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Valve Steam Deck

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From the FAQ [0]:

- What OS is Steam Deck running?

SteamOS 3.0, a new version of SteamOS based on Arch Linux.

- Will people be able to install Windows, or other 3rd party content?

Yes. Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes.

[0]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq

Valve engineers explicitly frame the Steam Deck as a PC with an integrated controller rather than a game console: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLtiRGTZvGM

Arch Linux is amazing. The biggest surprise for me was that it's more stable than so-called stable distros, probably because the various packages don't end up drifting several months from each other when keeping up to date.

Hopefully this eventually results in more user friendly Arch Linux installers. The learning curve is an absolute wall when installing, even after several years on Linux, but after that it's pretty standard.

Based on this trajectory I expect they'll be migrating to NixOS (or maybe Nix on Arch) in about 5-10 years.

That is a great link. Perhaps even more interesting is this: Valve is working with anti-cheat vendors for Linux (Proton) support. So one of the biggest remaining obstacles to Linux gaming may soon be addressed as a side effect of this.

I’m super excited to see that they’ve chosen Arch as a base for SteamOS. I understand fully why they originally chose Ubuntu, but I feel like Arch actually hits a lot of sweet spots for consumer use cases and could be adapted for such use quite effectively. (To be fair, I feel similarly about Gentoo, which was similarly adapted for ChromeOS quite successfully.)

`Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes.`

this is probably this most exciting thing about this release. How many days until this thing is running k3s and/or serving up a prometheus dashboard on the same device that is touch capable?

This is an amazing bit of kit for the price, and it's just a normal PC running Arch Linux!

I hardly ever even play video games these days, but I'm absolutely buying one of these just to have a nice little portable PC.

Why would you want to install windows on something that doesn't come bundled with it or needs it for work?

The video looked like it was running KDE.

Thanks! This was the #1 thing I was looking for and didn't see while scrolling through all their marketing material.

I hope we'll see other cloud gaming platforms make their services available through it.

Isnt using Windows on this thing going to be an awful experience, though?

This is absolutely awesome!

We’re working with BattlEye and EAC to get support for Proton ahead of launch.

Does this mean all steam users will get this now that they have hardware to get support of? IMO this would be huge

> 7" Display | AMD Zen 2 | 16GB Memory | microSD

> Arch Linux

> KDE Plasma

> Will be able to install whatever they like

Is that you smartphone? The one I've been waiting for?

This is so exciting. 1st tier support!

they really missed out on saying (btw it runs Arch) or somin to play to that meme

Goddamn, take my money

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 like Steam Machines, Steam Link, and the Steam Controller did. On the other hand, it could end up all but killing off PC gaming if it is super successful. If it lands somewhere in the middle it will at least be yet another boon for Linux gaming brought to you by Valve as more developers will port or ensure compatibility with Proton.

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.

The thing about Valve's record with hardware is that the products aren't bad, just extremely niche. If this thing really can play most of most people's Steam games in a Switch-like form factor with a standard gamepad layout, I think it stands to be a hit in a way their past hardware attempts weren't.

It's also an interesting counterpoint to all the streaming services popping up these days. PC game streaming to mobile has major downsides, even more so when you're away from stable and fast internet. Until 5G is everywhere and mobile bandwidth [soft] caps aren't a thing anymore, a mobile device that can play games locally will be a much more attractive option for a lot of people.

To be fair though, Valve does make the best consumer VR headset available (Valve Index).

I don't really see how a cheap, low-end, mobile computer is going to kill off desktop gaming. Why would that happen? People will all of a sudden stop wanting top end equipment and big high-res screens because they can play some Steam Gameboy?

Did the steam link really go nowhere? I have a physical box, and it works magically well. My understanding is it's still available, just not as a physical box.

It's a neat piece of hardware, but I have a hard time believing it will be any more than a fad. Who is this for? Serious PC gamers? Why not just play on the "real" PC they already have, with the super-expensive monitor, graphics card, and input devices they carefully assembled? Casual gamers that don't care so much about those things and want to play meatier games on the go? Why wouldn't they just buy a Switch (which already carries many "PC" games, large and small)?

The Index was genuinely revolutionary, despite also being punishingly expensive. It's hard not to feel a sense of envy on seeing one in action. But this? No one will care in a year (or maybe even six months).

The Steam Link continues to be very useful for my girlfriend and I. It’s plug and play and we haven’t had issues with compatibility or controllers like we have trying to set steam up on a Pi 4.

> On the other hand, it could end up all but killing off PC gaming if it is super successful.

Why? I thought PC gaming is about powerful graphics cards you can't have pretty much anywhere else.

The Valve Index was a testing ground for their hardware efforts. I 100% believe they are serious, they've built a hardware operation.

Steam link is not the best example as they’ve made it available on standard hardware like raspberry pi and it’s baked into the OS of many smart TVs now. They just pivoted from selling their own hardware for it. They also continue to update the controller features, including adding in Bluetooth support long after release.

I appreciate what Valve is doing and I will vote with my money. I don't see myself as a "handheld gamer" but I am making a reservation today just to be able to play with that device a bit.

Same, I even made a comment a few weeks ago that SteamOS seemed abandonware w/o any recent updates. Glad to be wrong.

And sure their hardware projects often don't hit mainstream success & stick around for multiple generations, but I still had a Steam Alienware Alpha that was both my daily driver & gaming rig for a few years, and still occasionally use a cheap Steam Link for in-home streaming.

Microsoft seems to think Windows is better for ads than anything else at this point. It doesn't matter if it makes sense, the people running the show have made up their minds and game developers and players need somewhere else to go.

I'm also wondering if they'll open the door to third-party apps on the Steam Deck, which could let you use it for other cloud-based gaming platforms like Stadia.

The Steam Controller was actually awful though. It was so very very loud.

I'm going to buy this just to support Valve for their continued support in making Linux desktop a viable gaming platform. Their reasons may not be entirely altruistic, but there's no doubt that they had a tremendous impact on the Linux gaming ecosystem.

And it's not just the Linux gamers that are benefiting from their work. They also seem to be doing good work on lower-level parts of the stack (e.g.: graphic drivers, Flatpak, etc) that are improving the Linux desktop in general.

I'm going to use it as a (mobile NUC with screen + battery) and use it for programming etc.. not going to buy it for gaming at all. Having an amd machine with 16Gb ram + nvme storage + linux - perfect setup for day to day coding!

And will buy it as a thank you to Valve for supporting us all these years. I think this will pay off for them in the long run.

Same. I already have $1,100 saved for a gaming PC, but since that might only buy a GPU right now I’ll just jump into this and hopefully wait out the GPU crunch.

Apparently they are working with anti-cheat makers to get those games working on Linux before release? This honestly seems like the best news for Linux gaming... ever.

Similar: I have a Hades Canyon GH Nuc because I want a very low profile rig that can run older games on high and new games on low and throw it in a bag w/ power adapter & go. Not only does this accomplish the same thing, it runs Linux and means that if I'm just bringing something along for gaming it's completely self contained.

IGN has a detailed hands-on which really boosted my interest:

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions...

The joystick layout looks funky to me, but apparently it works?

> However, as soon as I held it myself, the layout felt completely natural: the intuitive hand orientation when you grab the Steam Deck is more straight up and down, like holding the sides of a steering wheel, whereas with a controller your hands are at more of an angle. As a result, it’s easy and natural for your thumbs to reach the Steam Deck’s face buttons, D-pad, and thumbsticks.

And as a Mac user who has to load up Boot Camp to play most of my Steam library, a portable dockable PC is extremely appealing:

> As a result, in desktop mode the Steam Deck honestly just feels like a PC. The OS is Linux-based, but it feels largely familiar to Windows and is capable of running everything I threw at it from either platform. I played a bit of Factorio and Death Stranding with mouse and keyboard on a 32” monitor, and if it weren’t for the Steam Deck sitting docked next to me on the desk I would have forgotten it wasn’t running off a traditional desktop PC.

As a Mac user, I'm very interested as well. I don't play any games nowadays because I cant justify spending all that money for a latest generation PC, let alone the space it takes.

If I can have a dockable PC that can churn decent frame rates, It's just a matter of switching the input on my monitor and switching the bluetooth mouse/keyboard to it. For me, the fact it's portable is just icing on the cake to be honest. I'd buy it even if it didn't have a screen or controls to be honest.

It reminds me of the Gamecube controller where the philosophy was to "orbit" the interfaces around your fingers to provide better contextual use. It certainly looks strange, but it probably feels damn comfortable to use.

I wondered why they didn't go for the same style as their Steam controllers with the concave pads.

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 move, given how small the display is.

> Why is any company having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 these days?

Almost certainly has to do with cost and PCI-E bandwidth. Mobile chips like this only have so much bandwidth, and USB3 requires more dedicated bandwidth than USB2, not to mention more complicated circuitry that drives up price. And when your expected use case is attaching keyboards and mice, which generally are USB2 only anyways, it reduces the cost and bandwidth needed to support that many ports.

One negative: With all that hardware it’s almost 3 times heavier than the Nintendo Switch, which is already near the upper limit for holding comfortable for longer play sessions.

edit: On closer look that's comparing the Switch without controllers (297g) to the Steam Deck with controllers (669g). The Switch with controllers is 398g, so the Steam Deck is only ~1.7x times as heavy - though that's still a lot of extra weight to hold in your hands.

> Why is any company having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 these days?

I think it's not a case of "having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 slots", I think it's instead a case of "having precisely two USB-2 slots", no matter how many USB-3 slots there are. The reason for exactly two USB-2 slots is obvious: one of them is for the keyboard, the other one is for the mouse. Neither the keyboard nor the mouse need more than USB-2, so there's no reason to have the more complex USB-3 hardware for these two ports.

Other than those two ports, it makes sense to have the rest of the USB ports be USB 3, which seems to be the case here, even though there's only one (the USB-C port seems to be meant to be always plugged into a charger, so it might also be USB-2 only).

What was wrong with SteamOS being based on Debian? I’ve not used SteamOS myself, but I wasn’t aware there were problems in that regard.

> All models of Steam Deck support expanding your storage via microSD cards. Games stored on a microSD card will appear in your library instantly.

This makes buying the model with limited storage a bit of a no-brainer. I'm glad Valve supports external storage.

>They fixed the worst thing about SteamOS: It's now got an Arch base.

I'm a little surprised they didn't go with something like Fedora. The kernel / drivers are kept just as up-to-date as Arch but the rest of the system is a little more stable.

> Why is any company having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 these days?

Because it's cheaper to produce and easier to design for USB 2. The cpu and chipset are limiting factors as well.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/chipsets-am4

Scroll down to the table at the bottom of the page to see what AMD's chipsets can support.

Regarding that storage thing: in the hardware section, they specified that the storage could be expanded with a microSD [1] card which should already improve storage capacity by a lot if you wish.

[1]: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/hardware

The best part is that you don't need to buy games if you already have a Steam library full of games.

I really wonder what it means to be based on Arch Linux. Are users supposed to run packman to grab the latest security fixes? Are users going to be installing apps from the AUR or whatever? Why does this thing even need a package manager at all? Or is there more to a Linux distro that I'm not getting? It seems like a distro is mostly defined by it's package manager and repository paradigm or philosophy, with Debian being the slow stodgy stable distro and Arch being bleeding-edge. Everything else they have in common (wayland, systemd, standard components that don't know or care thst they're running on Debian or Arch).

Arch is a surprising choice because of their rolling release schedule. How will software updates for Steam Deck work? Will Valve just snapshot Arch at a random time, and then stabilize it?

My assumption is that the intended use of the USB 2.0 ports are mouse + keyboard.

In my experience USB-3 generates interference that messes with wireless gaming device dongles. I use a Logitech wireless headset and gamepad and they work far worse in USB-3 ports.

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

> Why is any company having more USB-2 slots than USB-3 these days?

Most of the prospective users don't need more USB-3 ports than they have.

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.

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 becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?”

Frankly, I feel like it’s probably a decent number of people? Enough for this product to do okay, if not change the whole market. But people have been very confidently incorrect about almost every iteration of mobile gaming in the past. I guess we’ll see.

The Shield was Android with GameStream. This will run games directly on x86 Linux which, with all their Proton work, will result in a much bigger game library out of the box. There have been more niche handheld x86 devices, but they were even more money, and different form factors. Steam being as big as it is, I think this has way more potential than anything done before.

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.

> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?”

At first glance at least, it seems like it may end up being much more than that. I see appeal here for non-gamers as well - or at least, for people who aren't only or even primarily gamers.

It's a very nice cyberdeck for general use, though granted it doesn't have a hardware keyboard. Given the size and form factor any keyboard they'd tried to graft on the thing would be basically unusable anyhow so I'm glad they didn't try.

I can totally see myself picking one of these up and throwing it in my bag alongside a small Bluetooth mechanical keyboard. For working in coffee shops in a terminal it'd be just fine. Connect it up to a TV via Chromecast or something and you've got a damned nice setup for less than a grand.

The mere fact that NVIDIA Shield Portable didn't take off doesn't tell us much. It had poor design sensibility (i.e. it looked like ass, like some kind of portable Xbox designed in the early 2000s), and it ran Android, which lacks a compelling games library.

Steam Deck at least stands a chance, although I'm worried about the weight and the battery life.

I intend to buy and use it as a mobile workstation for programming, since it has a x86 chip, 16Gb Ram, Linux-compatible gfx chip, decent amount of storage. Basically this will fill the void left by the Nokia N900 for a lot of us. It being able to run steam/games is secondary for me.

Or, if AMD would please get on with it and release a small form factor like the Intel Nuc, that would be great. But this device does have a screen attached to it and a battery, so it would work fine as a nuc for me.

Super excited!

Had to google what you meant by NVIDIA Shield (wrt portable gaming): https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667...

One major difference (besides the form-factor obviously) is that the Deck doesn't require WiFi + desktop to play your PC games. I'd also argue that the trackpads will be a major difference. The Steam Controller's trackpad wasn't perfect, but it made possible to sanely play a ton of designed-for-mouse games

> I guess the question becomes “what percentage of current PC gamers are motivated to shell out $400 to play on the train?”

Does it even matter? For consumers, they get what they paid for even if Valve shows zero commitment as long as Steam does not actively shut them out. For game companies, support for controller and Linux/Proton is valuable with or without Steam Deck.

And for Valve itself, all the software investment is a long term hedge against the existential threat of Windows failing them, this is just an opportunistic bonus use. The only actual cost is the hardware side of the project. If it tanks in the market they'll simply refrain from doing a v2 and do damage control with long tail sales of v1. While taking comfort in knowing that the Deck hardware will at least have lured a few game companies into the arms of Proton, strengthening their Windows hedge.

It's interesting timing because the Switch Oled edition was just announced with no bump in power. So if you want a capable handheld with access too all the indies which will play games much better than your switch... here you go.

And you can still keep your switch for nintendo exclusives because they've just made it clear that they're not upgrading the switch in a worthwhile way for at least a year.

I would say this is squarely aimed at the existing switch customer base.

> Do I need a Steam account to use Steam Deck?

> The default Steam Deck experience requires a Steam account (it's free!). Games are purchased and downloaded using the Steam Store. That said, Steam Deck is a PC so you can install third party software and operating systems.

I like their middle finger against other console and smartphone manufacturers.

Many people I know have bought more games on Steam than they could ever play (a behaviour encouraged by seasonal Steam sales). This strikes me as a great chance for people to discover and play titles that have sat in their collections for years.

Halfway down the page on https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ they have a graphic of a user logging in with the username 'gordon' and an obscured password, which conveniently has the same number of letters as halflife3, haha.

Pretty nice specs for a handheld battery powered device...

  Processor AMD APU
    CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
    GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)
    APU power: 4-15W

  RAM 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s)

  Storage
    64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1)
    256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)
    512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)
    All models include high-speed microSD card slot

Though it does weigh 669 grams (~1.5lbs).

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

I might be the target audience for this. I have a steam account for years but I barely touch it. I don't feel like building a PC, and games for MacOS were limited last time I checked. I've been happy playing my Switch and PS4.

My first thought when I saw this was that it better be able to connect to an external screen, and it does! An added bonus would be if I could hook up external controllers to it as well.

I've heard of Valve's Proton[1] but not sure how stable it is and if it can support any Windows game on their platform. If so, then that would be pretty amazing to have access to some Windows-only games without building a PC.

I'm definitely interested but I'm in no rush. I'd rather upgrade to a PS5 first but I'm gonna keep my eye on this. If the reviews in the long term are good maybe I'll get the 2nd generation of it.

Wonder if they'll release a Oculus-Quest-like all-in-one VR system next.

1. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

> Operating System: SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)

> Desktop: KDE Plasma

This is sure to excite the Linux community.

This is a pretty amazing. Given the ports on the back, will this support the Valve Index? I love my index, but having to boot up a PC and keep myself tethered to the desktop is a bit of an effort that I'd love to skip.

EDIT: Found a half-answer to this: "Pierre-Loup Griffais: I mean, it has all the connectivity. You would need [a lot] to do that, but that's not really what we're optimizing the performance for." [1]

[1] https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-valve-faq-big-questi...

Typo in the title. It’s “Steam Deck”, not “Steam Desk”.

Interesting that Valve is diving deeper into hardware. Remember when they still made video games? Remember when there was still a hope they would some day release Half-Life 3?

And so, this is what Proton was for. Hope this is a success, as the success of Linux as a gaming platform is strictly linked to the success of this.

It does look very appealing: it could become a Switch with the whole PC library available. Damn cool.

I really hope that this market picks up steam (heh) and we get to see even more bigger names coming up with devices. The Aya Neo [1], OneXPlayer [2], and GPD Win3 [3] have all come out relatively close to each other with different ideas of what people want in a handheld gaming PC.

Valve seems to want to get in on a price that is more competitive with the Nintendo Switch, so its hardware specs are a bit worse it seems than the others in the market. The plus side to this is that the base model comes in at just $399, though that is with eMMC storage, while the next bump up uses NVME. The other specs seem to be identical across the 3 SKUs, though.

The trackpads a la the steam controller seem appropriate for the types of games that require a mouse on PC, which is unique in this product market. Gyroscopes are also built in, which I'd presume would work similar to the Wii U and Nintendo Switch for aiming. I don't think it'll be as good as a mouse, but I've found that aiming with gyroscope on the Wii U was much easier than using just the analog stick, so hopefully it makes FPS games with a controller more pleasant for me.

I also think it's interesting that it is using SteamOS, which had been kind of abandoned by Valve for quite some time. This also means that it is depending on Proton for game compatibility, which in itself is a huge statement on their confidence in the maturity of it. Without it, this would be a complete failure like "Steam Machines" were. If it works out well, maybe we'll finally see a real product instead of a tech demo from Dell and other PC manufacturers. Exciting.

[1] https://www.ayaneo.com/aya-neo

[2] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/onexplayer-best-performin...

[3] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd-win3-the-world-s-1st-...

Most online gaming is currently borked on Linux because the anticheat software doesn't work. Does this get around that somehow? Will I be able to use the same method on my Linux machine?

EDIT: Otherwise 'runs the latest AAA games - and runs them really well' seems like oversell.

EDIT2: From their 'software' page: 'For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors.' Yes!

Everyone is talking about gaming, but do you guys think this could be a laptop replacement? I've been intrigued by docking tablets for years now, but haven't found one I like yet (that can run linux well, so no Surface). I like the tablet form factor for web browsing and watching videos, but nearly all the tablets are too phone-like to get real work done.

I don't actually play games much anymore, but do people actually want a portable gaming device in addition to their phone? They always felt like gimmicks to me.

CPU: AMD APU Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)

GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)

RAM: 16GB LPDDR5

Display: 7", 1280x800, 60Hz

OS: SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based), KDE Plasma desktop

Storage: Onboard 64GB eMMC/256GB NVMe/512GB NVMe, microSD slot

“Installing Linux is hard” is about to flip on its head as people find themselves with Linux installed by default and instead having to figure out how to install Windows (and pay for it explicitly).

Battery: 40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay

Having the battery as low as 2hrs is brutal. I know the early Switch consoles weren't much better running AAA titles like BoTW but they've revised the chipset a few times since, and newer models floor at ~4.5hrs (3hrs for the lite).

I'm all for more competition, but I'm not clear on who the intended audience is for this device.

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.

The way that Gabe talks about the console is really interesting. From what I understand, the purpose of this device is simply to ensure that gamers continue to buy games on PC (i.e. from Steam), even as desktop PC gaming becomes less and less relevant in the wake of an increasingly mobile landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXgDAF6QpM

Valve, you created a lot of products that were great but then you dropped them for some or another reason.

I would like for once for you to keep working on a singular product, release multiple iterations, make it better and make it the market leader.

I dual boot windows and linux, but have not booted into windows in years. I can play many games on linux now, but having a completely separate system means I can keep games and work separate. The dock also means it can be used as a real gaming computer. I also refuse to play mobile games, but might make an exception for the ability to play full pc games on the go. Normally I would never consider such a device, but the price point, size, and the dock makes it almost a no-brainer.

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/ might be a better link? Has pricing information, for one.

The rumors were discussed a couple of months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288653

I bought a gaming PC years ago, and I hate booting it up to play my Steam library, because of the constant, unending updates.

Didn't turn on your PC for a week? Enjoy a 45-minute wait while Steam downloads and installs yet another giant update, preventing you from playing anything until it's done.

If this is going to be like that, I'm out. Even though a device like this is what I've been looking for.

> "Steam Deck starts shipping December 2021 to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. More regions coming in 2022—stay tuned for more info."

Does anyone know why hardware product launches tend to be region-constrained initially? Is is for shipping/logistics reasons, or legal/tax/etc stuff?

Software/SaaS launches never have these constraints, so I figure it must be shipping related, but that would amaze me. Is there still no company that makes international shipping painless/simple? What would be the difficult part for Value here?

At a cursory glance this thing seems to be well-equipped to handle emulation. There are a lot of (sometimes sketchy) portable emulation devices on the market but most are pretty underpowered. This seems significantly more powerful (at a higher price point of course).

I'm curious if more folks interested in portable emulation will go for this or wait for an FPGA-based Analogue Pocket.

> It looks like you've been attempting a lot of purchases in > the last few hours. Please wait a while before trying again.

Thanks you Valve for this awesome shopping experience.

Can the 64GB version be upgraded DIY with a NVMe SSD?

It claims to be a eMMC but goes on to clarify it is a PCIe Gen2 x1 connection. Does this mean it is just a m.2 card?

This is neat, but I really would like to see Valve putting a tiny fraction of what must be a monstrous private cash pile into some new content that can run on these devices (and my old-school desktop).

I feel like I am in the middle of a desert of gaming content right now... I can see the mirage of BF2042 and AOE4 on the horizon, but who knows how that is going to play out once we get there.

Maybe Netflix (with the recent EA exec acquihire) can pick up some of the AAA gaming slack with their even more gigantic pool of cash and inclination to greenlight and fund everything that even remotely sounds interesting.

I'm totally cool with a role reversal if Valve execs feel the need to master all manner of hardware. Someone else will eventually fill that software role.

As someone who has a stReam deck[1] sitting on their desk this is a very confusing name. Before I realized this new product was steam not stream I was trying to find if valve bought elgato or something.

[1] https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck

I always felt their controller was a bit of a weird product. Turns out they were just dipping their toes in the water. I wonder if they are going to produce this fully in house like the controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCgnWqoP4MM

I know from first-hand experience as a dad of a gamer that AAA PC games aren't optimized for space in any way and 64GB of storage is nowhere near enough. I know they are trying to hit a price point, but for all practical purposes, this thing starts at $529 (where you get what I'd consider the minimum of 256GB).

Only thing this and Steam OS is missing is native support for software like Easy Anti-Cheat. Because EAC explicitly refuses to work on wine (proton), it's impossible to run a huge number of AAA multiplayer games. I know Value probably cannot do much on it's own here though.

Just in case anyone is Ctrl-F-ing this for NVMe M.2 M2 SSD upgrade slot support for the 64GB eMMC version, apparently, the base model does indeed have the NVMe SSD slot like the higher versions according to this:

https://twitter.com/RobotBrush/status/1416150442841628677

which would appear to imply you can upgrade the 64GB eMMC with a NVMe SSD by yourself.

   AMD APU
   CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
   GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)

and 5 screenshots with Control by Remedy, game that runs at ~10fps on PS4. PS4 has faster GPU than listed here ...

BTW Somehow Sony didnt delist Control from PS store despite performance problems, their official reason for delisting Cyberpunk :)

Edit: IGN "hands on, but not really hands on" https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions... Once again Control by Remedy in EVERY fricking shot of the screen. Even the shot where Valve employee is "casually" sitting with the Deck on his lap, the screen is facing the camera and you can see Control right there :D And the mystery is solved, Control is playable in mid to low settings at 800p with Ray Tracing turned off, something you cant do on PS4.

Well I guess their time developing the Steam controller isn't all for naught. Looks similar in concept, except with dual joysticks and thumbpads (instead of just 1 each) and extreme deemphasis the traditional X/Y/A/B buttons, and 4 (instead of 2) back paddle triggers. Which is great, I loved the paddles on my Steam controller.

I wonder what this will mean for Linux support on the Steam store in general? Since this is SteamOS[0], then manufacturers will have to support Linux / Proton in order to have their games on this machine.

[0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/software

I hope once this device become a hit, dev would start looking at Linux(or at least Steam OS 3) as a viable market and maybe optimize for them.

I am actually excited for what this would mean for Linux gaming

If I were them, I would launch a 2nd version of the dock around Dec-2022 that has an integrated GPU. Use a GPU than can push 2k content and call it the Steam Dock 2K. 4K version in 2023.

The one issue with this is going to be the storage space. 512GB isn't really enough for multiple AAA games. It will also be interesting to see what the battery life is going to be on this thing, and how well they've tuned the controller hardware.

It could either be an amazing upgrade for mobile gaming or incredibly janky.

I know giving predictions against Nintendo is always a bit of a gamble due to their strong 1st party IPs, but with the announcement of the Switch OLED (and with that basically killing the hope for a Switch Pro), they might have seriously bungled it.

At least for me, I know when my Switch finally kicks the bucket (and maybe even before then) I'll seriously consider a Steam Deck instead. I've been using my Switch almost exclusively for indie games, and even though there is quite the selection of them for the Switch I could have played basically all of the indie games earlier (and then some) if would have had access to my Steam catalog. So unless you really want Nintendo's 1st party (expensive, never-dropping-in-price) games, this really looks to be a no brainer.

Honestly, those specs are pretty decent[0]. I could see myself using that as a workstation, since it's already preinstalled with Arch.

[0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

The size of that thing looks like half a laptop... I'm wondering about how comfortable that beast is?

I would love to see more competition in portable land, but it will take a lot to pull me away from the Nintendo Switch.

I'm also wary as Valve hardware has had an up and down history.

I don't see any mention of VR. I wonder if they will support plugging in a Valve Index. Seems like it should be possible through the dock. Oculus headsets wouldn't work though, since they don't support Linux. Unless you can install Windows on this thing somehow...

Edit: Yes you can install Windows: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq This might be a good companion for an Oculus Quest headset. $299 for Quest plus $399 for this and you get access to the Steam library of PC VR games in addition to the Quest library.

I'm so excited about this - I've been looking for a cheap device that won't take up much space and allow me to play AAA PC games despite having a Macbook as a primary machine. Can't wait to get my hands on this.

This is my chance to finally play the 1000+ games I bought on steam but never touched.

Curious to know how they map the buttons / pads / sticks to PC game inputs, or games have to manually provide input scheme for this system.

This looks great. A Nintendo switch with more than a handful of AAA titles and shovel ware and power. I’ll be buying I think since the Nintendo DS is dead, switch isn’t for me, Sony gave up. This looks like a winner.

Nice hardware specs[1]. It's really delightful to see such relatively powerful hardware in that form factor, because if stuff like this catches on, it will only push the market of those small form factor PCs which make really good home servers. Like the industrial SBCs that can be found on http://linuxgizmos.com/

If I were into gaming, I'd definitely consider getting one of these.

[1] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

This is great because there is only one platform to program for. The previous Steam Console was a big failure because it had so many different hardware configurations. This could be awesome!!!

This is great! I don't know how much of it is open in the -all specs open- sense, but being able to install usual OSes on it, paired with the really nice price, makes the platform interesting for a lot more uses other than gaming. In fact, I don't see it as a simple gaming platform but also a portable terminal with lots of buttons. Hopefully more competition in this field will also help bring down prices of other interesting gear such as the GPD handhelds and mini-PCs, the One Xplayer etc.

Very cool. Seems like a steam-powered Switch. Wonder how the other console manufacturers will react.

Bringing PC gaming to a portable form factor will probably be successful, but I don't game on my phone, so I don't think I'd buy this.

I am in the market for a gaming laptop that can dual boot Linux as my work machine. If they did an Alienware or ROG style build I'd very likely buy that.

Btw if anyone has recommendations for me, I'm looking right now. Looking for a 15-17" heavy ass laptop with minimum 32gb ram, quality 4k or close display, and as much performance as I can find.

Impressions:

* 1.47 pounds is 666g, versus the Switch’s 398g (with Joy-Con attatched). 67% heavier.

* I do like that the two people I can see on the landing page both appear to be female, and not overtly "models" at that. I don’t want to read into whether this implies anything about what the marketing for this system might be — rather, I just like that we’re seeing a further erosion of the video-games-as-boys-club trope.

* The visual appearance of this console is brazenly ugly. It sure feels like they were unwilling to compromise something for the sake of appearance, though I’m not sure what that something is.

* They claim that there’s no performance difference between tiers, but obviously disk speed has an impact on how games perform whenever they need to fetch data. This feels like a bit of skating by on ambiguity rather than being fully forthright about tradeoffs — which only hurts since the price jump from the entry level to the middle tier is so dramatic, and we don’t yet know pricing for the dock.

* Countdown until this thing is EOL? Any bet on what the firesale will look like? No, I’m not assuming it’ll flop necessarily, we just all know Valve’s track record for being fickle about hardware.

* This really goes to show how much prowess Nintendo has at hardware, and how hard mass-market product design is. According to my napkin math, Nintendo and Valve are both in the same ballpark in terms of financial status / resources. Though if the Xbox and Surface has shown us anything, if you keep trying and trying in earnest, you’ll eventually get there.

Glad to see two sticks in addition to the trackpads.

The Steam Controller with its one pad/one stick approach was...interesting but I just couldn't adapt to it for most games.

What I was interested to see discussed here which I have not seen is the relative merits of this and other similar products (yes, there are several!).

GPD Win Aya Neo Smach-z

The first two have actually shipped units. I own the first gen Win (underpowered, quality issues but an amazing first effort), and am awaiting my Neo.

Neo seems more powerful but bulkier and more expensive. I have great faith in Valve to produce hardware to last. The latest Gen GPD'S are looking great!

Any thoughts?

Man, imagine you were a kid getting one of these for the first time, like a Nintendo or Apple. I can't imagine the magical feeling. I really can't.

Seems great as a niche enthusiast device. Based on my past experience with Steam Link though I'm not sure how well it'll do as a mainstream gaming console.

Too much of Steam's game library just wasn't designed to be used without a keyboard/mouse, and touchpads + mappable controller buttons aren't a great substitute, particularly when the game you're playing still thinks you're using a keyboard.

There's a certain level of polish expected from console gaming. People expect to be able to launch a game and have it just work; they don't want to be futzing with controller mappings and adjusting graphics settings for 15 minutes before they can start playing.

To be clear, I think these are surmountable problems. From what I've read though I'm not sure if Valve has done anything to address them. There's a lot of talk on the website about having access to "your entire Steam library", and a mention of how the touchpad lets you play games designed with a mouse in mind. But again, based on my experience with Steam Link, it's not really that simple.

Curious what the battery life will be.

Bummer the charging port is on top. That's inconvenient if you're playing and charging at the same time.

Still, an exciting device!

This seems to integrate tech from Steam Controllers. I.e., dual touchpads on a gamepad style layout. They went through many prototypes [0] attempting to create something as portable as a console controller but as accurate as a mouse. I certainly prefer it to a touchscreen.

[0]: https://i.imgur.com/3FskweR.jpg

This is an interesting product that I am happy will exist, but that I doubt will sell particularly well.

It is a Nintendo Switch for the PC crowd, but that comes with inherent compromises and nothing in the way of exclusive software.

I personally do not think I could justify spending money on this over a new laptop instead, but I hope it is a really great little niche product for some people.

To me, someone whose gaming experience rounds down to "never", but who's casually interested in maybe playing some games, this looks very appealing. Switch form-factor but it runs PC games? I don't need to carry around a tower with me and sit in front of a desk and disconnect my peripherals from my other computer? Sounds great!

Due to its openness and built-in controller this looks like a great device for emulators and remote play / cloud streaming.

I would love to see Valve create similar hardware (and software) for mobile VR to compete with things like the Oculus Quest.

I'm a little disappointed that Valve is focused on Proton only. This can also play native Linux games. A well written native game should perform better, and, more importantly, get better battery life.

Maybe Valve is going about this the right way. Focus on Proton now, and if it takes off, game devs will make the effort to do a native port.

I am excited about this because it finally seems like there will be one more worthy competitor in the portable gaming arena. I was getting really tired of Nintendo's majority market share, with no one to compete against them they have been reigning free with their ridiculous "no sale on 4 year old games" policy.

I do find intriguing Valve continues to be a private company. Unlike the rush start up these days have to do an IPO.

Anyone else getting some Atari Lynx vibes?

This is the most interesting part to me:

> On Steam Deck, your games run on a different operating system than the one on your desktop PC. It's a new version of SteamOS, built with Steam Deck in mind and optimized for a handheld gaming experience. It comes with Proton, a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run your games without any porting work needed from developers. For Deck, we're vastly improving Proton's game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors.

Of course, it doesn't magically make every Win 10 game run on Linux without issue. Your favorite games may not even work, but it does make most games playable. More info: https://www.protondb.com/

Valve is like 90s id Software without Carmack. They understand business models. They know that the money is to be made in game engines and game platforms, not games themselves. However, they’ve never had the technical talent and vision to execute on that.

Half-life was supposed to be a demo for GoldSrc. It never took off and I can’t name a single 3rd party GoldSrc game. Likewise, Half-life 2 was supposed to be a demo to sell the Source engine but I’ve yet to see a successful Source title that wasn’t Valve-based.

They tried with the Steam console (the name of which escapes me) and I don’t know anyone who owns one (despite the excellent controller). Now we’re at them trying their hand at a Nintendo Switch competitor. Based on their past failures, I don’t see this being any more of a success.

Anyone else understand why the storage upgrades are described as "Faster" and "Fastest." At least for eMMC to NVMe, I can see how that can be described as "Faster," but how does increasing NVMe capacity get you "Fastest?"

It's 1280 X 800 on the device, I wonder how it fares playing AAA titles at higher res on a TV or monitor.

Have only given the specs a cursory look so far but seems the GPU is (understandably) significantly less powerful than, say, a laptop GPU from a few years back.

Wow. This thing will either flop massively or change gaming. I really hope for the latter.

How long until Epic Games sues Valve because they're not a first-class store on Steam Deck?

Companies like Apple, Valve, and Microsoft build out ecosystems and take massive risks doing so, only to have someone who made millions if not billions of dollars off of these systems to come knocking.

Epic made millions if not billions off these platforms. Nintendo is locked to their store. So is Xbox and PS. Not sure why anyone else that designed it that way would be any different. If it's a closed ecosystem, it's just not for you.

If Ram pickup trucks sold door chimes on the dash's touchscreen, Epic Games would be suing for access for their alternative marketplace.

As a person who is mostly interested in playing a few older PC games out of a sense of nostalgia (such as the definitive editions of Age of Empires / Age of Kings), should I get this and if so, what size?

I have a Steam Controller. It performed well in several games. However, my experience with it and most games was very bad. Most games did not really support it and community keybinding presets were either non-existent or unplayable. I had to learn how to use a controller as if I did not use any in my life. I had to spend a lot of time to get everything up and running and learn the controls. Most of the time I switched back to wireless keyboard and mouse or xbox controller.

I hope that controls on this device will be decent and the games are playable.

After having to replace a second joystick in six months, I'm just about ready to dump my Switch Lite for something not made out of mud by a company that doesn't really care about hardware.

Could anyone comment on the relative speed of the UHS micros SD cars these support VS. NVMe (I know it's faster) & specifically how the UHS would compare to a traditional HDD (not SSD)?

I think the Switch gets this type of handheld play right by having detachable controllers. I never use my Switch with the controllers attached to the side. Instead I use a separate pro controller when playing handheld mode. Maybe this doesn't matter if you can still use a separate controller.

Beyond that, it's not clear to me what this will support. If I can play Fallout, any of them, I will seriously consider buying this.

Damn, if this was officially available in Japan I'd be so tempted to reserve one right now...

Might still order one to my home in Germany, but probably will wait for further news on proper international availability first.

In any case, I hope this will create a fire under Nintendo's ass to release a proper Switch Pro. They've had the handheld market to themselves for far too long, and the lackluster upgrades are showing it.

The resolution, the weight, the battery life and potentially the cooling are all sub-par. There's also the fact that this can't compete with the Switch due to the simple fact that games are optimized to run at a stable framerate by the developers or subcontracted companies for the Switch, while this will just run games from Steam at a low-res and hope for the best.

With those specs and that price, this would make a wonderful portable linux machine if someone can build a case with a keyboard fold-out

Reminds me of a modern take on the Sega Game Gear!

Two gripes: Wifi 6e should be included for a new device that's launching for gaming this holiday.

OFDMA really has the potential to decrease the lag of cloud gaming when playing wirelessly.

2 why would you just let the microsd card dangle in the breeze like that?!? It's a necessity at the storage sizes provided and ruining that slot will make the whole device a big hassle to use.

Valve is the antithesis of Apple. Where Apple says it must be great, even if it can’t do everything, Valve says it must do everything, even if it’s not great.

I see the same things that I didn’t like about the Steam controller here. Cramped layout, tiny buttons, and no clear goal of what it wants to be except “everything”. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.

Although this is a pretty niche case - this might be a godsend to those who have too many little indie games piled up in their library and actually want to finish some of those in commute.

The hardware doesn't seem to be apt for the latest AAA games, but that's maybe fine - the majority of Steam games aren't really that taxing in terms of hardware.

I try Proton a few times a year and the experience is almost always disappointing; I'm not even a hardcore gamer, so mostly playing 2-3 year old games which I'd expect good experience with.

However, if they ramp up investment and actually make Proton viable for the majority of titles, this is very bad news for Microsoft / Windows.

Did not see that coming! I’ve been saying for a while that the nintendo switch is one of the best idea of the decade and the poor quality leaves a lot of room for competition. My first guess at a successful competitor would have been Apple, who I think has a lot to win in entering the market with a switch-like console.

64 GB is a joke for AAA PC gaming. Can you pop it open and add your own NVMe or is the practical base price $650?

The button placement seems really high, but it might be comfortable to play while resting the bottom on a table.

Damn this hardware in a laptop form factor would be awesome. I really want to buy it but I hardly game...

Tech specs – https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

800p resolution is a bit disappointing, but I guess that's the only way to get a good frame rate without a massive power-hungry GPU.

Amazing. If the hardware is good, this will leave no gaming use case that is not best covered by PC

The display specs seem very mediocre: Resolution: 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) Type: Optically bonded LCD for enhanced readability Display size: 7" diagonal Brightness: 400 nits typical Refresh rate: 60Hz I feel like they dropped the ball on d

As a long-time user of Big Picture Mode, I am pretty skeptical how happy I would be long term with one of these. When it comes to things like basic controller support or options for unusual resolutions, it's still the wild west in the Steam library.

Handheld gaming console running Linux and allowing doing whatever you want with the OS - nice!

Wow! a few weeks ago I made a comment to the effect that SteamOS seemed to be close to abandonware at this point with no new releases in a few years.

I am extremely happy to be wrong! Sure this is great for gaming, but it will also bring Linux to a lot more people too.

There's enough demand for a more powerful handheld gaming device. Nintendo continues to let down their most avid and vocal fanbase by not producing a "Pro" model of the Switch that can run AAA classics. I think this will do really well.

How open is this platform to custom peripherals (wifi/bluetooth) ones? I've always wanted a nice controller for robotics projects with a touchscreen. Right now it seems like most hobby projects use a laptop and ps4/xbox controller.

Just wondering, it notes that the base model has 64GB and it has an SD card slot. 64GB isn't enough space to play most modern AAA games. Do SD card really have the bandwidth to play AAA games or Will the memory be upgradable post purchase?

If I want to develop software for this platform do I have to go through steam?

Btw Looking at their link for developers and they accidentally a word here:

> This site is a resource for Steam developers - here you can about developing for Steam Deck, developer kits, and more.

Due to Linux being the host (and Proton being heavily used), I wonder what this will mean for Denuvo enabled games. Could it lead to publishers stopping to use it?

I also wonder if this device will lead to more games targeting Linux as a first class platform.

Is this going to be locked down? Can I use a web browser or install my own Linux apps?

Uh, anyone else think this is poor (confusing) branding compared to the Stream Deck from Elgato?

https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck

IGN preview:

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions...

Did anyone find anywhere what the compatibility of all/most games would be with SteamOS? I know Proton has come a long way but doesn't have complete coverage of the Steam library: is SteamOS improving on that?

Those specs sound quite impressive for the price.

I wonder if one could run a custom Linux distro on it? It looks like a sweet device, but I'm not enough of a gamer to spend that kind of money on a device I can only play games on.

I like this concept - it feels like they are repurposing rather than price gauging like everyone seems to these days

also I like that this may actually upset the mobile game space which frankly is a stain on the gaming industry imo

> Exclusive virtual keyboard theme

They will monetize UI skins for this as well it seems.

Honestly I've never been this excited for a handheld gaming console!

My first reaction/two cents is that while this seems really cool, PC games are mostly set apart from console games in that they’re often designed with keyboards in mind, as part of the core experience (similar to how motion controls were core to the Wii).

PC games that don’t need a keyboard/aren’t designed with a keyboard as a core input are already available on most consoles (e.g. many Steam games with controller support are already on the Switch).

Not saying this won’t work out — I think it will likely do fine.

But I don’t think this was meant for the more hardcore PC gamer, and a lot of controller-only gamers are likely fine with consoles (and for their portable fix, the Switch). So there’s a pretty niche set of gamers this will attract.

I can't reserve. For whatever reason, Steam won't accept my payment. I switched to Paypal, and now it says I've been trying a lot of purchases, and I need to wait a while. :-(

How is this going to be able to play AAA games? It's going to need to emulate x86, as well as add the WINE layer for compatibility. I can't imagine this being able to keep up.

Imagine if Apple made the Steam Deck with the M-series processors. Would probably have more power with 2x the battery life and 200g less weight.

But you'd be stuck playing p2w RTS games and gachas.

I hope it has better latency than the Nintendo Switch - if you build your own hardware with display included, why not make it fast!? Why does it need to have a 20+ ms response time!?

Happy to see KDE Plasma is default. I think KDE should be more adopted than now (rather than GNOME). But a bit weird decision since GNOME3 is more touch friendly than KDE Plasma.

A bit worried about the screen. 1280x800, 400 nits, 7 in - nothing to write home about, and marketing on the website does not focus on display at all.

Everything else looks really strong though.

Deck vs OLED Switch: 40Whr vs 16Whr (3.7V * 4.310Ah) battery, to give similar 2-8hr vs 4.5-9hr, with 1.6TF vs 1TF GPU, weighing 669g vs 398g. Batteries weigh a lot.

ARM-based Deck possible?

Reminds me of the Atari Lynx [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx

Honest question. Is there a gaming platform where I can play only free games? Or atleast where I don't have to put a credit card number before giving it to my kids?

Does anyone have any idea why they ditched Debian to use Arch?

So that’s why valve was pouring all this manpower into proton

Maybe a mod can correct the title to "Steam Deck". This post made me think Valve had introduced a second product, Steam Desk, in addition to Steam Deck.

Does it run Crysis? \s

The abbreviation for Canadian Dollar is CAD, not CDN. Sometimes C$ or CA$.

I checked Valve's website for an email address to let them know but it seems they have scrubbed it quite deliberately. This is not a surprise, it's something we see all the time with scale: if a 100 person company can have 100 million customers, they will happily do so and gladly take their money, but never scale up enough people to deal with this extreme staff:customer ratio. Google, FB, etc., we know they all have terrible customer service and that this is the reason. Seems with Valve it's the same.

Sort of an unfortunate name since it's so similar to "Stream Deck." I imagine there might be some confusion between the two if this takes off.

I want to know if I can stream and play on a TV or external monitor. It will double the value of this device if I can also play on a bigger screen at home.

Really look into it. The $399 is the perfect price point for me right now as other handheld devices on kickstarter and indiegogo are kinda expensive.

Anyone know what the story is for running non-steam games on this? I'm thinking 2000s win32 keyboard-and-mouse games, or even MacOS9 emulation.

The Storage Capacity and Price are quite a pain point. I really hope it will be possible to extend it on your own, then I will definitly buy one.

This will be great for the development of proton as more companies will be incentivized to make sure their game runs on linux to target the deck.

Seems like all the pieces are in place for this to be good at least on paper. If the demand is there, this could be a huge success for Valve.

Looks like a cool device also to use as a remote control for real life objects: - drones - robots - LEGO MindStorms/Powered Up/...

I'm planing on dual booting Windows and installing Maschine in order to make music.

Might also see if I can just wipe Linux entirely and go only Windows.

Capacitive joysticks is really nice, it improves gyro aiming adjustments by letting the gyro only activate when a finger is on the joystick.

Arch linux really? Does not make much sense tbh Ubuntu would have been imo way better. Why would you want a rolling OS for some hardware.

Can we all agree that none of these stack up to what the PSP was in it's day?

Not in performance of course. But the form factor and the experience.

For those of us with older eyes, I am skeptical -- the screen is pretty small for the amount of detail PC games often want to display.

Wow that's as powerful as a base model PS4.

I wonder what this might mean for the Valve Index.

I mean, 1.6TFlops is still far from an RTX 2080 (10.1 TFlops), by a factor of 10, but still…

I do wish the would have gone with 1080p display instead of 720p. I fear that the pixel density might not be high enough...

Will these be as hard to find as the PS5 currently is? I suppose this should be affected by the silicon shortage as well...

Kudos to them only allowing accounts who have made purchases prior to June 2021 on steam to participate in the pre-order.

That's smart.

This is kinda cool. Needs a 144hz display though. That would be the killer feature to differentiate between the switch.

I’d like a device that streams my home PC games with decent handheld controls, it doesn’t need to do anything else.

Any recommendations?

> 2 x full-size analog sticks with capacitive touch

That’s listed separate from the track pads. The sticks have capacitive touch?

A device with half the resolution of your phone, not enough storage for a single AAA game, and a maximum of 2 hours battery life. But it's by valve, so hype, apparently.

I can see these being stacked like bricks to make a house when valve has to stop supporting them because it's too expensive. There's a reason an iphone or switch has a sizeable profit margin - you pay that back in RMA, returns, and general support.

My childhood dream is potentially realised! I would love if it's possible to run PCSX2 on this thing, damn.

Can eMMC model's SSD be swapped to NVMe one? Though maybe their NVMe offering is better for battery life.

Just like Steam Deck, standalone VR headset which allows you to install the OS of choice and 3rd party apps.

Is this a reference model, could be see other PC manufacturers build their own versions of the Steam Deck?

2021 is the Year of the Linux Handheld?

Is this APU good enough to do significant AI/ML workloads that you’d normally have to use Colab for?

I've been wanting to try to write games for the Switch but this looks like a good alternative.

I'm really curious how hot this will get under load and what kind of cooling it will have.

I wonder if they will release a new Steam Controller to go with it for TV-Docked multiplayer.

I'm curious if they have this running wayland or X? I know KDE supports both nowadays.

It's crazy, it almost seems to be timed with the new Nintendo Switch announcement...

I don’t know if this has changed but the problem with This is the same as the stream controller. Pc game interfaces aren’t designed for controllers and aren’t intuitive. This can be seen if you just compare Minecraft Xbox vs Java and the lack of some little menu optimization really makes Java a pain to run on controller only.

One prediction: there will be a Steam Deck 2, but we'll never see a Steam Deck 3.

A $400 dev machine running Arch?

Playing Factorio on mobile would be amazing.

But could something like this run Cyberpunk 2077 decently?

No information where they are going to make the hardware. I hope it's not China.

this is very exciting. One small step towards getting rid of the Microsoft dependency for the occasional gaming session.

Also i hope it is very modular, and components can individually be upgraded rather than having to buy a new one every X years

huh? so a gameboy on steroids? that's what gets hackernews excited? at first i thought, finally a competitor to Oculus quest and what do i behold? a little notebook with domain specific keyboard ... come on, give me a break

Wow its a handheld computer, sounds like a customizable and (arguably) better Switch

First thing I thought was, did they buy all the old Wii U's and repurpose them?

The true killer application is being able to take a dump without pausing your game.

Fantastic that it runs Linux by default.

A real shame it's not available in Australia at lunch.

Hope there are enough chips to support this in today's supply chain mayhem...

this is great! i hope we get access to the underlying linux system

in a similar vein, i just finished installing ubuntu on my Switch. It's a lot of fun so i can imagine this will be even better with fancier hardware!

I don't think the 64gb version is going to fly with AAA titles

> 40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay

Battery life doesn't seem too good.

The Steam Deck seems like a smaller iPad with physical controls. Game makers need just make their stuff work on iPad and then suddenly millions of people won't have to buy a new "small PC" to enjoy their content.

What is the advantage of this over an ordinary Linux laptop?

Can I run NixOS on it?

Absurdly expensive internal mmc memory in comparison to SSD

If this supports dGPUs, it can actually replace my desktop.

What video card is equivalent to this steam deck hardware?

Reminds me of Sega's Game Gear – oh, the memories!

Does that not look uncomfortable to anyone else?

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.

Does the Valve Steam Deck get hot during use?

if the microSD card slot works ok, I think the price is exactly right. Doesn't the switch run games from SD cards?

Would’ve been an instant win for me if I could do a Switch-style hookup to the TV. Without that, it’s just another limited mobile gaming console.

Take my money

They should be coding HL3 instead!

So, I guess its plays only games from Steam? I'm curious, does every game on Steam run on SteamOS? cus SteamOS is Linux.

An under powered expensive hardware for running games that are not designed for it? Doesn't sound like a good buy.

this is a very interesting product. x86 for handheld instead of ARM.

ARM for desktop and server x86 for handheld

i love it

Can I install Windows 11 on it?

The pricing even doesn't seem unreasonable. If the device is of a good quality, this could sell pretty well.

Does it run the Epic store?

The Valve Steam Deck is pretty exciting and well timed.

The Nintendo Switch it the largest console market > 50% and mobile is the biggest market in gaming. So going with that model but with gaming selection of Steam is a smart timed move.

The size of gaming markets are mobile first as the biggest, then PC, then console in terms of gamers with revenues about split in thirds equally across mobile, PC and console -- including handheld the biggest part[1]. Mobile has a bit more than the others and when handheld it not included in console then it is the top. Mobile has 2.2 billion gamers, PC has 750 million, console has just a bit less than PC around 700 million [1]. Though each stationary console has had less than the last in total players, most players are still growing on mobile and even PC [1]. There are also more game developer on PC by 2 to 1 over other platforms, mobile second then console. Developing for console is costly and time consuming.

Consoles that go handheld are smart, even better if they are more open and allow game studios of all sizes to launch on it, games will be better at the high end, even if there are more bad games.

Since consoles like Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation and Nintendo are so locked down and hard to enter for indies/small/medium players, PC going handheld/mobile is going to be great for indies/small/medium game developers extending the PC player base. Mobile opened up stores for everyone in 2008-2012, Steam opened up 2012+ and game markets should be more open, especially console as you want to sell hardware and the more games the better.

The first iteration of the handheld hardware may or may not hit, even the WiiU failed initially, but the beauty of Steam is there are no games you can or can't play on specific consoles. They don't need launch titles. Steam Deck gen 1, 2, 3 will all have the same games. Steam has a competitive advantage here on selection due to their openness.

Consoles and PCs are stationary and that is why mobile does so well, you can play anywhere. Handheld does well as well because you can take it with you and can game at a desk or on the couch or at work. Game streaming changes this a bit allowing you to game on your devices on the go, but having a beefier device that can play all types of games is surely going to have at least some market. Lots of times I am working on my PC and shutting all down to game seems too tasking but you could play Steam games on the Deck while keeping work open or allow gaming to fit in your day more when you aren't at your PC.

Very, very excited for the larger potential market for PC games on a handheld console! This massively helps indie/small/medium players get more gamers and handheld is a unique new market for PC games.

[1] https://www.gamingscan.com/gaming-statistics/

Nearly 70% heavier than the Switch. That's a deal breaker for me, sadly.

This sounds amazing!

I am getting one!

> SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)

nice

This item is not available for reservation in your country

800px gaming.

Gamers be like: "btw I use Arch."

I am so excited about this

Stadia should have made something like this obsolete but...Google.

Cool another Valve product that won't be sold in my country.

I can't buy this until it runs Windows, too many games need it

A more expensive Nintendo Switch with the attractiveness and weight of the Sega Nomad. Complimented by the extensive Linux gaming library.

Brought to you by the maniacs at Valve who lost their minds somewhere around Portal 2.

Just listen to that mobile AMD64 go hnnnnnngggggg

Edit: LR 4 and 5? what monster was this designed for?

I’m glad to see Valve attempting to be creative again. But this is an idea we all drew in our 8th grade composition notebooks.

Finally a linux gaming console

Now valve, for the love of god, PUSH NATIVE LINUX GAMING, proton only as a way to supplement the library..

Reduce your steam tax for the companies that provide a native linux build

I will not buy this if your main selling point is "proton"

As for the price, 419€.. very bad marketing, 399€ would have been perfect... you got greedy for 20€, that'll hurt sales

What, no 5G? Just WiFi? That seems surprising.

The site Crashed my browser (chrome) as soon as I scrolled down.

Won't these guys get in trademark trouble with Elgato's "Stream Deck" which is also a piece of hardware targeted at the gaming market?

What os does it run? And the more important follow up: what games can it therefore run?

I _assume_ it's linux, but that must limit the games to protondb and linux compatible games which, speaking from a lot of experience, misses quite a few.

>SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)

What? So they ditched Debian?

>1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio)

Yeah... that's like 2000s.

Seriously who what this? For those who can spend fortune for the PC games, they have better options. Those who can't spend that much, Nintendo switch is probably better for the gaming.

> Deck

What an uninspiring name! (with unfortunate mispronunciations). Looks very interesting though, price point (starting at £349) seems very competitive.

I really wonder what the point of this is. Mobile gaming is a meme at this point. It's a thing but phones and tables have it well catered too. We don't need another mobile gaming thing that will surely be in the bargain bin in as couple years.

Looks nice, but...

It doesn't appear to be set up to work without logging in to Steam first. That really reduces the portability.

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?

Valve has a pretty bad track record with hardware, do they not? I'm not very aware of this industry, but the vague impress I have is that they've tried this a couple of different ways and it hasn't gone well for them. I'm curious why they would make this play again.

Whoever named this an idiot, my first thought was reading “Stream Deck” and I thought it was streaming device. Valve makes good hardware but their marketing is terrible leading to abandoned hardware that enthusiasts rave about. The marketing page is white... it is Valve... why is the marketing site white?!?!

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