Steam Deck Portable PC Games Hardware

s. k. technique

Kuroko's Training Dummy
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Same here. I don't mind not being part of the Q1 crop as I would really like to see what people's thoughts are of the unit hands-on and get a proper indication of what the battery life is really like.
 

oliverclaude

General Morden's Aide
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China doesnt pay for games.... There is no market for gaming in china unless it's based on a subscription or is controlled by tencent.
Your "unless" is worth billions to any foreign company that makes it there. Below is a quote from an informative Guardian article. It mainly covers China's censorship, but also offers an insight in their gaming history and... stunning figures:

China is the world’s largest market for the world’s largest entertainment industry. Today, the number of Chinese gamers, about 740 million, is bigger than the entire populations of the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK combined. Its domestic market is worth more than $45bn a year. Yet, for decades, China has had a stop-start relationship with the entire industry.

Sure, any foreign gaming companies looking to operate in China are legally obliged to have a local partner and besides Tencent, there's also another giant with NetEase. But this seems not to bother those foreign companies. It's defining that even Japanese Big N coupled with Tencent to distribute their Switch there.

According to this article, neither Tencent nor NetEase are in control, though. It's all CCP. That doesn't change the fact, that China is neither all-white nor all-black. It's like anywhere else in the world, all kinds of grey, only multiplied by 1.4 billion. And since there's no way around China, there's an urge not to be biased towards it, but to cultivate what's good there. I admit, it's a tough job with limited chances for success but let us at least be more comprehensively informed about that country. I think that article is a good start, while your reply isn't.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
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According to this article, neither Tencent nor NetEase are in control, though. It's all CCP. That doesn't change the fact, that China is neither all-white nor all-black. It's like anywhere else in the world, all kinds of grey, only multiplied by 1.4 billion. And since there's no way around China, there's an urge not to be biased towards it, but to cultivate what's good there. I admit, it's a tough job with limited chances for success but let us at least be more comprehensively informed about that country. I think that article is a good start, while your reply isn't.

Yeah, it's all CCP, and at any moment they can take your market away from you. Especially a digital market. It's happened over and over to foreign companies that entered China without paying the CCP like a mafia boss. Look up what they did to Uber. You make for a terrible argument to promote in china. You absolutely can go around China... Every console has done that for decades. Just because the NBA and film industry are kowtowing to the CCP, doesn't mean it's a requirement to have a viable business.
 

oliverclaude

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You absolutely can go around China... Every console has done that for decades. Just because the NBA and film industry are kowtowing to the CCP, doesn't mean it's a requirement to have a viable business. Just because the NBA and film industry are kowtowing to the CCP, doesn't mean it's a requirement to have a viable business.
You can, theoretically. Except with so much money at stake, my guess is no one will want to, just as nobody did in the past. Your NBA and Hollywood are only the tip of that iceberg. Talking about the latter reminds me of a fitting quote from Ridley Scott's Body Of Lies: "Do we belong there? Do we not? It doesn't matter how you would answer that, because we are there". Foreign automobile, armaments, construction industries... you name it. They're already there. I welcome your optimistic opinion about circumventing China, I'm just not that much an optimist. As always, time will tell.
 

SML

NEANDERTHAL FUCKER,
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Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition was rated gold in Wine version 1.5.0. I can only get it to run through proton on systems with integrated graphics.

Now, that's a game that's no longer sold in the steam store, so maybe it shouldn't count, but I really want to see someone test Valve's claims about what the deck+proton will be able to run.
 

RBjakeSpecial

Land of the Rising Bling:,
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I did a preorder on this. I really like the idea and if I can hook arcade sticks up via USB when I have to travel for work it might be great. I also have this idea that I'll suddenly play all of my old games I never finished. The idea of having Baldur's Gate II and some of the other old classic RPGs on the go is nice.

I hope it's good.... Crusader Kings III on portable might ruin my life.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
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Everyone expecting plug and play experiences in these games are going to be sorely disappointed. Expect lengthy sessions of custom control configuration for anything that hasn't partnered with the launch.
 

Lagduf

2>X
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So it looks like upgrading the SSD will be possible. Probably will just require some experimentation by the community to determine what SSDs work (though are the EMI issues real or just overblown? I genuinely don't know.)

The messaging in this video is weird. Like it's from Valve, a billion dollar corporation, but it's "low" production values complete with YouTube style "text" edits. WTF? It's like pro right-to-repair and repairing your own stuff is a bad idea all at the same time.

Maybe it's just a dig at Apple. I am really confused by the messaging.

That said, good to know the joysticks are easily repairable. (A dig at the switch sticks, maybe?)

I like that little jig he has in front of the steam deck to hold it while he takes it apart.
 

Lagduf

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Everyone expecting plug and play experiences in these games are going to be sorely disappointed. Expect lengthy sessions of custom control configuration for anything that hasn't partnered with the launch.

I'm honestly interested in seeing devs target the Steam Deck as a device assuming it gains some traction. If not I can see this being a fine handheld for the shovel load of indy games it will already run. That and the ability to just use it as a handheld PC if you wanted is intriguing. Could be a fun platform for hobbyists.
 

Fygee

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If anything, it'll be the ultimate emulation handheld. That's the main reason I'm getting it, aside from piddling around with some other simple games in my Steam library.
 

NeoSneth

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Kudos to them for acknowledging this gap. Like I said, I have so many indie games that only support Xbox controllers unless you go with 3rd party apps.
 

Lagduf

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I think it will be really interesting to see devs target the steam deck. I’m glad to know there will be some way to know what does and does not run well.

Did they say how a game will receive their ranking? Is Valve doing it or is it a community thing?
 

fenikso

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I think it will be really interesting to see devs target the steam deck. I’m glad to know there will be some way to know what does and does not run well.

Did they say how a game will receive their ranking? Is Valve doing it or is it a community thing?
Video made it sound like it was their internal review team doing the certification.
 

Dochartaigh

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If anything, it'll be the ultimate emulation handheld. That's the main reason I'm getting it, aside from piddling around with some other simple games in my Steam library.
That's why I want one as well – at some point after they've been proven. I don't play too many new games so older consoles is where it's at for me, and I've been struggling to even run PS1 and N64 decently on any handheld (well, on the same system at least... for instance PSP/Vita plays PS1 great but sucks at N64; New 3DS XL plays N64 better than Vita --still not even close to perfect though-- but then sucks at PS1; the newest Anbernic RG351MP won't even run N64's Goldeneye at even HALF the correct FPS...). Even a hacked 1st gen Switch (think that might be the fastest commercially-popular handheld out there right now) sucks at a bunch of these super old consoles/games... (although I'm glad to see the N64 emulator for the Switch from Nintendo directly will hopefully be good... still no GBA on that though...)

...what makes this really sad is you can literally buy a ~$100 ex-office computer off eBay (like an older Dell or whatever), and emulate all those consoles/games and WAY more, but you still can't do it handheld... which is why these new Steam Decks and other similar kickstarter projects which ARE actual pretty fast PC's in handheld form are so exciting to finally see!
 

bulbousbeard

Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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For what it's worth, I strongly recommend holding off on one of these until they release one with variable refresh support.

Basically it's an emulation machine, and who really wants to play games with hitching and stuttering? Basically no old games ran at exactly 60hz.

I bet the second or third generation one will be way better. They need to make it more compact too.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
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For what it's worth, I strongly recommend holding off on one of these until they release one with variable refresh support.

I bet the second or third generation one will be way better. They need to make it more compact too.

"Holding off" en masse = no second or third generation
 

bulbousbeard

Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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"Holding off" en masse = no second or third generation

It's basically off the shelf AMD mobile hardware. Doesn't matter if Valve even stays in this game. I'm expecting Dell, Razer, and other versions of these things anyway.
 
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