Valve Is Making a Switch-Like Portable Gaming PC (arstechnica.com) 59
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Video game and hardware studio Valve has been secretly building a Switch-like portable PC designed to run a large number of games on the Steam PC platform via Linux -- and it could launch, supply chain willing, by year's end. Multiple sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that the hardware has been in development for some time, and this week, Valve itself pointed to the device by slipping new hardware-related code into the latest version of Steam, the company's popular PC gaming storefront and ecosystem.
On Tuesday, SteamDB operator Pavel Djundik spotted the change in Steam's code, which pointed to a new device named "SteamPal." The name is a derivative of a previously discovered code term, "Neptune," which began appearing in September of last year and came with a "Neptune Optimized Games" string. At the time, curious code crawlers thought this discovery referred to some type of controller. Technically, that's true. The "SteamPal," whose name we're putting in scare quotes because we do not have confirmation of the device's final name, is an all-in-one PC with gamepad controls and a touchscreen. In other words, it looks and functions like a Nintendo Switch (albeit without removable "Joy-Con" controller functionality).
The SteamPal will [feature] a system on a chip likely coming from either Intel or AMD, not Nvidia. (The aforementioned Switch-like PC manufacturers have leaned on both AMD and Intel for their products.) It's unclear whether Valve will release multiple SKUs to offer customers a choice of power level, battery life, and other specs, as other Switch-like PCs have offered over the past year. At least one SteamPal prototype version is quite wide compared to the Nintendo Switch. This extra width accommodates a slew of control options. No, Valve is likely not slapping an entire QWERTY keyboard onto its system, but the company has packed in a standard array of gamepad buttons and triggers, along with a pair of joysticks and at least one thumb-sized touchpad (in addition to the device's touch-sensitive screen). The SteamPal's touchpad is likely smaller than the pair of touchpads that came standard on every Steam Controller. The SteamPal's Switch-like properties will include the option to "dock" to larger monitors via its USB Type-C port, but I don't have firm details on exactly how that connection will work or whether Valve has any plans for an eventual SteamPal dock.
On Tuesday, SteamDB operator Pavel Djundik spotted the change in Steam's code, which pointed to a new device named "SteamPal." The name is a derivative of a previously discovered code term, "Neptune," which began appearing in September of last year and came with a "Neptune Optimized Games" string. At the time, curious code crawlers thought this discovery referred to some type of controller. Technically, that's true. The "SteamPal," whose name we're putting in scare quotes because we do not have confirmation of the device's final name, is an all-in-one PC with gamepad controls and a touchscreen. In other words, it looks and functions like a Nintendo Switch (albeit without removable "Joy-Con" controller functionality).
The SteamPal will [feature] a system on a chip likely coming from either Intel or AMD, not Nvidia. (The aforementioned Switch-like PC manufacturers have leaned on both AMD and Intel for their products.) It's unclear whether Valve will release multiple SKUs to offer customers a choice of power level, battery life, and other specs, as other Switch-like PCs have offered over the past year. At least one SteamPal prototype version is quite wide compared to the Nintendo Switch. This extra width accommodates a slew of control options. No, Valve is likely not slapping an entire QWERTY keyboard onto its system, but the company has packed in a standard array of gamepad buttons and triggers, along with a pair of joysticks and at least one thumb-sized touchpad (in addition to the device's touch-sensitive screen). The SteamPal's touchpad is likely smaller than the pair of touchpads that came standard on every Steam Controller. The SteamPal's Switch-like properties will include the option to "dock" to larger monitors via its USB Type-C port, but I don't have firm details on exactly how that connection will work or whether Valve has any plans for an eventual SteamPal dock.
Steam good for running out of (Score:1)
Huh (Score:3)
Re: Huh (Score:2)
rtb61 forgot their meds again...
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So I haven't looked at Steam on Linux very carefully, but as a Mac user who has seen the dearth of Mac games, my assumption is that most games are Windows-only, and that the Linux games would be even more rare than Mac games.
And I wouldn't expect that to change unless Steam use its market power to pressure developers to make them available. After all, the percentage of Steam users running Linux (all versions combined) is smaller than the percentage running macOS 10.13.x by itself. So where are the games g
Re: Huh (Score:2)
Steam integrates Proton for running Windows games on Linux. So yeah, pretty much winelib:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/w... [google.com]
Re:Huh (Score:5, Informative)
So I haven't looked at Steam on Linux very carefully
Valve has been contributing to Proton, to port a lot of Windows game to Linux.
https://www.protondb.com/ [protondb.com] Currently lists about 15,000 compatible games.
Here's Steam's Linux games page: https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
TL:DR: You're behind the times, and there has been a lot of porting games to Linux. Not everything, obviously, but a pretty good chunk of relatively recent and popular titles.
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Valve has been contributing to Proton, to port a lot of Windows game to Linux.
https://www.protondb.com/ [protondb.com] Currently lists about 15,000 compatible games.
>
That's not exactly a lot of games.
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255 of them have Mac binaries. (Though the playable amount is less, because it doesn't remove titles that are 32-bit only)
395 of them have linux binaries. (Though the playable amount is more, because it doesn't include titles playable with Proton- basically Valve's take on crossover patches trying to make winelib suck less).
After all, the percentage of Steam users running Linux (all versions combined) is smaller than the percentage running macOS 10.13.x by itself
Be that as it may, there appear to be many more games with native linux support than native macOS support.
Perhaps macOS just sucks to make g
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For amount of telemetry collected and DRM rootkits installed (assuming less is better):
Linux > macOS > Windows
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And I wouldn't expect that to change unless Steam use its market power to pressure developers to make them available. After all, the percentage of Steam users running Linux (all versions combined) is smaller than the percentage running macOS 10.13.x by itself. So where are the games going to come from?
Anyone who remembers the Steam Machine knows exactly how this will end..
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What games do you want to play on this thing though? A lot of the games on Steam aren't really suited to a hand-held, they need a keyboard/mouse to play or just don't work well with a small screen.
Maybe new games taking advantage of it will come along, but it will be a battle to get developers to support the platform when the Switch already exists.
It's not clear what compelling reason to buy it this product would bring to the table.
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Will it run everything ok? Of course not. But such a device would still be usable for many PC games.
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Artifact (Valve's card game) could have been the killer app for this, if it hadn't been DoA (twice). Games like DOTA2 might work, but wouldn't be as good as a with a real mouse.
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I, on the other hand, I have a Mac mini and no Switch. Something cheap that runs better, more diverse games than the Switch is of interest.
The problem is something the size of a Switch and costs as much, I can't see as being enough for "gaming". Even the Switch is causing headaches for developers.
Unless of course, we're talking about digital card and board games. Anything more 3D than that and I don't see it working too well or being cheap. And I'm going with a 720p screen here and barely 1080p output.
It li
Re: Huh (Score:2)
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I think the point is to break into the hardware market. I'm betting a phone is next on the list.
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They've been in the hardware market before. Then they left it.
Few bought their Linux-based gaming console with the stupid and weird controller. (It's stupid because returning to center is nontrivial, and every joystick game input scheme is based around trivial return to center.)
I predict few will buy this device either, but I've been wrong before
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Of course nowadays you can use several different devices to do the same thing (Android TV-powered STPs, Raspberry Pis and other SBCs...) but I don't regret the buy (I bought it when they
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Yes, Valve seems to be much better than average when it comes to supporting old devices. That is definitely a mark in their favor. I just wouldn't assume that anything they bring out is going to stay out for any length of time.
Re: Huh (Score:2)
It's like deja vu, but the Switch was a success, so maybe portable PC gaming will be different this time?
https://kotaku.com/theres-only... [kotaku.com]
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This fits very well for me. Being able to stream games via steam at home form my gaming PC (think of as a "portable steam link" device).
When on the road (a.k.a. in the train) i can play the "older" not GPU heavy games offline.
Once at home, the savegame is synced in the steam cloud automatically for me to continue anytime on my Gaming PC.
this sound great !
this device will be an INSTABUY for me (if the price will not be toooo astronomical which i doubt)
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I don't quite see where this fits in the market. I have a gaming capable laptop and a Switch. I've never wished for something in between.
Same place Valve tried previously. For those people who want to game from their laptop but elsewhere. Valve's streaming system is still something great and I'd love a success to Steam Link that doesn't require me to plug a laptop into a TV. A dockable portable console could fit the bill nicely.
My switch is good enough for Mario, but let's face it, no Cyberpunkk 2077 even if they do release a potato edition.
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Oh of course there is, but that's not a product that comes in a box and you plug in is it. We can hack together all manner of crap if we want to, but the question here is about the release of a commercial product.
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Steam games not on Switch yet (Score:2)
This device, as I understand it, runs Steam games that are playable on low-end PCs and have yet to be ported to Nintendo Switch. There are more Steam games not on Switch than Switch games not on Steam, especially if you filter out games published by Nintendo.
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Its an up-and-coming segment. I looked at exploiting it earlier myself but supply chain is the problem. Kudos to Valve for stepping in, but I fear they will fail by becoming Nintendo Switch like (locked-in design, rather than an open platform). Maybe not, I shamelessly did not read the article and they do run Steam afterall.
GPD Win 3 [gpd.hk]
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Its so you can stream your games from your PC to the handheld device while your SO forces you to sit on the couch and watch The Bachelor.
Actually more likely to be VR (Score:3)
Actually this is far more likely to be some new form of VR headset, which is a market that needs specific hardware to work (obviously).
I don't think there's any market for a portable tablet-style PC, what games could you play on it? Why would Valve suddenly get into that market?
They already are in the VR market, and the Index headset is now coming up 2 years old, and is quite dated compared to the competition. Also they've filed several patents this year for new VR headset concepts, including what looks like a portable unit that could be connected to an existing Valve Index, making it wireless / portable like the Quest 2 is.
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Why would Valve suddenly get into that market?
They already went into that market, trying to make a console. The Switch outsold both PS5 and XBox, so it's not a totally unreasonable thought that that form factor may be popular for other game titles.
VR, OTOH, has sold a tiny number of units across all manufactures and doesn't have any sort of "killer app" to drive purchases of that hardware.
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VR, OTOH, has sold a tiny number of units across all manufactures and doesn't have any sort of "killer app" to drive purchases of that hardware.
That's subjective. Half Life: Alyx is amazing. Everyone who enjoyed the HL2 series should buy at least a used VR headset just to play that game, even if you end up selling it shortly after.
TF2? (Score:2)
That'll be my "must buy" is if it plays Team Fortress 2. Yes, it's a 13 year-old game, but it's still fun, and still making them money with "micro"-transactions.
Re: TF2? (Score:2)
No ARM, I bet.
Steam's Proton is a wine fork and lets you play windows titles on Linux with very little performance loss. You have to do this AND run it in an emulator, on a mobile tablet-like device? That'd be dead in the water. While the catalog is improved for native Linux a bit, I guarantee they'd want to have a well-tweaked Proton running against known hardware in that thing so it has a fighting chance.
Switch competitor makes sense (Score:3)
The stick will be a problem (Score:2)
In other words, it looks and functions like a Nintendo Switch (albeit without removable "Joy-Con" controller functionality).
This bit is concerning because analog sticks can wear out pretty quickly, They should make it easy to replace.
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It would be nice if someone would have the courage to make the sticks replaceable without soldering. I've re-sticked a couple of game controllers and it's annoying. Not horribly difficult with a solder sucker, but still a far cry from what I think it should be. To wit: If the switch in my power probe (enhanced DC test light) goes bad then I can literally just pull it out and plug in a new one without even opening the case. Game controllers could have socketed stick modules and you could even pay more to buy
A Year from now (Score:2)
Nothing new (Score:4, Informative)
GPD's offerings among several others have been on the market for a long time now. Unless Valve has some kind of a dedicated GPU on board, the format has been done many times in the past. GPD Win is in its third generation already for example. Google it if you're interested in a "switch form factor windows PC". There might be some room for improvement by putting in an AMD APU in one instead of more common intel offerings that have a less powerful integrated GPU, but that's not going to be revolutionary.
Out Of Steam. (Score:2)
Stand alone VR headset is (Score:2)
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They discontinued this thing... 1.. 2? years back.
After years of manufacturing it.
Interestingly enough, they are *still* pushing updates to it.
But I will hand it to you- your narrative is a lot funner.
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That actually fits Google's behavioural pattern. They tend to cancel projects many years after they find their niche. Things like Google Play Music (8 years old), GCM (6 years old), Google+ (7 years old), Picasa (12 years old). And that's just a tiny portion of the list.
There's a great site for this stuff: https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]
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That actually fits Google's behavioural pattern.
Not really though, no?
As I mentioned- though they have finally EOL'd manufacturing of the hardware, they're still fully supporting it (and even updating it to add new features)
Am I wrong for not expecting them to manufacture it forever?
I think the point I was making, was that in my specific industry, I deal with EOL hardware a lot. You get absolutely nothing for those. Definitely not feature updates to keep them relevant. I feel like Valve has treated my better than I'm treated by vendors of far more e
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I take you point, and I agree that valve does provide updates to a decent level. That said, I'm not so sure that "EOL hardware gets no software updates" point is as valid as you seem to think. It seems to me that you have some poor experience with very specific industrial EOL hardware. I know of a few industries where support is basically non-existent, out of production, out of mind. And to be perfectly fair, that's a lot of consumer aimed hardware business, like Valve. And a few industries where they will
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It actually wasn't the "Google of games hardware", thing.
I can see where that gripe comes from.
It was specifically this:
Every now and again they come up with a device and sell it to customers, only to shutter the project a short time later and abandon everyone who was stupid enough to give them money.
That claim, is close to libelous from my perspective, given my decade long relationship with Valve.
There is a lot to be unhappy with in the Valve department- especially in some of their rather anti-consumer decisions regarding their business model, but that statement just doesn't evaluate to true in my eyes.
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I'm not a happy camper with valve's controller personally, but that's more of how it came out compared to the claims by valve when it was in development. But it's not like they don't support it any more, so your point is valid.
I rather have the controller driver open-sourced (Score:1)
Off topic, but their controller is great and no longer available. Why no licensing it or at least open source the software so the community can develop it further?
5G hotspot phone, 3070 at home (Score:2)
And home fibre.
This thing is an instabuy.