading to an M-based, TouchBar-less version sooner.
• trey-jones 5y ago
  > Exclusive virtual keyboard theme They will monetize UI skins for this as well it seems.
• Crash0v3rid3 5y ago
  I’d like a device that streams my home PC games with decent handheld controls, it doesn’t need to do anything else. Any recommendations?
  • jjcm 5y ago
    Given steam PCs can stream between each other, I suspect this would be able to as well. Otherwise there's the nvidia shield portable, though I haven't tried it.
  • t0mbstone 5y ago
    You can use Steam Link to stream games from your PC to your phone or tablet. For decent handheld controls, simply pair a PS4 or PS5 controller (or even an Xbox Series X controller) with your phone/tablet over bluetooth. All you need now is a phone mount for the controller and you are set. For example, google: "PS5 controller phone mount" for a big selection of options available for sale. The only downside to this type of gaming is the latency. Some people don't mind the latency from streaming games, but it really bothers me.
  • schmorptron 5y ago
    This can do that. Or you could get a clamp controller for your phone, and use the Steam Link app.
• OscarCunningham 5y ago
  Most online gaming is currently borked on Linux because the anticheat software doesn't work. Does this get around that somehow? Will I be able to use the same method on my Linux machine? EDIT: Otherwise 'runs the latest AAA games - and runs them really well' seems like oversell. EDIT2: From their 'software' page: 'For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors.' Yes!
  • traspler 5y ago
    You should be able to install Windows on it. As they say on the website you are free in your choice of OS. Then the anticheat shouldn‘t be a problem.
  • Anunayj 5y ago
    This is such good news for linux users! Since this means more linux compatibility, rather than game studios going "Just use Windows".
• mastrsushi 5y ago
  A more expensive Nintendo Switch with the attractiveness and weight of the Sega Nomad. Complimented by the extensive Linux gaming library. Brought to you by the maniacs at Valve who lost their minds somewhere around Portal 2. Just listen to that mobile AMD64 go hnnnnnngggggg Edit: LR 4 and 5? what monster was this designed for? I’m glad to see Valve attempting to be creative again. But this is an idea we all drew in our 8th grade composition notebooks.
  • Ancapistani 5y ago
    > A more expensive Nintendo Switch and? Consider this is HN, which is largely populated by people with the disposable income that this doesn't much matter. > with the attractiveness and weight of the Sega Nomad ... which competed with the Gameboy > Complimented by the extensive Linux gaming library. First, this is much larger than you might expect. Second, it's only limited _on the device_. I see this being used as a thin client into a desktop gaming PC that you already own, which presumably will be running Windows.
    • mastrsushi 5y ago
      > Consider this is HN Consider this is the gaming community which already owns PCs and consoles that either outperform or have larger, richer libraries than this thing. > ... which competed with the Gameboy You mean the more successful, lighter competitor with a better library? > First, this is much larger than you might expect. Really not that big considering the demands of actual gamers. Especially compared to already established platforms >I see this being used as a thin client into a desktop gaming PC that you already own $400 thin client
• MR4D 5y ago
  Uh, anyone else think this is poor (confusing) branding compared to the Stream Deck from Elgato? https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck
  • floatingatoll 5y ago
    Never heard of it, so no. But I've heard of Elgato, and of Steam!
• SN76477 5y ago
  Why are Valve trying to reinvent the pc? Make games and services.
  • sekai 5y ago
    What? Have you seen Nintendo Switch sales numbers?
• dantondwa 5y ago
  And so, this is what Proton was for. Hope this is a success, as the success of Linux as a gaming platform is strictly linked to the success of this. It does look very appealing: it could become a Switch with the whole PC library available. Damn cool.
  • Thaxll 5y ago
    " PC library available" That's the problem proton does not run all the games.
    • alpaca128 5y ago
      It runs many more games than the Nintendo switch right from the start, with many people being able to play games on the go without buying them again. It's not perfect, but it sounds like a much better deal than the Steam Machines which didn't really offer any additional value to anyone and were much more limited.
    • paavohtl 5y ago
      You can install Windows on it too, to run run pretty much all the games.
    • freeflight 5y ago
      Proton supports around 15.000 games [0], I couldn't find a concrete number for all games on Switch, but this list [1] has around 4.000 of them. [0] https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Switch_games_(A%E2%80%93F) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Switch_games_...
      • hn8788 5y ago
        Protondb isn't completely reliable, it's all based on user generated reports of how well a game works. I've had games that were rated gold and platinum on ProtonDB fail to launch on my PC. Then you have people reporting that a game works great, but they say that they had to compile a custom version of Proton, not just use what's included with Steam.
• jimbob45 5y ago
  Valve is like 90s id Software without Carmack. They understand business models. They know that the money is to be made in game engines and game platforms, not games themselves. However, they’ve never had the technical talent and vision to execute on that. Half-life was supposed to be a demo for GoldSrc. It never took off and I can’t name a single 3rd party GoldSrc game. Likewise, Half-life 2 was supposed to be a demo to sell the Source engine but I’ve yet to see a successful Source title that wasn’t Valve-based. They tried with the Steam console (the name of which escapes me) and I don’t know anyone who owns one (despite the excellent controller). Now we’re at them trying their hand at a Nintendo Switch competitor. Based on their past failures, I don’t see this being any more of a success.
  • azornathogron 5y ago
    I think they've done fine with VR hardware, except for that market still being pretty small/niche in general. Oculus probably has a more well known brand, but the Valve VR hardware is - I think - pretty much best in class, and I think anyone would choose Valve over Facebook as a source of VR games. HL Alyx was well-received as well. But VR is still pretty niche. Steam itself is their biggest success of course, though that is not hardware. I do believe Steam took good perseverance and good execution to achieve the success that it's seen. (Re: perseverance, remember that when Steam first came out, people really hated the idea!)
  • twostorytower 5y ago
    Counter-Strike was a third party GoldSrc mod before Valve bought it and is arguably one of the most popular games of all time. Source has Titanfall as well as its spiritual successor, Apex Legends, which use a modified Source engine.
  • schmorptron 5y ago
    Titanfall, Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends all run on Source
• shusson 5y ago
  > 40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay Battery life doesn't seem too good.
  • lasagnaphil 5y ago
    I wonder if they would touch the Linux kernel a bit to improve things on power management. Vanilla Linux doesn't seem to provide good battery life for portable devices (at least, if we look at laptops.)
    • Ancapistani 5y ago
      Given the time, skill, and inclination to tinker, Arch has very good power management. Also considering that Steam is throwing dedicated dev resources at this and it will end up being a very limited array of hardware to need to support, I would expect improvements here.
• chme 5y ago
  > Do I need a Steam account to use Steam Deck? > The default Steam Deck experience requires a Steam account (it's free!). Games are purchased and downloaded using the Steam Store. That said, Steam Deck is a PC so you can install third party software and operating systems. I like their middle finger against other console and smartphone manufacturers.
  • vaylian 5y ago
    And making it clear that the PC platform is still alive and thriving from being free.
• kderbyma 5y ago
  I like this concept - it feels like they are repurposing rather than price gauging like everyone seems to these days also I like that this may actually upset the mobile game space which frankly is a stain on the gaming industry imo
• hyperion2010 5y ago
  I dual boot windows and linux, but have not booted into windows in years. I can play many games on linux now, but having a completely separate system means I can keep games and work separate. The dock also means it can be used as a real gaming computer. I also refuse to play mobile games, but might make an exception for the ability to play full pc games on the go. Normally I would never consider such a device, but the price point, size, and the dock makes it almost a no-brainer.
• jazzyjackson 5y ago
  If I want to develop software for this platform do I have to go through steam? Btw Looking at their link for developers and they accidentally a word here: > This site is a resource for Steam developers - here you can about developing for Steam Deck, developer kits, and more.
  • msie 5y ago
    Probably not. You can load anything through the SD card slot. Just create software and load it through there or the many USB ports it has! They are saying you can even overwrite the OS so they are not restricting you.
  • Arch-TK 5y ago
    No, given the design of SteamOS there's nothing stopping you from running linux native games on the device outside of steam or running windows native games on it using the proton bundled with steam.
• adamc 5y ago
  For those of us with older eyes, I am skeptical -- the screen is pretty small for the amount of detail PC games often want to display.
  • lasagnaphil 5y ago
    The screen's as big as the largest model for Nintendo Switch, I think the hardware is fine. The problem is that most PC games are optimized for higher resolution and screen size (especially the 4x or strategy ones), and unlike Nintendo where there is a standard 5.5" ~ 7" size you have to optimize for, the PC developers don't have any top-down pressure to port their game for smaller screens.
  • collinvandyck76 5y ago
    somewhat off topic, but i'm 45 and just recently got my first pair of prescription reading glasses -- a game changer!
• phront 5y ago
  What video card is equivalent to this steam deck hardware?
  • lasagnaphil 5y ago
    It's using a custom AMD APU, so I estimate it would be probably a bit weaker than Ryzen 7 5700G's integrated GPU (1.6 TFLOPS advertised vs 2.1 TFLOPs for 5700G). Though the performance may get a lot worse if you're using it on battery power, or the device gets hot enough to get throttled.
• krylon 5y ago
  Those specs sound quite impressive for the price. I wonder if one could run a custom Linux distro on it? It looks like a sweet device, but I'm not enough of a gamer to spend that kind of money on a device I can only play games on.
• bob1029 5y ago
  This is neat, but I really would like to see Valve putting a tiny fraction of what must be a monstrous private cash pile into some new content that can run on these devices (and my old-school desktop). I feel like I am in the middle of a desert of gaming content right now... I can see the mirage of BF2042 and AOE4 on the horizon, but who knows how that is going to play out once we get there. Maybe Netflix (with the recent EA exec acquihire) can pick up some of the AAA gaming slack with their even more gigantic pool of cash and inclination to greenlight and fund everything that even remotely sounds interesting. I'm totally cool with a role reversal if Valve execs feel the need to master all manner of hardware. Someone else will eventually fill that software role.
  • NikolaNovak 5y ago
    >>"I feel like I am in the middle of a desert of gaming content right now..." Sorry, just to check... Are you saying you are genuinely bored and have nothing to play right now? I am envious beyond belief.... I feel there are literally hundreds of high quality brilliant games out there in a real and virtual backlog I'd love to play, but time is limited and I'll realistically never get to them :-/
  • smoldesu 5y ago
    I'd imagine that Valve is counting on others to fill that software void, as they frequently have in the past. Frankly? I can't blame them. Proton has gotten to the point where most Windows games "just work" on Linux the same day they release for PC. Death Stranding, Cyberpunk 2077 and Battlefield 5 all ran on Linux within a week of their release, and I'd imagine that compatibility will only get better as time goes on.
• christkv 5y ago
  Take my money
• yehudalouis 5y ago
  Halfway down the page on https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ they have a graphic of a user logging in with the username 'gordon' and an obscured password, which conveniently has the same number of letters as halflife3, haha.
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  • BiteCode_dev 5y ago
    Well, wouldn't it be a killer move to announce HL3 on steam, with heavy com on the mobile gameplay?
    • yehudalouis 5y ago
      Maybe. I, uh, would be a little nonplussed if HL3 was announced a mobile game. I'd even go so far as to say that I'd be miffed.
      • chaorace 5y ago
        "Do you guys not have phones?"
      • vaylian 5y ago
        Highly unlikely. Because the Steam Deck is not a mobile gaming device in the classical sense. And they definitely want to make HL3 accessible to regular PCs as well.
    • cwkoss 5y ago
      I think "mobile" and "handheld" are pretty distinct categories at this point. Switch games a pretty qualitatively different than most of the junk in the android app store.
  • TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
    I have always said that they are sitting on HL3 until they release a proper console they felt they could throw their weight behind. The Steam Box sure wasn't. This could indeed be it...
• jalgos_eminator 5y ago
  Everyone is talking about gaming, but do you guys think this could be a laptop replacement? I've been intrigued by docking tablets for years now, but haven't found one I like yet (that can run linux well, so no Surface). I like the tablet form factor for web browsing and watching videos, but nearly all the tablets are too phone-like to get real work done. I don't actually play games much anymore, but do people actually want a portable gaming device in addition to their phone? They always felt like gimmicks to me.
  • ragebol 5y ago
    Rather than a laptop, it would make a handy remote control for eg. a robot, with visualization integrated.
    • mmis1000 5y ago
      And also comes with a touch screen. So you can put whatever amount of custom control you want on it.
  • schmorptron 5y ago
    You can probably do it, it's just that the screen is probably too small to get any real major work done, but some quick VSCode editing should be no problem at all. You can also connect usb or bluetooth peripherals as much as you want.
    • zhynn 5y ago
      You can connect it to external screen also just using a usb-c dongle with hdmi on it.
      • jay_kyburz 5y ago
        And I already own one. It came with my Pine Phone!
  • X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago
    Honestly full linux desktop in a handheld form factor is pretty attractive. One of the biggest pain points of linux laptops is getting the drivers right. That being said The screen is quite small if you are dealing with text & while you can do some typing with the steam controller you won't want to do too much. If your general set up is doing a tiny bit of work while away from a dock (with mouse + keyboard + monitor) and you dock it most of the time I think this could be a really nice package.
• xcuseme 5y ago
  They should be coding HL3 instead!
• ivrrimum 5y ago
  Have been using Nintendo Switch for a while(I travel a lot, its great that its portable and can be connected to TV's in hotels). Will definitely check Steam Deck out!
• EamonnMR 5y ago
  Anyone know what the story is for running non-steam games on this? I'm thinking 2000s win32 keyboard-and-mouse games, or even MacOS9 emulation.
  • MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    It's a fully fledged PC. You can install anything you want. So if you can run the emulator on linux, you can do it on here.
• tus89 5y ago
  Stadia should have made something like this obsolete but...Google.
  • ElFitz 5y ago
    Tried Stadia. Wouldn’t ever let me start a game no matter what I tried. Ended up giving up after two months and went back to either GeForce Now or my Windows partition, depending on the game.
  • Polycryptus 5y ago
    I don't think it's currently possible for any cloud service to make this obsolete, at least in the ways that I'd want to use a portable gaming device. Which is to say, mostly in transit, which tends to have spotty (at best) internet accessibility. (In the air on an airplane, between stops on the subway, ...)
• intricatedetail 5y ago
  No information where they are going to make the hardware. I hope it's not China.
• mushufasa 5y ago
  With those specs and that price, this would make a wonderful portable linux machine if someone can build a case with a keyboard fold-out
  • hypertele-Xii 5y ago
    Such a thing really needs a cellular modem. Wifi only just doesn't cut it.
• notjustanymike 5y ago
  Anyone else getting some Atari Lynx vibes?
• liminalsunset 5y ago
  Can the 64GB version be upgraded DIY with a NVMe SSD? It claims to be a eMMC but goes on to clarify it is a PCIe Gen2 x1 connection. Does this mean it is just a m.2 card?
  • JeremyNT 5y ago
    That's what I'm wondering here. If it's just a normal m.2 slot then you're way better off price-wise getting the entry level unit and upgrading later on.
  • msie 5y ago
    You probably can. Everything seems standard hw and they are touting the ability to add anything to it and even replace the OS. It won't be locked down like Apple's hw.
  • rasz 5y ago
    AMD CPUs have dedicated eMMC controller on die. eMMC flash is super cheap compared to dedicated pcie SSD.
  • kart23 5y ago
    https://youtu.be/oLtiRGTZvGM?t=477 https://youtu.be/oLtiRGTZvGM?t=477 unfortunately, IGN's video says you can't upgrade the internal storage. I'd guess its soldered on.
    • postalrat 5y ago
      You are making a lot of assumptions.
      • kart23 5y ago
        A valve employee literally said the internal storage isn't expandable. And why do you think it's non-expandable? https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-valve-faq-big-questions-answered https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-valve-faq-big-questi...
• lasagnaphil 5y ago
  Although this is a pretty niche case - this might be a godsend to those who have too many little indie games piled up in their library and actually want to finish some of those in commute. The hardware doesn't seem to be apt for the latest AAA games, but that's maybe fine - the majority of Steam games aren't really that taxing in terms of hardware.
• typon 5y ago
  A $400 dev machine running Arch?
  • lasagnaphil 5y ago
    It doesn't have a keyboard and a comfortably-large-enough screen though. You would be better off using a Chromebook with Crostini for less than that price.
    • typon 5y ago
      16GB lpddr5, solid AMD CPU, NVME SSD?
      • lasagnaphil 5y ago
        For me, the existence of a usable screen and keyboard is far more important than raw specs. (Maybe it's fine if you're the type of developer who always brings your HHKB and secondary portable monitor with you...)
• flanbiscuit 5y ago
  I might be the target audience for this. I have a steam account for years but I barely touch it. I don't feel like building a PC, and games for MacOS were limited last time I checked. I've been happy playing my Switch and PS4. My first thought when I saw this was that it better be able to connect to an external screen, and it does! An added bonus would be if I could hook up external controllers to it as well. I've heard of Valve's Proton[1] but not sure how stable it is and if it can support any Windows game on their platform. If so, then that would be pretty amazing to have access to some Windows-only games without building a PC. I'm definitely interested but I'm in no rush. I'd rather upgrade to a PS5 first but I'm gonna keep my eye on this. If the reviews in the long term are good maybe I'll get the 2nd generation of it. Wonder if they'll release a Oculus-Quest-like all-in-one VR system next. 1. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton
  • mariusor 5y ago
    Here is the community created ProtonDB: https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/ You can check how well titles are supported, or if you need tweaks to make it work.
  • bmurphy1976 5y ago
    Proton is absolutely incredible. It doesn't support all games, but what it does support work fantastically well. It's a great 80/20 solution for your games library. You still need to have Windows for a couple bleeding edge must play AAA games and a few slackers that haven't been ported over, but there's a wealth of wonderful games that run great on Linux now. More than enough to last a lifetime.
    • jjice 5y ago
      Proton is the reason I might say goodbye to windows for good after the Windows 11 mandatory account announcement. It's only going to get better too. It's seriously one of the biggest deals for making the Linux desktop more viable for most people.
  • smoldesu 5y ago
• frompdx 5y ago
  I think the Switch gets this type of handheld play right by having detachable controllers. I never use my Switch with the controllers attached to the side. Instead I use a separate pro controller when playing handheld mode. Maybe this doesn't matter if you can still use a separate controller. Beyond that, it's not clear to me what this will support. If I can play Fallout, any of them, I will seriously consider buying this.
  • manojlds 5y ago
    It's also funny that all the games on the screen are available on the Switch.
  • AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    The website is pretty clear: this runs SteamOS 3.0, which is Arch Linux with a KDE Plasma desktop. You can run anything you want on it, including switching out the OS if you want, and it uses standard PC peripherals. In other words: your wireless XBox controller (or whatever) should work fine and you can play Fallout whatever as long as it is supported by Proton or you put Windows on the thing.
  • arc-in-space 5y ago
    This should support literally all Fallout games, out of the box.
• maerF0x0 5y ago
  I want to know if I can stream and play on a TV or external monitor. It will double the value of this device if I can also play on a bigger screen at home.
  • msie 5y ago
    Yes. It's a PC with lots of ports. They showed it connected to a large desktop display.
• CosmicShadow 5y ago
  First thing I thought was, did they buy all the old Wii U's and repurpose them?
• choeger 5y ago
  Wow. This thing will either flop massively or change gaming. I really hope for the latter.
• danso 5y ago
  IGN has a detailed hands-on which really boosted my interest: https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions-details-valve-handheld-gaming-pc https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions... The joystick layout looks funky to me, but apparently it works? > However, as soon as I held it myself, the layout felt completely natural: the intuitive hand orientation when you grab the Steam Deck is more straight up and down, like holding the sides of a steering wheel, whereas with a controller your hands are at more of an angle. As a result, it’s easy and natural for your thumbs to reach the Steam Deck’s face buttons, D-pad, and thumbsticks. And as a Mac user who has to load up Boot Camp to play most of my Steam library, a portable dockable PC is extremely appealing: > As a result, in desktop mode the Steam Deck honestly just feels like a PC. The OS is Linux-based, but it feels largely familiar to Windows and is capable of running everything I threw at it from either platform. I played a bit of Factorio and Death Stranding with mouse and keyboard on a 32” monitor, and if it weren’t for the Steam Deck sitting docked next to me on the desk I would have forgotten it wasn’t running off a traditional desktop PC.
  • pqdbr 5y ago
    As a Mac user, I'm very interested as well. I don't play any games nowadays because I cant justify spending all that money for a latest generation PC, let alone the space it takes. If I can have a dockable PC that can churn decent frame rates, It's just a matter of switching the input on my monitor and switching the bluetooth mouse/keyboard to it. For me, the fact it's portable is just icing on the cake to be honest. I'd buy it even if it didn't have a screen or controls to be honest.
    • mortenjorck 5y ago
      I'm in largely the same boat, but with a Playstation 4 (and no current Playstation 5 plans until Sony releases a version that is both readily available and not ugly). I have a Steam library full of games bought on sale that my Mac was never quite up to the task of running, and the prospect of having them all on a neat little handheld for less than the cost of a midrange iPad is awfully compelling.
    • jonny_eh 5y ago
• Thaxll 5y ago
  Arch linux really? Does not make much sense tbh Ubuntu would have been imo way better. Why would you want a rolling OS for some hardware.
  • tlackemann 5y ago
    Ubuntu would be bloated garbage for this use. I'm sure they're maintaining their own Arch repositories to ensure their OS is stable.
    • Thaxll 5y ago
      So why use Arch then? You're not going to use the main feature of it which is rolling release and constant updates.
      • olyjohn 5y ago
        You're not going to do anything to it. Valve will be the ones monitoring the Arch repos and testing it before releasing it to you. Maybe they want to have the option to have the latest updates, if they deem them stable, rather than having to wait.
    • heavyset_go 5y ago
      Kubuntu is hardly bloated, and if you're really worried about size, Ubuntu has minimal and server images you can base a Plasma-powered desktop off of.
• aaomidi 5y ago
  If this supports dGPUs, it can actually replace my desktop.
  • lasagnaphil 5y ago
    The device has a USB-C port so I think it will probably work. People have been successful connecting up their eGPUs to the GPD Win 3 (which is a similar device)
    • danhor 5y ago
      To tunnel pci-e over usb-c Thunderbolt or USB-4 is needed, which this device doesn't seem to support.
      • lasagnaphil 5y ago
        Oh, I've mistaken usb-c for thunderbolt, you're right.
• dbreunig 5y ago
  Nearly 70% heavier than the Switch. That's a deal breaker for me, sadly.
• azhenley 5y ago
  Reminds me of a modern take on the Sega Game Gear!
  • k12sosse 5y ago
    Wonder how many AA batteries this will burn through in a day though.
• rowanG077 5y ago
  Damn this hardware in a laptop form factor would be awesome. I really want to buy it but I hardly game...
• mattfrommars 5y ago
  I do find intriguing Valve continues to be a private company. Unlike the rush start up these days have to do an IPO.
  • heavyset_go 5y ago
    It seems that IPOs are sometimes the only way for investors and founders to cash out, or get a return on their investments, even if the companies themselves are unprofitable or unsustainable. I don't know about their investors, but I assume they aren't pushing for an IPO because Valve works well and is profitable as it is.
  • Ekaros 5y ago
    Valve doesn't need money. They make enough profit as it is, purely from digital goods and their revenue cut. So why give up control when you are free to do what ever you want. In the end it is extremely profitable company.
  • robotnikman 5y ago
    I'd rather it be that way, so they are not pressured by investors to extract every single cent from their consumers. They have a very loyal consumer base which trusts them and which is keeping them afloat, they don't want to blow that trust
• christkv 5y ago
  This will be great for the development of proton as more companies will be incentivized to make sure their game runs on linux to target the deck.
• ohyes 5y ago
  The one issue with this is going to be the storage space. 512GB isn't really enough for multiple AAA games. It will also be interesting to see what the battery life is going to be on this thing, and how well they've tuned the controller hardware. It could either be an amazing upgrade for mobile gaming or incredibly janky.
  • birdman3131 5y ago
    Looks at my 374Gb Ark install. Yah thats gonna be an issue. (I think about 50gb is mods but still.)
    • derkopf 5y ago
      I wasn’t going to PC gaming for a long time. They went nuts with the amount of storage space needed.
• z3t4 5y ago
  I hope it has better latency than the Nintendo Switch - if you build your own hardware with display included, why not make it fast!? Why does it need to have a 20+ ms response time!?
  • beefjerkins 5y ago
    I have confidence that Valve isn't going to deliver a product of this caliber and then deliver a subpar screen response time.
• jeppester 5y ago
  Due to its openness and built-in controller this looks like a great device for emulators and remote play / cloud streaming.
  • doublepg23 5y ago
    Are people really looking for _another_ device for emulators?
    • k12sosse 5y ago
      This one has all sorts of input styles, covers a lot of arcade games. No trackball or dial, though :) so marble madness and arkanoid be damned. Touchpad, Touch Screen, Stick, D-Pad..
• rdtwo 5y ago
  I don’t know if this has changed but the problem with This is the same as the stream controller. Pc game interfaces aren’t designed for controllers and aren’t intuitive. This can be seen if you just compare Minecraft Xbox vs Java and the lack of some little menu optimization really makes Java a pain to run on controller only.
• COMMENT___ 5y ago
  I have a Steam Controller. It performed well in several games. However, my experience with it and most games was very bad. Most games did not really support it and community keybinding presets were either non-existent or unplayable. I had to learn how to use a controller as if I did not use any in my life. I had to spend a lot of time to get everything up and running and learn the controls. Most of the time I switched back to wireless keyboard and mouse or xbox controller. I hope that controls on this device will be decent and the games are playable.
• MangoCoffee 5y ago
  this is a very interesting product. x86 for handheld instead of ARM. ARM for desktop and server x86 for handheld i love it
• feifan 5y ago
  To me, someone whose gaming experience rounds down to "never", but who's casually interested in maybe playing some games, this looks very appealing. Switch form-factor but it runs PC games? I don't need to carry around a tower with me and sit in front of a desk and disconnect my peripherals from my other computer? Sounds great!
• ElFitz 5y ago
  I wonder what this might mean for the Valve Index. I mean, 1.6TFlops is still far from an RTX 2080 (10.1 TFlops), by a factor of 10, but still…
  • mciancia 5y ago
    >>> 1280 * 800/(3840 * 2160) 0.12345679012345678 Assuming ideal scaling with resolution, this should be similar (or better) in terms of performance as playing in 4k on 2080
    • ElFitz 5y ago
      Sure, but that is not what I meant. > I wonder what this might mean for the Valve Index. -> Could this somehow lead to a standalone Valve VR headset at least just as good as the Vive? The Index has a 1440 x 1600 resolution per eye, at 120Hz. By your own calculation, that means >>> 1440 * 1600 * 2 / (3840 / 2160) 0.55 So, if I follow correctly, 10x less performance for half the number of pixels, meaning 5x worse than playing in 4k on a 2080? Which means that embedding this specific hardware in an Index absolutely wouldn’t do the job. Correct?
      • Guillaume86 5y ago
        Of course, if you want to compare, compare to other embedded hardware on the market like the Quest 2, it probably beats it quite handily.
        • ElFitz 5y ago
          Probably. And reframing it that way would make sense, for some people. But it’s not what I was interested in when looking into it. My question was "Could this lead to some improvements on the best experience I’ve had so far in VR?" Not "What does this mean for devices I have never cared for?" But I definitely see your point; it’s just not what I am interested in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• jl6 5y ago
  “Installing Linux is hard” is about to flip on its head as people find themselves with Linux installed by default and instead having to figure out how to install Windows (and pay for it explicitly).
  • phendrenad2 5y ago
    I don't think people are going to install Windows on this, it's unsuited to this kind of tiny screen.
    • MikusR 5y ago
      It's 7" 1280x800 that's more than required.
  • X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago
    Arch no less
    • tgv 5y ago
      I suppose they have their own repository, and can control the updates.
  • judge2020 5y ago
    Windows barely locks anything up when you run it not activated, and it's super simple to install it without a license.
• SkyMarshal 5y ago
  Maybe a mod can correct the title to "Steam Deck". This post made me think Valve had introduced a second product, Steam Desk, in addition to Steam Deck.
  • dang 5y ago
    Yes, fixed now.
• squarefoot 5y ago
  This is great! I don't know how much of it is open in the -all specs open- sense, but being able to install usual OSes on it, paired with the really nice price, makes the platform interesting for a lot more uses other than gaming. In fact, I don't see it as a simple gaming platform but also a portable terminal with lots of buttons. Hopefully more competition in this field will also help bring down prices of other interesting gear such as the GPD handhelds and mini-PCs, the One Xplayer etc.
• spiralganglion 5y ago
  Impressions: * 1.47 pounds is 666g, versus the Switch’s 398g (with Joy-Con attatched). 67% heavier. * I do like that the two people I can see on the landing page both appear to be female, and not overtly "models" at that. I don’t want to read into whether this implies anything about what the marketing for this system might be — rather, I just like that we’re seeing a further erosion of the video-games-as-boys-club trope. * The visual appearance of this console is brazenly ugly. It sure feels like they were unwilling to compromise something for the sake of appearance, though I’m not sure what that something is. * They claim that there’s no performance difference between tiers, but obviously disk speed has an impact on how games perform whenever they need to fetch data. This feels like a bit of skating by on ambiguity rather than being fully forthright about tradeoffs — which only hurts since the price jump from the entry level to the middle tier is so dramatic, and we don’t yet know pricing for the dock. * Countdown until this thing is EOL? Any bet on what the firesale will look like? No, I’m not assuming it’ll flop necessarily, we just all know Valve’s track record for being fickle about hardware. * This really goes to show how much prowess Nintendo has at hardware, and how hard mass-market product design is. According to my napkin math, Nintendo and Valve are both in the same ballpark in terms of financial status / resources. Though if the Xbox and Surface has shown us anything, if you keep trying and trying in earnest, you’ll eventually get there.
  • rchaud 5y ago
    An excessively negative take, why? 1.5 pounds is what the 2010 iPad weighed, people managed to use it just fine. As for visual appeal, who knows? PC gamer aesthetics seem to be oriented around dotting your CPU case with the most gauche RGB lights Amazon dropshippers have to offer. At least this is more toned down than say, a comparable Alienware product.
    • treesknees 5y ago
      The weight is pretty excessive for something you hold out in front of your face with two hands. Yes an 11 year old iPad weighs the same, but people tend to rest the edge of the iPad on a lap, chest, table. At least with the Nintendo Switch, I find it uncomfortable to play while resting it against something else. The angle on my wrists ends up being painful after say 20 minutes.
• vially 5y ago
  I'm going to buy this just to support Valve for their continued support in making Linux desktop a viable gaming platform. Their reasons may not be entirely altruistic, but there's no doubt that they had a tremendous impact on the Linux gaming ecosystem. And it's not just the Linux gamers that are benefiting from their work. They also seem to be doing good work on lower-level parts of the stack (e.g.: graphic drivers, Flatpak, etc) that are improving the Linux desktop in general.
  • mrzimmerman 5y ago
    Same. I already have $1,100 saved for a gaming PC, but since that might only buy a GPU right now I’ll just jump into this and hopefully wait out the GPU crunch.
    • agilob 5y ago
      Screen is 720p by default, but it can be used as a gaming laptop, which is really cool. I hope this will be new PSP
      • jonny_eh 5y ago
        I'm very eager to see how it does emulation, especially newer systems like Wii, Switch, and PS2/3.
    • rasz 5y ago
      This thing has GPU 2x weaker than 8 year old GTX 760. You might as well buy one used for $100.
      • mlindner 5y ago
        That's not really true because of the advancements in compute technology and energy efficiency since then. It'll definitely use a lot less energy than a GTX 760 at the very least.
        • 5y ago
• davidkunz 5y ago
  Gamers be like: "btw I use Arch."
• shmerl 5y ago
  Handheld gaming console running Linux and allowing doing whatever you want with the OS - nice!
• myrloc 5y ago
  Would’ve been an instant win for me if I could do a Switch-style hookup to the TV. Without that, it’s just another limited mobile gaming console.
  • detaro 5y ago
    "would've"? it can do that, it has "USB-C" carrying video and a dock is announced.
  • dkdbejwi383 5y ago
    There is a dock available for this purpose.
• rchaud 5y ago
  I bought a gaming PC years ago, and I hate booting it up to play my Steam library, because of the constant, unending updates. Didn't turn on your PC for a week? Enjoy a 45-minute wait while Steam downloads and installs yet another giant update, preventing you from playing anything until it's done. If this is going to be like that, I'm out. Even though a device like this is what I've been looking for.
  • k12sosse 5y ago
    That is configurable, from within Steam. You can install updates on demand if you'd like to only update prior to playing. If you're not wanting updates at all, just keep it in offline mode until you need to go back. It's even adjustable per-game: you can keep your THICC titles to update on demand and the lightweights to keep updating as needed.
• whoisburbansky 5y ago
  Anyone else understand why the storage upgrades are described as "Faster" and "Fastest." At least for eMMC to NVMe, I can see how that can be described as "Faster," but how does increasing NVMe capacity get you "Fastest?"
  • cma 5y ago
    Higher capacity is often faster by reading from more underlying chips (or layers?) in parallel.
  • gorbypark 5y ago
    A lot of times larger SSD have a faster throughput. If each flash module can do n mB/sec then 2n is twice as much. Obviously there’s overhead and how much the actual bus can manage, but plenty of 512gb SSDs are ~20% faster than their 256gb brethren.
  • albio 5y ago
    There's WD Blue and WD Black NVMe products for less/more performance. Perhaps it's like that?
• vngzs 5y ago
  This seems to integrate tech from Steam Controllers. I.e., dual touchpads on a gamepad style layout. They went through many prototypes [0] attempting to create something as portable as a console controller but as accurate as a mouse. I certainly prefer it to a touchscreen. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/3FskweR.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3FskweR.jpg
• 4ec0755f5522 5y ago
  The abbreviation for Canadian Dollar is CAD, not CDN. Sometimes C$ or CA$. I checked Valve's website for an email address to let them know but it seems they have scrubbed it quite deliberately. This is not a surprise, it's something we see all the time with scale: if a 100 person company can have 100 million customers, they will happily do so and gladly take their money, but never scale up enough people to deal with this extreme staff:customer ratio. Google, FB, etc., we know they all have terrible customer service and that this is the reason. Seems with Valve it's the same.
• disambiguation 5y ago
  this is great! i hope we get access to the underlying linux system in a similar vein, i just finished installing ubuntu on my Switch. It's a lot of fun so i can imagine this will be even better with fancier hardware!
• cartesius13 5y ago
  Does anyone have any idea why they ditched Debian to use Arch?
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• dang 5y ago
  To read all the comments, click 'More' at the bottom of each page, or like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=3 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=3 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=4 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=4 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=5 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=5 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=6 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27846969&p=6
• qwertox 5y ago
  Nice hardware specs[1]. It's really delightful to see such relatively powerful hardware in that form factor, because if stuff like this catches on, it will only push the market of those small form factor PCs which make really good home servers. Like the industrial SBCs that can be found on http://linuxgizmos.com/ http://linuxgizmos.com/ If I were into gaming, I'd definitely consider getting one of these. [1] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
• aceazzameen 5y ago
  I'm really curious how hot this will get under load and what kind of cooling it will have.
• yobert 5y ago
  I'm curious if they have this running wayland or X? I know KDE supports both nowadays.
• myworldmyrules 5y ago
  It is similar to Nintendo switch https://nintendosmash.com/valve-announces-steam-deck-a-hybrid-console-very-similar-to-nintendo-switch/ https://nintendosmash.com/valve-announces-steam-deck-a-hybri...
• driftywinds 5y ago
  Wow its a handheld computer, sounds like a customizable and (arguably) better Switch
  • pimeaple 5y ago
    Yep, I think that was exactly their play, blurring the lines between a console and a PC, making this a console-PC
• slmjkdbtl 5y ago
  This is my chance to finally play the 1000+ games I bought on steam but never touched. Curious to know how they map the buttons / pads / sticks to PC game inputs, or games have to manually provide input scheme for this system.
  • saladuh 5y ago
    Steam input. If a game supports steam input, the developers can create a mapping for controllers that is automatically loaded for users using a controller. You're also free to modify these layouts in the comprehensive steam input UI provided. People can also share their mappings for a specific game which anyone can select in the community section for that game's steam input menu. Often times community mappings will be better than developer created mappings, and the community mappings have a rating system so you just search by highest rated or most downloads etc. The best part about steam input is that it makes enabling gyro support easy as, so long as the game supports simultaneous mouse and controller input at the same time (which Valve exclaims to developers in the steamworks documentation to make this possible).
• msie 5y ago
  This is great because there is only one platform to program for. The previous Steam Console was a big failure because it had so many different hardware configurations. This could be awesome!!!
• mdoms 5y ago
  Cool another Valve product that won't be sold in my country.
• sprafa 5y ago
  if the microSD card slot works ok, I think the price is exactly right. Doesn't the switch run games from SD cards?
• olovets 5y ago
  dfsf
• drumhead 5y ago
  Is this a reference model, could be see other PC manufacturers build their own versions of the Steam Deck?
• Roritharr 5y ago
  Two gripes: Wifi 6e should be included for a new device that's launching for gaming this holiday. OFDMA really has the potential to decrease the lag of cloud gaming when playing wirelessly. 2 why would you just let the microsd card dangle in the breeze like that?!? It's a necessity at the storage sizes provided and ruining that slot will make the whole device a big hassle to use.
• donatj 5y ago
  > 2 x full-size analog sticks with capacitive touch That’s listed separate from the track pads. The sticks have capacitive touch?
  • cma 5y ago
    It will allow for only activating the gyro when the stick is touched, which is a great feature for augmenting aim without having the gyro wobbling the view all over the place all the time when not wanted (like when staking out through a window in an FPS).
• rewq4321 5y ago
  > "Steam Deck starts shipping December 2021 to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. More regions coming in 2022—stay tuned for more info." Does anyone know why hardware product launches tend to be region-constrained initially? Is is for shipping/logistics reasons, or legal/tax/etc stuff? Software/SaaS launches never have these constraints, so I figure it must be shipping related, but that would amaze me. Is there still no company that makes international shipping painless/simple? What would be the difficult part for Value here?
  • andrewmunsell 5y ago
    Shipping (distribution from local warehouses to avoid unnecessary customs surprises), taxes, certifications, (and I know it's not the case here but for some HW projects) regional electrical differences (50/60hz, 120/240v), and of course supply-- there's a number of differences that could lead to a hardware project restricting the initial launch.
• vyrotek 5y ago
  Can I install Windows 11 on it?
  • msie 5y ago
    Yes
    • vyrotek 5y ago
      Do you have a source indicating that chip is on Microsoft's approved list for Win 11?
• owaislone 5y ago
  Only thing this and Steam OS is missing is native support for software like Easy Anti-Cheat. Because EAC explicitly refuses to work on wine (proton), it's impossible to run a huge number of AAA multiplayer games. I know Value probably cannot do much on it's own here though.
  • calebegg 5y ago
    "For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors." So presumably they are working on this
    • terramex 5y ago
      They are working with BattlEye and EAC to add anti-cheat support to Proton before launch. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq
      • phendrenad2 5y ago
        Probably going to have hardware root of trust, which I expect will heavily split the community.
        • throwaway2048 5y ago
          why would it, neither require this on windows
          • no_time 5y ago
            Windows doesn't have it so they don't cut off most of the playerbase. Linux + online gaming on the other hand is basically nonexistant right now so they don't have to deal with legacy hardware.
        • no_time 5y ago
          lol yeah. This might be the first PC-like device with a hardware root of trust that isn't completely broken (like intel's)
• calibas 5y ago
  This is the most interesting part to me: > On Steam Deck, your games run on a different operating system than the one on your desktop PC. It's a new version of SteamOS, built with Steam Deck in mind and optimized for a handheld gaming experience. It comes with Proton, a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run your games without any porting work needed from developers. For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors. Of course, it doesn't magically make every Win 10 game run on Linux without issue. Your favorite games may not even work, but it does make most games playable. More info: https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/
• mikkelam 5y ago
  So that’s why valve was pouring all this manpower into proton
• gtzi 5y ago
  Reminds me of Sega's Game Gear – oh, the memories!
  • ascagnel_ 5y ago
    I get more of a Sega Nomad vibe from it -- take the games you can play at home with you on the go, and you can even play them on a big TV (or monitor, in this case) when you travel, but the portable experience will have some notable caveats in terms of ergonomics, heat, weight, and battery life.
• kiriberty 5y ago
  The display specs seem very mediocre: Resolution: 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) Type: Optically bonded LCD for enhanced readability Display size: 7" diagonal Brightness: 400 nits typical Refresh rate: 60Hz I feel like they dropped the ball on d
  • jakeinspace 5y ago
    No point in a higher resolution display if you can't get above 30 fps.
  • rasz 5y ago
    Integrated graphics wont let you go higher with resolution. The big question is if the display supports variable refresh - by guess is not, and This is the big ball drop.
• sureglymop 5y ago
  It's crazy, it almost seems to be timed with the new Nintendo Switch announcement...
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• unixhero 5y ago
  I am getting one!
• ilyas121 5y ago
  How open is this platform to custom peripherals (wifi/bluetooth) ones? I've always wanted a nice controller for robotics projects with a touchscreen. Right now it seems like most hobby projects use a laptop and ps4/xbox controller.
  • X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago
    Sounds like it's just a custom linux install, so if you can get it working on another distro you can probably get it working here.
  • aero-glide2 5y ago
    Yes they mentioned you can use custom peripherals. If it works on linux, it should work on steam deck.
• baby 5y ago
  Did not see that coming! I’ve been saying for a while that the nintendo switch is one of the best idea of the decade and the poor quality leaves a lot of room for competition. My first guess at a successful competitor would have been Apple, who I think has a lot to win in entering the market with a switch-like console.
• throwaway158497 5y ago
  Honest question. Is there a gaming platform where I can play only free games? Or atleast where I don't have to put a credit card number before giving it to my kids?
  • PAGAN_WIZARD 5y ago
    Check out itch.io
    • throwaway158497 5y ago
      Thx
• Ajedi32 5y ago
  Seems great as a niche enthusiast device. Based on my past experience with Steam Link though I'm not sure how well it'll do as a mainstream gaming console. Too much of Steam's game library just wasn't designed to be used without a keyboard/mouse, and touchpads + mappable controller buttons aren't a great substitute, particularly when the game you're playing still thinks you're using a keyboard. There's a certain level of polish expected from console gaming. People expect to be able to launch a game and have it just work; they don't want to be futzing with controller mappings and adjusting graphics settings for 15 minutes before they can start playing. To be clear, I think these are surmountable problems. From what I've read though I'm not sure if Valve has done anything to address them. There's a lot of talk on the website about having access to "your entire Steam library", and a mention of how the touchpad lets you play games designed with a mouse in mind. But again, based on my experience with Steam Link, it's not really that simple.
• nullgeo 5y ago
  I am excited about this because it finally seems like there will be one more worthy competitor in the portable gaming arena. I was getting really tired of Nintendo's majority market share, with no one to compete against them they have been reigning free with their ridiculous "no sale on 4 year old games" policy.
• awill 5y ago
  I'm a little disappointed that Valve is focused on Proton only. This can also play native Linux games. A well written native game should perform better, and, more importantly, get better battery life. Maybe Valve is going about this the right way. Focus on Proton now, and if it takes off, game devs will make the effort to do a native port.
  • thelopa 5y ago
    Proton is the answer to the chicken-and-egg problem of linux gaming. No one will make games for it because no one games on Linux because no one will make games for it. With Proton and this, they’re trying to bootstrap a Linux gaming community. From there, native ports will happen when the community is large enough to be worth optimizing for.
    • tgv 5y ago
      Idk. You still get your game to run on both the Deck and Windows if you write for Windows, whereas it'll only run on the Deck and a few bless Linux installations if you write for Linux. There must be a pretty big performance gap (or some financial incentive) to convince devs to switch, and it almost can't be performance: then Deck will simply not take off.
  • arc-in-space 5y ago
    Sadly, some of the native linux game versions that I've tried were worse(less performant or unstable) than forcing Steam to run the proton version, since they don't get as much dev effort. I'm perfectly ok with this for now, given how well proton already runs. We'd need to find ourselves in a primarily-linux-gaming future first.
• christophilus 5y ago
  IGN preview: https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions-details-valve-handheld-gaming-pc https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions...
• christophilus 5y ago
  Honestly, those specs are pretty decent[0]. I could see myself using that as a workstation, since it's already preinstalled with Arch. [0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
• wly_cdgr 5y ago
  Amazing. If the hardware is good, this will leave no gaming use case that is not best covered by PC
• jgerrish 5y ago
  Man, imagine you were a kid getting one of these for the first time, like a Nintendo or Apple. I can't imagine the magical feeling. I really can't.
• RobRivera 5y ago
  I am so excited about this
• indigodaddy 5y ago
  Is this APU good enough to do significant AI/ML workloads that you’d normally have to use Colab for?
• tqi 5y ago
  As a person who is mostly interested in playing a few older PC games out of a sense of nostalgia (such as the definitive editions of Age of Empires / Age of Kings), should I get this and if so, what size?
  • arc-in-space 5y ago
    You may have trouble running some older games if they aren't already on steam. If they are, though, then that seems like a fine use. The 64gb version would probably be more than enough.
  • drewmate 5y ago
    As one data point, Age of Empires 2 DE takes up 13.7 GB on my desktop, so you'd probably be fine with even the smallest one (though I'm sure it will still fill up quick!) Form factor is another consideration. You'd probably still want a dock and mouse/keyboard. I'm not sure how well that game would play on a controller.
• ixacto 5y ago
  This is kinda cool. Needs a 144hz display though. That would be the killer feature to differentiate between the switch.
  • beefjerkins 5y ago
    That would indeed be killer, but I wonder how difficult it would be for the Deck to push those sorta frames, even at 720p.
• cma 5y ago
  Capacitive joysticks is really nice, it improves gyro aiming adjustments by letting the gyro only activate when a finger is on the joystick.
• hackathonguy 5y ago
  I'm so excited about this - I've been looking for a cheap device that won't take up much space and allow me to play AAA PC games despite having a Macbook as a primary machine. Can't wait to get my hands on this.
• beezischillin 5y ago
  I would love to see Valve create similar hardware (and software) for mobile VR to compete with things like the Oculus Quest.
• jader201 5y ago
  My first reaction/two cents is that while this seems really cool, PC games are mostly set apart from console games in that they’re often designed with keyboards in mind, as part of the core experience (similar to how motion controls were core to the Wii). PC games that don’t need a keyboard/aren’t designed with a keyboard as a core input are already available on most consoles (e.g. many Steam games with controller support are already on the Switch). Not saying this won’t work out — I think it will likely do fine. But I don’t think this was meant for the more hardcore PC gamer, and a lot of controller-only gamers are likely fine with consoles (and for their portable fix, the Switch). So there’s a pretty niche set of gamers this will attract.
• rasz 5y ago
  AMD APU CPU: 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) and 5 screenshots with Control by Remedy, game that runs at ~10fps on PS4. PS4 has faster GPU than listed here ... BTW Somehow Sony didnt delist Control from PS store despite performance problems, their official reason for delisting Cyberpunk :) Edit: IGN "hands on, but not really hands on" https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions-details-valve-handheld-gaming-pc https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions... Once again Control by Remedy in EVERY fricking shot of the screen. Even the shot where Valve employee is "casually" sitting with the Deck on his lap, the screen is facing the camera and you can see Control right there :D And the mystery is solved, Control is playable in mid to low settings at 800p with Ray Tracing turned off, something you cant do on PS4.
  • zacmps 5y ago
    The screen is 720p, not 1080p which is probably what the PS4 was rendering. Also worth noting the GPU architecture is newer, so a straight clockspeed or Flops comparison might not tell the whole story.
• The_rationalist 5y ago
  Are game UX designed for such screens? E.g would Hollow knight render well?
• BuckRogers 5y ago
  How long until Epic Games sues Valve because they're not a first-class store on Steam Deck? Companies like Apple, Valve, and Microsoft build out ecosystems and take massive risks doing so, only to have someone who made millions if not billions of dollars off of these systems to come knocking. Epic made millions if not billions off these platforms. Nintendo is locked to their store. So is Xbox and PS. Not sure why anyone else that designed it that way would be any different. If it's a closed ecosystem, it's just not for you. If Ram pickup trucks sold door chimes on the dash's touchscreen, Epic Games would be suing for access for their alternative marketplace.
  • seba_dos1 5y ago
    The Deck is not closed though.
    • BuckRogers 5y ago
      I realize this, that's why I said first class store. It’s all about money, they’d stop fighting for freedom if they weren’t losing a cut. And now with all these lawsuits, no one‘s ever going to take the multi-million dollar investment to build a quality platform ever again. Why would you, when you can just leech direct from everyone else without them even taking a percentage of your sales? May as well shut it all down. Everyone else gets to completely freeload off of your multi-year, if not multi-decade, multi-million dollar investment.
  • aero-glide2 5y ago
    It's Tim's fault for not having a Linux version of Epic Games.
• grae_QED 5y ago
  Just wondering, it notes that the base model has 64GB and it has an SD card slot. 64GB isn't enough space to play most modern AAA games. Do SD card really have the bandwidth to play AAA games or Will the memory be upgradable post purchase?
• smcleod 5y ago
  Fantastic that it runs Linux by default. A real shame it's not available in Australia at lunch.
  • beefjerkins 5y ago
    As a fellow Australian, I was thinking the same to myself. When it DOES come to Australia, wouldn't be surprised if we get SHAFTED on price. It's a real shame, because this is some neat hardware I wouldn't mind splurging on.
• nyghtly 5y ago
  The way that Gabe talks about the console is really interesting. From what I understand, the purpose of this device is simply to ensure that gamers continue to buy games on PC (i.e. from Steam), even as desktop PC gaming becomes less and less relevant in the wake of an increasingly mobile landscape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXgDAF6QpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXgDAF6QpM
  • LegitShady 5y ago
    PC was doing really well until graphics cards price distortions from crypto. I don't think gabe is competing for mobile customers.
• ineedasername 5y ago
  Did anyone find anywhere what the compatibility of all/most games would be with SteamOS? I know Proton has come a long way but doesn't have complete coverage of the Steam library: is SteamOS improving on that?
  • lesquivemeau 5y ago
    You can look this up at https://protondb.com/ https://protondb.com/
• ineedasername 5y ago
  Wow! a few weeks ago I made a comment to the effect that SteamOS seemed to be close to abandonware at this point with no new releases in a few years. I am extremely happy to be wrong! Sure this is great for gaming, but it will also bring Linux to a lot more people too.
• hzhou321 5y ago
  An under powered expensive hardware for running games that are not designed for it? Doesn't sound like a good buy.
• whalabi 5y ago
  It's 1280 X 800 on the device, I wonder how it fares playing AAA titles at higher res on a TV or monitor. Have only given the specs a cursory look so far but seems the GPU is (understandably) significantly less powerful than, say, a laptop GPU from a few years back.
  • staticman2 5y ago
    IGN claims it should have power similar to a PS4‐ which means it should do a good enough job on current games if IGN is correct.
    • whalabi 5y ago
      Good point, PS4 is about 8 years old now and games still look pretty great.
      • samtheDamned 5y ago
        and this is only rendering in 720p so it can draw out that power even further without much of a downside due to the smaller screen
• 41209 5y ago
  I'm planing on dual booting Windows and installing Maschine in order to make music. Might also see if I can just wipe Linux entirely and go only Windows.
• johnnyApplePRNG 5y ago
  Kudos to them only allowing accounts who have made purchases prior to June 2021 on steam to participate in the pre-order. That's smart.
• mayli 5y ago
  800px gaming.
• ineedasername 5y ago
  Could anyone comment on the relative speed of the UHS micros SD cars these support VS. NVMe (I know it's faster) & specifically how the UHS would compare to a traditional HDD (not SSD)?
• pazimzadeh 5y ago
  Does the Valve Steam Deck get hot during use?
• Valkhyr 5y ago
  Damn, if this was officially available in Japan I'd be so tempted to reserve one right now... Might still order one to my home in Germany, but probably will wait for further news on proper international availability first. In any case, I hope this will create a fire under Nintendo's ass to release a proper Switch Pro. They've had the handheld market to themselves for far too long, and the lackluster upgrades are showing it.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• t8e56vd4ih 5y ago
  huh? so a gameboy on steroids? that's what gets hackernews excited? at first i thought, finally a competitor to Oculus quest and what do i behold? a little notebook with domain specific keyboard ... come on, give me a break
  • cntrl 5y ago
    I'm pretty sure the demand for a mobile computer like steam deck is way higher than any oculus quest competitor. How many of those exist right now that can play any steam game? Zero!
• habeebtc 5y ago
  What I was interested to see discussed here which I have not seen is the relative merits of this and other similar products (yes, there are several!). GPD Win Aya Neo Smach-z The first two have actually shipped units. I own the first gen Win (underpowered, quality issues but an amazing first effort), and am awaiting my Neo. Neo seems more powerful but bulkier and more expensive. I have great faith in Valve to produce hardware to last. The latest Gen GPD'S are looking great! Any thoughts?
• fomine3 5y ago
  Happy to see KDE Plasma is default. I think KDE should be more adopted than now (rather than GNOME). But a bit weird decision since GNOME3 is more touch friendly than KDE Plasma.
• spondyl 5y ago
  My childhood dream is potentially realised! I would love if it's possible to run PCSX2 on this thing, damn.
• fomine3 5y ago
  Can eMMC model's SSD be swapped to NVMe one? Though maybe their NVMe offering is better for battery life.
• etempleton 5y ago
  This is an interesting product that I am happy will exist, but that I doubt will sell particularly well. It is a Nintendo Switch for the PC crowd, but that comes with inherent compromises and nothing in the way of exclusive software. I personally do not think I could justify spending money on this over a new laptop instead, but I hope it is a really great little niche product for some people.
  • ehsankia 5y ago
    Yeah, it's definitely a strange move, and I think only really exist because Valve is a private company that works on basically whatever the fuck the people there are interested in. The lowest SKU is probably selling at a loss, and will never really sell units on the scale of xbox/ps5/switch in order to make a profit. This is pretty enthusiast stuff, probably in line with the Index or Steam controller.
• iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
  64 GB is a joke for AAA PC gaming. Can you pop it open and add your own NVMe or is the practical base price $650?
  • henhouse 5y ago
    All models do have a high-speed microSD slot similar to the Switch, so you could offload less intense games there. But yeah, I think most will go for the mid tier model. 64GB is low. But to each his/her own. For some that may be completely sufficient if they’re not playing AAA games.
    • iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
      What is the performance difference between NVMe and high speed SSD?
• Trung0246 5y ago
  Really look into it. The $399 is the perfect price point for me right now as other handheld devices on kickstarter and indiegogo are kinda expensive.
• xyst 5y ago
  this is very exciting. One small step towards getting rid of the Microsoft dependency for the occasional gaming session. Also i hope it is very modular, and components can individually be upgraded rather than having to buy a new one every X years
• pault 5y ago
  The true killer application is being able to take a dump without pausing your game.
• grwthckrmstr 5y ago
  Honestly I've never been this excited for a handheld gaming console!
• harles 5y ago
  Valve is the antithesis of Apple. Where Apple says it must be great, even if it can’t do everything, Valve says it must do everything, even if it’s not great. I see the same things that I didn’t like about the Steam controller here. Cramped layout, tiny buttons, and no clear goal of what it wants to be except “everything”. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.
• devwastaken 5y ago
  A device with half the resolution of your phone, not enough storage for a single AAA game, and a maximum of 2 hours battery life. But it's by valve, so hype, apparently. I can see these being stacked like bricks to make a house when valve has to stop supporting them because it's too expensive. There's a reason an iphone or switch has a sizeable profit margin - you pay that back in RMA, returns, and general support.
• marctrem 5y ago
  Due to Linux being the host (and Proton being heavily used), I wonder what this will mean for Denuvo enabled games. Could it lead to publishers stopping to use it? I also wonder if this device will lead to more games targeting Linux as a first class platform.
• Toutouxc 5y ago
  After having to replace a second joystick in six months, I'm just about ready to dump my Switch Lite for something not made out of mud by a company that doesn't really care about hardware.
  • thom 5y ago
    Ah, sorry to hear that. I had assumed the Lite was partly motivated by fixing the terrible joycon situation.
    • Toutouxc 5y ago
      Nope, it's literally the same joystick. The exact same part that breaks like crazy in Joy-Cons.
      • arc-in-space 5y ago
        This is what stopped me from gifting a Lite. The fact that they didn't fix this issue in it is insane.
• arvindamirtaa 5y ago
  Can we all agree that none of these stack up to what the PSP was in it's day? Not in performance of course. But the form factor and the experience.
• abdulmuhaimin 5y ago
  I hope once this device become a hit, dev would start looking at Linux(or at least Steam OS 3) as a viable market and maybe optimize for them. I am actually excited for what this would mean for Linux gaming
• utf_8x 5y ago
  > SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based) nice
• sheldor 5y ago
  Reminds me of the Atari Lynx [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx
• gitowiec 5y ago
  Absurdly expensive internal mmc memory in comparison to SSD
• danjac 5y ago
  One prediction: there will be a Steam Deck 2, but we'll never see a Steam Deck 3.
  • hythyt 5y ago
    lol
• isodev 5y ago
  The Steam Deck seems like a smaller iPad with physical controls. Game makers need just make their stuff work on iPad and then suddenly millions of people won't have to buy a new "small PC" to enjoy their content.
• bsd44 5y ago
  What is the advantage of this over an ordinary Linux laptop?
  • crubier 5y ago
    I suppose you are blind, because the photos clearly show that it’s handheld and portable.
    • bsd44 5y ago
      I suppose you're dumb; not because you're functionally illiterate but because it's clear that a laptop is both handheld and portable as much as Steam Deck.
      • crubier 5y ago
        No. Sorry that you can’t see that a laptop and this have very different form factor and ergonomics.
        • bsd44 5y ago
          Form factor is completely irrelevant since Steam Deck is advertised as a computer and not a console. Which is how I would use it; plug it into a monitor and use it as a desktop PC with keyboard and mouse. That's why I asked what does it offer that my laptop already doesn't in the context of playing games. If this is hard for you to comprehend then you shouldn't reply with destructive comments. I found a video on YouTube explaining technical specifications and comparing the CPU and GPU to their desktop equivalents, so my initial question has been answered.
• Draken93 5y ago
  The Storage Capacity and Price are quite a pain point. I really hope it will be possible to extend it on your own, then I will definitly buy one.
• SirBernard 5y ago
  This sounds amazing!
• iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
  I wonder if they will release a new Steam Controller to go with it for TV-Docked multiplayer.
• LoveMortuus 5y ago
  I do wish the would have gone with 1080p display instead of 720p. I fear that the pixel density might not be high enough...
  • rpmisms 5y ago
    I'm 100% positive they have a pro model somewhere in Valve HQ.
• dolmen 5y ago
  Looks like a cool device also to use as a remote control for real life objects: - drones - robots - LEGO MindStorms/Powered Up/...
• drawkbox 5y ago
  The Valve Steam Deck is pretty exciting and well timed. The Nintendo Switch it the largest console market > 50% and mobile is the biggest market in gaming. So going with that model but with gaming selection of Steam is a smart timed move. The size of gaming markets are mobile first as the biggest, then PC, then console in terms of gamers with revenues about split in thirds equally across mobile, PC and console -- including handheld the biggest part[1]. Mobile has a bit more than the others and when handheld it not included in console then it is the top. Mobile has 2.2 billion gamers, PC has 750 million, console has just a bit less than PC around 700 million [1]. Though each stationary console has had less than the last in total players, most players are still growing on mobile and even PC [1]. There are also more game developer on PC by 2 to 1 over other platforms, mobile second then console. Developing for console is costly and time consuming. Consoles that go handheld are smart, even better if they are more open and allow game studios of all sizes to launch on it, games will be better at the high end, even if there are more bad games. Since consoles like Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation and Nintendo are so locked down and hard to enter for indies/small/medium players, PC going handheld/mobile is going to be great for indies/small/medium game developers extending the PC player base. Mobile opened up stores for everyone in 2008-2012, Steam opened up 2012+ and game markets should be more open, especially console as you want to sell hardware and the more games the better. The first iteration of the handheld hardware may or may not hit, even the WiiU failed initially, but the beauty of Steam is there are no games you can or can't play on specific consoles. They don't need launch titles. Steam Deck gen 1, 2, 3 will all have the same games. Steam has a competitive advantage here on selection due to their openness. Consoles and PCs are stationary and that is why mobile does so well, you can play anywhere. Handheld does well as well because you can take it with you and can game at a desk or on the couch or at work. Game streaming changes this a bit allowing you to game on your devices on the go, but having a beefier device that can play all types of games is surely going to have at least some market. Lots of times I am working on my PC and shutting all down to game seems too tasking but you could play Steam games on the Deck while keeping work open or allow gaming to fit in your day more when you aren't at your PC. Very, very excited for the larger potential market for PC games on a handheld console! This massively helps indie/small/medium players get more gamers and handheld is a unique new market for PC games. [1] https://www.gamingscan.com/gaming-statistics/ https://www.gamingscan.com/gaming-statistics/
• baxuz 5y ago
  Imagine if Apple made the Steam Deck with the M-series processors. Would probably have more power with 2x the battery life and 200g less weight. But you'd be stuck playing p2w RTS games and gachas.
  • thinkingemote 5y ago
    And cost five times as much, wouldn't run a customisable OS, hardware couldn't be upgraded, no ports unless you bought a two extra dongles and included a free game from U2.
    • baxuz 5y ago
      Doubt it'd cost any more than a 13" MBP or a MBA. So probably around the 1000€ mark. All those things still stand, but I'd love to see Apple silicon on non-Apple hardware. It's a quantum leap over anything else on the market.
  • rpmisms 5y ago
    Would be nuts for sure. Valve does have the money to get into custom silicon, so maybe if this takes off...
• hyperpallium2 5y ago
  Deck vs OLED Switch: 40Whr vs 16Whr (3.7V * 4.310Ah) battery, to give similar 2-8hr vs 4.5-9hr, with 1.6TF vs 1TF GPU, weighing 669g vs 398g. Batteries weigh a lot. ARM-based Deck possible?
  • specto 5y ago
    Probably not with the steam library
• aero-glide2 5y ago
  Just like Steam Deck, standalone VR headset which allows you to install the OS of choice and 3rd party apps.
• Shorel 5y ago
  This item is not available for reservation in your country
• CWuestefeld 5y ago
  How is this going to be able to play AAA games? It's going to need to emulate x86, as well as add the WINE layer for compatibility. I can't imagine this being able to keep up.
  • needle0 5y ago
    It IS x86.
    • CWuestefeld 5y ago
      I see my confusion. It says "AMD Zen 2", and when I didn't recognize the name of that CPU, I assumed it was just another ARM variation. In fact, Zen 2 is not the name of a CPU at all, but the name of a technology family of CPUs that are, as you pointed out, x86.
  • smoldesu 5y ago
    Valve has spent the past 5 years optimizing Wine (and the technologies behind it, like DXVK) to be perfect. The performance drop is seriously quite negligible in most titles[0], and considering how powerful their GPU is... I have high hopes for this little machine. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voXc1nCD4IA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voXc1nCD4IA
• thw0rted 5y ago
  2021 is the Year of the Linux Handheld?
• malka 5y ago
  > It looks like you've been attempting a lot of purchases in > the last few hours. Please wait a while before trying again. Thanks you Valve for this awesome shopping experience.
  • rcstank 5y ago
    I'm seeing the same :(
    • malka 5y ago
      I guess no one could have predicted people would need to try multiple time to boy a preorder at a fixed hour. Nothing they could have done.
  • gordon_freeman 5y ago
    >"Your account is too new to reserve early. Reservations will open for you on Sunday July 18th, 10am PDT" this is what I am seeing :(
    • Zanneth 5y ago
      I'm also getting that, even though I created my Steam account more than a decade ago!
• enoughistough 5y ago
  Valve’s Steam Deck can run Windows and turn into a portable Xbox https://nintendosmash.com/valves-steam-deck-can-run-windows-and-turn-into-a-portable-xbox/ https://nintendosmash.com/valves-steam-deck-can-run-windows-...
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• metabagel 5y ago
  I can't reserve. For whatever reason, Steam won't accept my payment. I switched to Paypal, and now it says I've been trying a lot of purchases, and I need to wait a while. :-(
  • nono-no-no 5y ago
    I wonder how scalpers are messing this up now, since you need an account that’s older than June…
  • metabagel 5y ago
    I either get a message that there was an error initializing or processing the transaction, or I get an error saying that I've been trying too many purchases in the last few hours. I give up. :-(
• ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
  Playing Factorio on mobile would be amazing. But could something like this run Cyberpunk 2077 decently?
• liminalsunset 5y ago
  Just in case anyone is Ctrl-F-ing this for NVMe M.2 M2 SSD upgrade slot support for the 64GB eMMC version, apparently, the base model does indeed have the NVMe SSD slot like the higher versions according to this: https://twitter.com/RobotBrush/status/1416150442841628677 https://twitter.com/RobotBrush/status/1416150442841628677 which would appear to imply you can upgrade the 64GB eMMC with a NVMe SSD by yourself.
• fasedgyeri 5y ago
  So it implies that Valve Steam Deck is a portable computer? This product will surely revolutionize the gaming industry.
• leafywashere 5y ago
  LET'S FUCKING GO