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>• Valve is almost as infamous as Google for abandoning their hardware and projects.

In what way?

The Steam Machines didn't really take off, but they didn't sell any hardware for that - and they kept supporting the whole software side of things and progressing SteamOS, Proton, etc ever since - making the Steam Deck itself possible.

Steam controller and Steam link are still alive, get support and new functionality beyond the discontinuation of the hardware. The stuff they spawned, SteamInput and the Steam Link app, all still there and not abandoned.

Their VR stuff still gets updates frequently - the Vive, the Index, all still supported.

If anything, Valve are a good example of how to support your stuff long term even when the hardware hasn't sold as well as you'd like. This is really a bizarre view to me and the complete opposite of my experience as someone who owns at least something from every 'category' of hardware product Valve released. None of them feel abandoned whatsoever.

+1 to this.

They've discontinued Steam Controller quite a long time ago, but it is perfectly supported with the new Deck/BigPicture UI.

- OLED would be nice to have (though it has no impact in comparison with ps5) (same for HDR)

- Lack of dependency to windows and dumb windows11 requirements is specifically what makes Steam Deck “ultimate” (or maybe some less absolute term); some stuff has negative impacts via Proton, some stuff runs better via Proton than Windows

- There is no higher performance mode for docked because that would be an arbitrary limit to handheld that valve does not impose.

- fancier haptics would be nice to have, but they're not really what could break the steam deck as a champion product

- as said elsewhere valve didn't “abandon” products in any similar sense to what Google has been doing; and is actively building on prior products

- deck-exclusivity would literally break trust in the mostly open platform that valve is pushing.

You're mostly talking about hype aspects that really miss on what makes the steam deck stand strong. You'd like it to be more like existing consoles, but it is strong precisely because it is not like existing consoles.

> If you install Windows, apparently Microsoft doesn't allow you to get updates (on W11) because of the Deck's lack of a "TPM".

False for almost a year, a fTPM was added in a system update in March 2022. It's even a note in Valve's Windows drivers page.

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

I seriously doubt it, you have questionable GPU acceleration + 2 levels of binary translation + 3 GPU translation layers in the way. (I know VMware's DX virtualization is good but I have no experience with Parallel's) It's also at least 3x the price for meh gaming (on WOWARM64 on VM on DirectX on Parallels on Metal) performance.

> Valve is almost as infamous as Google for abandoning their hardware and projects.

Steam Link as an app is still fully supported and my Steam Link box not only works but gets updates, still.

> Some Deck-exclusive features and API so that it can be an independent platform in its own right, instead of just a mobile PC.

That's kind of the charm of it, though. It's meant to be a "play your existing games" type thing. Making more vendor-exclusive garbage won't drive adoption. The mouseaim-like trackpad, analogue triggers and haptics are useful exclusive features already, and they can be implemented by a user instead of relying on the dev.

> The Deck's screen is not OLED, which is pretty dumb up here in 2023, especially when they have a "nano-texture" option for glare reduction; why not also provide an OLED option??

I wish mine was OLED too but I was thankful it wasn't when I had to keep it on for hours to download games. I could look around for a screen-off tweak but I didn't have to worry about pixel burn-in.

Maybe someday a OLED screen mod will happen, the entire thing is super repairable and there's already hall effect joysticks available.

"I wish mine was OLED too but I was thankful it wasn't when I had to keep it on for hours to download games. I could look around for a screen-off tweak but I didn't have to worry about pixel burn-in."

Is this a real concern? I have a 55" 1st gen LG OLED and haven't had any issues. The tv is now 7ish years old and still delivers an amazing picture.

Sort-of, a Galaxy S8 in our family had solitaire (and the software buttons) burned into the pixels. Of course, they had the screen brightness to high/max and I think screen off time was very high, so it's definitely an edge case.

I know I'm overly paranoid about it, though. But also: OLED TVs don't have much persistent HUD/chromes compared to a PC taskbar, an FPS counter/overlay at the top corner, etc. It might also be a case of "burn-in isn't a concern if the panel is high quality enough", e.g.: iPhone OLED panels compared to $200 Android OLED phones.

"But also: OLED TVs don't have much persistent HUD/chromes compared to a PC taskbar, an FPS counter/overlay at the top corner, etc."

This is a good point too. The UI does hide itself and persistent elements (screen saver like) migrate/bounce around the screen.

Burn was a huge concern when these TVs were released. I assumed the threat was significantly less (across the class of screen) than originally thought.

It is, even "basic-quality" OLEDs nowadays are better than older panels, and TVs have a lot of burn-in mitigations like pixel shifting and the like. But that's also the kind of thing that I think would be more noticeable on a smaller screen, not to mention gaming's overall avoidance of display processing in general. (I wonder how much lag that would add, if at all?)

Then again the Switch OLED exists; but it uses a very specific 720p OLED panel by Samsung so maybe it's made to withstand all those problems. (Maybe someone can "mod" it into a Steam Deck?)

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

> I seriously doubt it...

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

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

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

I currently use an eGPU with a Windows 11 PC and that's already with several caveats (and a couple specific games that really hate it). The 30-50% variable overhead absolutely sucks. But it's at least still much better than the throttling onboard GTX 1050 mobile (thanks to some questionable power circuitry from Lenovo).

> I've been a pretty hard-core gamer for 30 years.

Same. Grew up on the Commodore 64 (long after its sun had set; it's just what my folks allowed me to mess around on as a kid)

> TL;DR: Can confirm gaming on a Mac sucks.

Nahh.

I jumped ship from Windows around 12 years ago and never looked back. Sure I missed out on some stubborn AAA titles, but I've played a lot of great games on the Mac just as well, and between native ports, CrossOver/VMs, and my Vita/3DS/Switch and now the PS5, I've never once thought about booting into Windows.

CrossOver is great but in this comparison it's essentially a worse Proton, especially now on ARM.

VMs I can forgive but now, between picking your poison of WOWARM64 vs Rosetta QEMU, I'm not sure it's as stable anymore.

For most of these I don't disagree, but I take issue with a few:

Windows is a distraction and lots of us have spent years decoupling PC gaming from Microsoft. That said I do think first-class Windows support would be a boon for the Deck. Not sure how decent the user experience is on Windows right now.

Exclusives are a foreign concept on PC. We do not need exclusives on Steam Deck, that is a console marketshare corralling strategy. PC has been getting ports of Sony titles lately. PC players win when there are _less_ exclusives, not more.

In my mind Steam already is an independent platform, so the Deck benefits from that by extension. Steam has an API called Steamworks. Again exclusivity is not needed here, you can add non-Steam games to the Steam client and still benefit from some of the platform's features w/o using the API.

As far as Valve abandoning products... they kinda do the opposite of that but I understand the sentiment. I never had a Steam Machine and doubt they're still in support, but Steam Link works great and the Steam Controller still gets firmware updates. Software, too - Source engine games see regular maintenance. Backwards compatibility is taken seriously, platform-wide.

Even the Steam Machine could easily be reformatted with whatever OS, and as soon as the Steam client is installed, it instantly becomes a first-class citizen again.

It's hard to truly abandon products that run atop an open platform.

>We do not need exclusives on Steam Deck, that is a console marketshare corralling strategy.

This is a loser mentality for when your platform is unwilling to fund exclusives. Exclusives are a proven strategy for driving market share for any platform. Having Steam Deck exclusive games would cause more people to go out and buy one. Some people will be content with just using their PC or Steam Link and never have a reason to get a Steam Deck. Why experience 720p with weird controls and a limited battery life if you don't have to? Exclusiveness are the way you bring value to the people who choose to use Steam via the Steam Deck.

> Exclusiveness are the way you bring value to the people who choose to use Steam via the Steam Deck.

The hassle-free portable experience is the Steam Deck killer app and value. You don't need "exclusives", you just need to be plain better as a product.

It's less of a pain to use that most linux friendly laptops.

It's less of a pain to use that constatly messing around with equivalent Windows-powered or Android-powered tablet-slab devices.

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

portable

I did purchase one. Full access to my complete steam library on a device that can be carried around. Plays well. A little heavy at first compared to a switch, but I quickly got used to it. Gyroscopic aiming makes shooters playable. It has the flat mouse trackpad things from the steam controller that make using a mouse with games very nice. Valve will only continue improving wine over time, and if the steam deck is popular enough, you'll see titles account for it as well.

As a very happy Steam Deck owner, some of your points are valid, but frankly aren't so important (yes, not all games run, and if this was my only possible gaming hardware I would be upset - but I'm OK with only 70%ish of my catalogue being suitable for the Deck). The native windows option is completely uninteresting to me, but it would largely address the remaining portion of incompatible games, leaving only the performance limitations to contend with - those are quite real and can indeed degrade your experience, depending on what you're trying to play. Given the immense backlog in my personal games library I don't care - it's the perfect excuse to pick up some 4..10 year old titles and enjoy them - but I could be an outlier here. I have racked quite a few hours of Skyrim though, and it's awesome.

The docked mode doesn't come with a higher performance profile because you're already pretty much at the power/thermal limits of the device, and AC power won't address those. And the dock not being part of the box is a bit of a non-issue where a 15$ USB-C PD/HDMI hub allows you to plug it into a big screen and use it as a controller.

Worth noting:

Between the crazy electricity prices in EU (my PC when the 3080 is active uses over half a kilowatt, that's easily 400 EUR/year worth of electricity) and the crazy convenience of instant suspend/resume and being able to play on the go, I find myself using the deck more and more often compared to the PC.

--------Editing since you added a couple items to your post:

> Some Deck-exclusive features and API so that it can be an independent platform in its own right, instead of just a mobile PC. Maybe things like the advanced haptics of the PS5 controller.

Absolutely not! That's the complete opposite of the deck's philosophy.... it's awesome BECAUSE it's "just a mobile PC", and exclusivity deals are absolutely poisonous. It's already an "independent platform" - it's called Steam and millions of people love it to bits.

I’m on the other side. Almost bought a PS5. Or to be more accurate, wanted to buy a PS5, but they were insanely behind with shipping and the little stocks there were got bought up by resellers. Then once Sony managed to get stocks up somewhat, they jacked up the prices (something I don’t recall any other console manufacturer ever doing).

I bought a steam deck instead and I’ve been playing basically all I would’ve been playing on the PS5 I wanted to get, plus it’s a nice emulation machine and I’m also catching up on my PC backlog.

Compatibility is great in my experience, sleep mode is incredibly convenient, and the only real complaint I have is battery life is basically awful for modern games. You’ll be recharging after any modest length session.

> I’ve been playing basically all I would’ve been playing on the PS5 I wanted to get

One of the most surprising benefits of getting a real PS5 has been the DualSense haptics. It's more than just a gimmick and makes a real difference in games that utilize it well: Demon's Souls, Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, No Man's Sky...

Combat feels so solid, with every hit and clang of a sword ringing in your hand (literally, with the audio from the controller) and guns having distinct effects via the trigger resistance.

After you've tried that, playing non-DualSense games feels so dead in the hand. There's almost a physical discomfort from the lack of that extra dimension of sensation and interactivity.

Consoles are sold at close to loss or even at loss sometimes, inflation has certainly affected their plans.

Microsoft has also increased the price of their consoles in some territories. Meta also increased the price of the Quest 2.

The Vita was my favorite handheld for a while. The Steam Deck is better. OLED is a nice to have but it's not a deal breaker (I have a Vita first gen). The screen on the Steam Deck is solid although not amaze-balls, I imagine it was chosen to keep the cost down. It's not an awful screen like the original 3DS. And hey, I can use a standard microSD card for $50 instead of importing a custom card from Japan for twice the price of the equivalent microSD!

I haven't run into issues like wonky physics and I pretty regularly play "unsupported" games. You can also use literally any USB C hub (~$20) and there's several docks to choose from for like $50. Admittedly the docking stuff needs more work but PC games were not really designed to have the monitor/controller unplugged mid-game so the fact it works at all is amazing.

I think using Linux is what allows stuff like sleep to work better. The Windows handhelds seem to have issues with that.

Most proton games work flawlessly on steamdeck. The only issues after almost a year I encoutnered are related to anti-cheat and DRM.

You can dock it with any hub that supports 45W usb c power and hdmi. There are lot of docks and valid cables online - it's really not that difficult to get it.

So far Valve's support has been great and I'm not sure I agree that their infamous for abandoning hardware. The steam link has been merged into as a software project and steam controller still receives support though is no longer in production.

And ironically some games work better on Proton, partly because Wine shipped fixes for them (like RollerCoaster Tycoon 2) or Valve fixing game bugs on the Proton side (Elden Ring shader compilation stutters come to mind).

> • The Deck's screen is not OLED, which is pretty dumb in 2023, especially when they have a "nano-texture" option for glare reduction; why not also provide an OLED option??

OLED is very power hungry and gets hot - the Steam Deck is already battery life and thermal constrained without it. Like the Switch, they would need to make the controls further from the screen, making it even bulkier.

I have both a PS5 and a Deck and your comment doesn’t make any sense to me

> If you install Windows, apparently Microsoft doesn't allow you to get updates (on W11) because of the Deck's lack of a "TPM".

I have installed Win 11 on my Deck because Easy Anti-Cheat does not work with Proton yet and have no issues with updates. The latest firmware (BIOS) seems to work fine for Win 11 requirements and I receive updates for Windows as well as new drivers from Windows Update.

Small technical nitpick, Proton (Wine) is not an emulator.

I don't own a Deck but I've been gaming on Linux using Proton for quite a while now and I have yet to encounter an actual issue with WINEs platform implementation. So far, I'm very impressed with the stability and performance it provides.