4 ms·

> it's a niche product for tech enthusiasts It is if you want it to be, but it's also a plug-and-play handheld console for PC gamers, which is not a niche mark

by mwt 5y ago

> it's a niche product for tech enthusiasts It is if you want it to be, but it's also a plug-and-play handheld console for PC gamers, which is not a niche market. Yeah, it runs a Linux-based OS but it's not like the user has to install it. Yeah, tinkerers and hackers are gonna do crazy stuff with it, but the vast majority of users will simply exchange $400 for a thing that runs video games.

staticman2 5y ago
Well it's definetly "niche" in that it's not sold in general stores and you have to order it 6 months in advance since Valve can't make them in large quantities at the moment. That's gonna be a deal killer for most consumers for now. Best case scenario it is plug and play for Deck verified games bought on Steam. If you want to play a game you own on GOG or the Epic store that's already going to require some tinkering to get it working in handheld mode if the experience is anything like trying to get the steam controller to work with other stores on PC. Similarly anything not sold on Steam (Including any Ubisoft game or Blizzard game these days I think). And all the parts of the Steam catalogue that just aren't verified to run well.
- mwt 5y ago
  > Well it's definetly "niche" in that it's not sold in general stores Is that a good definition? > and you have to order it 6 months in advance since Valve can't make them in large quantities at the moment Switches were, and other consoles still are, in short supply for a number of reasons the past two years. The deck was released a week ago amid a historic shortage of the key component and general supply chain issues. The PS5 is hard to get at MSRP, to say nothing of GPUs, something like a year and change after release. I wouldn't call those niche products. > Best case scenario it is plug and play for Deck verified games bought on Steam. Yes, this is the best case scenario. It's also the baseline use case that most people will go through and a revolutionary value add in the market. Steam is the most popular platform for PC games and the vast majority of peoples' libraries are on their platform, not Epic's or GOG's. People without much investment in the platform are probably not going to buy a product named the *Steam Deck*. And even for the minority of users that are heavily invested in smaller platforms, it's a step up from whatever other obscure options they have now. That Epic doesn't want their games to run on a competitor's hardware is unfortunate but it's not like the Switch games I payed out the behind for are ever going to run on Sony or Microsoft hardware. All of this seems like a strange set of criticism to target it with - all other plug-and-play consoles on the market basically require buying new games in a locked ecosystem with no/little crossplatform capabilities and all other PC handhelds either suck or cost roughly three times as much.

by mwt 5y ago

staticman2 5y ago

Well it's definetly "niche" in that it's not sold in general stores and you have to order it 6 months in advance since Valve can't make them in large quantities at the moment. That's gonna be a deal killer for most consumers for now. Best case scenario it is plug and play for Deck verified games bought on Steam. If you want to play a game you own on GOG or the Epic store that's already going to require some tinkering to get it working in handheld mode if the experience is anything like trying to get the steam controller to work with other stores on PC. Similarly anything not sold on Steam (Including any Ubisoft game or Blizzard game these days I think). And all the parts of the Steam catalogue that just aren't verified to run well.

mwt 5y ago
> Well it's definetly "niche" in that it's not sold in general stores Is that a good definition? > and you have to order it 6 months in advance since Valve can't make them in large quantities at the moment Switches were, and other consoles still are, in short supply for a number of reasons the past two years. The deck was released a week ago amid a historic shortage of the key component and general supply chain issues. The PS5 is hard to get at MSRP, to say nothing of GPUs, something like a year and change after release. I wouldn't call those niche products. > Best case scenario it is plug and play for Deck verified games bought on Steam. Yes, this is the best case scenario. It's also the baseline use case that most people will go through and a revolutionary value add in the market. Steam is the most popular platform for PC games and the vast majority of peoples' libraries are on their platform, not Epic's or GOG's. People without much investment in the platform are probably not going to buy a product named the *Steam Deck*. And even for the minority of users that are heavily invested in smaller platforms, it's a step up from whatever other obscure options they have now. That Epic doesn't want their games to run on a competitor's hardware is unfortunate but it's not like the Switch games I payed out the behind for are ever going to run on Sony or Microsoft hardware. All of this seems like a strange set of criticism to target it with - all other plug-and-play consoles on the market basically require buying new games in a locked ecosystem with no/little crossplatform capabilities and all other PC handhelds either suck or cost roughly three times as much.