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[BlackTron]

I feel like talking about exclusive is a clear sign that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Best not waste time on people like them in the future

Shoulda checked his tag first...

 

[Esparadrapo]

Shoulda checked his tag first...

He's in the Always Being Wrong™ pro league. The competition is fierce and players have to put the maximum effort to enter the playoffs.

 

[BlackTron]

No they aren’t, you can also sell back your discs which you aren’t taking into account

And you don’t have to pay $20/month, you may not need to pay anything at all if you don’t play online games (many don’t, given how hated GaaS is here)

"you don't have to pay $700 for Pro, you may not have to pay at all if you don't like playing SP games" mind. blown.

You seem like the kind of guy who would nod approvingly as I play console games on my TV one hour, then become annoyed when I switch to my PC to play online games (for free) for the next two hours. Shit, and he thought I was almost a good dude, too.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Why would anyone want the console experience on a PC? No mods, no cheats, no save editing and most importantly no disabling depth of field and chromatic aberration.

 

[Success]

Valve is coming for the console space.

Now, it will actually be interesting if they can keep the number of different stock keeping units low.

 

[VolticArchangel]

Once this device gains traction and a healthy installed base, like the Steam Deck, Phil The Gamer™:

 

[jm89]

Current valve moves seem like a big threat to MS on PC imo.

Valve probaly want steam os to take off big, which could hurt windows if it really does.

MS can't be dumb enough help grow steam on their own hardware like some are hoping they would.

 

[Parazels]

Why would anyone want the console experience on a PC? No mods, no cheats, no save editing and most importantly no disabling depth of field and chromatic aberration.

Doesn't any personal calculator dream to evolve into a console?

 

[jm89]

Valve is coming for the console space.

Like they came for the handheld space.

 

[ArtHands]

Why would anyone want the console experience on a PC? No mods, no cheats, no save editing and most importantly no disabling depth of field and chromatic aberration.

It’s for the console fans who wants to jump into PC for an even better gaming experience, but don’t know how.

 

[Shodai]

I look forward to the future where I build a new gaming PC and install Steam OS, not Windows.

I have my doubts about a Valve "PC". Doesn't seem necessary.

 

[Parazels]

Can you connect Steam Deck to TV like a home console + gamepad?

How does it work in this scenario? Apart from graphics, is the experience close to normal consoles?

 

[mckmas8808]

$700 Steam machine wouldn't be held back by whatever rationale that prevented the utilization of a more modern AMD CPU architecture on the PS5 Pro SoC, which would likely come alongside the flagship features that had been setting these processors apart from the competition on the PC front, namely their 3D V-Cache.

Neither would it be limited by the clock frequency-based backwards compatibility of the current PlayStation ecosystem, which has likely prevented Sony from going nuts with a high-frequency PS5 Pro design due to the uncertainties in regards to how that would bode for backwards compatibility on the PS6.

Valve simply doesn't need to have any of those considerations in mind when designing their own hardware, so they in turn have more possibilities ahead of them than Sony.

You are 100% right in that Valve has more possibilities hardware wise than Sony, due to backwards compatibility. But economies of scale is a business driven reality. And TSMC is at the point where they aren't given out discounts for super large orders like they use to be. So if Valve is only gonna sell 5 million Steam Machines a year, they can't afford to price it as cheaply as some in this thread believe. Especially if the point is to release something that's worth comparing to the PS6 or the next Xbox Hybrid in 2027.

 

[mckmas8808]

I think a Valve box would get a lot of disenfranchised Xbox consumers who refuse to buy PlayStation.

I think a big problem, though, is a Valve box is really going to struggle to show value against a PS5 Pro. It's never going to hit volume that a PS5 Pro hits and Valve is going to struggle with exclusives even more than Microsoft. So imagine it being significantly more expensive than the PS5 Pro but not significantly more powerful.

You'd also HAVE to go Nvidia for DLSS, which means you're going to pay a pretty penny for GPU.

I think it could have success for people who want their steam library in their living rooms but don't want a console, but that's not going to be a massive market. Really as I said the best target audience is Xbox consumers and the idea that you could maybe get all games from all publishers outside of Nintendo on it.

I also think this will push Sony to move faster with their PC storefront, so maybe a mistake long term.

Spot on with my thoughts too! Except I don't agree with you on the Sony PC storefront part. But this Steambox going with Nvidia makes it $1000 minimum.

 

[Minsc]

Can you connect Steam Deck to TV like a home console + gamepad?

How does it work in this scenario? Apart from graphics, is the experience close to normal consoles?

It works just like a console, but it's not gonna be running AAAs at 2160p 60fps or anything close. Gonna need to wait a few years for Deck 2. The other big caveat is release day games often run poorly on SteamOS and via updates/patches can see 100% performance gains a few months out. So it's better to tamper expectations if you only play stuff day 1 as well.

 

[Parazels]

It works just like a console, but it's not gonna be running AAAs at 2160p 60fps or anything close. Gonna need to wait a few years for Deck 2. The other big caveat is release day games often run poorly on SteamOS and via updates/patches can see 100% performance gains a few months out. So it's better to tamper expectations if you only play stuff day 1 as well.

I am more curious about the interface, because it gives an impression how the hypothetical Steam Machine can look like in terms of user experience.

 

[Minsc]

I am more curious about the interface, because it gives an impression how the hypothetical Steam Machine can look like in terms of user experience.

The interface is great, large, easy to read text, navigation through the controller, etc. I don't really engage with the chat/multiplayer centered elements though. But it feels like a console in a way a Window OS would never, that's for sure.

 

[Wolzard]

A SteamOS already exists. It's known as Bazzite and it can run on a full blown PC and gaming performance is almost always on par and sometimes even better than WIndows. It just needs nvidia support to become perfect.

Still a true SteamOS would be amazing as it would likely offer the support for nvidia GPUs.

Bazzite works with Nvidia, it just has fewer features because Gamescope doesn't support Nvidia hardware very well and that's not really the software's problem but Nvidia's. It took years to implement some requirements necessary for full operation. Everything is slower because Nvidia's entire stack was proprietary until a while ago. They made part of the driver open source recently, but it will take years to match AMD, if at all. The AMD driver has been open source since 2015, so the community has already taken over and customized it where necessary. In fact, Valve is one of the companies that modifies the AMD driver to make it viable with the Steam Deck.

The biggest point will be the software. If they can further improve SteamOS and proton compatibility with the Steam library this would be the best outcome. I'm happy with my current PC + my recent Steam Deck purchase.

The only missing piece for me is being able to natively install Xbox PC Game Pass games (not streaming) on the deck. This is what I also imagine could be an outcome of the lol "everything is an Xbox".

This is difficult to happen, unless there is a reverse engineering of the UWP, the architecture used in Xbox/Windows Store games. Proton aka Wine is a reimplementation of Win32, the classic Windows architecture. When a game runs on Linux, Proton just converts what would be a Windows system call to the Linux equivalent.
I don't know if there is any effort to work with UWP, as the architecture didn't work out very well and Microsoft has already deprecated it.

Microsoft Officially Deprecates UWP

Microsoft continues to baby-step around the obvious, but it has officially deprecated the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).

www.thurrott.com

 

[BlackTron]

Once this device gains traction and a healthy installed base, like the Steam Deck, Phil The Gamer™:

It's not an Xbox until it overtakes Xbox.

Don't think too hard on it...

 

[Interfectum]

Can you connect Steam Deck to TV like a home console + gamepad?

How does it work in this scenario? Apart from graphics, is the experience close to normal consoles?

It comes VERY close to console in terms of usability when a Steam Deck is docked to a TV. The SteamOS UI adjusts to your TV resolution, full controller support and you even get suspend/resume.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Spot on with my thoughts too! Except I don't agree with you on the Sony PC storefront part. But this Steambox going with Nvidia makes it $1000 minimum.

If Valve starts to compete directly with Sony with a "console," I think that will push Sony off making Steam releases sooner rather than later. I think that advances their clear plans to do a PC storefront and maybe even a Mac storefront.

 

[mckmas8808]

If Valve starts to compete directly with Sony with a "console," I think that will push Sony off making Steam releases sooner rather than later. I think that advances their clear plans to do a PC storefront and maybe even a Mac storefront.

I feel like Valve is trying to compete with Xbox and look to take their customers.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I feel like Valve is trying to compete with Xbox and look to take their customers.

To a degree, but Xbox is dead. I'm not at all convinced there will ever be future hardware despite what Phil "known to lie" Spencer says.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Why would anyone want the console experience on a PC? No mods, no cheats, no save editing and most importantly no disabling depth of field and chromatic aberration.

Don't worry. It's not a console experience on a PC. It's just a "Desktop" with SteamOS. People are just dreaming about a potato console from Valve.

 

[nial]

I think Sony is seeing a handheld market where the devices are being sold for profit and doing pretty well in that regard. Same motivation behind PS5 Pro. Can't compare subsidized sales number against non-subsidized.

If we go by Kepler's report from a few months ago, this handheld is much more likely to be one of the core options for next gen, rather than just another device to satisfy SIE's hardcore userbase like PS5 Pro. It also being part of the PS6 family makes much more sense than being yet ANOTHER PS5 revision that late into its lifecycle.

Steam Deck has been a nuclear bomb on gaming handhelds. It's a niche gaming device that has zero retail presence that is no doubt nearing 6-8 million sold. It serves the same purpose as a PS Portal... it's not supposed to stand on it's own but allow you to take your library with you. This device without a doubt has influenced Sony and MS to push forward.

If you think otherwise you simply aren't paying attention.

A nuclear bomb on PC gaming handhelds, I would say. Same response above applies to most here.
Also, source on those 6-8M units sold? It was 'estimated' to be ~3M units by late 2023, and there's no way that it suddenly sold in one year much more than what it did in two.

The Switch that had existed for 5+ years didn't spur jack shit. 2017-2022 no action. Then the Steam Deck comes out and all of the sudden companies are having talks and discussion on making new handhelds, dozens of PC handhelds of varying quality getting pushed out, etc.

Hardware development takes a lot of time and SIE most probably didn't start consider this around 2019 or so when it was clear that the Switch was a juggernaut. PS5 started active development in 2015, so you would have to start planning for PS6 at this point.

Yeah nah this wave of new handhelds is being spurred on by the Deck more than anything. Now you can say the Deck was inspired by the Switch and I wouldn't disagree, but still at the end of the day, between the boom in PC handhelds, emulator handhelds, and talks between companies it's clear the Deck was the thing to break the dam.

See guys, I'm not denying Steam Deck's great contribution to the handheld PC bubble, but please understand that it's nothing more than just that, a bubble.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Steam Deck has been a nuclear bomb on gaming handhelds. It's a niche gaming device that has zero retail presence that is no doubt nearing 6-8 million sold. It serves the same purpose as a PS Portal... it's not supposed to stand on it's own but allow you to take your library with you. This device without a doubt has influenced Sony and MS to push forward.

If you think otherwise you simply aren't paying attention.

This is totally a nitpick but it doesn't have 0% retail presence. Steam Deck is sold at retail in Japan at places like Yodabashi and Bic.

Why would anyone want the console experience on a PC? No mods, no cheats, no save editing and most importantly no disabling depth of field and chromatic aberration.

I've literally modded like maybe 5 games ever and I've been playing on PC since like I was a like 6 in the late 90s. Also cheats? Jesus Christ what a argument lol

Plus it's not really a console experience anyways, if Valve does make these then it's literally just a docked Steam Deck.

 

[64bitmodels]

Hardware development takes a lot of time and SIE most probably didn't start consider this around 2019 or so when it was clear that the Switch was a juggernaut.

5-7 years of time? that long? Whatever handheld those 2 are working on, we still have 0 clue about it. It's all rumors, speculation, and leaks. Even if they started development in 2019, it's been 5 years, they should have something to announce now- unless you want to imply that it was the Portal that was Sony's ultimate handheld contribution. Deck also started development in 2019 (or at least, had prototypes made since 2019) and it's almost on its 3rd anniversary.

Keep in mind these companies never said anything about wanting to make a handheld until recently. Xbox had their lips shut about "portable devices" until post-deck. Portal didn't come out until after deck. All this interest only came about in the years long after Deck's release. Even if 2019 was the "realization year" where the Switch's juggernaut status was made clear, we should have been hearing about potential handheld competitors long before the Deck.

 

[reinking]

Valve is coming for the console space.

Now, it will actually be interesting if they can keep the number of different stock keeping units low.

I do not believe that is their goal much like the Steam Deck is not trying to take over the Switch. My guess, Valves goal is to bring PC to an easier to use (not console easy) device and expand their presence in the PC space. I believe they are watching Microsoft’s focus moving away from Xbox the console and competing more directly with Steam, Steam Deck and Steam OS. Why invest so much money to go after consoles when Valve is already in a great space?

 

[Spitfire098]

Steam about to make the $1000 console memes a reality.

 

[nial]

5-7 years of time? that long? Whatever handheld those 2 are working on, we still have 0 clue about it. It's all rumors, speculation, and leaks. Even if they started development in 2019, it's been 5 years, they should have something to announce now- unless you want to imply that it was the Portal that was Sony's ultimate handheld contribution. Deck also started development in 2019 (or at least, had prototypes made since 2019) and it's almost on its 3rd anniversary.

Because you first need to understand how SIE operates regarding its hardware R&D. They will do a few years of next-gen planning (a bit before current-gen launch), before going full into active development early into current-gen. And yes, it takes a LOT of time. Planning for PS5 should have started around 2012 before starting active development in 2015, so you would have the same with PS6 from 2019 to 2022.

Keep in mind these companies never said anything about wanting to make a handheld until recently. Xbox had their lips shut about "portable devices" until post-deck. Portal didn't come out until after deck. All this interest only came about in the years long after Deck's release. Even if 2019 was the "realization year" where the Switch's juggernaut status was made clear, we should have been hearing about potential handheld competitors long before the Deck.

I will be honest in that I'm only talking about SIE here, but not really. Hearing right now about such plans 3-4 years before such hardware materializes is exactly what I would expect.
PS Portal also obviously started development before Steam Deck launched, there's like less than two years of difference between the two.