Steam Deck, Valve's Answer to the Nintendo Switch; Now Set For February Release After Suffering a Delay

AISUYU
But can it RUN NASCAR?
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Probably.

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More Deck news:

Valve has announced a compatibility certification system, Steam Deck Verified:


Rock Paper Shotgun had a chat with Valve about it too.

And Half-Life 2 has been updated to add some apparently Deck-specific features including HUD scaling and aspect ratio independence, Vulkan support, fixes for various bugs and a few other nice things like ultrawide support:
 
I'm probably going to get one for myself over holiday break. I'll consider it a graduation gift :)
 
GTvsForza
I'm probably going to get one for myself over holiday break. I'll consider it a graduation gift :)
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That's extremely optimistic, given that there's a queue and if you join it now the delivery date is "after Q2 2022"... Unless you meant the holiday break next year!
 
Well I thought they would be in stores by then. I didn't think would need to join a queue...
 
neema_t
☹️

Delayed two months. I'm Q2 now so clearly wasn't near the front of the Q1 queue!
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I was coming here to moan about this very thing! :lol:

Just got an email and I won't be getting mine until February. It's sooner than Q2, sure, but a delay is a delay — it still sucks.
 
You can now view the results of the first verification tests, anything that's "category 3" is verified to work nicely with the Deck without tweaks, 2 means tweaks are required and 1 means those games don't work.

There are some interesting results there, I find it odd that they bothered to test several VR games when they knew none would work since Steam OS doesn't support VR! Dark Souls games work (does that mean Elden Ring will too?), maybe I'll finally give them another go but maybe not in public because no one needs to see a 35 year old man smash a toy to pieces because he lost some souls doing something dumb.

@Terronium-12 looks like they're on track for an (end of) February launch.
 
More news, Valve has just announced that Easy Anti-Cheat support for Linux is - wait for it - Easy. Apparently devs just have to log in to their EAC account, tick the Linux box, download the library and include it in the files that Steam distributes when a player installs a game. Sounds like a big win, I guess we'll see.
 
The more gets revealed about the Steam Deck, the more curious I get about finding one. Especially considering it could be an incredibly powerful replacement for the Switch in the games I usually play on it, alongside a robust base for emulation ala' the Vita.
 
There are a few ways to list them (I use this, you need to log in with your Steam account though), but Valve's Deck verification thing is continuing at surprising pace. I already own 61 verified games (only two of which I've hidden in my library due to chronic lack of interest), 33 playable and 10 unsupported, with just over 1,000 games yet to be checked.

A lot of the games on the wishlist I posted a while ago that I really wanted to play have now been verified too, so that's cool, like Ace Combat 7, Prey, Yakuza games, Dishonoured: Death of the Outsider and a few more. Only two are unsupported, Insurgency and Halo: MCC, but the latter probably is playable but fails because you need to use the unsupported anti-cheat to play online (which I don't want to do). Hopefully Insurgency will be patched but it's not a huge loss if not.
 
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5thwheel
Sounds like the device is still very much a work-in-progress.
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I mean...I think that was clear from the beginning, and credit to Valve that they are owning up to it and looking at ways to fix it, considering most of the problems are on the software side.

It doesn't really take away from the vast potential the Steam Deck has for those that are willing to get their hands dirty. Moreover, the fact that Valve is giving people the tools and the lack of walls in making the Steam Deck whatever they want it to be is commendable as well, considering how aside from Series consoles (and even then, it's within the walled garden that is Dev Mode) most modern consoles are locked down to a hilarious degree and OEM's actively discourage those from doing anything they want to their systems.
 
Isn't that Apples vs Oranges though? The Steam Deck looks more like a portable PC than a games console. If they had locked it down like a console they'd also need to make sure all the software is watertight and well supported on it.

Sony PSP on the other hand - now that was a portable console. And left wide open - so wide in fact, you could have driven a truck through its walled garden. :D
 
As a Nintendo fanboy, I see little wrong with the Deck offering a somewhat-finicky power-user alternative to the plug-n-play experience of the Switch that the Deck will never, ever match. Until the Deck, bona fide portable gaming PCs have been laptops, which are no better than lightweight desktops. The Deck isn't a Switch, but it's no laptop either.

I only don't understand why people want to play games on handheld devices in the first place. I've tried it again and again, and I hear the reasons, but I just don't get it myself. It's neck aches and hand aches on a small screen, in distracting places, on battery power, where you can be interrupted at any time. No thanks.
 
Wolfe
I only don't understand why people want to play games on handheld devices in the first place. I've tried it again and again, and I hear the reasons, but I just don't get it myself. It's neck aches and hand aches on a small screen, in distracting places, on battery power, where you can be interrupted at any time. No thanks.
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It's nice to be able to play smaller fair stuff while I'm on a trip or on the bus. Or even in bed.

But knowing you, with your holier then thou attitude to so many things in gaming, I guess I shouldn't be surprised as to why you don't see the appeal in handheld gaming.
 
Wolfe
I only don't understand why people want to play games on handheld devices in the first place. I've tried it again and again, and I hear the reasons, but I just don't get it myself. It's neck aches and hand aches on a small screen, in distracting places, on battery power, where you can be interrupted at any time. No thanks.
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Depends on the game - some are great on-the-go. Of course that kind of games you will usually also be able to play on a smartphone just fine...

What keeps me away personally from either is eyesight concerns. Even when I was a good few years younger I noticed extended play sessions (back then Lumines on the PSP most of the time) always left me with a severe case of short term near sightedness. Always took a while for that to go away again.
Like - sitting there, cracking the high score in the departures lounge like a champ. Then looking up and being unable to clearly make out the wall displays. Ewwww!

That aside this Steam Deck looks like a fine present for a nerd birthday. Earmarked!
 
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Wolfe
As a Nintendo fanboy, I see little wrong with the Deck offering a somewhat-finicky power-user alternative to the plug-n-play experience of the Switch that the Deck will never, ever match. Until the Deck, bona fide portable gaming PCs have been laptops, which are no better than lightweight desktops. The Deck isn't a Switch, but it's no laptop either.

I only don't understand why people want to play games on handheld devices in the first place. I've tried it again and again, and I hear the reasons, but I just don't get it myself. It's neck aches and hand aches on a small screen, in distracting places, on battery power, where you can be interrupted at any time. No thanks.
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They made total sense when I was a kid, we mostly didn't have our own TVs and were mostly forced to go wherever our parents went, as an adult i see no real appeal in handhelds, especially with mobile phone games. My nephew has a switch and has hardly used it.
 
If you don't understand why an adult would want a handheld, just have kids and it'll all become very obvious. A subpar gaming experience is better than none at all and being able to play games during my lunchbreak will roughly double the amount of gaming time I get these days... My Vita has seen more use since November than it did in the decade before that and I can't wait to upgrade to a Deck!
 
neema_t
If you don't understand why an adult would want a handheld, just have kids and it'll all become very obvious.
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Pretty much this. Not just in gaming BTW, e.g. in music production the popularity of small, standalone grooveboxes/music production devices has increased a lot. Also folks on the go; playing a game or making music while on the bus, subway, etc.
 
I have no leg to stand on for how I'd raise a child, but a handheld is that much more compelling when you're a child yourself, dragged through so much of your life. I was given a Game Boy Color at the height of the original Pokémon fad, and the appeal didn't last long after completing Pokémon Blue. I just find it curious how inaccessible the form factor is, given how keen I am on gaming otherwise.

My gaming on the go is a laptop with thousands of ROMs and whatever else, plugged into the wall, with a USB gamepad. Super Nintendo games are a go-to on my slower old laptop, which has a nice larger-than-average screen.
 
neema_t
If you don't understand why an adult would want a handheld, just have kids and it'll all become very obvious. A subpar gaming experience is better than none at all and being able to play games during my lunchbreak will roughly double the amount of gaming time I get these days... My Vita has seen more use since November than it did in the decade before that and I can't wait to upgrade to a Deck!
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This is the truth. I don't really get a chance to use my TV since it's almost always on some sort of kid's show for my son. I can, however, play my Switch while he's watching something without issue. The Switch gets a bit old after a while though since most of the games don't really interest me all that much outside the Pokemon games.

I can't wait to Deck either since I mainly play PC games. I'm still a ways off from getting one though and I'll probably wait until they iron out some of the wrinkles first.
 
Joey D
This is the truth. I don't really get a chance to use my TV since it's almost always on some sort of kid's show for my son. I can, however, play my Switch while he's watching something without issue. The Switch gets a bit old after a while though since most of the games don't really interest me all that much outside the Pokemon games.

I can't wait to Deck either since I mainly play PC games. I'm still a ways off from getting one though and I'll probably wait until they iron out some of the wrinkles first.
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If you were to try to order one right now I have no idea when you'd actually get it - looks like I'm waiting until at least October for mine...

deck.png


I'm very much expecting most if not all of the wrinkles to be ironed out by then!
 
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