I'm really okay with it being incomplete. This isn't a locked-down PS5 or the like, where we're at the mercy of the manufacturer, this is essentially a PC. Valve has done the hard part of squeezing a performant PC into this small form factor. If Valve were to ship it as-is and never touch it again, The community can pick up where Valve left off. Thanks to that, The SteamDeck is a product that _could_ outlive Valve if they were to disappear the day after all the units ship. That's the mark of a great product. Their promise to keep improving upon the SteamDeck, is really just a Cherry on top of it all, for me.
true, but to compete against the consoles and win over normal non tech savvy users this isn't enough. Things need to just work, and as long as it requires tinkering, it will only be for enthusiasts.
I understand where you are coming from, but it will need to be pretty plug and play for the average person. For instance the steam controller is an amazing concept. It almost works well but I barely use mine. It takes so much tweaking to make it work well in a lot of games, and I just don't usually feel like putting in the effort.
@@snowzZzZz It really isn't for average users though. Most users will probably get a Windows gaming laptop from a big OEM brand (Alienware, Omen, Legion, ROG, Predator, etc.). The Steam Deck is for a specific market, and I think they knocked it out of the park.
@@cameronbosch1213 why would they make a console that's not targeted at the average user? linux tinkerers are a small market, makes no sense to just target them
Faults aside, I’m super impressed with this thing and Valve as a company. The level of transparency is exactly what I want and what I feel consumers deserve.
I'm excited for his. I love that it already has MangoHud integrated. Flightlessmango (the founding developer) is a cool dude and worked with him a bit a while back on some testing. I love to see more FOSS in gaming. There may be some shortcomings at launch but there will be a lot of people developing for the platform, including myself.
Gaben said it himself. They're taking a big risk with this and are selling them at a relatively cheap price. They need this to work. And it looks very promising.
@UnjustifiedRecs not to mention the biggest problem seems to be compatibility issues which seem like the most hardest to fix. Which could be needed to talk to many game developer companies to sort it out. But hey lots of games seem compatible/playable and more to come. So it seems to already be heading in the right direction.
@@snapshotandbisti the problem with the steam machine is it wasn’t a specific product. It was a platform which manufacturers could use, which caused there to be too many steam machines and confuse customers. If they decided to make a single steam machine it would have sold better
apple embraced total opposite by making the choices for the user and fixing them, and they are a trillion dollar company, but i also like more options path, but not everybody bothers to tinker with options and freedom, considering its risk of breaking things
It seems Valve made a right move. It applied the java's strategy: "buy once, play everywhere". Now you don't have to wonder whether to buy PC version or console version of the game you like. Valve finally created an ecosystem that filled the gap between PC and console.
@@amateurprogrammer25 Actually no, It is very successful from server to mobile. It was hyped, and now there is better technologies for GUI (thanks electron). I use Python for data science, but I am not oblivious to the fact that java is still big in big data. (Typo edit)
@@tychoides electron is JavaScript, not Java? also have you ever tried to run a Java app on anything other than the exact platform it was designed to work on? Do you have any idea how many hoops you have to jump through to get Minecraft Java Edition working on anything other than Windows/Linux x86? Also Minecraft versions before 1.17 refuse to work with anything other than Java 8, whereas versions after that refuse to work with anything other than Java 17. Also there's the whole business of JavaCard (for SIM cards), BD-J (for Blu-Ray players), whatever that Java applet thing they used on phones was, and the now obsolete Java web standard all being mutually incompatible with each other. Java is a fine programming language, and that's as may be, but "write once run anywhere" is just as much of a lie in Java as it is in C.
@@amateurprogrammer25 I know Electron is is a local webserver coded in JavaScript , and if you read my comment I said it was a better technology. I have used and still using Java GUIs and they sure are dated and slower than using GTK or QT, but as a Linux user they allow for a version that could run in linux that actually had support. Java for 3D games is nonsense, and I don't understant why Minecraft devs thought was a good idea. I think that java was and is overhyped and I personally don't like(I use Python, C and C++, but in terms of success you cannot argue that has been hugely successful and people has hyped and misused for more than 2 decades. Sometimes neither the good or the bad guy win, but the mediocre one who does it just well enough.
For a “software company” it’s kinda funny they made such polished hardware with a fairly buggy software front end. That being said, projects like Proton are straight up magical.
For a video about how it's incomplete, I think you've sold me on it! I had the intention of maybe picking one up in a year, when it's a bit more mature. But I genuinely believe in voting with my wallet and this kind of industry disruption and customer-freedom-focused design approach is something I want to see more of.
While it may be "incomplete" its literally all just software issues, which can be patched out. I would love a return to the device a few months or even a year from now to see it its improved
I was actually convinced by the in-depth hardware reviews. Considering the Steam Deck specifications, there is nothing as reasonably priced these days! 😁 I'm still a bit worried that Steam OS 3 could be discontinued like it's predecessors and the semi-custom components may not get drivers to run Windows reliably, but the risk of becoming e-waste shortly after the pandemic shortages are over seems less than overpriced video cards.
It's even sadder that gamers continue to purchase the products, even going as far as pre-ordering incomplete merchandise. You would never buy a car missing one or two wheels...
Valve is one of the last companies that actually works with their community, that’s why I will always support them. I can trust that they will get these things fixed.
Valve didn't go public with their shareholdings. Best decision they ever made. Companies that go public always seem to be the ones that force themselves into political bullcrap these days.
@@shapeshiftingpedro Well once a company goes public, they become beholden to their shareholders before anyone else. Maybe it's the extremely out of touch shareholders who make these decisions to inject politics into every single product lol
Good job valve. They're really trying to innovate on many fronts. The Deck is very ambitious, and I'm willing to put up with some hitches because of this. Also, it's clear that they believe in it, and they are continually working on the Deck. I will definitely buy one!
You can tell Valve believe in the Steam Deck, they've put more effort into it's hype alone than Sony and others have done for years. Honestly, the people who say the Steam Deck will fail because they didn't support their last hardware make me laugh because Sony didn'r support the PS Vita and Nintendo supported the Wii U even less, yet they still believe in them. Plus the Steam Deck can't fail because it supports PC software, meaning that there'll always be a use for it, unlike an Playstation, Nintendo something and to a lesser extent, an Xbox, since those are eventually phased out for newer models and can't be used beyond their development cycles. (Case in point, run Xbox One titles on a 360, or a PS2 game on a PS5, now run a Windows 98 RPGMaker title on a 2020 PC and see the difference in compatibility) It's a sure fire move to success.
@@knox7945 They're two different audiences and use cases, they can coexist, not compete. The Deck for AAA gaming, emulation etc. The Switch for Nintendo exclusives and casual gaming. (We all know no one buys a Switch for the multiplatform games). Fact is, Nintendo offers a very different experience than Xbox, Playstation and PC.
caleb peter Do people need PC titles on Phone level gaming gear? If people buy this it will get updates! Did they ever sold hardware that gamers needed? Since it's steam?
@@lucasrem1870 I mean, it's not just a phone, its literally a PC with an AMD ZEN chip, comparable to around a 1050, and those can run pretty much everything, you could install windows but you'd have to find drivers first. Also, yeah, the Steam Controller, i have one and it's the most versatile controller ive ever seen, only downsides are non-rechargable double A batteries
@@lucasrem1870 People don't need PC titles on portable systems, they want it. No other reason is needed, there's a huge demand for something like this and Valve is catering to that demand. Also I think the deck will have a positive impact in the gaming industry overall. Putting pressure on other companies to give more control over their consoles, and bringing competition to the handheld gaming market.
@@lucasrem1870 Its not a phone where do you see a phone here lmao. It's about being able to play games from my PC anywhere with a device that could actually play them well. There's really no reason to question why they're doing this. They're a company that makes products for money and this is one of them. A lot of people want this, so they made it.
From everything I'm seeing, this thing is actually insanely good. But just needs some software work. And for this to be a first gen unit with first gen software work, I won't hate on it's software issues. Ask they can be ironed out with over the air updates. Just makes me glad to see how far this segment has came. And as someone who has completely abandoned Nintendo due to their current anti consumerism, this is a great buy for 400$
No joke! Every gamer on the planet should be CHEERING this thing on just for the pressure it will put on Sony/MS/Nintendo. Even if you HATE Valve, Steam, and PC gaming in general, if you love videogames of any kind then this product is a win for you.
@@drunkenmessiah This offers exa what Nintendo promised the switch would do and failed at. It brings console quality gaming on the go. Over the next few months, it will only get better as software updates drop, drivers get worked on, and games become compatible. And you can get it for just 50$ more then the switch.
@@elibeeblebrox1084 but there are more options with better performance and visual quality compared to their ports on ns, and most newer ones seem to be compatible really well, proton is also owned by valve as well, so i am excited to play through those verified games as i owm most of them actually
This, along with everything Valve does, continues to be the reason I support Steam/Valve platforms, over Epic. Everything feels seamless and there's unmatched transparency
I was slowly switching to GoG since Steam had drm and you couldn't play most of your games offline or without logging in your account, but as of recently, they've been being really anti consumer lately, censoring games, refusing to make a Linux launcher and getting into politics just for virtue signaling, so I'm seriously thinking on going back to steam, especially after steam deck.
@@GuitarHeroKing500000 I play Steam games almost exclusively offline. I normally only connect in order to download new game or to get an update I want. I have shitty satellite internet that does horrible teying to play online. I even figured out how to get around a game blocking me from playing because it wants to update.
ehh, he was probably already awake. If he was asleep i am sure he would be at least somewhat angry. Being woken up by one of your employees in the middle of the night for a non emergency reason isn't pleasant.
@@toxicturkeyy dude I mean, from my perspective , I am a horrible person and if even my friends call me middle of the night out of mistake , I will rage on that person let alone my employee doing a terrible mistake
Considering most issues are software, rather than hardware, I'm really impressed from what I've seen. It's also a brand new product, this can only get better as time goes on. Valve once again killing it with new hardware releases!
To be fair, it's still a hardware issue; only reviewers have the product & consumers now have a new "launch" date of "April" according to Valve (subject to change, I suppose).
@@bcp6524 I suppose I mean this is a proper console product that had expected shipping dates for a traditional launch including pushing back the date to meet supply needs, but those needs weren't met in time for the latest launch date to coincide with an actual consumer market (vs the 100 or so reviewers who have had the final hardware for about a month). We're still trying to find a consumer with the product for our story (we were initially looking for several interviews but now we're just looking for the first person to get one).
I really think you should revisit the steam deck now that it's officially out with no queue. Apparently, many of the kinks, but not all, have been ironed out, it would be interesting to see how it fares nowadays.
11:47 You know what would be really cool, if there was a steam deck optimized setting for the games that run on it, similar to the NVidia optimized setting in GeForce experience, and you could apply it through the setting in steam.
@@rohithkumarsp Thing is that the nVidia drivers for systems like the Deck are not very good. They work, but that's about it. They just recently got support for DLSS (and raytracing IIRC). Instead, we now have an AMD GPU with fantastic drivers that also support raytracing.
I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this happening considering that there are controller presets you can use made by either valve or the community for a xbox or a steam controller.
im super excited for this, a large tech company with an actually decent amount of transparency is for some reason only now coming along but im hyped for it, big W's all around edit: I said "decent" because I'm aware steam/valve has their fair share of problems. That being said, they are miles better than most modern tech companies (especially in regards to open sourcing their software) and hope they continue to improve
"for some reason only now" There were a lot of challenges for sure. SteamOS from what now 5-10 years ago being a first building block, getting feedback on a steam controller, getting people in the company involved into this project sourcing more development internally for the software and externally to make the hardware happen for millions of units. The Steam Deck is a console - and that should make it easy to develop for it and that should make it neccessary for studios to develop _for it_ But it also isn't - which doesn't make it neccessary for studios to develop for it, it just runs a windows compatibility layer on linux, which makes it possible to eventually run everything created for windows while having the advantage for Valve to tweak anything they want and not to have to pay license fees to microsoft.
@@bratwurst_addict what I'm saying is that open source should be the standard, the fact people trust and support technology that is spying on them and has insane arbitrary restrictions is beyond me
"decent amount of transparency"??? Yeah... i don't know about that, man. Their reputation of being like a black box for the past 10 years is pretty infamous. And you don't even need to search deep. LMG is singing praises but I'm skeptical. Not including Alyx, Steams' last 2 major products felt more like a fuck and dump kind of thing too.
You mean a large company which is privately held and does not report taxes, profits and does not allow nerds like you to own shares of it. God knows what tax evasion Gabe is doing.
The Heroic Game Launcher is AWESOME. It started for Epic Games Store, but recently added GoG support. You can sign into your accounts for each store and it'll download games and run them through various versions of WINE and even Proton. They also added the ability to navigate with controller a couple updates ago, specifically for the SteamDeck. Definitely check that out.
Good to know. Most of my games are in Steam, but I like buying from GOG for the DRM free aspect. I've been slightly concerned about not having access to them on the Steam Deck, but it sounds like this should be possible.
What excites me about this is that any work Valve puts into game compatibility on Steam Deck will translate into game compatibility on Linux in general.
It will not. Technically speaking they strictly do not encourage games to offer native Linux binaries. Instead, everything goes through their Proton compatibility layer. It isn't terrible, but it isn't what I would call "Linux compatibility" - rather "Proton compatibility".
@@snail8720 I think it's a reasonable compromise You can install proton outside SteamOS and then you only have to make your game proton compatible and the distro only has to do proton it's less work for everyone Sure it might be less performance and not native but a small indie dev either does proton or maybe does Ubuntu and other distros get the shaft
@@TheQwerty256 linux native is better in the long run for a game than windows or proton. some older games don't work on windows anymore, but linux native no problem, even the windows games that dosnt work on windows anymore, on linux with wine, no problem, just set wine to be the right system setup for the game to work and it works. atm i'm having more issues with windows 11 than my linux boot, so i'm actually expecting linux to be even more on the front end with pc gaming and also seeing windows maybe merging gaming on pc with microsoft completely with xbox, so basicly xbox will be the OS or software if you wanna game on your pc, which they'll try and lock away from a linux system. so the more linux native games we see, the better it's gonna be for the compatibility, besides, if a game is linux only and is popular, mircosoft will pay the developers to make a windows port, which is the way it should be.
@@snail8720 Valve had started pushing for Linux native games around 2012/2013 when they started working on SteamOS and Steam Boxes. They were also funding projects that would help improve the gaming experience on Linux. It was also around that time more games were being released natively on Linux and game engine developers started offering better support for Linux builds. I think that the move to Proton was the result of many big game devs still not wanting to also produce and support Linux builds, so Proton is a way to provide accessibility to games that would otherwise not be playable. While not the best solution, I am able to play a lot of games that I would not normally be able to and Valve does report the percentage of Linux sales to the developers, so the higher the % rises, the more likely the devs would provide native Linux builds.
what i enjoy more then anything, is that this is clearly a much more consumer friendly approach, using more open a software and protocols, that doesn't prevent the user from from doing what they want, and even if it's 1/2 baked, i prefer it leagues more then a locked down "flawless" system
If in like 5 years it's not powerful enough anymore/Steam Deck 2 comes out, you could use it as a game server for friends, play movies off of it instead of a laptop if you don't own a smart tv, maybe even a console for your doors or something.
@@kiloneie honestly, that's a HUGE thing for me, for even 5 years but now. like, what if I'm at home and want to run a Minecraft server that isn't in my desktop? what if I'm on the go, and wanna do something quick like jot down a melody in bitwig? maybe some (very rough) blocking in blender? record or edit something light? maybe bring a pen display and tape this to the back? it's such a good piece of hardware
I think those manufacturers lock their device down just so that users can't find any flaw in their device. Having open source software and protocols just give their users more headroom to explore and in turn they will find more exploits and flaws in their device.
As a member of the Linux community and seeing how far proton has come, i have full trust in valve fixing 99% of the issues. They have put in massive amounts of effort with proton even without the steam deck, this will just embolden their ambition.
See, those of us running Linux distros already (#iusearchbtw), we're already used to occasional troubleshooting. If comparing the Deck to a muggle-compatible console experience, sure, a lot needs to be ironed out. But for any Linux user, this is essentially the Holy Grail.
Valve absolutely was right to totally nail the hardware, and ship with unfinished software. You can't push out better hardware as a free OTA update... Software on the other hand... Can be easily updated later. Software projects are hard. Progress in software development is sometimes intangible. Valve will almost certainly continually improve the steam deck's software for years and years to come. I can't wait for my 512gb steam deck!
"Sony absolutely was right to totally nail the hardware, and ship with lacking library. You can't push out better hardware as a free OTA update..." - optimistic PSVita owners circa 2011 Yeah, no. Sorry. Software is ALSO important. Software is the second part of the customer experience and it needs to at least be usable on release. The PSVita is an example of a game console which had incredible hardware but lacking software and continued to have lacking software unto it's end of life. Stop preordering unfinished products, stop excusing lazy developers.
@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 Software issues, you can easily fix. Hardware side, not so much. Valve is one of the more consumer friendly companies out there, I'm sure you can trust them that they'll refine their software based from community feedback. There would be much bigger issues if a lot of the device itself is locked down like PS5 or as you mentioned, the PS Vita for example, but it isn't.
@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 lol i agree, preordering for unfinished product is stupid, but I don't think its "lazy" developers. Its the company for pushing it out, developers probably work their butt off
I’ve been using my steam deck for about a week now, and I honestly love it so much. All the hype is justified in my opinion. I found I haven’t touched my switch since booting up my deck, and I have only been using my desktop for super demanding games like cyberpunk, or competitive shooters like cs. Platformers are a dream to play on the deck and I was blown away at how well it handled forza horizon 5. Being able to keep this in my bag during my day, take it out between classes (college student) and play pc games is just incredibly convenient. Thanks valve for making something truly amazing, that also doesn’t break the bank. I sprung for the midrange version, and am satisfied with that decision.
How do you find it continued to hold up with new titles? I am interested in buying one (I travel a lot for work and want a gaming option). Does it keep up with the demand of new titles?
@@chrisgrol5829 I played through Elden Ring on it at medium settings. It definitely isn't a performance king and will not win any drag races, however the performance it provides is more than enough for me to run new AAA games at low, and run older AAA games at medium to high. I recently played through the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe on mine and had a near perfect experience. I would say its definitely worth it.
I was actually waiting for some bugs like that in the store. But i'm not worried. The device/OS still looks great. The whole store should be an easy fix. Steam desktop client has been receiving a lot of updates this week also some older valve games. Not to mention 400 games on release? That's huge! including God of war, elden ring, horizon zero dawn, a lot of older classics etc etc.. that's crazy!
Actually, it's far many more than 400 games, those are just the ones on the compatibility list, but there are many more as native ports, several thousands.
holy cow, growing pains aside this is seriously, seriously groundbreaking. 400 bucks for this insane quality product that's also hackable while promoting Linux game compatibility??? I think I'm in love--the fact that the only real issues are minor software annoyances that can be patched quickly over the next few months makes me incredibly hopeful.
And the battery life. And the storage space. And that most games won’t work. Multiplayer anti cheat doesn’t work. Other launchers don’t work. Also 400 bucks? For 200 more I could get a decent gaming. I think it’s a cool piece of tech but I don’t get the overhype. Steam deck 2 might be what i was expecting.
@@Squintis There's no literally no competition at 400 bucks, 200 more won't get you something similar (handheld, with build in controller, battery etc). Its nearest comparison would be the Ayaneo or GPD which sells for at least 3 times the price.
I just got my steam deck a few days ago and it's crazy how basically everything u covered has already been fixed or changed, great device great company
Hey Linus, I've had an EV 2 dev kit since September and Valve has only started working on the store in the past couple of months. Before that, the store was completely inaccessible. I too was kinda baffled by that decision, given that this is Valves bread and butter, but I figured first and foremost they are working on making the core Deck experience great. As you probably noticed, the rate of updates in the past couple of weeks have been staggering, so I'm very hopeful that Valve gets on top of this. As you noted, the big problems are really all software related, so this is definitely something that can be improved post shipping. The roll out is going to be slow-ish anyways, so Valve has some breathing room here to fix things as they go. I'm quite hopeful, the team has definitely proved to me that they can tackle things fast and iterate quickly while making big improvements. I for one absolutely love the Steam Deck and have spent many hours on the couch at night playing games on it, and at least that part just works really well.
Seconded, I think the route they chose actually shows a lot of intelligence and maturity. There is a chip shortage on, supply chain bottlenecks, they need to get the hardware RIGHT the first time come hell or high water. Roll-out is gonna be slow, there won't be 1M of these out in the wild until later this spring if not the summer. Some kind of hardware defect that slips through the cracks would be a disaster of epic proportions. Early adopters are going to mostly be Steam Superfans anyway. They will tolerate these kinds of glitches if the hardware is PERFECT. They'll get the software backend all fixed up by May-June if not sooner when the hardware really starts to flow and it sees mass adoption. Game developers will see the sales numbers, see how many copies of the games are being bought and run on Steam Decks, and will be enticed to bust ass on compatibility fixes and all the rest. The community will mop up between the cracks if need be, mostly for the benefit of "power users" I'm sure. Given how many problems valve has had with "Steam Hardware" in the past it really does seem like they've learned from their mistakes here. 10/10 cool to hear from a developer!
Serious question though, why not just play on your PC or console if you're at home anyway? I love that they've made this product, I just can't see when I'd use it now that I'm a real adult 😔
@@HOkayson Sorry brother, same reason you aren't excited for the newest Game Boy 😆 You are An Old now. This thing will be brilliant for kids and younger adults who don't have/can't afford a proper desktop "gaming PC." I mean those things are luxury items now. Hell, I know a lot of lower-income families who don't have a PC in their home at all not even a laptop. This thing will be great for folks like them and many others, but for us old-school PC gamers who've been building our own rigs since the 90's? Yea, not so much 🤓
@@HOkayson 1. on the shitter 2. in bed is that not enough for you? most people don't have comfortable bed accessible computing setups, but I guess you might.
@@rawhide_kobayashi how long are you on the toilet? I can pass that time quite happily with reading some news/emails or watching RUclips. As for bed, play on your PC or console & then go to bed afterwards? I do kinda get that use case though, I watch RUclips in bed on my phone, so I can see why some people might fancy playing a game in bed.
13:40 That's not a glitch/bug. It is how it is. The game has no idea that the system has gone to sleep. The solution that you've mentioned (wake up the deck and close the game) is indeed the right solution for this. The fact that a warning is shown on Desktop is really nice.
That's what I also thought. I cannot think of any way that valve could implement this kind of seamless transition without editing the game itself. If the game hasn't saved then there isn't a save file to transfer over. Maybe they could try to get a snapshot of the games current state and try to transfer that but imo that sounds like a lot of work that would probably result in a buggy mess
@@Someone-ci8wf they need background processes to be running at super low power when the device sleeps. That would upload your save data but right now the sleep mode turns everything off.
Since the Steam Deck is enforcing the sleep status, and since it's responsible for cloud saves, it seems reasonable that Steam could push the latest auto save point before sleeping. However, you are right insofar as some games are designed to be saved only at certain points.
@@Someone-ci8wf That's a good idea, but the game's current state would only be relevant on a Steam Deck, without some kind of translation. It _might_ work on a Linux PC, but then it might only be possible on the very same Steam Deck, since other Steam Decks might not have their hardware / drivers in exactly the correct state. Like, you might loose audio or have glitchy video after moving from one device to another.
The main reason why I got my 3DS is simple: it's easy to jailbreak. I can now run homebrew software that makes all the difference on the console for me, like save managers, backups, game randomizers, unofficial patches and translations, all of that fun stuff. The Steam Deck seems like dream machine for the ones like me who enjoy to take full advantage on what the hardware can do and I am for sure looking forward to getting one in the future.
The Steam Deck practically comes jailbroken out of the box. Every other manufacturer has gone to enormous lengths to prevent you from running any software on their system that isn't 100% controlled by them, and people have to spend years looking for a way in, but on the Deck, the only thing standing between you and a full-blown Arch Linux installation is a checkbox that says "Yes, I know what I'm doing" and. I'm honestly trying to decide whether I'm dreaming
yeah, i was going to buy a PSvita to emulate the games that my 3ds cant, but honestly, i will buy one next year, this year i will def get a steam deck, the possibilities are just far and beyond everything ever
I agree with the "it's really more of a PC than a console" take. I think it will also be awesome in docked mode, for people who don't have $2000 gaming laptops, this will be nice to take with them to say a friend's house with a dock and external controller or keyboard/mouse, hook it up to the TV, and bam full PC w/ desktop mode. I can imagine this would be great even for casual gamers, for instance, the Jackbox party pack games are great, but require a host pc/console to run them from even though players join from their phones. With the Steam Deck, you can dock it to a tv and run the games. I'm hopeful that Valve will continue improving the software.
This kind of hardware could bring back LAN parties to people who don't like to haul their gear around, or just have gear that's horrible to haul. Do you game on an Odyssey G9? You probably don't want to put it in the car. Don't live where you need a car and don't have one? You probably don't want to lug your tower onto the bus. Also, hell yeah for this making bringing Jackbox to someone else's house a reality. I was considering buying them again on Switch until I realized I already own them on the Deck.
Before I built my desktop, I was acting at a cyberpower Lan pc (I think it was a micro-atx with carrying handle) Would love to be able to have a portable thing for hanging out with friends
@@RevRyukin7 You can connect an external display to the dock (up to 8K 60hz or 4K 120hz). It's only the built in screen that's locked to 800p. Edit: Not sure how it currently is, maybe it is locked, but in theory at least this is how it will be once the software is in a more complete state.
@@RevRyukin7 Me, currently playing Elden Ring on a 27" monitor in 720p because my hardware is barely able to handle it with the settings cranked way down... * cries *
If this steam deck took off, i am very hopeful that companies would focus on optimizations instead of just cramming unnecessary amount of pixels, shadows, lightings and details.
@@leonmuller8475 Only USA, Canada and maybe Mexico, outside of that is not oficial worldwide (No, buying it from amazon or other stores is not oficial worldwide like a normal console)
I really hope the steam deck does well. Valve seem to be a very consumer driven company and I appreciate that they’re not being dishonest with the user base.
As someone who already games on Linux, a lot of the issues don't phase me. But they are still very valid criticisms for anyone who is just looking to game.
I agree, but those of us who game on Linux desktop PCs already know how to fix most issues, that are not locked down by the dev of a game. I'm curious to see how this thing handles modding to be honest
@@papagoth9412 it will handle modding. The issue is that it's targeting a mass market that won't know what to do if they had to fix anything. This is not a console. And as long as people keep treating it as such it's gonna be a problem.
Get your seatbelts my brother, because Linux gaming will be a WAY bigger topic for game developers from the launch of the Steam Deck onwards! We will not only make 2% of the market anymore!!!
@@lucascarracedo7421 IMO You have to treat it as a mix of console and PC. Verified games will just work. Anything else has clearly defined expectations, and you can't brick the device unless it's in dev mode.
An i mportant note is that almost everything mentioned here is about the software, which can be fixed through an update. Considering it just got relaesed for the market, they'll eventially collect enough feedbacks to refine the software. Given how consumer friendly, hell even consumer sided Valve has been, I trust that they'll heed our calls.
If they can push the essential software updates to the final product then all it's good. Just because something can be updated with patches later doesn't mean we should lower our standards when buying products, especially for incomplete ones like this.
I wish they were more transparent about this third "launch" date. I suppose it still counts, except that nobody outside of reviewers actually have one or even have been able to pay for one. Valve's new date is now listed as "April," which I guess is just as transparent as every other date they've released, FWIW.
I would like to see what this looks like connected to external devices such as a monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers. I have an older pc and am curious to know if this would be a viable replacement as the "core" of a mid-tier gaming rig.
oh yeah it deifnetly is a good core but we dont need to use it like that there is steam link which allows you to stream games over your network to any pc or steam device you have so technically you can own basic office setup pc or laptop and have your deck stream games to this pc over your network
@@ahmed4363 you dont need a good internet connection just a fast wifi internet speed has nothing to do with how fast is your home network your internet speed is just a limit by ur provider you can transfer files between computers in same wifi with speeds exceeding 100mb/s when your internet is only 30mb/s you just need a decent router that is able to proceed such load you can stream games over your network even when your internet is cut off as long as router works
Both perspectives have a point. Steve sees the flexibility of the device and thinks it's a waste to treat it like a console. Linus knows about the device's flexibility but understands that majority of people are not techies and will treat it like a console.
Love the background setting you’ve chosen. A beautiful home that’s still a work in progress. It’s a perfect representation of the state of the Steam Deck.
100% will get a Steam Deck. It is perfect for me to use when I just wanna post up on the couch, in bed, outdoors camping chilling or just traveling. Love how it is already connected w/ steam in the sense my whole library is already there so almost all my games are ready to go after instillation. Love how it is not small but, beefy. Looks sturdy, nice screen and how it has d-pad, joystick, touch pad and touch screen. Don't need to pay for online subscription and that Valve is actually fully committed to fine tuning everything. Def. will wait till Summer to see more patches and hardware updates.
5:22 The list IS there but it's behind one button on the "Great on Deck" page, if you click on the "Narrow by" filter icon when browsing the games, it then tells you the total number (430 at time of writing this) and then also splits this down into game genres. On Desktop PC, this "Narrow by" area shows by default next to the list of games.
Yea, everyone here is putting a lot of faith in Valve but having been a steam user since beta... They still suck at UI in a lot of ways and the user experience of steam is still "meh" despite it being really their primary product. Ok sure XBOX doesn't give me hardware data, but I can sort their store and friends/community pages without confusion.
I'm an Linux user and a tinkerer so I'm heavily biased, regardless as long as the steam deck is able to play emulated games and visual novels (which I know it can because I'm already doing it on linux) while I'm on the throne I'll be happy.
I wish they had brought up the "Gaming on Linux" series. As they saw, lots of games on linux will be stable on one distro but broken on another, or break update-to-update. What makes the value proposition of the Steam Deck so powerful, is that just like Apple or Consoles, it's very specific _known_ hardware. Meaning that it's substantially more trivial to fix issues when you only have to fix them on a specific device. Granted, over time when you have a Steam Deck 2, Steam Deck 3... Steam Deck 7 and so forth, you'll likely see older Steam Decks fall out of support in time. But this really is revolutionary... they've not only created a gaming "pc" handheld with set hardware, they're doing it with linux at the same time. Even if this doesn't mean massive linux compatibility on other devices, bringing this many titles to even a single distro of linux will be huge.
I want to add that as a linux user, the inconsistency of game stability across different distros usually only apply to native linux versions of those games. I find that playing the windows versions on linux with the proton compatibility layer is more consistent and often times have better performance than most native linux versions. I'm all for native linux games, but proton is good enough imo and it requires less work from the devs to implement, if at all. Also with the Steam deck and SteamOS, we would finally have a specific linux distro that can be targeted for future linux game devs and that is a very exciting thing to have for the linux gaming community.
don't kid yourself, the open source and Linux community will never let an older device become unsupported. people are supporting phones from the early 2000's with entirely custom operating systems years after the manufacturer entirely dropped support lol.
Distro compatibility inconsistency is often due to the companies screwing up the packaging. For example, to explain it in Windows terms, a game I recently bought didn't work because the company forgot to tell the executable where to find its DLL files. It's an easy fix, but it's not something most non-programmers/sysadmins would figure out by themselves. If a company did the same thing on a Windows game, the gaming community would rightly say that the company screwed up, but when it happens to a Linux game, somehow it's Linux's fault.
after 6 years of struggling to use NVIDIA with GNU/Linux I finally threw out all the NVIDIA and bought all AMD in 2019. the difference is insane it's unbelievable how much better it is, the AMD graphics driver for GNU/Linux is objectively the best graphics driver ever created, better than anything on Windows. it's extremely obvious why RDNA 2 is the perfect GPU for steam deck, this might sound bizarre but I absolutely swear if Valve had released steam deck as a kit only with no software and never made SteamOS, games would still run perfectly fine on it without you even noticing the point at which the driver was installed, I am sure Valve has helped with the driver but they didn't even need to do anything if they didn't want. for proof of this, watch what will happen when people install other distros on steam deck, it will behave as I described
"I spent my whole life as a gamer asking for somene to[...]" - That's exactly my feeling about the Steam Deck. Actually, in my case, it's basically "the console" I wanted for a long while that someone would make real. So, yeah, I really hope that it evolves enough so it can get its space in the market, and as a "fixed space", you know? Just like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have right now for their consoles
@Bizzle Made Even though it's a hand held PC, it's a hand held PC adapted and focused on console features - coming much closer to a console. It's built-in input components, it's base interface and etc are focused on gaming and gaming in a "console-like" manner - simple, easy, direct to the point. So yeah, it's a hand held PC, but(as I see it) it is also a game console, it kind of is the both at same time.
I can't wait to get my hands on this! I WANT this to be a new era for Linux gaming It's cool to see someone new to the market and hopefully Valve can actually genuinely compete as a console for consumers Edit: I personally am willing to deal with the incompleteness of the deck, though it infuriates me that it is so. When you sell a console, you really have to make good first impressions. Let's hope they can maybe stick the landing
Absolutely the same for me. I've been primarily gaming on Linux for the past couple of years, and I am amazed how far we've come even in that short time! Not getting mine until Q2, but I really can't wait. Even if only half my library works, that'll make it more than worth it for me.
um valve is not someone new to the market they have been around for years and yes im talking about the console space i mean have you never herd of the steam machines or the steam OS that was steams first attempt at entering the console market and the last time they tried to enter the console market they failed hard because of Linux
@@calyssiaxaudin4516 I just started using Linux pretty recently and I honestly can't wait till I can eventually rarely have to use my windows boot to play a game.
@@rayzimmermin For one, that's not the entire reason why steam machines failed. For two, valve is putting in more and more effort for Linux gaming. Deck compatibility is already a huge start to easier Linux compatibility. The more the Steam Deck succeeds the more Linux benefits. Edit: by new I mean that the Steam Deck looks like it'll truly be a disrupter rather than the failure that was the steam machine.
The more I think about this thing, the more I believe that it really has meaningfully changed the game compared to other 'pc gaming handhelds' or whatever we're calling this class of products. Steam deck really does make enough meaningful changes to the experience that it really could bring the benefits of PC gaming to an entirely different audience. In time, at least. But then again, this is Valve...
Not necessarily, Steam just understands that providing a good service is crucial for keeping a customer base Unlike other consoles that rely on people that don't know any better and exclusive games
I like how there was a note saying "you can't finish the setup process until you've connected to WiFi" .. I mean, that shouldn't come as a surprise. You need to log into your steam account on a brand new device, not to mention download your games. Did anyone expect to somehow put a disc into it and play completely offline from day one, like they expected with Xbox/Playstation?
@@android-user I can see them changing this to be more console-like in it's setup once it's on store shelves and people without steam accounts are able to buy it
Well to think its all growing pains as linus said, it’s a brand new system so it’s gonna have its issues, but considering how poorly launches of other companies have been. They did Unbelievably well.
I haven't wanted something so much since I was a child. This thing has me giddy. I wan't one fucking badly. I hope to christ they release this in Australia, unlike their previous hardware projects.
i mean, it is their biggest project, they are literally making a whole platform around it, I don't think that's the kind of investment people just wake up ome day and say "nah, i've done enough, dont think it's worth anymore", second because it looks to be a much more long term idea than the deck itself (as I said, it's a whole new platform that's going to be supported with follow up consoles and updates and developments), and for last but not least, there looks to be a lot of interest for people in it, and they of course know about it or they wouldn't ever even have started it. they are a massive company that spends tons of moneys on researching what's the public interest and all that kinda thing. That's how I understand it at least.
Valve's previous stuff was more of little experiments to see what it's like to produce hardware since it's completely different from their main thing -- software. Steam Deck is the culmination of all that and it looks *really* promising.
This is the internet! You've still got time to befriend a foreigner, learn about them, and decide if you trust them enough to ask them to ship one for you! :-)
I'll buy this just to support good business and the increasing support for Linux. Thanks Linus and the team for reviewing this. And thanks Valve for the device.
Just so you know, they might not make money selling the base model hardware unless you buy games through their store. This strategy is used by all of the other consoles and the steam deck seems too cheap to be profitable, even if a few people will circumvent the store.
Let us know if you actually buy it----right now nobody can, it's only reviewers who have them (Valve's new release date is now listed as "April" so we'll see I guess?).
@@Ralphunreal that's completely untrue. Many games work great on Linux. Also, many games right don't work great or at all on Linux. But to say none work is very untrue..... Steam deck already shows over 800 games work lol
I really like this because it seems to have many of the advantages of PC gaming. I'd like to know more about it's media capabilities and maybe even the possibility of software designed specifically for the deck. It's quite exciting because this could well mean the end of exclusives. It might be a "steam" deck, but there's nothing stopping people installing windows and installing Epic store or GOG. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up making steam OS versions that can be launched from Big Picture Mode as a non-steam game (even if GOG says they wont). Even if they don't maybe the fans will. This could finally mean the separation of hardware and software in the gaming industry. You can install emulators too, so it can even play Switch games. Console manufacturers have had it good for too long and now Valve are gonna fuck em up by simply giving us what we want. It's also the beginning of consoles that give you some controls. Even though they're relying on steam sales to counter-act selling at a loss, they still aren't enforcing exclusivity. You can still play non-steam games, you could easily have an entirely pirated library and they'd just let you. But why would you? Steam solved the problem of piracy long ago by introducing massive frequent sales. I'll consider buying any game if it's a fiver. They get it. How are they the only company to realise that making quality products at affordable prices brings success and makes the customer happy? They've got all the goodwill Nintendo had 20 years ago now. I will definitely wait for some of the kinks to be sorted out but once they are (and we know it will be fixed, steam updates constantly), I want this in my life.
"How are they the only company to realise that making quality products at affordable prices brings success and makes the customer happy?" Simple: They are a private company. They do not need to appease shareholders at all, so they have complete freedom to act as gamers, giving gamers what we (and they) want. If more companies were like Valve, the gaming industry as a whole would be a lot better. Unfortunately, when shareholders and CEOs became the norm in the gaming industry, it all went downhill.
Bro so true.. I never ever pirates steam games for this very reason. The common sales and customer satisfaction from Valve is top tier. Most steam games are multiplayer too so pirating is not optimal. However for the switch… I’ve spent about 700 euros on switch games and guess what I’ll still be doing when I mod it ;) Valve is my favourite company, I buy their games, their vr headset, their steam deck. Everything. The only thing I found kinda greedy is how they take 30% from every steam sale but maybe that’s the standard. And that has nothing to do with consumers anyways.
As a professional in product development- this feels like a massive validation for the AGILE process. They’ve managed to create a tightly designed hardware piece, cram in. Million use cases, and put out what actually is a minimum viable product that sounds like it will improve. This just sings of a well managed company and I really hope to see it be a massive financial success. As Linus pointed out, Microsoft should be able to do this. The fact that they haven’t speaks poorly of their culture. It will be interesting to see if this eventually drives a larger transformation in the tech industry.
I agree 👍🏻. But I think the main issue is, it's hard as an ordinary consumer to trust Valve's agile process when they're used to companies which rarely, or very slowly fix issues. In the video, they highlighted the part where Valve "looks at the launch date as the starting point, not end finish line," _as if that were a bad thing!_ I looked at the same thing and thought, good, they're not letting this one go!
Agree. So many people treat agile, continuous development, and minimum viable product as buzzwords. I think everyone in the space is familiar with agile meaning no plan whatsoever, continuous development meaning everything is always broken, and minimum viable product meaning garbage that technically meets the contract requirements if you squint really hard and have good lawyers. Meanwhile, Valve actually did it right. I'm reminded of other things like Just In Time manufacturing. Toyota is the king because it's not just a buzzword and they're always evaluating where it does and does not work. Meanwhile everyone tries to copy them by setting max inventory policies that can't be violated and look what happens...
I'm hyped for the Steam Deck, I reserved the 512 gig model. I would consider myself a borderline Nintendo fanboy easily but I hope the Steam Deck shakes the industry up and does well, pushing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft for the better. Nintendo especially, since its pretty anti-community when it comes to emulating older classics which a lot of people would want to play, but havent for a variety of reasons. Also, I hope the next gen Switch or whatever their next console it has power comparable to the Deck.
All in all it sounds like a generally good "console" like experience, assuming you play the games that run on it. Good enough for me, that list is only going to get bigger! ^^
@@jpaugh64 same here, but sometimes i just had some bad luck. I also run gog games on Linux, but even though it eventually worked, getting cyberpunk to run was a nightmare 😅 I don't really want to do any tinkering afterwards, it either runs with a single click, or i consider it broken :p
@@Vancha112 I doubt the Gaming on Linux community won't make something to workaround these anyway. Wouldn't be surprised if the Lutris team builds a Play on Deck layer soon.
Ah yes the nostalgia, it's 2012 you turned off your PSP mid-game in your bed before going to sleep, wake up the next morning, and continue where you left off
Once I put Windows on it so I can play all my games, it will be my dream device too. I wish there was a Windows edition for sale which just tacked on the extra fee for owning a powerful operating system, but I can easily do it myself.
End of the day, viewing this as more of a console than a PC. It's a great device. You don't buy a ps5 and expect a ton of titles at launch or even a year from launch but rather you buy it knowing it will continue to get support. The steam deck has probably the biggest launch library of any console ever and that's amazing. I'm willing to stick with it. Worse case I'll throw W10/11 on it as a dual boot and call it good.
What a terrible analogy lol. Playstation/Microsoft consoles move the industry. This product is simply a niche way to have limited availability to a steam library you already own. The $400 variant is next to useless and $650 is so close to a gaming laptop. It's not a console. It's a PC. No laptop released is ever compared to consoles. This is a less useful laptop that won't even play your entire steam library (depending on how old/big it is). Steam already tried this with the steam box (actually comparable to a console) and failed.
@@pwd1134 This product is not a niche, literally everyone is getting hyped and just by looking at the Switch sale numbers you can know that this will sell as much as a regular console. Second off, "PS and MS consoles move the industry" ? You wouldn't be too wrong since they've been the two main competitors in the home console industry but honestly, calling it "moving the industry" might be too strong, they've just been doing the same things but more powerful and with more games. Also, it's definitely a console AND a PC, stop trying to name it as whatever arranges you to make it look bad, you can do as much from a PC in a handheld factor, it's like the best of both worlds. And a certainty is that the community will make it as good and as moddable as ever possible, one thing both PS and MS consoles lack of ;) The $400 version isn't useless, you can buy a SD card and play games just as expected, and $650 is still pretty cheap for what gaming performance it gives you off compared to its handheld competitors. Idk in what world you live, mostly in recent days, to expect a $650 PC to be a gaming PC but certainly not in the same as most struggling gamers lol. Also the Steam Box was indeed bad, but it has literally nothing to see with this product and its downsides are definitely not the same as the ones of this product, so this have no relevance in this conversation.
Oh, forgot to say how this product also is literally the biggest hope of two entire communities, Linux and handheld-pc/consoles communities. This is literally the most hyped product for both of them ever. Calling it a niche and unplayable is borderline insulting.
If steam OS so far is the only problem I’m still very satisfied, of course there’s still time for other bugs to pop up, but my order is for after Q2 so I’m hoping all critical bugs will be ironed out by then ☺️
Same. While I'm annoyed I have to wait I'm at least hopeful that by them time I'm asked to cough up money the big issues are either all solved or they found something so bad I no longer want it. And I highly doubt it'll be the latter.
@@codecodderson3607 That's basically it. They will send out emails in waves (Friday evening starting from today) and people will have 72 hours to finish the purchase before the pre-order is cancelled and the spot given to the next person in line.
... he didn't do this by choice. Like everyone else, he was beholden to an embargo. Like everyone else, the second the embargo lifted he published this review. Like everyone else, he did the same thing with his hardware pre/view. And like everyone else, he'll be publishing 'one month later' / 'six months later' / 'one year later' type reviews. Credit given where credit is due, but this ain't it chief.
@@phosphatepod how he's going to use it as a daily driver over the next month ? My comment acknowledged that in plain English. Did you not see me acknowledge that at the end of my comment ? Only difference is Linus wants to make a big deal about it, but make no mistake - RUclips will be awash with 'one month later' type reviews from all the outlets in LTT's same position.
I want to trust Valve future update promises: they did such a fantastic job on the steam controller, even adding bluetooth support after YEARS it was released and they were so open about modding it and installing custom firmwares.
HELL YEAH! This is huge, a step for right to repair, right to tinker, right to whatever the heck you wanna do with your products. I don't need one, but i look forward to the values pushed by steam to propogate into other markets.
@@MrGamelover23 Nah, laws don't do anything but create loopholes and increase startup costs which actually kills competition. These practices can easily become common place without the use of laws that won't work by putting you money where your mouth is. Monopolies aren't fixed by anti trust laws they are only hardened by them.
@@MrGamelover23 do you agree that one company seemingly supporting pro consumer values is better none? If another company sees people buying a product simply for this reason they are more likely to jump on the market.
@@MrGamelover23 Nah not only will that not happen but it also won't work. We see this with anti trust laws they don't work and only end up strengthening monopolies because they create larger barriers to entry which kills competition. If you actually want to fix something you vote with your wallet because companies will do whatever brings them money and if the customers don't buy their unfixable junk they won't make a penny.
@@MrGamelover23 Voting with your dollar still works, often times products made by companies with good practices cost more than unethical ones because a lot of unethical practices cut costs. Like organic pasture raised eggs, they cost double what cage eggs cost and since there's a growing demand for them they are slowly eating away at unethical egg companies market shares. This shows that these good outcomes can be done without getting the government involved. Also if you can't afford a repairable laptop you shouldn't be going to college, get a little more financially stable first so you're not totally screwed over by the debt. Or use it like a burner laptop and get a better one once you've become more financially stable.
@@MrGamelover23 Well yeah early adopters fund innovation, hopefully these companies continue to eat up unethical companies market share and we'll get a win for both consumers and ethical companies all without giving the government the opportunity to over regulate like they did with banks.
Even though it has it's shortcomings, Valve really showed how nice of a corporation they are here. GG Valve. Sure, they rarely act as a game company nowadays, but still.
Man this is how you do a RUclips channel, I’ve only just started watching due to steam deck but the production values and skill of the presenters beats 90% of mainstream media hands down. Great work guys, oh and I’m super hyped for the steam deck.
Very nice to see someone mention, even if briefly, Steam in-home streaming. Provided latency is fine, it's the perfect solution to maximise compatability and battery life as a way to play (albeit you're then weighing it up against some other mobile device used as a Moonlight system).
The resolution issue has never worked for me. If my device is 720p and I want to stream but my desktop is 4k it's always broken shit. Have they changed something?
Valve will continue to improve the software, so this is a huge win. I'm very happy to hear that the remote play works really well. For the price point, this feels like its going to really change the console market. I also love that I won't have to fight to get one on Ebay with the direct sale pre-order. My steam library is huge after decades of Steam sales, so hopefully compatibility increases, but even so, the fact that remote play is so viable, there is no real downside for me with this device.
Honestly, I'm glad Valve took this step - but part of me wants to see what this is gonna be like 3-5 years down the line. Will we have Deck 2 and years of updates to the Deck 1? Or will Valve have moved on to something else exciting to occupy their time? Still, it's an interesting device and I can't wait for the Aus launch.
@@user-zs8eg4mu8t Plus there's the fact that my cheap ass ordered one. It's pretty decent hardware for the price. But furthermore, even if it did get abandoned, it's regular pc hardware. Somebody will pick up the torch, much like they did with Ubuntu Touch.
Are You young or console player? I ask because if you knew valve you wouldn't make that statement lol. If Gaben (Valve) decides to do something they don't stop. He doesn't go back on his word. Jesus how many 20 yo games do they have that you can still play? Like every game they ever made? Plus it's not like Valve comes out with multiple games a year or even 1 game a year. For a long while it seemed like they were content just running steam. They have the resources and manpower to focus on steamdeck and whatever else their hearts desire.
Unfinished or Not, I still love it Hopefully the line goes fast, I'm in after Q2. Hopefully they change the gaming industry and kick Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sonys asses in the process
16:58 im definitely looking forward to those "hacky use cases". considering the Deck is running Linux, im curious to know how far we can push it in terms of feature set
They are doing something so revolutionary and people seem to look over it and kinda just blow it off.its made my linux experience way better and i keep finding myself booting into windows way less.
thats why I and a lot of other ppl are supporting the project, the software value is just not to be overlooked. My friend uses proton with his 80euro's gpu, I squeeze out all performance with linux. Its great. I definitely buy
I remember my old ps vita i left it on sleep mode and havent touched it for 3 months and when I turned it on i was surprised to see the battery still almost full. Think it was 95%. That device was a legend
I'm really excited to hear that Linus will use it as his PC for a month. It sounds like he will be answering a lot of the questions I have, and as someone who used to carry an InFocus Kangaroo between work and home, I'd like to know if the Steam Deck can be the PC I carry with me to the office.
I've been really really wanting one, but I'm honestly planning on waiting until they have everything ironed out and improved the way they want so I can have the Ultimate Experience. I definitely want to support someone treating The Experience like it matters and not like we're just a number
I respectfully disagree! Because you’re already going to be backed up till after Q2 and only going farther along Q3 from us as each day goes by! By July most users; like me who pre ordered as early this January, that’s a generous amount of time for valve to resolve relatively easy quirks Linus speaks up on! And definitely a lot more beyond that! Plus that’s enough time for you to do more research all while you have a perfectly safe reservation investment that can be refunded in FULL anytime!
@@avylynn4523 I'll wait for a few years, personally. Not in a huge rush. But if you're someone who needs it NOW, I guess I can see buying it, well, now.
@@cortster12 it’s up to you! I typically do that when things like ps5 or newest Xbox typically slow down and sell for less around something like cyber Monday. But it was already established by gaben and proof in the puddin that technology being used in this handheld and for how much it’s being sold on release; I doubt it would be all that significant; if at all!
yeah, one thing valve is known for with hardware is running out of stock fast, try and get a valve index today. with valve if you wanna be in, you gotta join in the beginning or you wont get in before second version of the hardware is on it's way out and you still paid high price for it. i'd love to get my hands on either of the two, steamdeck or valve index, but my wallet has a hole in it and every money hungry wolf in society is right under it swooping when ever i have just a little spare.
😂 It's certainly _passionate,_ but it isn't the most unbiased review he's ever done! I happen to agree largely with what he said; but he was clearly very biased in favor of the Steam Deck!
7:11 I highly recommend to put all Proton / Wine / (e.g. Steam Linux) Runtime (- Soldier) / SteamWorks related stuff on the faster permanently available (internal) storage. But don’t get me wrong it should just work anywhere as long as it allows moving, which in my case only for SteamWorks is not possible.
It's crazy to hear that this is what the initial user experience was like for the stream deck. I use my deck almost daily and these short comings are completely foreign for me.
When I built my Gaming PC, I never thought I would invest in hardware that was outside of the typical components needed for the desktop experience. Then Valve showed me how I can play on my TV like a console with the Link. Then I bought the Valve Index and I love it more than any other VR I have ever tried in my life and it's 1000% worth the price. Now, the Deck comes out and I think I'll keep my preorder going and see if my wife will use it once the bugs are smushed. Great video LTT, very hopeful for the future here.
Thanks Linus, Your critics are always taken as a boost to improve Linux Gaming even faster. You are the bigger voice on the linux community and you are doing a great job to help another people realizing that they can use their devices in a more freedom manner.
Hey steam, i see your product. I can't afford one right now but i will 100% be getting one if you stay on the path( which i believe you will). Thanks Linus for addressing everything as is too.
valve needs to start considering these for commercial use, a handheld console running linux would be wayyy better than the shitty android handhelds found in every retail store for stocking
I'm really okay with it being incomplete. This isn't a locked-down PS5 or the like, where we're at the mercy of the manufacturer, this is essentially a PC. Valve has done the hard part of squeezing a performant PC into this small form factor. If Valve were to ship it as-is and never touch it again, The community can pick up where Valve left off. Thanks to that, The SteamDeck is a product that _could_ outlive Valve if they were to disappear the day after all the units ship. That's the mark of a great product.
Their promise to keep improving upon the SteamDeck, is really just a Cherry on top of it all, for me.
100%
true, but to compete against the consoles and win over normal non tech savvy users this isn't enough.
Things need to just work, and as long as it requires tinkering, it will only be for enthusiasts.
I understand where you are coming from, but it will need to be pretty plug and play for the average person. For instance the steam controller is an amazing concept. It almost works well but I barely use mine. It takes so much tweaking to make it work well in a lot of games, and I just don't usually feel like putting in the effort.
@@snowzZzZz It really isn't for average users though. Most users will probably get a Windows gaming laptop from a big OEM brand (Alienware, Omen, Legion, ROG, Predator, etc.). The Steam Deck is for a specific market, and I think they knocked it out of the park.
@@cameronbosch1213 why would they make a console that's not targeted at the average user? linux tinkerers are a small market, makes no sense to just target them
"Elf Wives Cheat to Ride my Meat" will be a landmark launch title for the Steam Deck, calling it
I had a similar reaction when I saw that genital jousting was already verified. They have their priorities right.
Probably with the single plug bumped to the front page of steam. instant classic
Truly the title of our generation
I dunno, can it beat Hentai Hitler?
Soo, steam dick ? 🤔
Faults aside, I’m super impressed with this thing and Valve as a company. The level of transparency is exactly what I want and what I feel consumers deserve.
It's wild that a privately owned company is the best in class.
I wish rockstar games took notes
theyve made some savvy business decisions here
Valve +50 streetcred
I'm excited for his. I love that it already has MangoHud integrated. Flightlessmango (the founding developer) is a cool dude and worked with him a bit a while back on some testing. I love to see more FOSS in gaming. There may be some shortcomings at launch but there will be a lot of people developing for the platform, including myself.
Gaben said it himself. They're taking a big risk with this and are selling them at a relatively cheap price. They need this to work. And it looks very promising.
@alida flus wait people actually use linux for gaming? just use windows.
@@prawngravy18 the steamdeck uses linux.
@@prawngravy18 some people prefer Linux’s free form OS, highly customizable but not really user friendly if you’re not tech savvy. It’s great
A clamshell form factor with a keyboard would be great.
@@dzglms What are the great things that Windows lack?
No linux elitist has been able to answer this.
Hopefully, this will increase overall game compatibility with Linux
elden ring and apex legends is already here. more will come!!!!
God please!
it already has! always ready for more though
Probably not
@@LackHapeLuis Not everyone likes windows, i only use it for game compatibility.
most issues mentioned has to do with software and not hardware, so i’m sure they’ll smooth out any issues along the way
@UnjustifiedRecs that’s completely understandable and i somewhat agree, yet i do hope the hype and excitement push them to fix these sooner
@UnjustifiedRecs not to mention the biggest problem seems to be compatibility issues which seem like the most hardest to fix. Which could be needed to talk to many game developer companies to sort it out. But hey lots of games seem compatible/playable and more to come. So it seems to already be heading in the right direction.
just like how they worked out the steam machine kinks instead of just abandoning it
Or at the very least they'll update the localization files.
@@snapshotandbisti the problem with the steam machine is it wasn’t a specific product. It was a platform which manufacturers could use, which caused there to be too many steam machines and confuse customers. If they decided to make a single steam machine it would have sold better
Valve understands that "the more options we give people the more happy customers we will have" and that's really cool
Cough nintendo cough
The less options devs have the more happy we are.
*devs crying in comissions*
apple embraced total opposite by making the choices for the user and fixing them, and they are a trillion dollar company, but i also like more options path, but not everybody bothers to tinker with options and freedom, considering its risk of breaking things
DO NOT read my name PLEASE! If you do it's on you!
@@ChadButtowski thank you for warning me i will not read your name
It seems Valve made a right move.
It applied the java's strategy: "buy once, play everywhere". Now you don't have to wonder whether to buy PC version or console version of the game you like.
Valve finally created an ecosystem that filled the gap between PC and console.
and while Java failed miserably at this goal, Valve just might be able to pull it off
@@amateurprogrammer25 Actually no, It is very successful from server to mobile. It was hyped, and now there is better technologies for GUI (thanks electron). I use Python for data science, but I am not oblivious to the fact that java is still big in big data. (Typo edit)
@@tychoides electron is JavaScript, not Java?
also have you ever tried to run a Java app on anything other than the exact platform it was designed to work on? Do you have any idea how many hoops you have to jump through to get Minecraft Java Edition working on anything other than Windows/Linux x86?
Also Minecraft versions before 1.17 refuse to work with anything other than Java 8, whereas versions after that refuse to work with anything other than Java 17.
Also there's the whole business of JavaCard (for SIM cards), BD-J (for Blu-Ray players), whatever that Java applet thing they used on phones was, and the now obsolete Java web standard all being mutually incompatible with each other. Java is a fine programming language, and that's as may be, but "write once run anywhere" is just as much of a lie in Java as it is in C.
I stopped playing consoles after GameBoy, there is no console on this earth that will make me switch from my PC, its impossible.
@@amateurprogrammer25 I know Electron is is a local webserver coded in JavaScript , and if you read my comment I said it was a better technology. I have used and still using Java GUIs and they sure are dated and slower than using GTK or QT, but as a Linux user they allow for a version that could run in linux that actually had support. Java for 3D games is nonsense, and I don't understant why Minecraft devs thought was a good idea. I think that java was and is overhyped and I personally don't like(I use Python, C and C++, but in terms of success you cannot argue that has been hugely successful and people has hyped and misused for more than 2 decades. Sometimes neither the good or the bad guy win, but the mediocre one who does it just well enough.
For a “software company” it’s kinda funny they made such polished hardware with a fairly buggy software front end.
That being said, projects like Proton are straight up magical.
Valve hasn't been a "software comapny" since like 2012
Valve is reverse Sega. Started off with Software, then went to hardware
It's not funny its logical. You can't update or fix a sold piece of hardware but you can fix or update the software.
Better this way than the other way around right?
I mean software is fixable through updates, physical issues are problems forever
@@Icetea-2000 better if it's released complete, this is pretty much early access then
For a video about how it's incomplete, I think you've sold me on it!
I had the intention of maybe picking one up in a year, when it's a bit more mature. But I genuinely believe in voting with my wallet and this kind of industry disruption and customer-freedom-focused design approach is something I want to see more of.
Well, even if you order now you might be waiting a year anyways…
While it may be "incomplete" its literally all just software issues, which can be patched out. I would love a return to the device a few months or even a year from now to see it its improved
I was actually convinced by the in-depth hardware reviews. Considering the Steam Deck specifications, there is nothing as reasonably priced these days! 😁 I'm still a bit worried that Steam OS 3 could be discontinued like it's predecessors and the semi-custom components may not get drivers to run Windows reliably, but the risk of becoming e-waste shortly after the pandemic shortages are over seems less than overpriced video cards.
There's no way you're getting a Deck within a year if you're ordering now
Hell, I am too, and I dont usually buy things like this
It’s sad that we get treated so badly by console companies that some basic transparency and pro-user features blow our minds
Thats deep bro
yes.
rumors are, youtube put the dislike button away just so they can bring it back one day like "we listened to your feedback"
My guess for that would be that the largest portion of console players are casual players, who aren't interested in such things.
It's even sadder that gamers continue to purchase the products, even going as far as pre-ordering incomplete merchandise.
You would never buy a car missing one or two wheels...
Valve is one of the last companies that actually works with their community, that’s why I will always support them. I can trust that they will get these things fixed.
Unless those things have the number 3 in their name. They do avoid those like the plague.
Valve didn't go public with their shareholdings. Best decision they ever made.
Companies that go public always seem to be the ones that force themselves into political bullcrap these days.
@@shapeshiftingpedro Well once a company goes public, they become beholden to their shareholders before anyone else. Maybe it's the extremely out of touch shareholders who make these decisions to inject politics into every single product lol
@@whyjnot420 TBF, there's SteamOS 3.0
@@Gramini Must be a typo, or a lie. :P
Good job valve. They're really trying to innovate on many fronts. The Deck is very ambitious, and I'm willing to put up with some hitches because of this. Also, it's clear that they believe in it, and they are continually working on the Deck. I will definitely buy one!
Agreed!
Damn. That thing looks like it's realy worth buying if you have the 400 Dollars.
You can tell Valve believe in the Steam Deck, they've put more effort into it's hype alone than Sony and others have done for years. Honestly, the people who say the Steam Deck will fail because they didn't support their last hardware make me laugh because Sony didn'r support the PS Vita and Nintendo supported the Wii U even less, yet they still believe in them.
Plus the Steam Deck can't fail because it supports PC software, meaning that there'll always be a use for it, unlike an Playstation, Nintendo something and to a lesser extent, an Xbox, since those are eventually phased out for newer models and can't be used beyond their development cycles.
(Case in point, run Xbox One titles on a 360, or a PS2 game on a PS5, now run a Windows 98 RPGMaker title on a 2020 PC and see the difference in compatibility)
It's a sure fire move to success.
I think the steam deck has a chance to compete against Nintendo as a handheld experience.
@@knox7945 They're two different audiences and use cases, they can coexist, not compete.
The Deck for AAA gaming, emulation etc. The Switch for Nintendo exclusives and casual gaming.
(We all know no one buys a Switch for the multiplatform games).
Fact is, Nintendo offers a very different experience than Xbox, Playstation and PC.
I feel that this OS is gonna get smoothed over really well, since it's Steam and this is one of there biggest projects that they want to keep alive.
caleb peter
Do people need PC titles on Phone level gaming gear?
If people buy this it will get updates!
Did they ever sold hardware that gamers needed? Since it's steam?
@@lucasrem1870 I mean, it's not just a phone, its literally a PC with an AMD ZEN chip, comparable to around a 1050, and those can run pretty much everything, you could install windows but you'd have to find drivers first.
Also, yeah, the Steam Controller, i have one and it's the most versatile controller ive ever seen, only downsides are non-rechargable double A batteries
@@lucasrem1870 People don't need PC titles on portable systems, they want it. No other reason is needed, there's a huge demand for something like this and Valve is catering to that demand.
Also I think the deck will have a positive impact in the gaming industry overall. Putting pressure on other companies to give more control over their consoles, and bringing competition to the handheld gaming market.
@@acidfluff5910 Why you need PC games on a Phone?
Demand?
@@lucasrem1870 Its not a phone where do you see a phone here lmao. It's about being able to play games from my PC anywhere with a device that could actually play them well.
There's really no reason to question why they're doing this. They're a company that makes products for money and this is one of them. A lot of people want this, so they made it.
From everything I'm seeing, this thing is actually insanely good. But just needs some software work.
And for this to be a first gen unit with first gen software work, I won't hate on it's software issues. Ask they can be ironed out with over the air updates.
Just makes me glad to see how far this segment has came. And as someone who has completely abandoned Nintendo due to their current anti consumerism, this is a great buy for 400$
No joke! Every gamer on the planet should be CHEERING this thing on just for the pressure it will put on Sony/MS/Nintendo. Even if you HATE Valve, Steam, and PC gaming in general, if you love videogames of any kind then this product is a win for you.
@@drunkenmessiah
This offers exa what Nintendo promised the switch would do and failed at.
It brings console quality gaming on the go.
Over the next few months, it will only get better as software updates drop, drivers get worked on, and games become compatible.
And you can get it for just 50$ more then the switch.
99.99% of your time on the Deck will be in-game, not the OS interface, so it's really easy to overlook this shortcoming.
@@drunkenmessiah not really sure why MS would give a shit
@@elibeeblebrox1084 but there are more options with better performance and visual quality compared to their ports on ns, and most newer ones seem to be compatible really well, proton is also owned by valve as well, so i am excited to play through those verified games as i owm most of them actually
This, along with everything Valve does, continues to be the reason I support Steam/Valve platforms, over Epic. Everything feels seamless and there's unmatched transparency
All this because of Lord Gaben.
I was slowly switching to GoG since Steam had drm and you couldn't play most of your games offline or without logging in your account, but as of recently, they've been being really anti consumer lately, censoring games, refusing to make a Linux launcher and getting into politics just for virtue signaling, so I'm seriously thinking on going back to steam, especially after steam deck.
@@GuitarHeroKing500000 I play Steam games almost exclusively offline. I normally only connect in order to download new game or to get an update I want. I have shitty satellite internet that does horrible teying to play online. I even figured out how to get around a game blocking me from playing because it wants to update.
Steam feels like they do stuff for the gamers and try to make money doing it, while epic, activision, etc just make money and the gamer is left behind
@@kapa_nitori may he never die and prosper forever for the better of all gamers everywhere.
You know Linus is a dedicated person
when instead of being lousy about his worker calling him at night
he literally helped him and gave feedback
ture but we all know he was playing minecraft and awake anyway
ehh, he was probably already awake. If he was asleep i am sure he would be at least somewhat angry.
Being woken up by one of your employees in the middle of the night for a non emergency reason isn't pleasant.
it was probably more intrigue. "Wait? you're using what? and it sounds like this?!?!" he gets excited over little things like that.
@@toxicturkeyy dude I mean, from my perspective , I am a horrible person
and if even my friends call me middle of the night out of mistake , I will rage on that person let alone my employee doing a terrible mistake
if my boss called me at night to talk about something we're both passionate about i'd be chill too..
we don't all hate our jobs.. or our lives :)
Valve owning up and being ready to address the issue is the best thing that could happen from a console/game developer. Respect.👍
From any company really.
Considering most issues are software, rather than hardware, I'm really impressed from what I've seen. It's also a brand new product, this can only get better as time goes on. Valve once again killing it with new hardware releases!
amia tul syeda international
To be fair, it's still a hardware issue; only reviewers have the product & consumers now have a new "launch" date of "April" according to Valve (subject to change, I suppose).
@@bcp6524 I suppose I mean this is a proper console product that had expected shipping dates for a traditional launch including pushing back the date to meet supply needs, but those needs weren't met in time for the latest launch date to coincide with an actual consumer market (vs the 100 or so reviewers who have had the final hardware for about a month). We're still trying to find a consumer with the product for our story (we were initially looking for several interviews but now we're just looking for the first person to get one).
This is not a brand new product by any stretch. GPD Win and Surface Pro have been out a long time.
@@timmyp6297
Though their performance and price are hard to stomach, especially when I have consoles and PCs to know how each feel.
I really think you should revisit the steam deck now that it's officially out with no queue. Apparently, many of the kinks, but not all, have been ironed out, it would be interesting to see how it fares nowadays.
11:47 You know what would be really cool, if there was a steam deck optimized setting for the games that run on it, similar to the NVidia optimized setting in GeForce experience, and you could apply it through the setting in steam.
Would have been super cool of nvidia provided the gpu with Ray tracing
I think that would go phase 2, complete and perfected validating, then they can go to optimization
@@rohithkumarsp Thing is that the nVidia drivers for systems like the Deck are not very good. They work, but that's about it. They just recently got support for DLSS (and raytracing IIRC). Instead, we now have an AMD GPU with fantastic drivers that also support raytracing.
@@rohithkumarsp nvidia gpu for a linux system is simply not worth it. Not for Valve and not for nvidia. Maybe some day.
I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this happening considering that there are controller presets you can use made by either valve or the community for a xbox or a steam controller.
im super excited for this, a large tech company with an actually decent amount of transparency is for some reason only now coming along but im hyped for it, big W's all around
edit: I said "decent" because I'm aware steam/valve has their fair share of problems. That being said, they are miles better than most modern tech companies (especially in regards to open sourcing their software) and hope they continue to improve
"for some reason only now" There were a lot of challenges for sure. SteamOS from what now 5-10 years ago being a first building block, getting feedback on a steam controller, getting people in the company involved into this project sourcing more development internally for the software and externally to make the hardware happen for millions of units.
The Steam Deck is a console - and that should make it easy to develop for it and that should make it neccessary for studios to develop _for it_
But it also isn't - which doesn't make it neccessary for studios to develop for it, it just runs a windows compatibility layer on linux, which makes it possible to eventually run everything created for windows while having the advantage for Valve to tweak anything they want and not to have to pay license fees to microsoft.
@@bratwurst_addict what I'm saying is that open source should be the standard, the fact people trust and support technology that is spying on them and has insane arbitrary restrictions is beyond me
"decent amount of transparency"??? Yeah... i don't know about that, man.
Their reputation of being like a black box for the past 10 years is pretty infamous. And you don't even need to search deep.
LMG is singing praises but I'm skeptical. Not including Alyx, Steams' last 2 major products felt more like a fuck and dump kind of thing too.
You mean a large company which is privately held and does not report taxes, profits and does not allow nerds like you to own shares of it. God knows what tax evasion Gabe is doing.
@@xboxknight1702 Privately owned companies also don't have to bend over backwards for shareholders. I see that more of a plus than a negative.
The Heroic Game Launcher is AWESOME. It started for Epic Games Store, but recently added GoG support. You can sign into your accounts for each store and it'll download games and run them through various versions of WINE and even Proton. They also added the ability to navigate with controller a couple updates ago, specifically for the SteamDeck. Definitely check that out.
Sounds awesome
Yes, Linus especially need to check this out.
Good to know. Most of my games are in Steam, but I like buying from GOG for the DRM free aspect. I've been slightly concerned about not having access to them on the Steam Deck, but it sounds like this should be possible.
they are working on a flatpak version right now (flatpak is the default way to get linux programs on the deck)
OK, I'm gonna check this out!
What excites me about this is that any work Valve puts into game compatibility on Steam Deck will translate into game compatibility on Linux in general.
It will not.
Technically speaking they strictly do not encourage games to offer native Linux binaries. Instead, everything goes through their Proton compatibility layer. It isn't terrible, but it isn't what I would call "Linux compatibility" - rather "Proton compatibility".
@@snail8720 I think it's a reasonable compromise
You can install proton outside SteamOS and then you only have to make your game proton compatible and the distro only has to do proton it's less work for everyone
Sure it might be less performance and not native but a small indie dev either does proton or maybe does Ubuntu and other distros get the shaft
@@snail8720 s8me ting
@@TheQwerty256 linux native is better in the long run for a game than windows or proton. some older games don't work on windows anymore, but linux native no problem, even the windows games that dosnt work on windows anymore, on linux with wine, no problem, just set wine to be the right system setup for the game to work and it works.
atm i'm having more issues with windows 11 than my linux boot, so i'm actually expecting linux to be even more on the front end with pc gaming and also seeing windows maybe merging gaming on pc with microsoft completely with xbox, so basicly xbox will be the OS or software if you wanna game on your pc, which they'll try and lock away from a linux system. so the more linux native games we see, the better it's gonna be for the compatibility, besides, if a game is linux only and is popular, mircosoft will pay the developers to make a windows port, which is the way it should be.
@@snail8720 Valve had started pushing for Linux native games around 2012/2013 when they started working on SteamOS and Steam Boxes. They were also funding projects that would help improve the gaming experience on Linux. It was also around that time more games were being released natively on Linux and game engine developers started offering better support for Linux builds. I think that the move to Proton was the result of many big game devs still not wanting to also produce and support Linux builds, so Proton is a way to provide accessibility to games that would otherwise not be playable.
While not the best solution, I am able to play a lot of games that I would not normally be able to and Valve does report the percentage of Linux sales to the developers, so the higher the % rises, the more likely the devs would provide native Linux builds.
what i enjoy more then anything, is that this is clearly a much more consumer friendly approach, using more open a software and protocols, that doesn't prevent the user from from doing what they want, and even if it's 1/2 baked, i prefer it leagues more then a locked down "flawless" system
If in like 5 years it's not powerful enough anymore/Steam Deck 2 comes out, you could use it as a game server for friends, play movies off of it instead of a laptop if you don't own a smart tv, maybe even a console for your doors or something.
@@kiloneie honestly, that's a HUGE thing for me, for even 5 years but now. like, what if I'm at home and want to run a Minecraft server that isn't in my desktop? what if I'm on the go, and wanna do something quick like jot down a melody in bitwig? maybe some (very rough) blocking in blender? record or edit something light? maybe bring a pen display and tape this to the back? it's such a good piece of hardware
I think those manufacturers lock their device down just so that users can't find any flaw in their device. Having open source software and protocols just give their users more headroom to explore and in turn they will find more exploits and flaws in their device.
@@fenixspider5776 id rather have a flawed opensource system, then a perfect jailcell
As a member of the Linux community and seeing how far proton has come, i have full trust in valve fixing 99% of the issues.
They have put in massive amounts of effort with proton even without the steam deck, this will just embolden their ambition.
And without massive amounts of profit, probably.
Eh, as someone who only uses linux, I have 90% trust that they fix 90% of the issues.
@@randgrithr7387 The last 20% is always the hardest ain't it?
See, those of us running Linux distros already (#iusearchbtw), we're already used to occasional troubleshooting. If comparing the Deck to a muggle-compatible console experience, sure, a lot needs to be ironed out. But for any Linux user, this is essentially the Holy Grail.
I never really believed in AAA gaming on Linux until SteamOS.
Valve absolutely was right to totally nail the hardware, and ship with unfinished software. You can't push out better hardware as a free OTA update... Software on the other hand... Can be easily updated later.
Software projects are hard. Progress in software development is sometimes intangible. Valve will almost certainly continually improve the steam deck's software for years and years to come.
I can't wait for my 512gb steam deck!
Uh...how about they wait until it's ALL finished before they ship.
"Sony absolutely was right to totally nail the hardware, and ship with lacking library. You can't push out better hardware as a free OTA update..." - optimistic PSVita owners circa 2011
Yeah, no. Sorry. Software is ALSO important. Software is the second part of the customer experience and it needs to at least be usable on release. The PSVita is an example of a game console which had incredible hardware but lacking software and continued to have lacking software unto it's end of life.
Stop preordering unfinished products, stop excusing lazy developers.
@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 Software issues, you can easily fix. Hardware side, not so much. Valve is one of the more consumer friendly companies out there, I'm sure you can trust them that they'll refine their software based from community feedback. There would be much bigger issues if a lot of the device itself is locked down like PS5 or as you mentioned, the PS Vita for example, but it isn't.
@@ViciousTuna2012 When will it be considered all finished? Gotta find a good spot to know when to push it out or you will never release.
@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 lol i agree, preordering for unfinished product is stupid, but I don't think its "lazy" developers. Its the company for pushing it out, developers probably work their butt off
I’ve been using my steam deck for about a week now, and I honestly love it so much. All the hype is justified in my opinion. I found I haven’t touched my switch since booting up my deck, and I have only been using my desktop for super demanding games like cyberpunk, or competitive shooters like cs. Platformers are a dream to play on the deck and I was blown away at how well it handled forza horizon 5. Being able to keep this in my bag during my day, take it out between classes (college student) and play pc games is just incredibly convenient. Thanks valve for making something truly amazing, that also doesn’t break the bank. I sprung for the midrange version, and am satisfied with that decision.
I can't wait to do basic ESO daily grind crap on my couch 😁
just dump your switch game to steam deck
@@richard35791 how?
How do you find it continued to hold up with new titles?
I am interested in buying one (I travel a lot for work and want a gaming option).
Does it keep up with the demand of new titles?
@@chrisgrol5829 I played through Elden Ring on it at medium settings. It definitely isn't a performance king and will not win any drag races, however the performance it provides is more than enough for me to run new AAA games at low, and run older AAA games at medium to high. I recently played through the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe on mine and had a near perfect experience. I would say its definitely worth it.
I was actually waiting for some bugs like that in the store. But i'm not worried. The device/OS still looks great. The whole store should be an easy fix. Steam desktop client has been receiving a lot of updates this week also some older valve games. Not to mention 400 games on release? That's huge! including God of war, elden ring, horizon zero dawn, a lot of older classics etc etc.. that's crazy!
Actually, it's far many more than 400 games, those are just the ones on the compatibility list, but there are many more as native ports, several thousands.
Super stoked to play elden ring on mine when q2 shipment comes around.
Yes! A not so great review due to software that can be fixed but will inevitably lead to cancelled orders thereby moving up my own order 🙌
That's my thought I am all for some bit of negative reviews.
shh don't be too obvious or it won't happen
17:37 Linus, "keep your pre-orders" did you even finish the video?
@@dademack3544 All the people cancelling won't be watching the whole video either.
Exactly
holy cow, growing pains aside this is seriously, seriously groundbreaking. 400 bucks for this insane quality product that's also hackable while promoting Linux game compatibility??? I think I'm in love--the fact that the only real issues are minor software annoyances that can be patched quickly over the next few months makes me incredibly hopeful.
Thanks for watching, you have been selected among my lucky fan’s, chat me up to claim your prize
And the battery life. And the storage space. And that most games won’t work. Multiplayer anti cheat doesn’t work. Other launchers don’t work. Also 400 bucks? For 200 more I could get a decent gaming. I think it’s a cool piece of tech but I don’t get the overhype. Steam deck 2 might be what i was expecting.
@@Squintis There's no literally no competition at 400 bucks, 200 more won't get you something similar (handheld, with build in controller, battery etc). Its nearest comparison would be the Ayaneo or GPD which sells for at least 3 times the price.
BatChest moment
@@jstan5802 idk I found a 15in gaming laptop with a 1650 gtx and a ryzon 5 for 600.
I just got my steam deck a few days ago and it's crazy how basically everything u covered has already been fixed or changed, great device great company
Hey Linus, I've had an EV 2 dev kit since September and Valve has only started working on the store in the past couple of months. Before that, the store was completely inaccessible. I too was kinda baffled by that decision, given that this is Valves bread and butter, but I figured first and foremost they are working on making the core Deck experience great. As you probably noticed, the rate of updates in the past couple of weeks have been staggering, so I'm very hopeful that Valve gets on top of this. As you noted, the big problems are really all software related, so this is definitely something that can be improved post shipping. The roll out is going to be slow-ish anyways, so Valve has some breathing room here to fix things as they go. I'm quite hopeful, the team has definitely proved to me that they can tackle things fast and iterate quickly while making big improvements. I for one absolutely love the Steam Deck and have spent many hours on the couch at night playing games on it, and at least that part just works really well.
Seconded, I think the route they chose actually shows a lot of intelligence and maturity. There is a chip shortage on, supply chain bottlenecks, they need to get the hardware RIGHT the first time come hell or high water. Roll-out is gonna be slow, there won't be 1M of these out in the wild until later this spring if not the summer. Some kind of hardware defect that slips through the cracks would be a disaster of epic proportions.
Early adopters are going to mostly be Steam Superfans anyway. They will tolerate these kinds of glitches if the hardware is PERFECT. They'll get the software backend all fixed up by May-June if not sooner when the hardware really starts to flow and it sees mass adoption. Game developers will see the sales numbers, see how many copies of the games are being bought and run on Steam Decks, and will be enticed to bust ass on compatibility fixes and all the rest.
The community will mop up between the cracks if need be, mostly for the benefit of "power users" I'm sure. Given how many problems valve has had with "Steam Hardware" in the past it really does seem like they've learned from their mistakes here. 10/10 cool to hear from a developer!
Serious question though, why not just play on your PC or console if you're at home anyway? I love that they've made this product, I just can't see when I'd use it now that I'm a real adult 😔
@@HOkayson Sorry brother, same reason you aren't excited for the newest Game Boy 😆
You are An Old now. This thing will be brilliant for kids and younger adults who don't have/can't afford a proper desktop "gaming PC." I mean those things are luxury items now.
Hell, I know a lot of lower-income families who don't have a PC in their home at all not even a laptop. This thing will be great for folks like them and many others, but for us old-school PC gamers who've been building our own rigs since the 90's? Yea, not so much 🤓
@@HOkayson 1. on the shitter
2. in bed
is that not enough for you? most people don't have comfortable bed accessible computing setups, but I guess you might.
@@rawhide_kobayashi how long are you on the toilet? I can pass that time quite happily with reading some news/emails or watching RUclips. As for bed, play on your PC or console & then go to bed afterwards? I do kinda get that use case though, I watch RUclips in bed on my phone, so I can see why some people might fancy playing a game in bed.
13:40 That's not a glitch/bug. It is how it is. The game has no idea that the system has gone to sleep. The solution that you've mentioned (wake up the deck and close the game) is indeed the right solution for this. The fact that a warning is shown on Desktop is really nice.
That's what I also thought.
I cannot think of any way that valve could implement this kind of seamless transition without editing the game itself. If the game hasn't saved then there isn't a save file to transfer over.
Maybe they could try to get a snapshot of the games current state and try to transfer that but imo that sounds like a lot of work that would probably result in a buggy mess
@@Someone-ci8wf they need background processes to be running at super low power when the device sleeps. That would upload your save data but right now the sleep mode turns everything off.
They should upload your last save when you put it to sleep.
Since the Steam Deck is enforcing the sleep status, and since it's responsible for cloud saves, it seems reasonable that Steam could push the latest auto save point before sleeping.
However, you are right insofar as some games are designed to be saved only at certain points.
@@Someone-ci8wf That's a good idea, but the game's current state would only be relevant on a Steam Deck, without some kind of translation. It _might_ work on a Linux PC, but then it might only be possible on the very same Steam Deck, since other Steam Decks might not have their hardware / drivers in exactly the correct state. Like, you might loose audio or have glitchy video after moving from one device to another.
"except for Fez, which I had some crashing issues with" giving me flashbacks to the indie game documentary
Interesting. On Linux, it runs flawlessly for me.
I almost thought it was a reference to the game's trolling sequences.
@@user-tm3fz7qx3s well now you gotta specify which distro, SteamOS is based on Arch
What documentary?
I mean. The creator of Fez throws Rob Zombie Level Hissy Fits. So it makes sense that he didn’t even try to make it run on the steam deck
The main reason why I got my 3DS is simple: it's easy to jailbreak. I can now run homebrew software that makes all the difference on the console for me, like save managers, backups, game randomizers, unofficial patches and translations, all of that fun stuff. The Steam Deck seems like dream machine for the ones like me who enjoy to take full advantage on what the hardware can do and I am for sure looking forward to getting one in the future.
My man 🙏
The Steam Deck practically comes jailbroken out of the box. Every other manufacturer has gone to enormous lengths to prevent you from running any software on their system that isn't 100% controlled by them, and people have to spend years looking for a way in, but on the Deck, the only thing standing between you and a full-blown Arch Linux installation is a checkbox that says "Yes, I know what I'm doing" and. I'm honestly trying to decide whether I'm dreaming
yeah, i was going to buy a PSvita to emulate the games that my 3ds cant, but honestly, i will buy one next year, this year i will def get a steam deck, the possibilities are just far and beyond everything ever
@@amateurprogrammer25 doesnt need to be jailbroken because its an open platform
Jailbreaking is only neccesary on a closed platform
@@colin3ds1 you know what I meant
Please do a one-month later update review! Would like to see how much it changes after users feedback and driver updates
Jesus Gabriel DIAZ
If people will buy it, he will do many video's, it's Linus here!
He did say he's going to do that in the last wan show.
I agree with the "it's really more of a PC than a console" take. I think it will also be awesome in docked mode, for people who don't have $2000 gaming laptops, this will be nice to take with them to say a friend's house with a dock and external controller or keyboard/mouse, hook it up to the TV, and bam full PC w/ desktop mode. I can imagine this would be great even for casual gamers, for instance, the Jackbox party pack games are great, but require a host pc/console to run them from even though players join from their phones. With the Steam Deck, you can dock it to a tv and run the games. I'm hopeful that Valve will continue improving the software.
This kind of hardware could bring back LAN parties to people who don't like to haul their gear around, or just have gear that's horrible to haul. Do you game on an Odyssey G9? You probably don't want to put it in the car. Don't live where you need a car and don't have one? You probably don't want to lug your tower onto the bus.
Also, hell yeah for this making bringing Jackbox to someone else's house a reality. I was considering buying them again on Switch until I realized I already own them on the Deck.
Before I built my desktop, I was acting at a cyberpower Lan pc (I think it was a micro-atx with carrying handle)
Would love to be able to have a portable thing for hanging out with friends
Isn't it locked to 720p? That's gonna look awful in docked mode. Even on a small gaming monitor. Just play it with a stand lol
@@RevRyukin7 You can connect an external display to the dock (up to 8K 60hz or 4K 120hz). It's only the built in screen that's locked to 800p.
Edit: Not sure how it currently is, maybe it is locked, but in theory at least this is how it will be once the software is in a more complete state.
@@RevRyukin7 Me, currently playing Elden Ring on a 27" monitor in 720p because my hardware is barely able to handle it with the settings cranked way down... * cries *
I hope this is the next big thing. All the other gaming companies can learn a thing or two from this incredible machine
It won't be, it's not worldwide like the other consoles
i hope they go bankrupt, especially microsoft
@@Fredsinator How is it not worldwide?
If this steam deck took off, i am very hopeful that companies would focus on optimizations instead of just cramming unnecessary amount of pixels, shadows, lightings and details.
@@leonmuller8475 Only USA, Canada and maybe Mexico, outside of that is not oficial worldwide (No, buying it from amazon or other stores is not oficial worldwide like a normal console)
I really hope the steam deck does well. Valve seem to be a very consumer driven company and I appreciate that they’re not being dishonest with the user base.
As someone who already games on Linux, a lot of the issues don't phase me. But they are still very valid criticisms for anyone who is just looking to game.
TBH, sounds like this will be a boon to any Linux gamers, even if they never touch a Steam Deck, as it will push devs to make their games compatible.
I agree, but those of us who game on Linux desktop PCs already know how to fix most issues, that are not locked down by the dev of a game. I'm curious to see how this thing handles modding to be honest
@@papagoth9412 it will handle modding. The issue is that it's targeting a mass market that won't know what to do if they had to fix anything. This is not a console. And as long as people keep treating it as such it's gonna be a problem.
Get your seatbelts my brother, because Linux gaming will be a WAY bigger topic for game developers from the launch of the Steam Deck onwards! We will not only make 2% of the market anymore!!!
@@lucascarracedo7421
IMO You have to treat it as a mix of console and PC. Verified games will just work. Anything else has clearly defined expectations, and you can't brick the device unless it's in dev mode.
An i mportant note is that almost everything mentioned here is about the software, which can be fixed through an update. Considering it just got relaesed for the market, they'll eventially collect enough feedbacks to refine the software. Given how consumer friendly, hell even consumer sided Valve has been, I trust that they'll heed our calls.
The fact that valve still pushes patches for half life + its engines based games even today, no doubt that software will catchup eventually.
If they can push the essential software updates to the final product then all it's good.
Just because something can be updated with patches later doesn't mean we should lower our standards when buying products, especially for incomplete ones like this.
The transparency that Valve holds is just amazing, I'm so glad that the Deck exists
I wish they were more transparent about this third "launch" date. I suppose it still counts, except that nobody outside of reviewers actually have one or even have been able to pay for one. Valve's new date is now listed as "April," which I guess is just as transparent as every other date they've released, FWIW.
I would like to see what this looks like connected to external devices such as a monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers. I have an older pc and am curious to know if this would be a viable replacement as the "core" of a mid-tier gaming rig.
oh yeah it deifnetly is a good core
but we dont need to use it like that
there is steam link which allows you to stream games over your network to any pc or steam device you have
so technically you can own basic office setup pc or laptop and have your deck stream games to this pc over your network
@@OGNISTYSZKQAJDII ah yes eveyone has good internet.
Still a good suggestion if you get less than 150ms
@@ahmed4363 you dont need a good internet connection just a fast wifi
internet speed has nothing to do with how fast is your home network
your internet speed is just a limit by ur provider
you can transfer files between computers in same wifi with speeds exceeding 100mb/s when your internet is only 30mb/s
you just need a decent router that is able to proceed such load
you can stream games over your network even when your internet is cut off as long as router works
@@OGNISTYSZKQAJDII ah you mean LAN connection I got you.
Yes, probably the fastest speed my wifi can reach lol
@@ahmed4363 its all internal, it should use the 1gb switches on the router and not even leave he house
Steve from GN "You cant treat this like a portable console"
Linus "im going to review this as a portable console"
Did Steve actually say that? XD I need to watch his videos on the steam deck
Both perspectives have a point.
Steve sees the flexibility of the device and thinks it's a waste to treat it like a console.
Linus knows about the device's flexibility but understands that majority of people are not techies and will treat it like a console.
I def think that steves take here is much more realistic
@@techfreakjames majority of the people interested in this are techies.
@@ElAndresRodriguez But not all people who are into tech, have the same level of expertise. The out of the box experience is still important.
Love the background setting you’ve chosen. A beautiful home that’s still a work in progress. It’s a perfect representation of the state of the Steam Deck.
I'm thinking the same thing
Why doesnt he just say it is complete, does Steam say it isn't?
@@DKKristjan Valve said it's incomplete.
@@DKKristjan because it isn't complete, that's what the entire focus of the video was lmao
its nice to be treated as an equal rather than cattle from big corporations. Good job Valve!
DO NOT read my name PLEASE! If you do it's on you!
@@ChadButtowski Touch grass
@@fredcrewneck Just did, nothing happened.
@@ChadButtowski Because the grass you touched is artificial, like your fabricated reality
100% will get a Steam Deck. It is perfect for me to use when I just wanna post up on the couch, in bed, outdoors camping chilling or just traveling. Love how it is already connected w/ steam in the sense my whole library is already there so almost all my games are ready to go after instillation. Love how it is not small but, beefy. Looks sturdy, nice screen and how it has d-pad, joystick, touch pad and touch screen. Don't need to pay for online subscription and that Valve is actually fully committed to fine tuning everything. Def. will wait till Summer to see more patches and hardware updates.
5:22 The list IS there but it's behind one button on the "Great on Deck" page, if you click on the "Narrow by" filter icon when browsing the games, it then tells you the total number (430 at time of writing this) and then also splits this down into game genres. On Desktop PC, this "Narrow by" area shows by default next to the list of games.
Yea, everyone here is putting a lot of faith in Valve but having been a steam user since beta... They still suck at UI in a lot of ways and the user experience of steam is still "meh" despite it being really their primary product.
Ok sure XBOX doesn't give me hardware data, but I can sort their store and friends/community pages without confusion.
Despite the current software issues, I think I'm still getting the Steamdeck. There's too much pros that out weigh the cons of having one.
Who cares about software issues? Those can be patched.
Fr. More game possibilities than a switch💀
I'm an Linux user and a tinkerer so I'm heavily biased, regardless as long as the steam deck is able to play emulated games and visual novels (which I know it can because I'm already doing it on linux) while I'm on the throne I'll be happy.
Omg it's Twitter girl
Steamdeck seems to be a well thought out product. I'm not into consoles portable or not, but this thing is really interesting to me.
I wish they had brought up the "Gaming on Linux" series. As they saw, lots of games on linux will be stable on one distro but broken on another, or break update-to-update. What makes the value proposition of the Steam Deck so powerful, is that just like Apple or Consoles, it's very specific _known_ hardware. Meaning that it's substantially more trivial to fix issues when you only have to fix them on a specific device.
Granted, over time when you have a Steam Deck 2, Steam Deck 3... Steam Deck 7 and so forth, you'll likely see older Steam Decks fall out of support in time.
But this really is revolutionary... they've not only created a gaming "pc" handheld with set hardware, they're doing it with linux at the same time. Even if this doesn't mean massive linux compatibility on other devices, bringing this many titles to even a single distro of linux will be huge.
I want to add that as a linux user, the inconsistency of game stability across different distros usually only apply to native linux versions of those games. I find that playing the windows versions on linux with the proton compatibility layer is more consistent and often times have better performance than most native linux versions. I'm all for native linux games, but proton is good enough imo and it requires less work from the devs to implement, if at all.
Also with the Steam deck and SteamOS, we would finally have a specific linux distro that can be targeted for future linux game devs and that is a very exciting thing to have for the linux gaming community.
don't kid yourself, the open source and Linux community will never let an older device become unsupported. people are supporting phones from the early 2000's with entirely custom operating systems years after the manufacturer entirely dropped support lol.
Distro compatibility inconsistency is often due to the companies screwing up the packaging. For example, to explain it in Windows terms, a game I recently bought didn't work because the company forgot to tell the executable where to find its DLL files. It's an easy fix, but it's not something most non-programmers/sysadmins would figure out by themselves.
If a company did the same thing on a Windows game, the gaming community would rightly say that the company screwed up, but when it happens to a Linux game, somehow it's Linux's fault.
after 6 years of struggling to use NVIDIA with GNU/Linux I finally threw out all the NVIDIA and bought all AMD in 2019. the difference is insane it's unbelievable how much better it is, the AMD graphics driver for GNU/Linux is objectively the best graphics driver ever created, better than anything on Windows. it's extremely obvious why RDNA 2 is the perfect GPU for steam deck, this might sound bizarre but I absolutely swear if Valve had released steam deck as a kit only with no software and never made SteamOS, games would still run perfectly fine on it without you even noticing the point at which the driver was installed, I am sure Valve has helped with the driver but they didn't even need to do anything if they didn't want. for proof of this, watch what will happen when people install other distros on steam deck, it will behave as I described
I hope they bring steam deck 3💀
"I spent my whole life as a gamer asking for somene to[...]" - That's exactly my feeling about the Steam Deck.
Actually, in my case, it's basically "the console" I wanted for a long while that someone would make real.
So, yeah, I really hope that it evolves enough so it can get its space in the market, and as a "fixed space", you know? Just like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have right now for their consoles
DO NOT read my name PLEASE! If you do it's on you!
I haven't wanted to even look at consoles for the last 15 years, but i would get this
@Bizzle Made And here we have Switch owners and "Anti-Mobile Gaming" like some sort of SJW hating on this Handheld-PC in some comments
@Bizzle Made Even though it's a hand held PC, it's a hand held PC adapted and focused on console features - coming much closer to a console. It's built-in input components, it's base interface and etc are focused on gaming and gaming in a "console-like" manner - simple, easy, direct to the point.
So yeah, it's a hand held PC, but(as I see it) it is also a game console, it kind of is the both at same time.
I can't wait to get my hands on this! I WANT this to be a new era for Linux gaming
It's cool to see someone new to the market and hopefully Valve can actually genuinely compete as a console for consumers
Edit: I personally am willing to deal with the incompleteness of the deck, though it infuriates me that it is so. When you sell a console, you really have to make good first impressions. Let's hope they can maybe stick the landing
Absolutely the same for me. I've been primarily gaming on Linux for the past couple of years, and I am amazed how far we've come even in that short time!
Not getting mine until Q2, but I really can't wait. Even if only half my library works, that'll make it more than worth it for me.
um valve is not someone new to the market they have been around for years and yes im talking about the console space i mean have you never herd of the steam machines or the steam OS that was steams first attempt at entering the console market and the last time they tried to enter the console market they failed hard because of Linux
@@calyssiaxaudin4516 I just started using Linux pretty recently and I honestly can't wait till I can eventually rarely have to use my windows boot to play a game.
@@rayzimmermin For one, that's not the entire reason why steam machines failed. For two, valve is putting in more and more effort for Linux gaming. Deck compatibility is already a huge start to easier Linux compatibility. The more the Steam Deck succeeds the more Linux benefits.
Edit: by new I mean that the Steam Deck looks like it'll truly be a disrupter rather than the failure that was the steam machine.
“New era” lol
As a technology enthusiast, I vastly prefer equipment that takes the guardrails off
amia tul syeda international
The more I think about this thing, the more I believe that it really has meaningfully changed the game compared to other 'pc gaming handhelds' or whatever we're calling this class of products. Steam deck really does make enough meaningful changes to the experience that it really could bring the benefits of PC gaming to an entirely different audience. In time, at least.
But then again, this is Valve...
I love the positivity Valve is receiving; so far as we know, they totally deserve all the praise.
ralsei
You're delusional
I think valve actually employ some seasoned gamer/engineers as part of their development team.
This thing is nuts
I can't tell if you're making a joke lol.
the whole company is seasoned gamers
DO NOT read my name PLEASE! If you do it's on you!
That's just >70% of their employees.
Not necessarily, Steam just understands that providing a good service is crucial for keeping a customer base
Unlike other consoles that rely on people that don't know any better and exclusive games
I like how there was a note saying "you can't finish the setup process until you've connected to WiFi" .. I mean, that shouldn't come as a surprise. You need to log into your steam account on a brand new device, not to mention download your games. Did anyone expect to somehow put a disc into it and play completely offline from day one, like they expected with Xbox/Playstation?
It's a computer. You should be able to access the basic functions of the operating system without an internet connection.
You should be able to look around without logging in
you buy steam deck with a steam account, so unlike you buy them from distributor you should have at least an account.
@@android-user I can see them changing this to be more console-like in it's setup once it's on store shelves and people without steam accounts are able to buy it
@@headmd Completely 💯 agree... while also noting that apparently you can't set up Windows 11--even the Pro edition--without an internet connection?
This is one of the best Reviews i have ever seen. Heartfelt, honest and enthusiastic yet critical. You guys did an amazing job!
the steam deck as been aging well and many of the games that were poor experiences (aside from processing grunt) that now are much better
Even a months after this video came out, the user experience significantly increased. Now it's almost perfect.
Well to think its all growing pains as linus said, it’s a brand new system so it’s gonna have its issues, but considering how poorly launches of other companies have been. They did Unbelievably well.
I haven't wanted something so much since I was a child. This thing has me giddy.
I wan't one fucking badly. I hope to christ they release this in Australia, unlike their previous hardware projects.
They probably will, its their biggest hardware push they've ever done.
I hope this survives longer than one year, unlike their previous hardware projects
i mean, it is their biggest project, they are literally making a whole platform around it, I don't think that's the kind of investment people just wake up ome day and say "nah, i've done enough, dont think it's worth anymore", second because it looks to be a much more long term idea than the deck itself (as I said, it's a whole new platform that's going to be supported with follow up consoles and updates and developments), and for last but not least, there looks to be a lot of interest for people in it, and they of course know about it or they wouldn't ever even have started it. they are a massive company that spends tons of moneys on researching what's the public interest and all that kinda thing. That's how I understand it at least.
Valve's previous stuff was more of little experiments to see what it's like to produce hardware since it's completely different from their main thing -- software. Steam Deck is the culmination of all that and it looks *really* promising.
This is the internet! You've still got time to befriend a foreigner, learn about them, and decide if you trust them enough to ask them to ship one for you! :-)
I hope valve succeeds this time!! It seems like a good little machine.
I feel the same way. But their hardware track record is... not encouraging.
I dream of a day when there's a GOG deck.
@@AriTheElk if you're talking steam machine, totally agree, but let's not forget about the Index for a sec. That thing is AMAZING
@@joostvisser8537 And it’s massively overpriced compared to other brands
@@xPostpunk ?? The steam index is probably top 3 best VR headsets even for the "high" price
I'll buy this just to support good business and the increasing support for Linux. Thanks Linus and the team for reviewing this. And thanks Valve for the device.
Just so you know, they might not make money selling the base model hardware unless you buy games through their store. This strategy is used by all of the other consoles and the steam deck seems too cheap to be profitable, even if a few people will circumvent the store.
Let us know if you actually buy it----right now nobody can, it's only reviewers who have them (Valve's new release date is now listed as "April" so we'll see I guess?).
linux is awful, no games and have to jump through hoops to get things working.
@@Greydawg if you were early enough in reservations you were able to order Friday. New "order ready" emails will go out weekly
@@Ralphunreal that's completely untrue. Many games work great on Linux. Also, many games right don't work great or at all on Linux. But to say none work is very untrue..... Steam deck already shows over 800 games work lol
I really like this because it seems to have many of the advantages of PC gaming. I'd like to know more about it's media capabilities and maybe even the possibility of software designed specifically for the deck. It's quite exciting because this could well mean the end of exclusives. It might be a "steam" deck, but there's nothing stopping people installing windows and installing Epic store or GOG. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up making steam OS versions that can be launched from Big Picture Mode as a non-steam game (even if GOG says they wont). Even if they don't maybe the fans will. This could finally mean the separation of hardware and software in the gaming industry. You can install emulators too, so it can even play Switch games. Console manufacturers have had it good for too long and now Valve are gonna fuck em up by simply giving us what we want. It's also the beginning of consoles that give you some controls.
Even though they're relying on steam sales to counter-act selling at a loss, they still aren't enforcing exclusivity. You can still play non-steam games, you could easily have an entirely pirated library and they'd just let you. But why would you? Steam solved the problem of piracy long ago by introducing massive frequent sales. I'll consider buying any game if it's a fiver. They get it. How are they the only company to realise that making quality products at affordable prices brings success and makes the customer happy? They've got all the goodwill Nintendo had 20 years ago now.
I will definitely wait for some of the kinks to be sorted out but once they are (and we know it will be fixed, steam updates constantly), I want this in my life.
"How are they the only company to realise that making quality products at affordable prices brings success and makes the customer happy?"
Simple: They are a private company. They do not need to appease shareholders at all, so they have complete freedom to act as gamers, giving gamers what we (and they) want.
If more companies were like Valve, the gaming industry as a whole would be a lot better. Unfortunately, when shareholders and CEOs became the norm in the gaming industry, it all went downhill.
Bro so true.. I never ever pirates steam games for this very reason. The common sales and customer satisfaction from Valve is top tier. Most steam games are multiplayer too so pirating is not optimal.
However for the switch… I’ve spent about 700 euros on switch games and guess what I’ll still be doing when I mod it ;)
Valve is my favourite company, I buy their games, their vr headset, their steam deck. Everything.
The only thing I found kinda greedy is how they take 30% from every steam sale but maybe that’s the standard. And that has nothing to do with consumers anyways.
As a professional in product development- this feels like a massive validation for the AGILE process. They’ve managed to create a tightly designed hardware piece, cram in. Million use cases, and put out what actually is a minimum viable product that sounds like it will improve. This just sings of a well managed company and I really hope to see it be a massive financial success.
As Linus pointed out, Microsoft should be able to do this. The fact that they haven’t speaks poorly of their culture. It will be interesting to see if this eventually drives a larger transformation in the tech industry.
Microsoft DOES do this. It's called the Insider program and you can sign up for it from Windows Update.
Ms can't even properly write an OS since win7 ffs, win 8,10,11 at launch and running half a year later is still merde.
@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 Microsoft has more than one vertical. We're talking about consoles, here.
I agree 👍🏻. But I think the main issue is, it's hard as an ordinary consumer to trust Valve's agile process when they're used to companies which rarely, or very slowly fix issues.
In the video, they highlighted the part where Valve "looks at the launch date as the starting point, not end finish line," _as if that were a bad thing!_ I looked at the same thing and thought, good, they're not letting this one go!
Agree. So many people treat agile, continuous development, and minimum viable product as buzzwords. I think everyone in the space is familiar with agile meaning no plan whatsoever, continuous development meaning everything is always broken, and minimum viable product meaning garbage that technically meets the contract requirements if you squint really hard and have good lawyers. Meanwhile, Valve actually did it right.
I'm reminded of other things like Just In Time manufacturing. Toyota is the king because it's not just a buzzword and they're always evaluating where it does and does not work. Meanwhile everyone tries to copy them by setting max inventory policies that can't be violated and look what happens...
I'm hyped for the Steam Deck, I reserved the 512 gig model. I would consider myself a borderline Nintendo fanboy easily but I hope the Steam Deck shakes the industry up and does well, pushing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft for the better. Nintendo especially, since its pretty anti-community when it comes to emulating older classics which a lot of people would want to play, but havent for a variety of reasons. Also, I hope the next gen Switch or whatever their next console it has power comparable to the Deck.
Does it trigger you if I tell you I pirated a bunch of Nintendo roms?
@@ransackedNintendo makes great games but is an awful company. it is morally justified to pirate nintendo
Lol you don’t sound like a fanboy just a person who likes Nintendo
Looks like a fun experience on Steamdeck and will help the Linux ecosystem.
@@paulhillbeats as long as the game is old. Let’s not get developers and company executives mixed up
All in all it sounds like a generally good "console" like experience, assuming you play the games that run on it. Good enough for me, that list is only going to get bigger! ^^
I'm running Steam on Linux, so I don't buy very many games that wouldn't run in it, haha!
@@jpaugh64 same here, but sometimes i just had some bad luck. I also run gog games on Linux, but even though it eventually worked, getting cyberpunk to run was a nightmare 😅
I don't really want to do any tinkering afterwards, it either runs with a single click, or i consider it broken :p
@@Vancha112 I doubt the Gaming on Linux community won't make something to workaround these anyway. Wouldn't be surprised if the Lutris team builds a Play on Deck layer soon.
God I really want one of these now. This is LITERALLY my dream device.
Ah yes the nostalgia, it's 2012 you turned off your PSP mid-game in your bed before going to sleep, wake up the next morning, and continue where you left off
Once I put Windows on it so I can play all my games, it will be my dream device too. I wish there was a Windows edition for sale which just tacked on the extra fee for owning a powerful operating system, but I can easily do it myself.
@@liamharrington6672 there are even drivers. just create a usb and go
@@Not_Aran8276 bro u mean like 2005......
@@liamharrington6672 just get a GPD win 3 its perfect
End of the day, viewing this as more of a console than a PC. It's a great device. You don't buy a ps5 and expect a ton of titles at launch or even a year from launch but rather you buy it knowing it will continue to get support.
The steam deck has probably the biggest launch library of any console ever and that's amazing. I'm willing to stick with it. Worse case I'll throw W10/11 on it as a dual boot and call it good.
What a terrible analogy lol. Playstation/Microsoft consoles move the industry. This product is simply a niche way to have limited availability to a steam library you already own. The $400 variant is next to useless and $650 is so close to a gaming laptop. It's not a console. It's a PC. No laptop released is ever compared to consoles. This is a less useful laptop that won't even play your entire steam library (depending on how old/big it is). Steam already tried this with the steam box (actually comparable to a console) and failed.
@@pwd1134 Ok.
@@pwd1134 awwww you didnt preorder in time? Its okay, dont cryyyyyy
@@pwd1134 This product is not a niche, literally everyone is getting hyped and just by looking at the Switch sale numbers you can know that this will sell as much as a regular console. Second off, "PS and MS consoles move the industry" ? You wouldn't be too wrong since they've been the two main competitors in the home console industry but honestly, calling it "moving the industry" might be too strong, they've just been doing the same things but more powerful and with more games. Also, it's definitely a console AND a PC, stop trying to name it as whatever arranges you to make it look bad, you can do as much from a PC in a handheld factor, it's like the best of both worlds. And a certainty is that the community will make it as good and as moddable as ever possible, one thing both PS and MS consoles lack of ;)
The $400 version isn't useless, you can buy a SD card and play games just as expected, and $650 is still pretty cheap for what gaming performance it gives you off compared to its handheld competitors. Idk in what world you live, mostly in recent days, to expect a $650 PC to be a gaming PC but certainly not in the same as most struggling gamers lol. Also the Steam Box was indeed bad, but it has literally nothing to see with this product and its downsides are definitely not the same as the ones of this product, so this have no relevance in this conversation.
Oh, forgot to say how this product also is literally the biggest hope of two entire communities, Linux and handheld-pc/consoles communities. This is literally the most hyped product for both of them ever. Calling it a niche and unplayable is borderline insulting.
If steam OS so far is the only problem I’m still very satisfied, of course there’s still time for other bugs to pop up, but my order is for after Q2 so I’m hoping all critical bugs will be ironed out by then ☺️
Same. While I'm annoyed I have to wait I'm at least hopeful that by them time I'm asked to cough up money the big issues are either all solved or they found something so bad I no longer want it.
And I highly doubt it'll be the latter.
Gaming on small screen will ruin eyes.
How do you find out when ur order is ? I preordered in October. The email I got just said wait until I receive the email to pay basically.
@@codecodderson3607 That's basically it. They will send out emails in waves (Friday evening starting from today) and people will have 72 hours to finish the purchase before the pre-order is cancelled and the spot given to the next person in line.
@@fynkozari9271 Yeah, that's why now 100% of people with a smartphone or gameboy wear glasses. Sure, right, that's definitely the case.
I love that Linus continues to actually live with these products long enough to give a proper consumer review
... he didn't do this by choice. Like everyone else, he was beholden to an embargo. Like everyone else, the second the embargo lifted he published this review. Like everyone else, he did the same thing with his hardware pre/view. And like everyone else, he'll be publishing 'one month later' / 'six months later' / 'one year later' type reviews.
Credit given where credit is due, but this ain't it chief.
@@DD-co1zn did you not see what Linus said at the end of the video?
@@phosphatepod how he's going to use it as a daily driver over the next month ? My comment acknowledged that in plain English. Did you not see me acknowledge that at the end of my comment ? Only difference is Linus wants to make a big deal about it, but make no mistake - RUclips will be awash with 'one month later' type reviews from all the outlets in LTT's same position.
its nice to go back to this video a year later and see 90% of these problems fixed, thanks valve!
Makes you smile
I want to trust Valve future update promises: they did such a fantastic job on the steam controller, even adding bluetooth support after YEARS it was released and they were so open about modding it and installing custom firmwares.
Their SteamLink was the same way. It had a lot of hiccups at launch, but it's in a state now where it works really well and was well worth the price.
HELL YEAH!
This is huge, a step for right to repair, right to tinker, right to whatever the heck you wanna do with your products. I don't need one, but i look forward to the values pushed by steam to propogate into other markets.
@@MrGamelover23 Nah, laws don't do anything but create loopholes and increase startup costs which actually kills competition. These practices can easily become common place without the use of laws that won't work by putting you money where your mouth is. Monopolies aren't fixed by anti trust laws they are only hardened by them.
@@MrGamelover23 do you agree that one company seemingly supporting pro consumer values is better none?
If another company sees people buying a product simply for this reason they are more likely to jump on the market.
@@MrGamelover23 Nah not only will that not happen but it also won't work. We see this with anti trust laws they don't work and only end up strengthening monopolies because they create larger barriers to entry which kills competition. If you actually want to fix something you vote with your wallet because companies will do whatever brings them money and if the customers don't buy their unfixable junk they won't make a penny.
@@MrGamelover23 Voting with your dollar still works, often times products made by companies with good practices cost more than unethical ones because a lot of unethical practices cut costs. Like organic pasture raised eggs, they cost double what cage eggs cost and since there's a growing demand for them they are slowly eating away at unethical egg companies market shares. This shows that these good outcomes can be done without getting the government involved.
Also if you can't afford a repairable laptop you shouldn't be going to college, get a little more financially stable first so you're not totally screwed over by the debt. Or use it like a burner laptop and get a better one once you've become more financially stable.
@@MrGamelover23 Well yeah early adopters fund innovation, hopefully these companies continue to eat up unethical companies market share and we'll get a win for both consumers and ethical companies all without giving the government the opportunity to over regulate like they did with banks.
Even though it has it's shortcomings, Valve really showed how nice of a corporation they are here. GG Valve.
Sure, they rarely act as a game company nowadays, but still.
Long live Gabe Newell!
@@maizjsj All Hail our lord and savior Gaben
Hey Linus- we NEED a one year later from yall
Man this is how you do a RUclips channel, I’ve only just started watching due to steam deck but the production values and skill of the presenters beats 90% of mainstream media hands down.
Great work guys, oh and I’m super hyped for the steam deck.
Very nice to see someone mention, even if briefly, Steam in-home streaming. Provided latency is fine, it's the perfect solution to maximise compatability and battery life as a way to play (albeit you're then weighing it up against some other mobile device used as a Moonlight system).
The resolution issue has never worked for me. If my device is 720p and I want to stream but my desktop is 4k it's always broken shit.
Have they changed something?
Valve will continue to improve the software, so this is a huge win. I'm very happy to hear that the remote play works really well. For the price point, this feels like its going to really change the console market. I also love that I won't have to fight to get one on Ebay with the direct sale pre-order. My steam library is huge after decades of Steam sales, so hopefully compatibility increases, but even so, the fact that remote play is so viable, there is no real downside for me with this device.
Honestly, I'm glad Valve took this step - but part of me wants to see what this is gonna be like 3-5 years down the line. Will we have Deck 2 and years of updates to the Deck 1? Or will Valve have moved on to something else exciting to occupy their time?
Still, it's an interesting device and I can't wait for the Aus launch.
Judging by every other piece of valve hardware, probably the second one.
But I want to be optimistic.
@@zoomer2965 If it sells well (which it most likely will), then it will get a 2.0. its confirmed
@@user-zs8eg4mu8t Plus there's the fact that my cheap ass ordered one. It's pretty decent hardware for the price.
But furthermore, even if it did get abandoned, it's regular pc hardware. Somebody will pick up the torch, much like they did with Ubuntu Touch.
Are You young or console player? I ask because if you knew valve you wouldn't make that statement lol. If Gaben (Valve) decides to do something they don't stop. He doesn't go back on his word. Jesus how many 20 yo games do they have that you can still play? Like every game they ever made? Plus it's not like Valve comes out with multiple games a year or even 1 game a year. For a long while it seemed like they were content just running steam. They have the resources and manpower to focus on steamdeck and whatever else their hearts desire.
The Steam Deck is my most anticipated preorder in years. Can’t wait until mine comes. This video only reinforced that opinion.
By the time ill get it they will send like 16 updates so im not worried about the early funny stuff
It's not a preorder unless you payed the full price already...
@@pljjk9400 I put $5 dollars on it. It is a preorder. Your point is invalid.
Imagine trusting anyone with preorder money since all the bungles from the Robin phone to Star Citizen and No Man's Scam.
Yeah but when? I preordered in august last year and I have not heard 1 word lol
Unfinished or Not, I still love it
Hopefully the line goes fast, I'm in after Q2. Hopefully they change the gaming industry and kick Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sonys asses in the process
Same, mine is still “after Q2 2022” I reserved the 512 GB model. I just want to play on it so badly
Same bro I'm glad I'm not alone
@@dradmiral5224 I'm in the Q2 range. I'm eagerly awaiting for the mail about payment and shipment!
I’m assuming that my deck will arrive in the summer of the U.S. since I was in the Q2 lineup before but after the 2 month delay, I’m now in after Q2
@@test_account939 same here.
16:58 im definitely looking forward to those "hacky use cases". considering the Deck is running Linux, im curious to know how far we can push it in terms of feature set
We need a “steam deck 1 year later” video
Valve can only do so much. It's really up to publishers and developers to support GNU/Linux actively to ensure maximum compatibility.
They are doing something so revolutionary and people seem to look over it and kinda just blow it off.its made my linux experience way better and i keep finding myself booting into windows way less.
thats why I and a lot of other ppl are supporting the project, the software value is just not to be overlooked. My friend uses proton with his 80euro's gpu, I squeeze out all performance with linux. Its great. I definitely buy
Yep. And it's just the beginning
Haven't booted windows since spring 2020.
I remember my old ps vita i left it on sleep mode and havent touched it for 3 months and when I turned it on i was surprised to see the battery still almost full. Think it was 95%. That device was a legend
Crazy how fast valve fixed nearly EVERY issue they mentioned in this video
I'm really excited to hear that Linus will use it as his PC for a month. It sounds like he will be answering a lot of the questions I have, and as someone who used to carry an InFocus Kangaroo between work and home, I'd like to know if the Steam Deck can be the PC I carry with me to the office.
I've been really really wanting one, but I'm honestly planning on waiting until they have everything ironed out and improved the way they want so I can have the Ultimate Experience. I definitely want to support someone treating The Experience like it matters and not like we're just a number
I respectfully disagree! Because you’re already going to be backed up till after Q2 and only going farther along Q3 from us as each day goes by! By July most users; like me who pre ordered as early this January, that’s a generous amount of time for valve to resolve relatively easy quirks Linus speaks up on! And definitely a lot more beyond that!
Plus that’s enough time for you to do more research all while you have a perfectly safe reservation investment that can be refunded in FULL anytime!
@@avylynn4523 I'll wait for a few years, personally. Not in a huge rush. But if you're someone who needs it NOW, I guess I can see buying it, well, now.
@@cortster12 it’s up to you! I typically do that when things like ps5 or newest Xbox typically slow down and sell for less around something like cyber Monday. But it was already established by gaben and proof in the puddin that technology being used in this handheld and for how much it’s being sold on release; I doubt it would be all that significant; if at all!
yeah, one thing valve is known for with hardware is running out of stock fast, try and get a valve index today.
with valve if you wanna be in, you gotta join in the beginning or you wont get in before second version of the hardware is on it's way out and you still paid high price for it.
i'd love to get my hands on either of the two, steamdeck or valve index, but my wallet has a hole in it and every money hungry wolf in society is right under it swooping when ever i have just a little spare.
This is probably the best review Linus has ever done. I can feel the passion.
😂 It's certainly _passionate,_ but it isn't the most unbiased review he's ever done! I happen to agree largely with what he said; but he was clearly very biased in favor of the Steam Deck!
That closing bit right before the ad roll gave me tingles.
I can feel the disingenuous thumbnail.
Finally ordering mine Tuesday! Hopefully it doesn't take the full 2 weeks to get here I'm excited
7:11 I highly recommend to put all Proton / Wine / (e.g. Steam Linux) Runtime (- Soldier) / SteamWorks related stuff on the faster permanently available (internal) storage.
But don’t get me wrong it should just work anywhere as long as it allows moving, which in my case only for SteamWorks is not possible.
This is what I love about Valve. They know what real gamers really want.
meanwhile the vast majority of gamers didn't ask for this shit but sure dude
Real gamers lmao.
@@spectraleggings who doesn't want a pc switch?
Or are you against benchmarks?
*cough* TF2 heavy update *cough*
Lol. All PC gamers half gone about for the past 20 years is performance and graphics now they have sub 720p with low settings hahaha
Loved how thorough this review is. Felt like a friend telling you everything they've learned about a new gift they got.
That's why Linus is the biggest tech channel on RUclips. That's exactly what he pays 60 people to make his vids feel like lol
It's crazy to hear that this is what the initial user experience was like for the stream deck. I use my deck almost daily and these short comings are completely foreign for me.
When I built my Gaming PC, I never thought I would invest in hardware that was outside of the typical components needed for the desktop experience. Then Valve showed me how I can play on my TV like a console with the Link. Then I bought the Valve Index and I love it more than any other VR I have ever tried in my life and it's 1000% worth the price. Now, the Deck comes out and I think I'll keep my preorder going and see if my wife will use it once the bugs are smushed. Great video LTT, very hopeful for the future here.
Valve index also like 5x as expensive as other VR headsets, sadly, Ive been wanting to get one for years now
Thanks Linus,
Your critics are always taken as a boost to improve Linux Gaming even faster.
You are the bigger voice on the linux community and you are doing a great job to help another people realizing that they can use their devices in a more freedom manner.
Hey steam, i see your product. I can't afford one right now but i will 100% be getting one if you stay on the path( which i believe you will). Thanks Linus for addressing everything as is too.
valve needs to start considering these for commercial use, a handheld console running linux would be wayyy better than the shitty android handhelds found in every retail store for stocking