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Steam Deck won't have yearly refreshes because it's "not really fair to your customers", says Valve (archive.is)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Yearly refreshes make a lot more sense for phones, where the OS defines a lot more of the app lifecycle and common features, consumers might be interested in non-performance hardware upgrades like cameras, and things tend to be less spec-sensitive in the first place.

For a gaming device, giving devs an uneven foundation and users a confusing compatibility matrix would spell doom.

Edit: I should probably clarify that I wasn’t saying a yearly refresh for phones is good. Just that the context of Android+iOS is very different from the Steam Deck, and that context makes more frequent refreshes more attractive to consumers and less damaging to developers than it would be if applied to the Steam Deck also.

Edit 2: I also just realized this is not the same story as the one a day or two ago that drew a direct comparison to phones. So I guess I should’ve gone back and commented on that one instead. I just wanted to share cuz I’ve had a lot of meetings about device support and consumer upgrade habits, as a mobile dev and as a game dev, and I don’t think most people would guess quite how different those two worlds are.

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