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Valve Steam Deck

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Re: Valve Steam Deck

#81
post #54

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?

I believe the Switch itself is evidence that Nintendo’s success is driven by strong IP, not strong hardware.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#82

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 l…

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.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#83
post #44

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 becom…

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.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#84
post #54

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?

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.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#85
post #38

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 mov…

By Arch, do you mean Arch Linux? According to https://www.game-debate.com/news/25482/valve-counts-to-3-ste... , it seems to be based on Debian 9.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#86
post #11
post #6

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.

microSD cards are pretty cheap though.

All the next gen consoles have SSDs though, so games are going to be designed around that. Current AAA games might be playable on a microSD, but I doubt any of the AAA games currently in development will.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#87
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB 2 on a mobile device might be for limiting power consumption?

USB 3/C has really fine grain power control - using "PD" ( 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.

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.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#90
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.

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