this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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Steam Deck

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The Steam Deck Crushed It In 2023 (kotaku.com)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 83 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

The Steam Deck is nearly everything that the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller wanted to be, somehow in a single package.

Valve's work into Proton and the Steam Deck are the best things to happen to spur Linux adoption in the gaming sphere and support from devs. It's made enough noise that putting intrusive DRM, anticheat and things that would make it incompatible with Linux would shut devs out of a sizeable demographic that will pay for good games that run well on Steam Deck. Previously Linux and their <1% share of users were an afterthought if anything. Honestly the main reason I preordered my Steam Deck was to support this, even though I've used mine just on and off and not much lately.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They're so user friendly we opted to get my brother's girlfriend's 10 year-old sister one instead of a Switch. So instead of having 2-3 $40-$70 Switch games she got access to my Steam library through Family Share (limited to ~60 age-appropriate games), and 20 Switch games emulated through Yuzu setup by EmuDeck.

We're also teaching her how to do all of this which will give her a huge advantage when it comes to using computers in the future, and allow her to emulate any games she would like going forward.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Also, I have a Steam Controller and now a Deck, and the touch pads and gyro on the Deck are better in every meaningful way. It's just a better experience all around.

And I felt better shelling out the money, because I knew at least some of that would wind up as a development investment in the Linux community.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The Steam Deck was an amazing purchase for me. I put on EmuDeck and a bunch of ROMs and can play those from the Steam interface while also playing many of my Steam games and it's now a great all-arounder.

[–] pathief 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What are your favorite emulated games? Need some inspiration :P

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Right now I'm mostly playing Pokemon Prismatic Moon (a difficulty ROMhack of Ultra Moon) but I got Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Xenogears, Xenosaga (all three), Xenoblade Chronicles, and a good number of other Nintendo games and games not on Steam.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I'm shocked we haven't even seen rumors of an Xbox handheld.

Playstation at least did something.

[–] silentknyght 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I heard a reliable rumor that the Asus handheld was supposed to be essentially that, but Microsoft dropped the ball with the OS support

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Should've just called Valve

[–] echoplex21 6 points 8 months ago

I think internal docs showed that Microsoft is leaving that to other vendors. I have the Legion go and it’s been amazing with GamePass. But I’m starting to buy more games on Steam now 😂

[–] smort 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah I’ve used my Deck as an xcloud terminal quite a bit. If I was only interested in the Xbox ecosystem, I’d definitely go for something like PlayStation’s handheld terminal but for Xbox/xcloud

[–] money_loo 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And I'm really enjoying the Portal, it's everything I could hope for in a simple remote play device.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's okay. I'm opposed to it only for it's forced anti-consumer linear capabilities.

There's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be able to run Xbox cloud or Steam Link or use Bluetooth headphones. And the inability to run it on public WiFi is absurd.

But for $200 I can only complain so much.

[–] money_loo 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well it’s not made for those things, so I’m not upset it doesn’t do them.

And there actually is a reason it doesn’t use Bluetooth headphones, because Bluetooth adds latency and there would be a delay trying to use them for gaming.

You can see this happen now with a lot of VR headsets, the delay from Bluetooth is really noticeable enough to break immersion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well it’s not made for those things

Yes that's the problem.

And there actually is a reason it doesn’t use Bluetooth headphones

Yes, because Sony wants more of your money.

because Bluetooth adds latency

My guy we have had low latency Bluetooth standards for a long time. You are being duped by corporate propaganda. Do a Google for "AptX LL". I use Bluetooth headphones on my SteamDeck all the time with no observable latency.

[–] money_loo 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yes that's the problem.

Yes, I understand some people wanted it to do or be more, as I said I am not one of those people. I just wanted an awesome remote play device because I was tired of connecting my phone to various things just to get a weak facsimile of my PlayStation.

I won’t be mad if they update it to do more, but I’m certainly not knocking points off the thing simply because it isn’t a Swiss Army knife for gaming. I could use my SteamDeck for that.

My guy we have had low latency Bluetooth standards for a long time. You are being duped by corporate propaganda. Do a Google for "AptX LL". I use Bluetooth headphones on my SteamDeck all the time with no observable latency.

And yet when I use it I do notice a tiny bit of latency, which is fine for the most part in nearly everything I play, but I’m not sure I’d want to play a rhythm based game on it.

I’m not alone in this either: Steam Desk - Bluetooth audio latency issues

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I’m not alone in this either: Steam Desk - Bluetooth audio latency issues

You can see the solution in the first reply. The Steam Deck is not a ground-up gaming device, it's a handheld X86 PC, and that's great but also makes it harder to do a lot of the things people have come to expect from something like a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation or Xbox.

In short, this is not a limitation of Bluetooth itself, but rather of configuration, which should not be an issue on a single-purpose game streaming device.

Again I would encourage you to look up aptX LL, it's only 40ms of latency.

[–] meliaesc 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You can already play Xbox games on PC, and even VR now, with their game pass. Microsoft and plenty of companies already sell windows hardware.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Yes but you can't play on a PC with the Xbox OS, which is actually what is desperately needed because Windows currently blows on a handheld.

[–] dustyData 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If only I could buy one.

[–] ekZepp 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just give up on the oled and buy one of the thousand slightly used LCD. You can find true deals with 1 tb od storage under 300 $.

[–] Thekingoflorda 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think they mean that they are in a country were steam decks aren’t sold.

[–] ekZepp 6 points 8 months ago

Sorry about that. 👐

[–] Wolf_359 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Where would I find this kind of deal??? I'd buy it now for that price.

[–] ekZepp 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Ebay or similar sites, just double check the seller and pay with Paypal.

[–] Wolf_359 1 points 8 months ago

Will start checking daily! Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Got two friends to buy one after I got mine. Love it so much. I didn't think I would use it much when I first bought it, but I have played on it more in the last several months than my actual gaming PC.

Such a fantastic device, I stream movies and shows with it, listen to music while I game, go to LAN parties, use it with my family for couch co-op, play all my old GBA games on it, it's just awesome.

[–] books 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Mad props to those that have it and use it.i just can't find a use case

We play lethal company as a group and one of us plays on a steam deck. He can't use the monitor or figure out the walkie talkies, but he can at least play with us, so it's a win.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Sounds like he needs to use a different control scheme for LC

[–] numberfour002 2 points 8 months ago

The Steam Deck was probably my favorite tech purchases in the past few years, and I'm looking forward to checking out the linked article to see where it goes with things.

I had been mulling over the idea of getting a portable for awhile, and truthfully Asus and Lenovo's offerings are pretty nice. I felt like they were all good enough, performance-wise, for the types of games I play, but battery life was a big enough concern for me that it held me back from actually buying one of these systems. After the OLED Deck was announced and specs on battery life were released, it eased my concerns enough that I felt like now was the time.

I do wish they had handled the launch a bit more gracefully, particularly as far as the limited edition goes. At this point it doesn't really matter, but it did etch away at some of the "magic" initially and undermined my confidence slightly when they couldn't keep the store operating, then said the special edition was out of stock, only for it to magically come back into stock after I'd already purchased the regular/standard Deck. Oh well.