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Four months later, did Steam Deck had any impact to gaming industry?
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
If Valve actually gave a shit and shipped this or Valve Index for what matters to LATAM and other developing nations, then it would be a fair competition.
As it stands now, with it being heavily supply limited and having no official worldwide shipping, this is just a really niche product with no mainstream appeal.
As it stands now, with it being heavily supply limited and having no official worldwide shipping, this is just a really niche product with no mainstream appeal.
Yeah
Yeah, it seems great and I hope to get one one day, but what other company has both the resources and the inclination to copy them?
Microsoft could make a Gamepass handheld. Sony could make a handheld that plays PS4 games. Other than that, nobody.
Somebody like Razer or Dell could make a PC handheld, but they don't have the ecosystem, so subsidizing wouldn't work. They would be stuck with much higher prices, just like the existing boutique PC handheld companies.
What impact could a severely supply constrained portable version of existing tech that sells almost exclusively to core gamers who already have said tech, have on the industry?
Not the industry yet because I believe it will. For me, I've changes my habit. I used to wait on GamePass but I don't anymore because I love the luxury of booting it up anywhere. Also, I don't care for EGS stuff anymore because of the Deck. It literally killed EGS for me and I can see the store struggling much more once these things are readily available.
The deck is cool but it is definitely a niche product. It isn't something that I feel will change the industry in any discernible way.
It's not user friendly and the average user isn't going to put up with its quirks and trial and error.
That can change in the future, obviously, but all these handheld PCs are niche devices.
Anyway, I sold my Steam Deck on after only using it two or three times since getting it. I think it's an amazing piece of tech, I just don't need portability. If I have time to game then I'm in my office with my gaming PC anyway so seemed silly to fire something up on there. I have a toddler so when I'm outside I'm making sure the kid isn't running into roads or lick stones, the hardest game of all.
It's not user friendly and the average user isn't going to put up with its quirks and trial and error.
That can change in the future, obviously, but all these handheld PCs are niche devices.
Anyway, I sold my Steam Deck on after only using it two or three times since getting it. I think it's an amazing piece of tech, I just don't need portability. If I have time to game then I'm in my office with my gaming PC anyway so seemed silly to fire something up on there. I have a toddler so when I'm outside I'm making sure the kid isn't running into roads or lick stones, the hardest game of all.
It's a niche handheld, I think there's only so much impact it'll have on the wider industry. Stuff like FF7R marketing itself as "ready for Deck" or whatever on launch.
All handhelds are walking in the shadows of the G&W and OGGB. You won't see much of an impact from the Steamdeck being released because the largest paradigm shift caused by handhelds happened decades ago.
This is a good point. Proton is already working pretty well in Linux and is coming to Chromebooks as well. It's only a matter of time before its made available across any platform Steam can be installed (MacOS, Android)
Was it supposed to? If so, what kind of impact? It's just another way to play PC games (a way that already existed albeit from even more niche products).
As amazing as I think the Steam Deck is, I never really expected it to have much of an impact in the short term.
Hell, it's a solid proof of concept to me - and of a concept that only Valve can currently deliver on, at that. Well, several concepts rolled into a tight and continuously evolving device.
So yeah. No. It hasn't had an impact. As has been stated in this thread, it's also only been four months and the device is harder to get than a PS5 DE so yeah
Hell, it's a solid proof of concept to me - and of a concept that only Valve can currently deliver on, at that. Well, several concepts rolled into a tight and continuously evolving device.
So yeah. No. It hasn't had an impact. As has been stated in this thread, it's also only been four months and the device is harder to get than a PS5 DE so yeah
Your assessment is entirely incorrect. Microsoft has been advertising their games as being "Steam Deck" ready. Square Enix did the same for FF7R on their live stream. Sony is new to PC but they have embraced Steam so Deck specific announcements (Verified status) are not far off. I wouldn't call that "no impact".
It's changed gaming for me and I don't even have mine yet. Unless it runs on Deck, I won't be buying it on PC (ie even more Steam lock in) and it'll move me to buy even less on Xbox and PS5 too.
Shuhei Yoshida has been tweeting pics of Sony games running on Deck from the jump.
Not enough units to have a significant industry wide impact. It made me realize I'm interested in portable PC gaming, but have no patience for Linux/Proton compatibility issues. Just give me a device with that form factor, a bit more power, and Windows so it can run everything without extra effort or research.
I see where you are coming from but I think the size is perfect as it allows it to be held comfortably for hours on end with a full proper control system.
I absolutely adore mines and it still amazes me how good the performance is in a ton of games. Its easily the most console friendly that a PC device has ever been while still allowing the tinkering ability if you so require.
Don't know it could have an impact even at a year with how purchasing it is lol. If people could go into a store, or place an order and receive it in a week, then maybe something could be seen. But as it is, we're not even talking sell-outs like the new consoles, we're talking you straight up can't get one without a wait.
I think the impact currently is minimized due to the supply constraints, but the extreme amount of positive reviews from people who have one plus the high demand shows that there is big value in the space. Additionally, the Steam Deck has proven that portable gaming PCs can be extremely reliable, very performant and hit a reasonable price point.
The Steam Deck isn't a gaming laptop, which tend to be exceedingly overpriced, poorly cooled and generally a poor way to play a lot of games. Additionally the fact that it's a standardized piece of hardware with set specs means you can do certain optimizations that you could never do on a laptop or other systems.
That's before you get into the huge advancements in Proton. I can run games from the mid-90s on the Deck with minimal tweaking and it just works. I can play all kinds of weird indie titles without native Linux ports and they work flawlessly.
The Steam Deck isn't a gaming laptop, which tend to be exceedingly overpriced, poorly cooled and generally a poor way to play a lot of games. Additionally the fact that it's a standardized piece of hardware with set specs means you can do certain optimizations that you could never do on a laptop or other systems.
That's before you get into the huge advancements in Proton. I can run games from the mid-90s on the Deck with minimal tweaking and it just works. I can play all kinds of weird indie titles without native Linux ports and they work flawlessly.
Not sure what kind of impact is expected with so few units available.
I can say however that getting a steam deck and being able to cloud stream games with Nvidia and gamepass offerings on my Mac is keeping me from buying a new gaming rig.
I can say however that getting a steam deck and being able to cloud stream games with Nvidia and gamepass offerings on my Mac is keeping me from buying a new gaming rig.
Something doesn't have to be immediately available to have impact or a complete paradigm shift. Like the original Oculus Rift DK1 was released to a small set of kickstarter backers but the existence and the then proven viability of VR proved that VR could actually exist. That was the impetus for the VR wave that we still see today.
Similarly, the existence of the Steam Deck alone has caused some massive waves for the Linux gaming community as Proton has quickly evolved.
I'm sure that's soul crushing news for some.
You're right though: it's unlikely the deck will reach that normalized level of market saturation if our shortage economy endures.
I'd say the biggest long term goal from Valve is to make devs test against proton thus lowering barriers for linux adoption. And you don't need THAT many decks to cause this effect due to the base compatibility of proton being already pretty incredible, and the Deck audience being self-selecting toward power users that are also gaming enthusiasts (and big spenders). Anti-cheat seems to be the biggest obstacle left for an universal gaming-on-linux deal, so if in 2-3 years we'll see the end of the windows-binding anti-cheat then the deck has succeeded, regardless of sales.
I know I'm replying way after the fact (sorry) but I just wanted to put forward that I'm someone who's got a deck, and I wouldn't call myself an ultra hardcore fan. I ordered at the end of the second day that it became available, but for me the big draw was that this was a portable pc - I don't have a desktop PC, I have an old (15 years) laptop I can play older games on, and I have a work laptop that I can do general computery bits on, but I didn't have a go-to machine for playing PC games. This has re-opened up my Steam library for me, and as someone who doesn't really have a lot of time for gaming these days (I have a two year old who takes up a lot of our time and no space to put a desktop PC in our flat) having something to pick up and play on that also serves as a PC for doing other bits and bobs, and comes at a very reasonable price, is an absolute godsend. I am all for more PCs in this format, it's really making gaming super accessible.
I see a lot of comments from people that haven't even touched the deck. I think once it gets into more people hands and proton gets more compatibility with more games it will be huge. I love mine and take it every were I go now. Battery life is something that can be improved, but I just bought a battery pack and it last for about 6 hour with that thing.
Well A TON of youtubers and even twitch streamers have been using it, creating videos about it, so it's being talked about a lot in the wider gaming sphere. That's something none of the other handheld PC's have managed.
Still waiting for mine.
Still waiting for mine.
Retro gaming handhelds? Absolutely. Loki and Aya Air will be the competitors next year. I have a Deck but it's so heavy and bulky I only (barely) use it at home.
I'd have to wait more, but yeah, I think it has. There's more anticheat support on Linux now, and people are marketing their games as being Steam Deck compatible, which is great. More and more games are working on the Deck as well. If it were just a niche device, I don't think it'd have as much pull as it does now, even at its current stage.
I have a Deck, and I think it's like a 9/10 console, haha. It's not perfect and there are bugs to work out, but overall, it's really good at doing what it does. If it ran Windows, it wouldn't have nearly the overall polished feel that SteamOS currently has, though if you want that you can install Windows on it (or get another handheld that ships with Windows, like an Aya or GPD one).
As for if it will have an impact, I think it definitely could over time, yeah.
I have a Deck, and I think it's like a 9/10 console, haha. It's not perfect and there are bugs to work out, but overall, it's really good at doing what it does. If it ran Windows, it wouldn't have nearly the overall polished feel that SteamOS currently has, though if you want that you can install Windows on it (or get another handheld that ships with Windows, like an Aya or GPD one).
As for if it will have an impact, I think it definitely could over time, yeah.
As of now, no. If more people could get one and it was sold retail though, I think it would have made a huge impact by now. My Switch would be collecting dust, save the few first party games I would play on out for example. If I could get one.
😭