Valve: Steam Deck

Started by the-pi-guy, Jul 15, 2021, 04:55 PM

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BananaKing

It will be interesting to see the sales pattern of this. How the market will respond. And the long term future of steam and hardware

kitler53

2.8 million views
1 million views
800k views
500k views

Likely over 10,000 posts on Era about the Steam Deck.

And it all seems very positive.  

This could actually be fairly successful, unless something comes up
i mean,.. what is the success criteria?   i doubt this is a loss lead hardware.  games are all from steam anyways as this is just a pc in a funny form factor.  is it a success at 5-10 million?  


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

Legend

I'm locking in my uninformed hot take.

This will sell ok and have a dedicated group of fans, but it will be abandoned very quickly. It'll be remembered somewhere between NVidia shield and PS Vita.

I believe the concept of Steam Deck is more desirable than the final product. It's very similar to Ouya in that sense. People want improvements to their current systems so they are propping up a device that maybe just maybe will push the industry in that direction. Regardless of what Switch 2 ends up being, I think it'll quickly kill most Steam Deck interest.

For pc players that genuinely don't care about Nintendo, I think it'll have a tough job convincing enough of them to jump aboard. Dedicated PC players who build expensive desktops may enjoy Steam Deck as a bonus but the lower spec hardware could get in the way. I personally would rather wait to get home and play most of my steam games at max settings on my computer.

The price and form factor however could be a dark horse. With smartphones and tablets being so versatile, there are millions of people who do not own PCs. Steam Deck could be an incredible way to onboard new people into the Steam ecosystem that have previously only gamed on consoles. A PS4/5 only gamer could buy a Steam Deck and get a serious amount of millage out of it. If Steam Deck ends up being successful, I'm almost sure it will be primarily because it's a super accessible pc with lots of publicity.

the-pi-guy

Jul 20, 2021, 01:47 PM Last Edit: Jul 20, 2021, 02:13 PM by the-pi-guy
i mean,.. what is the success criteria?   i doubt this is a loss lead hardware.  games are all from steam anyways as this is just a pc in a funny form factor.  is it a success at 5-10 million?  
It's whether or not it surpasses expectations.  

I would imagine a "measly" ~5 million would be considered a success in this case.


I feel like this could appeal to:
- people who like the Switch concept
- people who have PS4/PS5, this could be a good way to get Bethesda/MS games
- people who are on the go a lot.

I'm locking in my uninformed hot take.

I believe the concept of Steam Deck is more desirable than the final product. It's very similar to Ouya in that sense. People want improvements to their current systems so they are propping up a device that maybe just maybe will push the industry in that direction.
I don't think it'll be an Ouya.  

kitler53

Jul 20, 2021, 03:25 PM Last Edit: Jul 20, 2021, 03:29 PM by kitler53
I'm locking in my uninformed hot take.

This will sell ok and have a dedicated group of fans, but it will be abandoned very quickly. It'll be remembered somewhere between NVidia shield and PS Vita.

I believe the concept of Steam Deck is more desirable than the final product. It's very similar to Ouya in that sense. People want improvements to their current systems so they are propping up a device that maybe just maybe will push the industry in that direction. Regardless of what Switch 2 ends up being, I think it'll quickly kill most Steam Deck interest.

For pc players that genuinely don't care about Nintendo, I think it'll have a tough job convincing enough of them to jump aboard. Dedicated PC players who build expensive desktops may enjoy Steam Deck as a bonus but the lower spec hardware could get in the way. I personally would rather wait to get home and play most of my steam games at max settings on my computer.

The price and form factor however could be a dark horse. With smartphones and tablets being so versatile, there are millions of people who do not own PCs. Steam Deck could be an incredible way to onboard new people into the Steam ecosystem that have previously only gamed on consoles. A PS4/5 only gamer could buy a Steam Deck and get a serious amount of millage out of it. If Steam Deck ends up being successful, I'm almost sure it will be primarily because it's a super accessible pc with lots of publicity.
sure, i'll lock in my opinion as well.

i also think it will sell ok and have a dedicated fan base.   i don't think this will convince console gamers to migrate to this.   i also don't think most pc gamers will want this.   in both cases it kind of comes down to performance.   this is basically ps4 performance or perhaps a bit worse.   i don't want that downgrade.  i can't imagine too many will want that downgrade just to be able to game on the go.   especially in the current environment where "work from home" is broadly accepted i have less reason than ever to want a portable device.    still,.. there are a hell of a lot of pc gamers out there (and specifically 120 million "active" steam accounts).   if only 5-10% of them want this then it could sell a few 10s of millions.  i really can't see this doing less than 10 million LTD.  i could see 20-30 million if "popular".  maybe as high as 50 million?!?   i don't really see this breaking 100 million though,.. i really, really think this will do nothing for people not already invested in steam.  for those invested in steam i think the tinkering (mods) and performance are the main reason one chooses pc over console.   steam deck is kinda contrarian to those priorities.

i don't think steam will be abandon quickly.   once they put it out there there will be little to no reason to remove it.   it's just another pc really.  why abandon it?  maybe it won't get a new revised model but honestly i doubt they won't at least give it a second go in a few year.  again, this is just a pc in a funny form factor.   it can't possibly been much of an investment by steam.  the hardware priced to be at-cost or profitable off so they won't be losing money.   at worst they'll stop investing in the platform and as such it will have a nice 5+ year runway to being sunset.  this is a very low risk approach for both steam and customers.  this is not a ps vita or ouya.   games will come because games will still come to steam (and thus steam deck) regardless of how unpopular it may be.


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

the-pi-guy

this is basically ps4 performance or perhaps a bit worse.  
It's basically PS4 performance at worst.  

CPU is much better.
GPU is lower in raw numbers, but it's a much newer architecture. And it's targeting a lower resolution.
RAM/IO are better.  

Barring a likely CPU limitation any XSX games that runs at 4K, should run on this at the same settings.

the-pi-guy


kitler53

It's basically PS4 performance at worst.  

CPU is much better.
GPU is lower in raw numbers, but it's a much newer architecture. And it's targeting a lower resolution.
RAM/IO are better.  

Barring a likely CPU limitation any XSX games that runs at 4K, should run on this at the same settings.
i dunno man,.. if you watch this video you'll see a fair amount of gameplay.   



..you're not going to convivence me that those bits of gameplay are better than ps4.   it's very samey to noticeably worse.   better framerates probably but less detailed graphics.



Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

the-pi-guy

i dunno man,.. if you watch this video you'll see a fair amount of gameplay.  



..you're not going to convivence me that those bits of gameplay are better than ps4.   it's very samey to noticeably worse.   better framerates probably but less detailed graphics.


Lol.
Like 60% of the gameplay there is Portal 2, which is a decade old.
With some death stranding on a monitor which goes against running at a lower resolution that I mentioned.  

Legend


kitler53


I think that solves the problem with why I hate gyro.  being able to recenter without making the screen go crazy is great. 


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

Legend

I think that solves the problem with why I hate gyro.  being able to recenter without making the screen go crazy is great.
I'm not sure how that method would feel in practice.

Uncharted Golden Abyss was one of the first games with gryo aiming and it nailed it imo. Gryo only works when aiming down the sights. Wow! Feels super natural and recentering happens without you thinking about it. I loved the sniper rifle in that game.

kitler53

I'm not sure how that method would feel in practice.

Uncharted Golden Abyss was one of the first games with gryo aiming and it nailed it imo. Gryo only works when aiming down the sights. Wow! Feels super natural and recentering happens without you thinking about it. I loved the sniper rifle in that game.
i mean, i'm not saying i'm suddenly a fan of gyro.    just that currently i had gyro for the reason they said they were combating.

i didn't have gryo on for uncharted.   i tried playing gravity rush while on a train and had to turn gyro off because it was literally unplayable with it on.  the train has too many bumps in the track and every bump made me flail widely.  also tried gyro in whatever ps3 game i had,... killzone?   again it made play much worse not better.  the necessity to hold my hand absolutely motionless at times proved too much for me.


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

the-pi-guy




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