Valve is releasing a handheld PC

[EverythingOnFire]

I'm genuinely psyched for this. Been a long time since I could say that about anything hardware related. The biggest plus is that, unlike the Switch, I will have a massive library of games to play right off the bat, and I can buy a lot more for ridiculously cheap. Can't wait to get my hands on one.

[sepheroithisgod]

Meh, my guess is it will probably flop like their attempt at a console. Either way, maybe this will get Sony interested in a Vita 2.

[Wavergray]

1 hour ago, ExHaseo said:

Interesting idea, but I is there really a market for this? People who care about portable gaming are probably more likely to go with a Switch, if they somehow don't have one already. Given it has Nintendo games as well. Also, people who generally play portable games, aren't likely to be into PC gaming, which is all about getting as many frames as possible in the highest resolution possible. Then people who are into PC gaming aren't going to be into this, because it's not going to run anywhere near as well as their $2000+ PC. Since once again, PC gaming is all about getting as many frames as possible with the highest resolution possible. Neither of which this will be capable of. Since it's just playing PC games, it's also lacking big exclusives. Sure, there's a virtually infinite number of exclusive indies, but the vast majority of them aren't great. Which is why they weren't able to make the leap to console in the first place. And honestly, sifting through them is more of a pain than it's worth. I'm sure there will be some people into it, but I can't imagine there being too many.

 

It's a cool idea, and I'm surprised at how cheap it is, but I don't see much reason to get this. I already have a switch, a PS4, a controller for my phone, and a high-end PC (which I really only have for 3D modeling and animation). Whenever I really want to play portable games, I just use my Switch or I'll do remote play to my phone. And if I want to play a PC game, I sit down in my PC setup and enjoy the high frames and high resolution. I hope I'm wrong and this takes off though. Nintendo could use some competition.

• Yes there is a market. There always be a market for the ability to play the games you own portably. 
• It's more accurate to say PC gaming is about affordability and game freedom. Instead of BIG frames or BIG resolutions. Go look at Steam hardware survey and you will see that more are using hardware that is 4-6 years old.
• It is more accurate to say exclusives are the only reason people buy things like the switch and other consoles. There's just so many more games available at better prices on PC when compared to any of the consoles.
• Many people dislike remote play and cloud gaming because due to Internet quality requirements for those things to work properly. So having something where your games are downloaded and you don't have to worry about connection issues will always be superior.
• For many people the main problem with the Switch is that they have to make compromises in order to use it. From having to rebuy games to those games running worse on the switch then they do on their four year old PC. Having a portable system that can eliminate such compromises well always be a good thing for many people and those people are the market from this Device

[TJ_Solo]

 

It is 2013 all over again and Steam wants to sell PC boxes.

[Undead Wolf]

This sounds really neat on paper. It's basically a more powerful Switch with access to the vast Steam library (and achievement support!), plus the added freedom of being able to install different operating systems and run emulated games since it's basically a PC. I've always struggled to get into PC gaming, but I find this appealing due to its portable nature and the ease of hooking it up to a TV. My only real concern is that it doesn't exactly look comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. I prefer my handhelds with a smaller form factor, but I get that they wanted this thing to run the latest games, and to do so it had to be bulky. It's probably not something I'm going to jump on right away, but I will be keeping my eye on this.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Undead Wolf

[TJ_Solo]

If you aren't into PCs already then why care about installing other OSes? 
 

[Zircon_Lotus]

It will be a big sucess or a huge failure. The part that caught my interest the most is where it really doubles as a PC, even if the software is not Valve/Steam-related. 

 

At least someone is trying to compete in this market. It still does not makes sense to me how Sony has simple given up this market for almost 10 years (let's be honest, they never tried to make the Vita succesful).  

[hsn963]

Hear that sony !?

[Property_Damage]

Ive see reviews on similar handheld gaming pcs some with even a keyboard layout

And i wanna say with better analog stick placement

theyre pretty cool but its not going to take off and rival anything

its a niche market and they’re kinda bulky and less portable then you actually think, youre gonna need a man purse for it

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

I'm kind of interested, but it's definitely going to be a "wait and see" thing for me. There's very few PC exclusives I'm interested in that don't already work fine on my PC, and the few that don't, may end up getting ported to console eventually (e.g. Planet Zoo). It probably wouldn't be a worthwhile investment for me, but I'm definitely more interested in this than their Steambox or whatever it was a few years ago.

 

The handheld aspect of it definitely nice, but I got a feeling it'll just be one of those handhelds that's permanently stuck in my house anyway. I don't like big handhelds, the standard Switch is way too big for me, it pretty much never leaves the dock unless I'm switching carts or dusting it off. I still stick with the 3DS and Vita if I do plan to take a console out of the house with me, since they still have backlogs, and that's pretty much only when I'm going to be away for a few days, which hasn't exactly been a thing in the past 2 years with covid. Otherwise, I either don't have time to play while out of my house, or I'm just playing some game on an emulator on my phone to pass the time while commuting or something.

 

Anyhow, personal spew aside, I honestly don't see this doing too well. The Switch is still selling like hotcakes and I'm sure the cheaper price point and Nintendo exclusives is going to be a lot more appealing to many. I imagine the only people that would prefer a Steam handheld over the Switch are those into games that can otherwise be played on home consoles and PCs anyway, in which case, I can only assume that's a fairly niche audience. With the PS5 and Series X/S recently released than a year ago as well, I imagine many people are saving up to buy one or both of those, not a new handheld system that would be able to play most of the same games.

 

But time will tell, it could go either way. Will definitely be interesting to see how it goes at least.

Edited July 15, 2021 by SuperSmexy500

[ExHaseo]

16 minutes ago, Wavergray said:

• Yes there is a market. There always be a market for the ability to play the games you own portably. 
• It's more accurate to say PC gaming is about affordability and game freedom. Instead of BIG frames or BIG resolutions. Go look at Steam hardware survey and you will see that more are using hardware that is 4-6 years old.
• It is more accurate to say exclusives are the only reason people buy things like the switch and other consoles. There's just so many more games available at better prices on PC when compared to any of the consoles.
• Many people dislike remote play and cloud gaming because due to Internet quality requirements for those things to work properly. So having something where your games are downloaded and you don't have to worry about connection issues will always be superior.
• For many people the main problem with the Switch is that they have to make compromises in order to use it. From having to rebuy games to those games running worse on the switch then they do on their four year old PC. Having a portable system that can eliminate such compromises well always be a good thing for many people and those people are the market from this Device

• Do you have any kind of proof for that? I'm the only one of my friends who isn't a big PC gamer, and not a single one of them cares about portability. Only two of them own a Switch, one of them bought it for the Nintendo games, the other bought it for their kids. I've never been on Steam and had anyone say that they wish a game was portable or anything either.
• PC has never been about affordability. That's why consoles exist. That survey means basically nothing as well. I can pretty much guarantee that these people on the lower end of specs own a console as well, and the survey likely doesn't take into account things like when their account was made. People could have been into PC gaming 5+ years ago and have the same PC, but have now moved on to console. Or even out of gaming in general. They could also just be using it to play F2P games with their friends that have low specs, while having a console for their primary gaming. There's far too many variables for that kind of thing to matter or say anything significant.
• More games doesn't equal quality games. I will take the next God of War over 1000 $1 RPG Maker games some guy made over the weekend and threw on Steam. Many PC exclusive games also require mouse and keyboard. Even being able to map certain keys to the game pad, it's going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to play many of them.
• Not liking cloud gaming isn't really an argument for this thing in particular.
• You'll have to make compromises to use this thing too. Especially in a year or two once current gen level games start to release. The game they talk about in the article with "little-to-no" issues is Jedi Fallen Order. An almost 2 year old game on last gen hardware. If that's what they're using for a standard, it's going to be outdated in about 2 years, and it's going to be no different than the Switch. Except the Switch is at the end of it's life, and is more than likely going to have either a more powerful model, or a full blown successor in the next couple of years. That's not to mention that PC gaming in general comes with issues. What happens when a game just isn't compatible and wont boot?
• As for having to rebuy games, if someone with a low spec PC does buy one of these, they going to have to buy games they couldn't play before anyway. Given they have a console, that means it's the exact same situation as the Switch, where they'll have to rebuy games if they want to play them on it. If someone with higher specs buys one of these, why would they play on this when they could have a better experience on their PC? Also, anyone who really likes portable gaming THAT much will likely have a Switch already. In which case they've already bought games for it. Why buy a second $400 portable console when they already have one that they've already sunk a lot of money into? Especially if they would have to rebuy games for it that they can already play portably?

I full expect people to buy this thing out of the hype, just for it to fall into obscurity as big exclusives hit and games start to outpace it and they're forced to get a new console to play the newest games anyway. I hope I'm wrong though. Nintendo could use the competition.

[MarcusPunisher]

I would wait for the final product when we see how the games actually play. 

[willythom88]

I'm very psyched for this, more so than any console in a long time.  Getting the ability to play my Steam games portably is great.  I don't really like laptops and I ultimately didn't find much value in the Steam link, but this I can see myself using it especially since they support micro sd cards, though my steam library has nothing that would run over 30 gbs by itself so I could probably just be patient.  The main reason I'm considering it though is the 5 dollar placeholder.  If it turns out that it's going to hell, I'm out 5 bucks, and I don't have to stalk online stores like with the PlayStation 5.

 

Obviously this could still go bellies up and be a disaster but I'm genuinely more excited about this than I was about the PS5 or the PS4 for that matter ( despite loving the PS4 now, I thought it looked stupid at first ).

[Wavergray]

4 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

• Do you have any kind of proof for that? I'm the only one of my friends who isn't a big PC gamer, and not a single one of them cares about portability. Only two of them own a Switch, one of them bought it for the Nintendo games, the other bought it for their kids. I've never been on Steam and had anyone say that they wish a game was portable or anything either.
• PC has never been about affordability. That's why consoles exist. That survey means basically nothing as well. I can pretty much guarantee that these people on the lower end of specs own a console as well, and the survey likely doesn't take into account things like when their account was made. People could have been into PC gaming 5+ years ago and have the same PC, but have now moved on to console. Or even out of gaming in general. They could also just be using it to play F2P games with their friends that have low specs, while having a console for their primary gaming. There's far too many variables for that kind of thing to matter or say anything significant.
• More games doesn't equal quality games. I will take the next God of War over 1000 $1 RPG Maker games some guy made over the weekend and threw on Steam. Many PC exclusive games also require mouse and keyboard. Even being able to map certain keys to the game pad, it's going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to play many of them.
• Not liking cloud gaming isn't really an argument for this thing in particular.
• You'll have to make compromises to use this thing too. Especially in a year or two once current gen level games start to release. The game they talk about in the article with "little-to-no" issues is Jedi Fallen Order. An almost 2 year old game on last gen hardware. If that's what they're using for a standard, it's going to be outdated in about 2 years, and it's going to be no different than the Switch. Except the Switch is at the end of it's life, and is more than likely going to have either a more powerful model, or a full blown successor in the next couple of years. That's not to mention that PC gaming in general comes with issues. What happens when a game just isn't compatible and wont boot?
• As for having to rebuy games, if someone with a low spec PC does buy one of these, they going to have to buy games they couldn't play before anyway. Given they have a console, that means it's the exact same situation as the Switch, where they'll have to rebuy games if they want to play them on it. If someone with higher specs buys one of these, why would they play on this when they could have a better experience on their PC? Also, anyone who really likes portable gaming THAT much will likely have a Switch already. In which case they've already bought games for it. Why buy a second $400 portable console when they already have one that they've already sunk a lot of money into? Especially if they would have to rebuy games for it that they can already play portably?

I full expect people to buy this thing out of the hype, just for it to fall into obscurity as big exclusives hit and games start to outpace it and they're forced to get a new console to play the newest games anyway. I hope I'm wrong though. Nintendo could use the competition.

 

1. So because it never happened in your bubble that means it's not true? I see.
2. So you have never run into anyone talking about how a "$500 PC is a better deal than a consoles? 
3. The survey is based on active user not all accounts. 
4. I'm not sure what you are trying to say about people with gaming PC having consoles. People can have both and can play games on both. What does that have to do with PC gaming not being about affordability?
5. What is quality in gaming? What is unfun to one is fun to another. There are trash games on every consoles as well, but access to more games means you're more likely to find the games you find fun.
6. You really have not looked into accessibility on PC have you. Vast majority of PC games release with controller support in some way even if it is only through steam controller configurations.
7. Cloud gaming has been seen as the solution for portable gaming in the future. Even you said you use remote play which is a form of cloud gaming that allows you to step away from your console or PC in some way. So yes this does have something to do with cloud gaming because those who were unable to use cloud gaming for portability the option to use this if they desire to.
8. There's a reason the general minimum system requirements for games to run smoothly is to have hardware that is around five years old. So, considering the device will have parts that were just recently made and that the device is basically a handheld gaming PC, the chances of it running into compatibility issues is pretty low.
9. Not sure what you are trying to say with Jedi Fallen Order and the Switch being old? 
10. I'm sure you realize a lot of people don't buy every new game that comes out right?
11. You do realize people do not like rebuying games, right? So, they tend not to do it. Even if someone had a switch that does not mean they were going to rebuy a game they already own just to play it on the switch.

Honestly mostly your arguments come down to the fact that you haven't seen reasons for this to exist in your own bubble. However, just because something doesn't fit the use case of your specific bubble doesn't mean there isn't a market for it or that there aren't people who have different experiences than you with a gaming.

[RadiantFlamberge]

This looks nice. SteamOS would play some but not all (in Steam's library, that's 7.586 of 54.280) Windows games with the Proton compatibility layer. Proton will have issues with some games, and others may take a little tweaking. Anyway, you could put Windows on it... along with the Windows Steam client, GOG, and Origin.
$649 isn't too bad... I don't expect it to run games as well as a $4000 PC, and I expect I'll have to compromise on the graphic settings, but if it's comparable to PS4/XB1, that's great. Nice that you can dock it, but I won't bother with that. SD's being a portable PC with KB&M ability is the main thing of interest for me. Adding support for microSD cards (NOT some proprietary overpriced ones) is a major plus. I feel there's a market for this, and hope it's a runaway success.

 

With a modern RDNA2 architecture, SD's custom AMD GPU is in between that of an Xbox One S (1.4 teraflops) and a vanilla PS4 (1.8 TF).

[whodeygamer]

This is going to replace my old laptop. I’m not sure whether I’m gonna get the most expensive or the 2nd most expensive one.

[TrophyChief]

Cool to see, time will tell if it will be a successful for Valve, but not for me at this time. Exciting that the gaming market is growing.

[MandA60VISE]

If it can truly emulate and install translation patches I might finally play all those Japanese games I've been wanting to. Something about playing on my computer is just a turn off for me.

[Z1MZUM]

Lol, well ok. So many hand held devices already availalble.

 

[Paleblood]

12 hours ago, Helyx said:

What are your thoughts on this?

Meh, honestly.

 

12 hours ago, Helyx said:

Will it rival the Switch Pro? Is Sony going to introduce a Vita 2 or will they hold off for another few years?

Omegalol

 

12 hours ago, Helyx said:

I think this is huge for gaming and handhelds and will set a new bar for what we expect from handheld consoles.

Nah, it sure looks interesting right now, but I'd easily bet 50€ that this thing will get discontinued in about 2 years. And way before that, it will have obscured into irrelevance.

[ziggypossum]

 

[You]

The fact you can install Windows (meaning you can likely play all sorts of other software and emulators too) and you also have the option of playing Epic games as well as Steam. It even connects to a monitor/tv too.

 

I mean, aside from the 1st party games at Nintendo, this system looks way better than the Switch.  I mean no worries about if there are any games at launch. 2 decades of games that for most people you've already been collecting throughout your life on Steam.

 

I am genuinely interested in this, especially since Sony aren't going to make a Vita 2 anytime soon. (Never be made)

[DrBloodmoney]

Seems a perfect fit for the current Steam library - people can download all the Hentai games then take it straight into the bathroom... ?

 

Pity that, when it fails to sell, that will likely be the final nail in the coffin for any hope of a Vita 2.

[Eyjabria]

Husbando is considering getting the Steam Deck to offer an alternative for 3DS and Switch sessions. Looks like a nice and interesting device on paper. The lowest price point version seems pretty useless with the tiny internal storage but the other two are something to consider. 

Too bad Game Pass games might possibly be difficult to get to work on it and I'm afraid the weight will be an issue for handheld use. My hands sometimes get tired from holding Switch for extended periods and Switch is considerably lighter in weight.

[Pray_4_the_End]

Thing does look pretty sweet, but I can't see myself buying a handheld solely for Steam games. Mainly because most of the Steam games I play are hardcore survival games (Green Hell, The Infected, The Forrest to name a few) and I don't think I'd ever be in a situation where I would want to play games like that on the go. Most of the time I have to set a side like half a day to properly make progress in games like that with all the grinding and mat gathering that's required. Fuck'n thing would run out of juice before I could properly design and build my mud huts lol. If I didn't already own a Switch and a good gaming PC I would totally buy this thing though. I kinda still want it just to have it though, it looks really well designed and I love all black murdered out handhelds ?