Valve Says It Has Sold 'Multiple Millions' of Steam Decks (theverge.com) 51
Valve designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais say the company has sold "multiple millions" Steam Deck handheld gaming PCs. The Verge reports: The Steam Deck has been a hit for Valve right from its launch; when the device first went up for preorders in July 2021 (has it really been that long?), the demand created some major issues for Valve's Steam store. And the handheld gaming PC is often at or near the top of Steam's top-selling chart -- even just two months after the device's official February 2022 launch, it was clear that the Steam Deck was not a flop. The company apparently even made a cake to celebrate selling 1 million units. The company is probably set to sell a lot more after recently unveiling a new revision with an OLED screen, longer battery life, and faster Wi-Fi.
A start (Score:2)
Crossing 2 million doesn't mean much. Come back when you've sold a couple dozen million. The Switch has sold 100 million plus. If they had just put out a Steam Link app for Switch, they'd have a far bigger reach than this product.
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Still, 2 million isn't nothing, and this is a good move for them since the most glaring weakness of the device compared to said Switch is the battery life, and the second most glaring weakness is how the existing wifi unit dogs the CPU badly in some games, and OLED because... well I guess just because Switch just did that too.
And, possibly relevant is that Nintendo would absolutely never allow a Steam Link app into their store. They've gone out of their way to keep you from even being able to watch TV or pl
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I'm surprised you didn't mention the first thing most people notice about the Steam Deck when seeing it for the first time in real life: it is a chonky boi. You have to be seriously dedicated to the mobile gaming lifestyle to actually tote it around, because it's a serious stretch of the definition of what constitutes a handheld gaming device.
A friend of mine has one and my impression of it was that it would've been really awesome to have if I was 13 years old instead of middle aged. Not because I think g
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I am hoping for a cost reduced version in the future, I'm willing to haul the fucker as I myself am quite large, but I don't feel like paying as much as I'd have to for the model I'd like.
Price points (Score:2)
I am hoping for a cost reduced version in the future, I'm willing to haul the fucker as I myself am quite large, but I don't feel like paying as much as I'd have to for the model I'd like.
Looks like Valve will keep the same low/mid/high tiers with roughly the same price-points, while adding new feature on the top-range models and "trickle-down" specs (the current low tier is basically the older mid tier at a lower price point).
Also some people are bound to sell their older model to buy newer one.
So if you're patient the model that you currently desire might become available at a lower price (either because Valve eventually shift it to "low" tier, or 2nd hand on eBay), though obviously at the
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I'm surprised you didn't mention the first thing most people notice about the Steam Deck when seeing it for the first time in real life: it is a chonky boi. You have to be seriously dedicated to the mobile gaming lifestyle to actually tote it around, because it's a serious stretch of the definition of what constitutes a handheld gaming device.
The larger size is actually the only thing that makes it appeal to me. The Switch is already too big to be a portable. The thing that made the DS/3DS so useful was they fit in a pocket, so you could carry them around easily and use them whenever you had a few mintues. The Switch is way too big for that, so it's really limited to just playing around the house when the TV is occupied. The problem with the Switch is it doesn't accept that, and tries to be as small as it can. The result is the ergonomics of the
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It's a lot heavier, enough that one definitely notices, but you're right that the controls also feel much nicer.
Re:A start (Score:4, Interesting)
The Steam Deck being thicker looks a lot better for the ergonomics. I haven't seen one in person yet, but it sure looks a hell of a lot more usable from the pictures. I'm not convinced I'd actually use it tho, so I'm not willing to spend the money to find out.
I own one, the ergonomics are great. One of my family members also owns a Switch, so I got an opportunity to do a comparison. The Switch forces you to move your thumbs down on the right controller, which (at least for me) made my hand quite sore after a while. The Steam Deck putting the joysticks and buttons right up at the top means that your thumbs naturally rest right on the sticks, making it far more comfortable over extended playtime. The hand rests on the back of the Steam Deck are also great, as it made the Deck much easier for me to grip compared to the Switch, which has essentially no hand rests on its controllers. The only issues I had with my Deck was the weight, after a while you have to put it on your lap or a table or whatever because it is very heavy compared to the switch. There is also a lack of breathability, so expect your Deck to get quite slippery after a while if your hands sweat as much as mine.
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The choice of stick placement is going to come down a lot what types of games you play. I tend to play games that don't use the right stick that much, so that's never been an issue for me. On the topic of poor right stick placement, the clear "winner" there is the Switch Lite. They placed the right stick so that it rests directly under your thumb joint if your thumb is on the face buttons. That's just so uncomfortable I couldn't play anything at all on it.
I had forgotten about it, but I think the clear winn
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but because my smartphone already is a good enough time sink for when I have a few minutes to kill goofing off, and it easily fits in my pocket
There's a big difference between playing some shitty mobile game "goofing off" and having access to what is a very incredible Steam library of games. I won't be playing Baldurs Gate 3 on my phone anytime ... ever.
I also don't think you realse what a low bar a "gamer" has (probably because you equate it to something you do on your phone). I'm not "seriously dedicated" to mobile gaming. Or any gaming really. Yet I have no problem carrying my Steam Deck with me (it's on charge right now since I'm heading off t
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Handheld gaming device (Score:2)
because it's a serious stretch of the definition of what constitutes a handheld gaming device.
Well, I have two hands and I can hold the whole gaming console with my to hands(*).
It still checks the handheld gaming device definition in my book.
(*): DISCLAIMER: I owned a GameGear(**) as a kid. Gaming devices larger than my pocket have always been the norm for me.
(**) ...and bought the power bank as soon as SEGA released it here. (What do you mean "poor battery life"? ;-) )
(Or maybe I just have very large hands).
Dear Valve (Score:2)
Please produce an answer to the Meta Quest 3.
Specifically, a VR headset that runs stand-alone, with NO tether to a PC (wireless or otherwise).
And, be better than Meta by not requiring the installation of a phone app that clearly serves no purpose other than to spy on you.
Thank you.
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Producing a better one will not be the problem, producing one that can compete on price will be, because part of your "payment" for that Quest is your privacy.
Yes, it's worth that much. That people give it away for free is the joke on them.
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I am heartened by the fact that this means that Valve's Steam service will be able to have a life of its own should Microsoft try to lock Windows down to Store sales only.
It's not just sales numbers here, and this isn't strictly a console. Valve is demonstrating that its Arch Linux based SteamOS fork is viable as a game platform, even on this kind of limited hardware. This is a Win32 (and x64) alternative being fully tested in the wild.
If they can demonstrate success there, Microsoft may back off. Enough of
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If MS tries to lock down Windows to MS-Store only, that's the death spell of Windows in the consumer market. It's only reason to exist at this point (outside of offices) is that it's still the more convenient gaming platform.
Hell, even a non-technical friend of mine (seriously, he can switch on his computer without causing too much trouble and maybe install a game using Steam) has been ogling Linux lately.
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Also remember how "successful" windows 10s was..
So yes, not going to go well if they try that again..
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Oh, for sure. This is distant future stuff for Microsoft, as the Emperor has foreseen it.
Point is, I have friends that say they can run their entire library on Steamdeck, and the only exception is games with Windows-based anticheat.
Sooner or later, this will hit a breaking point. This is what a real free market looks like.
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Half the problem is, most of thr world couldnt buy one even if they wanted to, and could afford it.
Its STILL not available here in australia or asia, and I have no idea why (The theory people have here is Gabe has a bone to pick with Australia because our consumer law department, t
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My first guess would be that they probably can't even make them fast enough for the US market, and branching out earlier would cut into profit margins. Keep in mind this isn't their first attempt to make hardware, and all the previous attempts were widely considered as flops by the industry as a whole, so they're probably playing the manufacturing and shipping logistics game quite cautiously. Give it some time.
Yawn (Score:2)
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And Steam Deck 3. ;)
SteamDeck 2 (Score:2)
And Steam Deck 3. ;)
Which is (almost seriously) a good reason to rejoice that they are merely releasing an OLED refresh of the current SteamDeck, and not already a (more powerful) SteamDeck 2: that would have been too fast. too close to 3.
I love the Steam Deck (Score:5, Interesting)
I love the Steam Deck even though I've never seen one with my own eyes. The Steam Deck put a lot more weight behind Proton and made gaming on Linux extremely viable. My Windows games run great on Linux and game devs are more likely to put effort into making their games run.
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This right there.
I am not a console gamer and hence have no use for the Steam Deck. But it sure gave "gaming on Linux" a considerable boost, because now companies have quite some interest to make their games Linux-compatible so Steam Deck users can play it, too.
There are still a few very popular games that are Windows-Only because they refuse to play nice with Proton.
Steam Deck as a PC (Score:2)
I am not a console gamer and hence have no use for the Steam Deck.
Well, there is a potential use for somebody who is not that much into gaming console:
- It has a "desktop mode" directly available in the main menu
- It has a USB-C connector into which you can plug a keyboard (and/or bluetooth if you're more into the wireless input devices).
So, the Deck can double as a very small, lightweigth and low-power desktop while on the go.
Plug into the TV screen of the hotel's room, and you can even have a larger monitor if needed.
And this one has been optimized to the hell for runni
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Technically, I have that functionality already with my cellphone.
GNU/Linux? (Score:2)
Technically, I have that functionality already with my cellphone.
Out of curiosity: do you have a solution for running some actual Linux distribution (I seem to remember that some Samsung phone at some point tried to you run a container with, e.g., Ubuntu when docked) (and of course there are also the tinkerers' smartphones geared toward running Linux distros on the phone itself, like Pine64's PinePhone Pro)?
Or are you running Android and its Apps on the big screen when docked?
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Pine. And yes, it works just as well on the big screen, it's pretty much a computer in your pocket.
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Pine. And yes, it works just as well on the big screen, it's pretty much a computer in your pocket.
Oh, yeah. These are cool little machines!
Sadly, my Ponephone Pro isn't booting anymore after its latest fall.
(checking the logs over UART: U-Boot it doesn't manage to successfully initialise one of the two memory channels. So probably some motherboard damage: a cracked solder ball on the DRAM or something along those lines).
I played Fallout 4 on my steam deck today (Score:2)
I do prefer the full PC experience a bit more. However, the Steam Deck is definitely more mobile.
Covid-19 created issues (Score:2)
Far more than the demand.
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Purely because Wine was not mature enough to make it work, Proton didn't exist back then (Valve basically made it happen IN ORDER to fix the Steam Machine's biggest flaw, and did it right), and nobody wanted to pay for a Windows licence in those days because they were STUPENDOUSLY expensive.
So 2 million, right? (Score:2)
Everything has to get a spin
nice start but (Score:2)
It's a massive achievement (Score:3)
Taking into account it's a device you can only buy online at the Steam store, has a much higher price than the Switch, and has had stock problems for a good part of its lifetime, having sold a handful million units is a massive achievement.
Comparing this to the Switch that you can buy almost anywhere does not make much sense.
Deck (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, and I'm just a tiny bit of that.
Bought them for myself, family and friends (leaving gift).
They're the best all-round portable gaming device, as far as I'm concerned. We all run them as Steam consoles and nothing else (no Epic etc.). I have Retroarch on mine for emulation but even that is the Steam Store version, and I have the Plex official app installed (literally the only reason I went into the Discover Store or desktop mode!).
I bought the 64Gb each time (if someone wants to upgrade, they can do it and the upgrade will only get cheaper over time) and a large microSD card (400Gb in one case). Nobody cares - games work or don't, and they play the games that work. And all the games they *want* to play just work.
Even down to my parents who play Bookworm and Peggle on it, I completed Stray, Trine 5 and a few other new-titles on it (no problems), and the kids have been playing the whole Batman series. We did a four-player Moving Out session a few times, plugged into a projector and with an XBox 360 wireless controller adaptor.
I tried Windows on mine once, just to see what it did. Put my old NVMe from my gaming laptop into an adaptor, turned it on and selected it. It literally booted into the full version of Windows I'd been using for years, zero problems. I didn't have to do a damn thing. I wouldn't game on Windows on it, but it "just worked" and I love that it has the same kind of BIOS/UEFI screens on it as a desktop.
Sorry, but the Deck is pretty incredible and everyone who sees mine wants one. It's a great pick-up-and-play, can run a complex games night, and is comfortable and powerful enough to side playing AAA games for a couple of hours no problem at all.
But the very, very, very best thing about the Deck? Valve proved what they have asserted for years - Linux is a better gaming platform, all it needed was investment into Wine/Proton. Valve basically took the effort to make Proton work in order to make their console work, and everyone benefits from that.
We should all be thanking Valve for that alone.
Even outside of the "official" lists you can get almost everything working if you're prepared to tinker. A friend of mine wanted to play Pushover which they had on their Steam account, which runs on DOSBox... one tweak to a DOSBox config (ironically, to tell it to use DirectX) and it works perfectly.
They deserve this. They went back to a failed previous project, knew it could work, fixed its biggest flaw (lack of Linux gaming support) after trying for years to make game developers see sense, and brought out something better than any other handheld console. And now they're inspiring clones to do exactly the same - and many game developers are boasting how well their games run on it on release day with zero work.
And the power of the damn thing is incredible.
Valve deserves to sell millions just because of the work they put into it - hardware, software, openness, repairs, support, delivery, even the way they handled pre-orders to stop scammers.
I am waiting for the Deck 2 (Score:2)
I want it light enough and have good battery life if I drop into a power saving mode for this.
I would also love to slide the Deck 2 into something that looks like a laptop chassis.