Steam Deck Handheld Console Discussion

[RainySunshine]

Steam Deck Handheld Console Discussion

Imagine having a handheld device, that can play all your PC games anywhere you go.  Having your whole catalogue of Steam games, right in your hands.  Welcome the surprise announcement that will likely shake up the gaming industry.  The aggressively priced; STEAM DECK.

Official Website

It isn't even trying to hide who this is targeting, and it will likely destroy and eat up Nintendo Switch sales among people who are PC gamers and console players.  The competition has begun.

Valve made the surprise reveal of its new Steam Deck on Thursday. The portable device, which looks similar to the Nintendo Switch and plays PC games and acts as a standalone computer. The company offered up basic details on its new system, saying it'll be available in December 2021.

The Steam Deck is Valve's entry into the portable gaming device market. It looks similar to a Switch but with a 7-inch touchscreen, 16GB of RAM, and powered by a custom Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 graphics, which is enough power to run most AAA games. Reservations for the device went live Friday -- but they went fast.

Reservations started Friday at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on the Steam Deck reservation page. Steam's servers were wrecked, frankly, by the vast number of people trying to get their hands on a Steam Deck. The reservation page has since grayed out the options to reserve the new handheld gaming PC.

There are three different Steam Decks being released. The starter unit is $399 and comes with 64GB of storage. For $529, the storage increases to 256GB and uses an NVMe SSD, which Valve says is faster than the eMMC storage of the cheaper model. The third Steam Deck has a price tag of $649. It has 512GB of NVMe SSD storage with the fastest read and write speed, and it will have an anti-glare etched screen. All three will have a microSD slot for more storage.  They made it so you can simply pull in and out different MicroSD chips with game data and it will instantly show what is on the chip.

System Specs

[Wolfwood]

Now this... THIS is a handheld system I would actually buy if it works as advertised.  I am very excited and curious to learn more about it in the coming months.

[Captain Ridiculous]

WOW.  This is a game changer!  I've never considered a handheld device seriously because they've always been "baby game" oriented or lacking in power for high fidelity graphics.  If this really is as it seems, then sign me up!

It's still hard to want to spend that much money... I guess I would have to decide if I would ever use it or would prefer using my computer.  I mean... do I want this or do I need it?

Nonetheless, this is awesome though. I wish them success and hopefully this will open up the gaming console world up.

[Graymist]

I am worried about storage space though.  It is very limited.  You might be able to have 1-8 games downloaded at any one time. But if you play smaller games, then it's no big deal. You can store a lot.

[MasterXtreme]

And you can use it for more than Steam.  It can access Epic Games store, Origin, Xbox Game Pass, and you can use it for emulation.  Imagine the amount of things you can do with this system.  It is astounding.  There is so much potential here.  They are going to have to make sure it works as advertised.

Nintendo is going to lose their only remaining successful area in the gaming space, handhelds.  If they lose this area... wow, they may go back to the dark ages where they were struggling to survive as a company like less then a decade ago.

[RainySunshine]

This has so much potential.  It is essentially "consolizing" PC games.... and that is amazing and something I am interested in. 

I find the pricing hard to chew, but I know it's very competitive and there is no way Valve will be making money on these early on with low range models.

This will bridge the gap for console gamers to PC... and further propel STEAM's dominance in sales.

[MasterXtreme]

This has so much potential.  It is essentially "consolizing" PC games.

You are so correct.  Not to mention how this will also have a docking stand and can play on any TV or your computer.  It seamlessly connects and plays. 

Nintendo dropped the ball in their big event last week and offered an OLED screen which no one wanted or cared for.  The DECK is offering what people wanted.  More power, and no PC games on a handheld.

I hope they used quality materials on the Deck and that it is reliable.  The potential is off the charts for this.

Also if they offer streaming of games... this would have been something Google Stadia wishes they could have done.  Maybe they could partner...
Also if the Deck can be used for streaming tv shows, Netflix, Hulu, etc. 

[Rainberry]

I'm going to admit... this has me interested too.  For more than just games also.

[Darrin]

Wow, this sounds and looks incredible at the surface.  Give it a few days when the excitement slows down and people look into it more.

[Anyponedrawn]

I am really curious how this plays out, but I think they are really going to make a splash with this.  The gaming industry is watching how this goes.  Some will try to capitalize on this and not sit back on their laurels.  Some will already start thinking of ways to compete.

The real loser no matter what will be Nintendo.  The company that continues to disappoint.

[Grapefoot]

The Steam Deck has already had some changes since it's grand reveal.  All the changes so far have been improvements such as hardware and the screen with no price increase!!!  Lets take a peek at some other snippets of things.

Article

When Valve first released the Steam Controller, it had a hidden, latent gyroscope inside it that Valve switched on later to get it extra hardware functionality. Alas, anyone hoping for similar technological surprises inside their upcoming portable Steam Deck PC are going to be disappointed, as Valve designer Greg Coomer has assured me there "isn't something secret embedded in the Steam Deck that we're going to turn on later" (if only because it already has a gyro built-in). It will, however, continue to get plenty of additional post-launch updates that will give it new features on the software side, he said, including a bunch of nifty cloud capabilities.

"This device is going to get the same treatment that Steam customers are used to in bringing new features to it well after launch," Coomer tells me. "Launch is just the beginning of what we see as bringing features to customers on this device. So there's a sort of inherent futureproofing that Valve tries to operate with all the time, where customers can expect new functionality and features to arrive on the device during the whole course of its life."

The Steam Deck will now have an OLED screen.

On paper, Steam Deck looks like it has a clear advantage over Switch OLED. Featuring some of the latest hardware on the market, Valve’s portable PC can run most next-gen games without a hitch, while Switch OLED is using the same internals from the original Switch launched in 2017.

Another big news update for the upcoming Steam Deck! According to Xbox Boss Phil Spencer, Steam Deck game streaming with xCloud game streaming service works like a charm. Article

For those who are unfamiliar, xCloud is a shortened term for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Just recently, Microsoft released the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which allows PC players to access a library of Xbox titles. The beauty of xCloud is that PC owners don’t necessarily need console-level hardware to enjoy the console experience. Since the Steam Deck is basically a mini PC, then it’s possible for it to run xCloud’s gaming service.

This was confirmed and this information in Phil Spencer’s tweet, where he mentions he visited Valve to test the Steam Deck. He goes on to exclaim his fondness for the device by giving his utmost praise for the portable handheld PC. In the latter part of Spencer’s tweet, he says that xCloud works well on the Steam Deck. During the testing, Microsoft’s executive vice-president of gaming played Halo which is an Xbox exclusive.

Valve's Steam Deck should be able to run Windows 11 at launch as well.  They are working with AMD on that. Article

There is also talk about multiple colors.

The console will run every game on Steam and virtually every game that can run on a Windows PC.  It will offer gamers access to the kind of performance the Switch can only dream of.  Once again, another player coming in that will hurt Nintendo. Nintendo's market will most likely shrink again.

[RainySunshine]

I hope it's as promising as it looks and sounds.  I have everything crossed.  Fingers, toes, eyes, etc.

[Captain Ridiculous]

^ Same.  It sounds all too good to be true.  I hope it lives up to all the hype it is getting.  It truly could be a game changer... quite literally.

[MasterXtreme]

RPS did an interview with the designers of the Steam Deck and they talk about the software and hardware, and other things.

RPS Article

[Grapefoot]

RPS did an interview with the designers of the Steam Deck and they talk about the software and hardware, and other things.

RPS Article

I read the whole interview.  I am pleased with what they said, especially about how when they decided it was time to stop waiting for future tech and just go for it.