SteamPal is a fact. Valve announced their first handheld console named Steam Deck

[Fluph]

Wow Linus went full on brown nose YouTuber on this one.

It could have serious heat issues, performance issues etc.

Wait until you at least have one.  

You make enough money that you shouldn't need to pull this shit for clicks.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

100k+ reservations

That is actually not particularly good.

The Nintendo Switch sold ~1.5 million within the first week.

US only was ~500k.

 

This is just 100k reservation... not actual sales.

 

Considering that the PC market is MASSIVE (bigger than Nintendo could ever reach... probably)... 100k is weak.

Anyways, we will see.

[Master Disaster]

27 minutes ago, Fluph said:

Wow Linus went full on brown nose YouTuber on this one.

It could have serious heat issues, performance issues etc.

Wait until you at least have one.  

You make enough money that you shouldn't need to pull this shit for clicks.

He probably wants Valve to send him an early sample/press unit.

[GoodBytes]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

He probably wants Valve to send him an early sample/press unit.

Sadly, that is the game. If he sounds critical, no marketing team of any company would go "Maybe we can change his mind... let's send him one"... they won't take the risk. Imagine if Linus bashes the device, the device would be DoA for Valve. Too risky. Even for a small YouTuber, which their complains can go viral.

 

There is a reason why they pick IGN specifically for them having a "hands-on" impression.

 

[sazrocks]

9 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

That is actually not particularly good.

The Nintendo Switch sold ~1.5 million within the first week.

US only was ~500k.

 

This is just 100k reservation... not actual sales.

 

Considering that the PC market is MASSIVE (bigger than Nintendo could ever reach... probably)... 100k is weak.

Anyways, we will see.

100k was within the first hour or 2. The API was leaking the position in line for each person, which they fixed relatively quickly. Given how hard it was to actually reserve on in that first couple hours and the fact that reservations opened up fully on Sunday, that number is probably way higher now.

[Forbidden Wafer]

45 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

That is actually not particularly good.

The Nintendo Switch sold ~1.5 million within the first week.

US only was ~500k.

 

This is just 100k reservation... not actual sales.

 

Considering that the PC market is MASSIVE (bigger than Nintendo could ever reach... probably)... 100k is weak.

Anyways, we will see.

Considering the GPD Win/Win2/Win3 had 3.8k/4.3k/6k backers, Aya Neo had 4k, ... 
I'd say it is a success reaching 50x more people than the known addressable market.

[Master Disaster]

51 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Sadly, that is the game. If he sounds critical, no marketing team of any company would go "Maybe we can change his mind... let's send him one"... they won't take the risk. Imagine if Linus bashes the device, the device would be DoA for Valve. Too risky. Even for a small YouTuber, which their complains can go viral.

 

There is a reason why they pick IGN specifically for them having a "hands-on" impression.

 

Yep and TBC, I don't blame him for playing the game. If I was in his shoes I'd be doing the exact same thing

[xAcid9]

2 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Spoiler: Badly

The usages of system memory is a big hinderance in any onboard GPU.  You can even see it in some discrete GPUs too, there are GDDR5 and DDR4 GT1030s, the newer DDR4 models see a significant performance decline vs the GDDR5 models.

Of course, memory on 1030 DDR4 is fking terrble.  Almost 3 times slower than the GDDR5 version. IINM, it's single channel. 

 

 

Even my system DDR3 is faster.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

That is actually not particularly good.

The Nintendo Switch sold ~1.5 million within the first week.

US only was ~500k.

 

This is just 100k reservation... not actual sales.

 

Considering that the PC market is MASSIVE (bigger than Nintendo could ever reach... probably)... 100k is weak.

Anyways, we will see.

I wouldn't necessarily say that is correct. The pc market is massive but the market for a handheld pc like this is undoubtedly less. At least with the switch you get alot of really appealing exclusives where as this you are pretty much limited to pc games and will likely have less options than even a windows 10 desktop. For me I already have a pc so why would I want this unless I really needed to game on the go? As for the switch I have debatable on getting it for a long time simply because there are games I want to play on it that are simply not on any other platforms. 

[Man]

5 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

I would not call this crippled' as as a minor correction, the CPU is not 15w alone, the entire APU is 15w.  That's CPU and graphics.

That said, I think some people have grossly overestimated the 'Modern AAA Performance' of the handheld since, well, it's a handheld at 15w.

 

That said, there's decades of backlog PC games that'd run great on this.  The 17yo PC gamers just need to learn that these exist and enjoy them.  Time to employ this logic, it's my whole intention with this thing:

 

No arguments there!

 

I currently own an HD7790 (R7-260X) as I got greedy and got rid of my RX470. People say it's slightly slower than the GTX750 but I say it's slightly faster than the mighty GTX285!

 

My dream GPU back in the days.

 

5 hours ago, xAcid9 said:

15w for the whole SOC right?

 

"The second crucial factor concerns battery life: the processor alone tops out at drawing 15W of power, so a meaty 40WHr battery is included and that requires space."

 

Spec Analysis: Steam Deck - can it really handle triple-A PC gaming? • Eurogamer.net

[xAcid9]

12 minutes ago, Man said:

the processor alone

Yeah, the SOC. Including display, board, inputs, whole nine yards, probably 20w-25w?

According to them it need to be 20w max to achieve that 2hours gameplay time with 40WHr battery.

[TVwazhere]

Anyone know when performance numbers/ reviews will come out? I know this was only announced like three days ago but it sounded like 1 or 2 people got their hands on it already (someone here mentioned IGN)

[CerealExperimentsLain]

12 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Anyone know when performance numbers/ reviews will come out? I know this was only announced like three days ago but it sounded like 1 or 2 people got their hands on it already (someone here mentioned IGN)

I imagine that'll be late in the game but I hope I'm wrong.  I'd love to see production hardware sent to the usual suspects and they're given carte blache with it to test it, crack it open, whatever.  It'd really boost my confidence in buying one.

[Forbidden Wafer]

14 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I know this was only announced like three days ago but it sounded like 1 or 2 people got their hands on it already (someone here mentioned IGN)

So far, only IGN and during their trip to Valve's HQ.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

Just now, Forbidden Wafer said:

So far, only IGN and during their trip to Valve's HQ.

And those kinds of 'hands on' are hands on like 'a test drive of a car at the dealership'.  You can't take it flat out on a drag course or pull the engine out to see what makes it tick.

[TVwazhere]

22 minutes ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

And those kinds of 'hands on' are hands on like 'a test drive of a car at the dealership'.  You can't take it flat out on a drag course or pull the engine out to see what makes it tick.

Right, but that "initial" impression is really important from a non-technical standpoint and is usually the deciding factor for 9/10 potential buyers, the last 1/10 are hardcore nerds like us who are gonna want to rip it open and shove in a 512gb SSD and install X Y Z programs/OS. 

 

I'm personally in the market for a portable/dockable console, and would probably lean toward the 9/10 crowd simply because the games I'd put on this thing would be small indie games and maybe Skyrim

[CerealExperimentsLain]

8 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Right, but that "initial" impression is really important from a non-technical standpoint and is usually the deciding factor for 9/10 potential buyers, the last 1/10 are hardcore nerds like us who are gonna want to rip it open and shove in a 512gb SSD and install X Y Z programs/OS. 

 

I'm personally in the market for a portable/dockable console, and would probably lean toward the 9/10 crowd simply because the games I'd put on this thing would be small indie games and maybe Skyrim

I think there's more to it than being to upgrade the OS.  I want to know if it's possible to service the battery as well.  I refuse to spend CAD$679 if in 2-3 years it has 20min battery life and my solution is 'Buy A New One'.  Cause you're right, this would kick butt for indies and older games, but that means that it could do that job for years and years, assuming you don't accidently drop it down the stairs.

[Quackers101]

27 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

 I'm personally in the market for a portable/dockable console, and would probably lean toward the 9/10 crowd simply because the games I'd put on this thing would be small indie games and maybe Skyrim

Heard from IGN it had a stable 30 or mayb 60fps in some close to recent games. As for the witcher or newer, it might struggle but do better than the switch with maybe higher resolution and no custom ports, in around 30fps? But that is something to wait and see, also very situational. Some more due to not using nvidia gpu and physics to rendering/performance differences.

 

Also it seems to be in mind for browsing too, installing windows might be a loss on it (unless software or other games to play). If its laptop capable, and how many programs are becoming webapps.

 

17 minutes ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

I want to know if it's possible to service the battery as well.  I refuse to spend CAD$679 if in 2-3 years it has 20min battery life and my solution is 'Buy a new one"

Would think you can, but how hard? It didnt look like its going to be that easy. Might be good amount of screws and pull tabs, kind of doubt sadly. But do hope they have, I think they said something about it in the IGN interview.

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Anyone know when performance numbers/ reviews will come out? I know this was only announced like three days ago but it sounded like 1 or 2 people got their hands on it already (someone here mentioned IGN)

I expect to be disappointed.

 

Like I have no love for portable "gaming" machines because it seems like there is an endless supply of them from Korea and China, and they peak at being able to play 16-bit emulators, nothing else. The Switch, which is the same hardware as the nVidia Shield, the Shield gets used more for Kodi than it gets used for anything else. The same thing I expect here, is that people will buy the Steamdeck for watching videos and playing emulators, and it will likely not see much use as the intended "game console"

 

The thing is, even if it succeeds somewhat at being a game console, Steam has already blown it once with the Steam Machine. Then blew it a second time:

 

https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/10/9128997/steam-machine-portably-smach-zero-steamboy

Quote

The handheld, portable Steam Machine previously known as the Steamboy will go on sale on Nov. 10 for $299 — the same day other Steam Machines from manufacturers like Alienware and Cyberpower hit store shelves — but the device won't actually ship until late next year, according to its manufacturer.

Does anyone ever recall seeing one?

 

Other than Linus. I looked on eBay and could only find one.

 

Like, if steams previous hardware consoles were released and quickly forgotten, who's to say Steamdeck hardware will fare any better.

 

[Donut417]

I don't think this will get anywhere. Valve is like Netflix. They dont put enough time in to a project and end up cancelling it. I think the idea behind the Steam Deck is solid. Partly because I think the form factor could be great for some games. Also this a great for people like me. I have a gaming PC, I have a MacBook Pro. I dont see the point in buying a gaming laptop. Because it would get used very infrequently. My friend was kinda pushing me so I had a machine I could game with him when I visited him in Colorado. But I do feel like wasting my money on one. Something like the Steam Deck however would be interesting. I would be able to play games laying in bed a lot of comfortable compared to a gaming laptop. Plus something like this would be portable. Of course its not for all games and its up to the user to determine what games they think the would play on it. 

 

The biggest issue with the Steam Deck besides the name, is the fact the specs will be quite a bit outdated by the time you can actually get one. Not to mention who knows how long Valve will sell/support the thing. 

[WereCat]

4 hours ago, Kisai said:

I expect to be disappointed.

 

Like I have no love for portable "gaming" machines because it seems like there is an endless supply of them from Korea and China, and they peak at being able to play 16-bit emulators, nothing else. The Switch, which is the same hardware as the nVidia Shield, the Shield gets used more for Kodi than it gets used for anything else. The same thing I expect here, is that people will buy the Steamdeck for watching videos and playing emulators, and it will likely not see much use as the intended "game console"

 

The thing is, even if it succeeds somewhat at being a game console, Steam has already blown it once with the Steam Machine. Then blew it a second time:

 

https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/10/9128997/steam-machine-portably-smach-zero-steamboy

Does anyone ever recall seeing one?

 

Other than Linus. I looked on eBay and could only find one.

 

Like, if steams previous hardware consoles were released and quickly forgotten, who's to say Steamdeck hardware will fare any better.

 

I mean, Steam Machines was a fail but it was literally just an OEM PC with Steam OS installed on it.

 

The issue with Steam Machines was that they hoped that developers will start developing their games for Linux or backport them to Linux. They quickly learned that developers won't do that for the same reason why SLI/CrossFire died. It's simply just too much work to do.

Back then WINE was not nearly as good as it's now with Proton, so they pretty much set themselves up to fail.

 

Now the Proton is actually good, they don't need developers to develop their games for Linux, they just can run the Windows game on Linux.

Obviously, Proton is not magic and I wouldn't expect 100% game compatibility, even though they say it in such way (which may come to bite them again). Anyways, right now Proton can run almost any Single-Player game just fine unless there is some issue with DRM.

For Multiplayer games the biggest drawback is the Anti-Cheat but they said they are working with Battleye and EAC to resolve it, in which case if they do, it will bring many more games from non-functioning state on Proton to very playable.

 

This does not resolve other Anti-Cheats so the other games may still remain unplayable.

 

As for performance, I see people here arguing as if they intended to play the latest Battlefield or CoD on this thing which is honestly ridiculous to even consider. This is perfect for older titles and indie titles and some emulation.

 

As for your personal feelings about handhelds... yes, you will likely hate it because of what you wrote.

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, WereCat said:

Now the Proton is actually good, they don't need developers to develop their games for Linux, they just can run the Windows game on Linux.

Obviously, Proton is not magic and I wouldn't expect 100% game compatibility, even though they say it in such way (which may come to bite them again). Anyways, right now Proton can run almost any Single-Player game just fine unless there is some issue with DRM.

Because single-player games are a "who cares if you cheat/mod/hack" the game. Most games do not use invasive DRM because it causes more support issues than it saves in piracy costs. Rather the "DRM" solution is to treat all single-player games as multiplayer and put ANY multiplayer component in it, even if it's trivial and pointless, thus making "ripped" copies inferior. This is also why most AAA games have lootbox/gachapon cruft in them, because that IS the trivial pointless online component. As long as something new keeps coming down the pipe that requires patching the game, the pirates will end up behind.

 

1 hour ago, WereCat said:

For Multiplayer games the biggest drawback is the Anti-Cheat but they said they are working with Battleye and EAC to resolve it, in which case if they do, it will bring many more games from non-functioning state on Proton to very playable.

It's impossible, if you allow EAC to work on Proton, then you will have all the hackers on Linux machines running it on Proton, ultimately making it worthless. This is a well-known fact that you attack anti-cheating software at the c-runtime level which is much easier to accomplish on Linux since the anti-cheating software can't see into the Linux part of the machine.  So you just break running it on Linux, Simple. If you want to play competatively, play on the PC like the rest of the "PC Master Race" gamers.

 

1 hour ago, WereCat said:

 

As for your personal feelings about handhelds... yes, you will likely hate it because of what you wrote.

I hate the handhelds because outside of devices like the 3DS, they've often had poor battery life, poor screens, and poor utility outside of being a game console. Can't use them as a WiFi phone, can't use them a Netflix player, can't stream them, can't capture them (without modifications), etc.

 

Sure, some of these might be solved, but you are still getting a second or third rate experience compared to a PC with the exact same specs.

[WereCat]

4 minutes ago, Kisai said:

 

 

It's impossible, if you allow EAC to work on Proton, then you will have all the hackers on Linux machines running it on Proton, ultimately making it worthless. This is a well-known fact that you attack anti-cheating software at the c-runtime level which is much easier to accomplish on Linux since the anti-cheating software can't see into the Linux part of the machine.  So you just break running it on Linux, Simple. If you want to play competatively, play on the PC like the rest of the "PC Master Race" gamers.

 

What's impossible? They literally said they are directly working with Battleye and EAC developers to make it work on Proton before Steam Deck launch.

Which is not only important for Steam Deck but for Linux gaming in general.

[centurion_08]

Without reading all the responses on this thread i want to add my 2 cents to the subject. (i will catch up on them)

 

I think this handheld pc is a fucking genius idea. Just think about it. There is a certain amount of people with weak pc's, don't have pc's at all, or want to convert to such. Overall market prices are shit. These people want full pc catalog of games, capability of desktop and simplicity of consoles. They can't dishout thousands of dollars. Thingy even have a quick resume option which i love to death. It has a controller, a screen, you can dock and use it as a desktop. They want to target people with all amunition that want compact pc experience. Price seems really appealing.

[suicidalfranco]

Got mine reserved!

256gb and ordered an nvme to USB enclosure on Ali.

No I just have to play the waiting game, q1 2022 for the deck, maybe a month for the drive.

Stocked