The Steam Deck is nearly everything that the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller wanted to be, somehow in a single package.
Valve’s work into Proton and the Steam Deck are the best things to happen to spur Linux adoption in the gaming sphere and support from devs. It’s made enough noise that putting intrusive DRM, anticheat and things that would make it incompatible with Linux would shut devs out of a sizeable demographic that will pay for good games that run well on Steam Deck. Previously Linux and their <1% share of users were an afterthought if anything. Honestly the main reason I preordered my Steam Deck was to support this, even though I’ve used mine just on and off and not much lately.
They’re so user friendly we opted to get my brother’s girlfriend’s 10 year-old sister one instead of a Switch. So instead of having 2-3 $40-$70 Switch games she got access to my Steam library through Family Share (limited to ~60 age-appropriate games), and 20 Switch games emulated through Yuzu setup by EmuDeck.
We’re also teaching her how to do all of this which will give her a huge advantage when it comes to using computers in the future, and allow her to emulate any games she would like going forward.
I’m excited for what comes out in a year or two. Maybe a Steam Box 2.0 with console-like qualities but tinker-friendly? A hardware refreshed Deck? Anti-cheat compatibility with more games?
Also, I have a Steam Controller and now a Deck, and the touch pads and gyro on the Deck are better in every meaningful way. It’s just a better experience all around.
And I felt better shelling out the money, because I knew at least some of that would wind up as a development investment in the Linux community.
The Steam Deck was an amazing purchase for me. I put on EmuDeck and a bunch of ROMs and can play those from the Steam interface while also playing many of my Steam games and it’s now a great all-arounder.
I’m shocked we haven’t even seen rumors of an Xbox handheld.
Playstation at least did something.
I heard a reliable rumor that the Asus handheld was supposed to be essentially that, but Microsoft dropped the ball with the OS support
And I’m really enjoying the Portal, it’s everything I could hope for in a simple remote play device.
It’s okay. I’m opposed to it only for it’s forced anti-consumer linear capabilities.
There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be able to run Xbox cloud or Steam Link or use Bluetooth headphones. And the inability to run it on public WiFi is absurd.
But for $200 I can only complain so much.
Well it’s not made for those things, so I’m not upset it doesn’t do them.
And there actually is a reason it doesn’t use Bluetooth headphones, because Bluetooth adds latency and there would be a delay trying to use them for gaming.
You can see this happen now with a lot of VR headsets, the delay from Bluetooth is really noticeable enough to break immersion.
The logic over at Xbox might be that Xbox games already come to PC, and their OEM partners are already shipping devices. Unfortunately the fact is that the problem is Windows itself. The thumb controls on them sucks to use in Windows. Go try an Ally or a Legion. As soon as you leave Armor Crate or Steam Big Picture the experience falls apart. Windows also insists on doing Windows things like updating and rebooting when it feels like it, and on a few occasions I’ve been kicked out of big picture mode because something stole focus.
You can already play Xbox games on PC, and even VR now, with their game pass. Microsoft and plenty of companies already sell windows hardware.
If only I could buy one.
Just give up on the oled and buy one of the thousand slightly used LCD. You can find true deals with 1 tb od storage under 300 $.
I think they mean that they are in a country were steam decks aren’t sold.
I got my Deck around May, and yesterday I’ve finished 18th game this year, played exclusively on Valve’s handheld. 2 games last week, since it was a holiday break.
I’ve finished Wall World + DLC, Spyro 1 (and started 2), Tunic, Contrast, A Short Hike, Cloudpunk, Assemble With Care, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Vampire Survivors, Webbed, The Last Campfire, and Sable. Replayed older games like Linelight, Expand, Scrapland, MDK 2, and Gift. Started Obra Dinn, Grim Fandango, Dome Keeper, Gunpoint, Ctrl Alt Ego, and Zelda BOTW.
This device is such a delight. It plays overwhelming majority of titles out of the box, while older titles like Gift and MDK 2 only require a few minutes of tinkering to get right, plus maybe adjust the control scheme for gyro aiming the sniper mode in MDK.
I wouldn’t get even close to this number of titles on a classic PC. My gaming computer is at the same desk where I work from home, creating this unpleasant mental image that I’m still “at work” when gaming - so having an external device that handles AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy with ease is a godsend.
My desktop PC was down for two weeks due to fried motherboard. I connected the Deck via a simple JSAUX cable that has HDMI out and USB-C for charging, paired a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and it worked perfectly as a replacement. I could play Soldat 2, design in Figma, and watch movies - because it’s a regular PC, just in an unusual form factor.
I’m definitely getting a SD2 when it comes out in a few years.
