Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Submissions have to be related to games
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No excessive self-promotion
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here and here.
There’s a reason for that, and it’s more than the usual Valve fanboyism. The Deck is objectively a better user experience than the alternatives, Steam Input is a masterpiece, Linux runs games better than Windows now (thanks, Gabe), and the community around it is friendly and super helpful to everyone.
Even a device with better specs will have trouble surpassing the Deck if they can’t cover these areas as well.
Steam deck is awesome.
With the Desktop mode, a monitor, mouse, and keyboard it's also just a computer.
Its been awesome playing games on it then flipping on my VPN and downloading movies and stuff that I can then watch on it.
The future is now
Now that it has been three years, while I'd like to have one, I feel like I'll just wait until whatever the next version is - even if that means waiting another year or so.
I don't need one, particularly, and I don't want to be caught at the tail end of this hardware.
I was on the fence of asking for one for my birthday late last year for exactly this reason.
What tipped me over was that I took a look at my Steam library and realized I literally have hundreds of indie and AA games that I've never played or have less than 4 hours in that I always meant to go back to. And that was it, I decided the Steam Deck was going to be my indie gaming experince platform. It has been amazing at doing this, and I've been chewing through my indie game library like crazy, and have picked up so many more that I'm loving gaming again! I can see myself keeping the current steam deck around and will be used regularly for at least the next 5 years.
If you're looking for a portable machine that'll tackle most modern & higher end games, either look at the alternative SteamOS portables or wait for the next Steam Deck (the touch screen, D-Pad, Sticks, and dual touch pad make it the best choice for best I out options for game compatibility).
However, if you want a great machine for indies, AA, older AAA titles, and console EMU, the current hardware is amazing and worth the price
I almost always plug mine into my dock and run it with a controller lol, rarely use it as an actual handheld
They got the formula right on this space:
Now, price is partially because Valve can afford to subsidize the cost and expect to make it up on Steam sales. I'd be remiss to ignore how they're making their money. Still, they're also able to have a good price because they didn't try to make it as powerful as it could be, but as powerful as it needed to be.
I wonder how many people, like me, who really use their Steam Deck as a Pirate Deck.
If I see a game I like on Steam Store I simply go to STEAMRlP and grab it pre-installed. Then I run it through Wine/Proton. Installing dependencies is very easy, thanks to steamdb.info + Wine-/Protontricks.
Now, some games I do buy afterwards. KCD2 is one example. The Last Flame another. When I know that I enjoy it, I know what I get for my money, then I can make the decision to buy it.
Is there a guide you'd recommend following?
I am currently editing the guide, will finish tomorrow. but you might have luck following it already. Check out https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/38810596
I'll reply tomorrow with a guide. Gotta create a Lemmy community for it and then I'll make a post-guide on how to!
Well, while probably not universally true, but I'm guessing that if you can afford to buy a steam deck, you can probably afford to buy games
I’d guess not many. We’re a bit more Linux/tech savvy here but most users would hear “Wine/Proton” alone and freak out. I bring up my terminal and people somehow think I’m “hacking”. With all the convenience with buying and playing games on Steam, their model works (even on PC, with competing platforms and unlimited piracy potential).
Edit: They also have a really great refund policy.
It’s easy to dominate when you were only one in the market for so long time.
Handheld PCs have been on the market for 20 years. Comparable to steam deck (x86_64) at least since 2016 GPD Win
Basically just read and write emails handheld pc’s but they were not made for gaming.
Dingdingding, right answer here!
They're not, though. There's quite a few other offerings in this space, and the Steam Deck appears to outsell all of them combined.
Use a competitor like the ASUS ROG for 30 minutes and you’ll understand why the SteamDeck is king.