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Comment by cowboyscott | Hacker News Reader

I’m a first gen deck owner and am constantly impressed by the quality of the product. The hardware is good, more than good enough, but the fact that it is running windows games mostly seemlessly is incredible. Yes, I know wine has been around forever, but with the deck you barely even notice that you’re running through a compatibility layer. Performance and battery life in all but the last few years of AAA games is also great. The improvements here are marginal, but it’s great to see them making smart, incremental updates.

I’d love to see how the market would react to a deck in a console form factor, with similar input options to the deck (pad plus touchpads) and an APU comparable to modern consoles.

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The Steam Controller was killed off, and IIRC there was a patent infringement issue with the paddles on the back. I'd love to see a redesigned Steam Controller based on the Deck's controls. I play my Deck almost exclusively docked, but your average controller packs less functionality than the Deck's built-in controls, so it would be neat to not have to compromise.

I didn't know about the patents case, but I think the Steam Controller was considered pretty mediocre universally. It's got quite an unusual design, and it feels like an early (failed) experiment for the Deck control scheme.

The Deck controls are the best input method for games I've ever used. If they take the Deck inputs and stuff them into a handheld controller, I'd expect the end result to get popular quickly. The Deck shines where the Controller failed.

I still have my Deck and Link lying around because they were cheap (practically came free with a game) and because I liked the concept. I really hope Valve manages to get something like the Steam Machine into the mainstream, because they've got all the ingredients to become the perfect in-between for locked down consoles and messy PC gaming setups.

I bought a Sony Dual Sense EDGE controller for playing Steam games under Windows, and it's been AWESOME. Pricey, but AWESOME. I have a PS5, and used it to program a custom profile with the back paddles, but the build quality, weight, and "feel" are all better than the standard controller. Makes it truly feel like an upgrade to the stock model.

The switch has really proven that this hybrid handheld formfactor is the future. On the software side, Proton has been the savior that liberated PC gamers from Microsoft’s iron grip.

The space is getting really exciting now that there are a few alternative products to the Steam Deck, too (Ayaneo, ROG Ally, etc). Phone controllers are nothing new, but iPhone switching to USB C means manufacturers can now sell a single SKU for iphone/android, and we’re starting to see AAA releases on those platforms.

If I were running Xbox or PlayStation, I’d be a little stressed out.

> I’d love to see how the market would react to a deck in a console form factor,

They already tried this with Steam Machines and that didn't end well.

> with similar input options to the deck (pad plus touchpads) and an APU comparable to modern consoles.

There's the Steam Controller, but maybe they'll try something new with analog sticks.

> They already tried this with Steam Machines and that didn't end well.

They tried this in 2014 when Steam OS was immature and Proton didn't even exist (Steam Machines were relying on Linux Ports at time). Also, if I record well, we didn't had a Steam Machine 100% done by valve, only third-parties.

I bet that the market reaction would be very different today with first-party steam machines running Proton,

Apple has also historically been good at this.

68k -> PPC -> Intel -> ARM has been seamless as a user, and the "Carbon" apps that ran on both classic Mac and on X.

It's pretty amazing to know "this app is calling all the wrong APIs, but they've been shimmed to match the right ones, and the device is fast enough that you won't notice the difference."

Game Porting Toolkit works OK. It's just a pain getting it to work without first party support like Proton has.

Wish Apple would pay Valve or Codeweavers (Crossover) to officially do this, but it's just not a segment Apple seems to care about. Sigh.

CrossOver 23.5 has the option of using D3DMetal (the DirectX 12 to Metal translation layer from Game Porting Toolkit)[0].

[0]: https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/mjohnson/2023/9/27/crossove...

Sweet! I didn't know that, thanks!

There was Steambox, which was their bid to get into the console PC gaming tower market. We got SteamOS out of that, but the product launch itself didn't go so great.

To my recollection the problems with the Steam Box were reliance on third party hardware manufacturers, weak hardware, and trouble with game compatibility.

If they were to do a reboot of that product line today I think it’d go quite differently. They have the chops to manufacture the hardware themselves this time around, and the game compatibility factor has improved dramatically (partially of their own doing). I think there could be a real market for a console with an APU somewhere in the ballpark of the PS5’s, but running SteamOS and embracing upgrades and modding like the Deck has, especially if they can price it aggressively.

Maybe a collaboration between valve and oxide is in order…

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