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Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

arstechnica.com

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Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#51

Post by the_player »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #16
libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

Mine is probably a niche use case, but I will absolutely jump on one of these simply due to my lack of storage space. I live in a 450 square foot loft. I don’t have space for a tv here, so consoles were out of the question until the Switch came along. There is no room in my life — literally — for a gaming PC, but if they can cram that into another Switch? Sign me up. It’ll be a big draw for university students in dor…

Take a look at the GPD devices in that case, they might suit your exact need if you're ok with the price they're asking.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#52

Post by drzaiusapelord »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #16
libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

Mine is probably a niche use case, but I will absolutely jump on one of these simply due to my lack of storage space. I live in a 450 square foot loft. I don’t have space for a tv here, so consoles were out of the question until the Switch came along. There is no room in my life — literally — for a gaming PC, but if they can cram that into another Switch? Sign me up. It’ll be a big draw for university students in dor…

Also, I don't feel people talk about this much but gaming desktops tend to be noisy, ugly, and/or gaudy on top of taking up lots room. I'd love to just get rid of this box but I don't care enough about games to buy a gaming laptop, which just only slightly solves the ugly/gaudy problem for me. I'd love to just stream going forward and never have to put together another PC or buy another expensive video card again and having the ability to do this on a handheld sounds very tempting!

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#53

Post by FemmeAndroid »

kogepathic wrote: post #31

Valve's track record with non-VR hardware is, to put it politely, not good. Seven years after launching the Steam machine (2014) initiative, there are no Steam machines available for sale. [1] Both the Steam Controller (2015-2019) and Steam Link (2015-2018) are discontinued and cannot be purchased, despite consistently positive reviews from users. [2] As other commenters have noted there are already numerous "Switch-…

To be clear, it's not like there were never steam machines for sale, but manufacturers stopped making them.

Here, you can see five for sale in 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160225105722/https://store.ste...

I don't know that Valve were ever going to make physical devices themselves (other than the 100 they made for beta testers.) From pretty early on, and definitely by Steam Dev Days 2014, it seemed to me like they were trying to make a platform for hardware manufacturers to build linux computers made for gaming, rather than manufacturing their own computers.

As for the Steam Controller, and Steam link, I completely agree. Steam Link was a poor showing, and the Steam Controller, while neat, really could have used a V2 upgrade.

More generally, I don't know that Valve has made a truly successful product or game other than maybe Halflife Alex in well over a decade. And even with Alex, the player base is so limited due to being a VR exclusive.

It's pretty sad.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#54

Post by chimpansteve »

schmorptron wrote: post #40
kogepathic wrote: post #31

Valve's track record with non-VR hardware is, to put it politely, not good. Seven years after launching the Steam machine (2014) initiative, there are no Steam machines available for sale. [1] Both the Steam Controller (2015-2019) and Steam Link (2015-2018) are discontinued and cannot be purchased, despite consistently positive reviews from users. [2] As other commenters have noted there are already numerous "Switch-…

That being said, they did support both the Steam Controller and Link for a very long time, and the Steam Controller continues to be used by many (The configurator and services for sharing the configurations work all the same today). Steam Link has mostly been replaced by software solutions like an Android App, or it being straight up built into some TVs.

I've got a hardware Link - it's still being supported now. It had an update a couple of weeks ago.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#55

Post by icegreentea2 »

mastrsushi wrote: post #49

What IP does Valve own that could run on a portable device? Do they think people want to play Portal 2 on the go? As if indie developers want to put resources into porting their content on some niche handheld. Valve has really lost the plot. They don't have any assurance in hardware. Steam, while successful, isn't the only contender on PC gaming. It's not 2007 anymore, there's Epic Games, Origin, and I'm sure a bunch…

Depends on their model... but a very large selection of PC games already ship with gamepad support (I mean, a huge selection of PC games already run on other consoles for example). I mean, that's really it. If you have gamepad support and can run acceptably on the hardware, then you're good to go - basically no extra dev required.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#56

Post by maxsilver »

kogepathic wrote: post #31

Valve's track record with non-VR hardware is, to put it politely, not good. Seven years after launching the Steam machine (2014) initiative, there are no Steam machines available for sale. [1] Both the Steam Controller (2015-2019) and Steam Link (2015-2018) are discontinued and cannot be purchased, despite consistently positive reviews from users. [2] As other commenters have noted there are already numerous "Switch-…

I agree, Valve needs to better support hardware to build trust. But I think some perspective is worth mentioning.

Every Valve hardware device has had a longer maintenance and support lifecycle than any Google Nexus/Pixel device ever sold. Valve has consistently been better than Google about their hardware + software lifecycles.

It's totally fair to compare the two, but that doesn't necessarily make them equivalent. Valve's track record isn't good, but it's not bad either -- it's not like Google's.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#57

Post by TulliusCicero »

maxsilver wrote: post #56
kogepathic wrote: post #31

Valve's track record with non-VR hardware is, to put it politely, not good. Seven years after launching the Steam machine (2014) initiative, there are no Steam machines available for sale. [1] Both the Steam Controller (2015-2019) and Steam Link (2015-2018) are discontinued and cannot be purchased, despite consistently positive reviews from users. [2] As other commenters have noted there are already numerous "Switch-…

I agree, Valve needs to better support hardware to build trust. But I think some perspective is worth mentioning. Every Valve hardware device has had a longer maintenance and support lifecycle than any Google Nexus/Pixel device ever sold. Valve has consistently been better than Google about their hardware + software lifecycles. It's totally fair to compare the two, but that doesn't necessarily make them equivalent. V…

That's silly. The point is that the series of products has been discontinued; if Valve had a v2 version of the Steam Link or Steam Controller, nobody would be talking about this.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#58

Post by fragileone »

libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

Thing is whilst the device might be comparatively expensive to the Switch, the games will be able to be played for the entire lifetime of the Steam online store and on multiple platforms (SteamPal itself, laptops, desktops, any device with SteamLink, cloud gaming like GeForce NOW, any future devices etc).

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#59

Post by croon »

me_me_me wrote: post #50
croon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What support is needed outside of controller support and whatever OS it runs (I'm assuming linux)?

They need to secure games on it. Even if this console ends up being PC in small form factor. I dont have switch but if i were to buy a console it would be switch, not steam console. I can play my games on PC, if i get console I'd rather have games made specifically for that form factor, plus Nintendo has amazing catalogue of exclusives. If you judge Valves actins in response to Epic agresively taking their already en…

I understand getting a Switch for the exclusives, but outside of that I wouldn't get a portable console for access to games I couldn't play otherwise, but access to games outside of the normal environment (my desktop PC).

If you look at the metacritic list of best games for Switch:

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/...

Most games are just ported PC games, which would be playable on a Steam portable console (assuming they're available on linux).

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