A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
The price of everything is out of control, because it turns out the people who set wages have a different idea of inflation than the people that set prices.
This is the only gen I can think of where console prices have gone up from what they were at the start. And that's before you get tariffs from everyone's favourite orange dickhead.
And PC component prices are even worse.
A big part of console/computers getting cheaper has been thanks to decreasing transistor sizes (aka moore's law). But we're seeming reaching the physical limits of how small transistors can get, and as a result hardware won't get cheaper simply from being remade with smaller chips.
Valves the only one with a major digital store. Everyone else is making money off hardware margin and frequent hardware releases. I want a smaller one though. Pretty much a Switch 2 sized handheld. Maybe even smaller. Different levels of portability. Like I don't need to be on a device that can run at 15-30w like current Steam Deck competitors when I'm just trying to play Persona 5 on an airplane. You can play that set at lowest TDP on a Steam Deck and hit 30fps
Once again Valve proves they actually understand what people want; a relatively cheap and effective system that lets people play the games they want to play
I think the big difference is that they seem to be optimizing for customer satisfaction where others are not.
My favorite example I use often is how the Steam Deck comes with a case. It’s free and there’s not even an option to not get it. They know you need one, they include it. The Switch doesn’t come with a case. They know you need one but they don’t care. You’ll buy one if you want it bad enough and that’s more revenue.
It’s just a different type of optimization.
Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
I fantasize about the idea of starting private companies for things currently dominated by public companies, with the sole idea of not being greedy and shitty.
Probably the biggest advantage they have is that they can sell devices at cost or even at a loss and still profit from increased Steam game sales, like how other console makers operate.
3rd parties can't compete with that. Not even close. If there's no profit from the device itself, there's no motivation to make it. And apart from the hardware cost, they also need to pay for the R&D and corporate maintenance. They can't compete with the Steam Deck. If they made an exact Steam Deck clone, they'd have to make it, idk ~$40 more to make a profit, but no one would buy it because the Steam Deck is the same for less. They have to give it slightly higher specs to give it a niche. That might take hardware cost up to $500 and then charge $150 more to make up for the distributor fees and then $100 to make it actually profitable. But at that point, they've already lost most budget and casual gamers, they might as well aim at whales and enthusiasts and make profits $300. If a $950 device sells half as well as a $750 device, it's still more profitable.
Edit: more realistic numbers
The Steam Deck is not sold at a loss. The initial pricing for the 64 GB unit was barely profitable, but this quickly changed with production ramping up.
This was confirmed by Valve themselves in an interview that happened months after Gabe's famous comments about the pricing.
So yes, Valve profits from the games too, but that's not used to subsidize the Steam Deck's price.
Could there be an argument about the R&D costs not being factored in there? So for companies that can't compete, its literally a skill issue.
Not like the companies releasing these things have been making PCs and peripherals for decades or anything lol
I honestly don't understand why most companies aren't private instead of public. Like which founder looks forward to answering to investors when they could just be answerable to themselves and their employees and maybe board, like are they looking for a massive exit payout by going public or to raise funds to become a bigger company, but I argue if you are making enough to be profitable why chase being bigger
Because public companies get a huge infusion of cash from their IPO.
This makes them a much bigger fish in the pond.
Big fish eats the little fish.
Grow or die.
The kind of core problem with a market based economy is that markets almost always tend toward consolidation over time... and you have to have a well maintained set of regulators and laws to keep up with industries to keep this in check.
But those corps tend to have so much money and influence that they just buy the government via outright bribes/corruption and PR campaigns to dupe the masses into supporting politicians and policies that will be corpo friendly.
In short... most companies actually are private. 9/10 new business fail in a year or two, largely because they cant compete in a world dominated by a small number of very well known, very big fish.
...
Like uh, think of this.
Stock Exchanges?
Those aren't government entities. Those are companies, private companies.
A really good strategy for a marketplace economy... is to literally be the marketplace, the platform.
Thats why basically every large game publisher either is trying to or tried to be their own content platform.
Mostly this hasn't worked at all, but uh take Roblox, thats pretty wildy successful as more of a platform for games, than a specific game.
Its garrysmod but executed with uh... better business strategy (massively barring all the pedo problems but hey thats the cost of doing business apparently!).
The super uber game that all AAA game publishers keep trying to build and mostly failing at is a persistent world of some kind that allows for it to be its own contained ecosystem for new dlc, new cosmetics... the game isnt even fundamentally important, its the ability to have the game recieve constant inflows of money.
Gacha games exemplify this amazingly well, and they've been, by $$$ transaction volume, larger than more conventional games for a decade now... there is little pure monetary incentive to make a high quality game when the market keeps proving basically low quality slop that looks pretty, and can be microminetized, is an extremely effective business model.
Its basically just designing a video game as an addictive drug.
You don't want to be profitable. You want to be rich
Don't forget battery life. Most of those systems get some pretty awful battery life, or are comically large.
the two things that made the game boy a success: "good enough" system with a great battery life all for a great price
its partly windows, and partly 8 core AMD CCDs that handhelds dont need.
Lenovo was given a holy ball (Z2 go cpu, basically 4c/8t zen 3 cpu and 12 rdna 2 cu cores (as apposed to the zen 2 and 8 cu rdna2 the steam deck has) and if they priced it at 600 tops and go down from there. it would be extremely competitive.
lenovo is basically like nah, 750$ it is. and i think its the reverse (starts at 600 and goes up)
Well people also want HL3, and here we are...
The hype train for hl3 is so off the rails that valve can't release it. It would never live up to the hype, so it's a pretty sound decision not to make it.
Dude it's my favorite PC in a very very long time. I will definitely be installing Linux on my laptop at some point soon.
They have advantage of being able to sell at almost cost because they make so much on game sales. Like the other console vendors.
Actually kind of unfair business practice.
I mean that’s just how consoles are, except Valve does let you just use it as a normal pc so you can use other stores if you want to. Still an advantage to them
Ironically, leveraging this kind of tactic is what allowed Google, Amazon and Apple and Microsoft to become as huge as they did, as fast as they did.
Got a whole bunch of lines of business that can functionally subsidize other ventures, so they can make a push for market share.
But of course this doesn't take too long to turn your whole economy into oligopoly, and thus your society into oligarchy... at best.
I... I think Gabe really just isn't as fundamentally awful of a person as most other tech company heads.
Yeah, he's got a yacht, but he could be so, so much fucking worse...
Newer handhelds might have more power, but I still think the Deck is the best value for what it offers.
I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
There are loads and loads of really cheap Android-based emulator handhelds. The YouTuber TechDweeb does lots of reviews of these devices. These things have effectively spawned their own retro gaming ecosystem around them.
An alternative is to pick up a used New Nintendo 3DS (New being part of the name, distinguishing it from the original 3DS which is way less powerful). This device can be hacked to run many different emulators and play thousands of games. While the screens are not as good as the best Android handhelds, the form factor is ideally suited for running DS and 3DS games (which obviously run natively on the device) while still being great for older single-screen systems (the unused touch screen is excellent for emulator controls such as pause/resume and save/load state).
A used PS Vita would be better I feel. Similar size, and just as hackable (Emu4Vita). Except a Vita has:
The only advantage a 3DS has is that it has 3DS and DS games, but the Vita has PS Vita games, PSP games, and PSX games to its advantage.
This is a neat idea and contrary to what the other commenter said, I still think it's a valuable proposition because many folks, myself included, would rather have a Linux device rather than an Android one.
I just want something that runs Minecraft so I don't have to keep up to date with workarounds on the Switch that Nintendo keeps trying to block
also fuck bedrock edition
my switch exists primarily for Minecraft. I don't use it much because the experience is terrible. if there was something that did the same thing but for Java, I'd buy it
You want a linux psp, a media device that had a web browser too. The psp was som far ahead of its time.
I do this with my RK36XX emulation system (powkiddy RGB30). It has a port for the moonlight streaming app
It even plays stardew valley and quake 3 arena through the onboard ports really really well
I mean everything's price is out of control. But, other than that, yeah, I'm not surprised. It's not surprising that massive companies just wouldn't understand what made the Steam Deck great in the first place.
I still recommend it to most people. I still think it's the best on the market. Because I still think that the more open nature of the device, its trackpads and that SteamOS are killer features.
This is just... not true?
The Deck ranges from 420 to 680. The Legion Go S is 520, right in the middle of that. The Z1 Extreme ROG Ally is 670, right in line with the top of the line Deck (and noticeably more powerful). The Switch 2 is 470, on the cheaper side and also a fair bit beefier.
This article is arguing that having next-gen chips in boutique devices for 1K is a) a new development, and b) a bad thing. It is neither.
Before the Deck went mass market with PC handhelds they would routinely be a lot more expensive. The original Ayaneo was between 800 and 900 in 2021. The Pro model went up to 1200.
I want those things to exist. I want GPD to cram a Strix Halo into a handheld with a removable battery. I want Ayaneo to build a dual screen clamshell. I want Odin to slap a Xbox controller around an iPad. I want them to make a dumb console that spits out its buttons so you can flip them around. I want vertical handhelds. All that kooky weirdness is experimenting with new form factors and parts in ways that will move the segment forward. Without Ayaneo, Odin or GPD being dumb enough to cram a laptop into a handheld there'd be no Steam Deck in the first place.
Let the people who like weird hardware dump a grand or two into those weird things and that's how you eventually get a comfortably priced for-the-rest-of-us device from Valve or Asus that takes the ideas from those that work.
Mudman here with the most salient point and better written then my “fuck off if you don’t want those devices you don’t have to buy them” but also the used market for those devices is way weirder, I grabbed a Z1 extreme Ally for $250, I’m also for sure ordering a Ayn Thor at 10 tonight, but I enjoy playing with weird hardware more than I do the games tbh
I choose to read that as a genuine compliment.
And yeah, man, these weird devices are being sold to weird people who like them for what they are. Which also means when the next weird thing comes out those weirdos are likely to get upsold and resell older stuff. All of these things are going to be fantastic eBay haul Youtube videos from retro hardware people in the 2070s, assuming we avoid going full Mad Max Idiocracy that long.
Total agreement.
It sucks when a device category dies and disappears. Most people might not care, but those who do really do, and it sucks when you can't upgrade to what you want anymore.
I'm not a handheld guy, but for me, it's phones with keyboards.
So if there's somebody making boutique devices for niche audiences, more power to them!
Handheld gaming PCs are really not necessary devices, so if you can't afford a high-end one, get a cheap one. And if you can't afford that, stick a gamepad on your phone and boot up a switch emulator or winlator.
Leave people their niche hobbies!
#TuckFrump
I don’t really know what demographic you’re chasing if you’re going after people wanting top of the line specs on a handheld.
Steam has the platform to recoup the hardware costs. They are selling PC-based consoles, while the rest is selling handheld-shaped PCs.