Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Steam Deck: First Anniversary

boilingsteam.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 258 posts

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#141

Post by charcircuit »

ElectricalUnion wrote: post #130
charcircuit wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We do not need exclusives on Steam Deck, that is a console marketshare corralling strategy. This is a loser mentality for when your platform is unwilling to fund exclusives. Exclusives are a proven strategy for driving market share for any platform. Having Steam Deck exclusive games would cause more people to go out and buy one. Some people will be content with just using their PC or Steam Link and never have a reas…

> Exclusiveness are the way you bring value to the people who choose to use Steam via the Steam Deck. The hassle-free portable experience is the Steam Deck killer app and value. You don't need "exclusives", you just need to be plain better as a product. It's less of a pain to use that most linux friendly laptops. It's less of a pain to use that constatly messing around with equivalent Windows-powered or Android-power…

Not everyone is looking for probably PC gaming, but everyone is looking for good games. People will by Switches just to play games like Animal Crossing. Regardless of if they intend to use their switch in a portable fashion. A similar thing could happen with the Steam Deck, but there doesn't seem to be any exclusiveness.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#142

Post by fluoridation »

ekianjo wrote: post #107
cubefox wrote: post #75

> My wild guess is that there’s between 1 and 2 million units already shipped out there. While there was a lot of initial hype around the Steam Deck, it almost sounded as if it emerged as a serious Switch competitor. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Its sales are around an order of magnitude below the Switch, which sold 13.12 million units in its first year (and 122.5 million total). So despite its modest success, t…

> I'm puzzled why Valve doesn't want to sell it in stores. Selling in stores comes at a price (retail will easily charge you 20 to 30% for the privilege) and my guess is that Valve has fairly limited production runs anyway which makes the proposition unattractive.

Valve is such a weird company. They've been raking in the dough for years with Steam and they still act as if they're on a shoestring budget.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#143

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

smileybarry wrote: post #24
Razengan wrote: post #2

Ultimate? umm.. I almost purchased one as a Christmas gift for myself, but after doing some research I decided to spend the money on PS5 games instead: • The Deck's screen is not OLED, which is pretty dumb in 2023, especially when they have a "nano-texture" option for glare reduction; why not also provide an OLED option?? • By default it's Linux, and runs Windows games via Proton, resulting in some weird emulation bu…

> If you install Windows, apparently Microsoft doesn't allow you to get updates (on W11) because of the Deck's lack of a "TPM". False for almost a year, a fTPM was added in a system update in March 2022. It's even a note in Valve's Windows drivers page. > Heck even an M2 MacBook + Windows VM would do. I seriously doubt it, you have questionable GPU acceleration + 2 levels of binary translation + 3 GPU translation lay…

>> Heck even an M2 MacBook + Windows VM would do.

> I seriously doubt it...

And you're right to do so. I've been a pretty hard-core gamer for 30 years. I also ran Linux on the desktop for almost 20. I've tried every version of Wine and Crossover and Cedega and PopOS to play games. Let's put it this way: I never got rid of my Windows partition.

Since buying a Mac, I've tried Parallels, bought an external GPU, and bought 2 MBP's with the highest-end graphics I could get. Let's put it this way: I sold the external GPU, and bought a Playstation. I've wasted a LOT of money on these experiments. TL;DR: Can confirm gaming on a Mac sucks.

(I have a couple of games on the Mac, like Civ 5 and Gloomhaven. The first runs OK, but the second I have to detune to almost the minimums, despite having a "Vega 20" GPU. Bite me, Apple.)

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#144

Post by fnands »

kriro wrote: post #109

I've had my eye on this for a bit. I'm incapable if deciding which version I want to buy (64GB/256GB/512GB). I'd be happy to hear from anyone who purchased either of these and what their thoughts are. Anyone regretting the 64GB and wishing they got a bigger one for example?

I bought a 64 GB and replaced the SSD with a 256 GB ones myself almost immediately. From what I've heard reading from an SD card is fast enough anyway, but if you regret the skew you buy, upgrading is not much of a hassle.

That being said, if you are afraid of opening it up, maybe go for 256.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#145

Post by pibechorro »

ushtaritk421 wrote: post #91
a13o wrote: post #36

The next generation of gaming platforms is really going to be heated. We basically have two philosophies in the field now. The Switch and the Steam Deck sacrifice high end hardware for portability and versatility. The PS5 and XSX are about as portable as a LAN party, but can theoretically push 4k@120hz for the cost of a graphics card. Is there room for everyone next gen? Each of Valve, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo h…

Steam deck is an extension of the already existing PC gaming market. I suspect that almost all Steam Deck owners already have a PC they game on. Steam Deck just makes it so those PC gamers will care if a game runs well on Linux. The point isn’t to take over the console market but to defend the PC gaming market from console exclusivity and Steam itself from e.g. Microsoft Store

I dont pc game. I dont have space for a giant tower, etc. My main computer is a laptop (x1 carbon). The steamdeck allows me to enjoy all the awesome pc games, stores in a drawer, its portable if i want it to, and i dont need 4k 1000fps, 1080p and 30 to 60fps is plenty to single play with q screen on my couch. I am not a professional gamer, i dont need a full desk worth of gear. I am also busy, its nice not to worry about hardware, just plug and play (i did upgrade the ssd myself though). Its a great device.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#146

Post by NineStarPoint »

Steltek wrote: post #115
NineStarPoint wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to recognize that while the Steam deck is awesome, it’s sold 1 million compared to the 100 million of the Switch. Nintendo has massive name recognition and exclusives of course, but also price. The cheapest Steam Deck is 400 dollars, whereas the Switch is 300. For people who don’t already have big steam libraries and don’t care about open hardware, the Switch is where they’re going to go for a mobile c…

Hasn't console gaming always outperformed PC gaming marketshare? I'm not sure people even really compare costs for videogames. If they did, they'd notice that everytime you buy a new Nintendo system, you have to re-purchase all of your old games if you want to run them on the new platform. You don't have the same problem with PC games. I'm finding that even 10+ year old PC games are still enjoyable today. Maybe more…

Historically it’s believed PC underperformed Consoles, but at this point it’s estimated that PC revenue is equivalent to the entire console market combined (for what it’s worth, both combined pull in less money than mobile gaming world wide).

As for the price thing, I suspect it’s the big vs small purchase mentality. Same reason it’s easier to get someone to buy a 10 dollar monthly subscription than a 100 dollar flat out purchase. Most people compare instant costs and ongoing ones in different ways.

Personally though, agreed on the value of having a massive backlog of games to play on PC. Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of why PC revenue has caught up to consoles.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#147

Post by anotherman554 »

dom96 wrote: post #133

I guess I'm the minority who's Steam Deck is gathering dust. It is a nice device but it failed to get me to game more (which is what I wanted out of it), mainly because it's rather fiddly, in a similar way to a VR device. It takes effort to get me to pick it up, I have to make sure it's charged, I have to make sure my key bindings are configured correctly, etc. What actually has worked far better for me is Xbox Game…

I haven't been using mine much either.

Steam Deck is in an odd place since it works worse for low end indie games than a Nintendo Switch (it lacks the "it just works" experience) and it's worse for high end games than an expensive gaming PC (which admittedly not everyone can afford.)

I like the idea of Steam Deck and there are many games it can handle that the Nintendo Switch cannot, but when Nintendo finally updates their hardware this advantage will be reduced.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#148

Post by WithinReason »

ekianjo wrote: post #103
yCombLinks wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo has always been about first party games.

That's right. Nobody cares about how powerful the hardware is, as long as they know it's where they will play the next Mario and Zelda games.

Ironically, the Steam Deck emulates Switch games better than the Switch runs them.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#149

Post by gpanders »

ustamills wrote: post #68

I like my Deck. I wish more games could adjust to the small screen better. TEXT! Text designed for giant flat screen TVs or even just modern monitors cannot just shrink down to that small screen. I do not have perfect eyesight. It is too often unreadable. Do something about the text and the Deck will be as close to perfection as I could hope.

Thankfully most games I’ve played have an option to scale UI text, which has addressed this for me. Hopefully more games add an option for this.

You can also press the STEAM + LB buttons to open a magnifier for reading small text.

Re: Steam Deck: First Anniversary

#150

Post by zumzumzum »

bergheim wrote: post #23
elmerfud wrote: post #11

I have to say I'm very happy with it for the price I paid. Could it be better, sure, I wish the screen was better but I'm still very happy with it. I actually bought it on a lark because I'm 49 and I never really hand held gamed. Never got in to it beyond the beep-boop led games of the 70s/80s with boring family road trips. I watched many hand held platforms come and go and never could get in to using them. Always pr…

you.. carry a monitor? how is a steam deck, a keyboard and a monitor better than just having a laptop? also how does the monitor survive this, do you put in in the original box? and if so, how big is your luggage? :)

It's not, the steamdeck subreddit is full of these people. But I think the Steam Deck overall is much more attractive than a gaming laptop, and once you get a Deck, you don't want to then reinvest into a laptop powerful enough to compete, and so you end up with weird setups like this.
Post reply on HN