How Valve Made $600,000,000 in a Year | Steam Deck Success Story

Yep, at the end of the day it’s so much nicer to lay in bed to play vs. sit at my PC desk. I play so much more of my backlog now.

Do you use it hand held? I ask because I've had a Switch for years and I've used it hand held like three times. I'm interested in how the Steam Deck performs 'docked'.

I think it might be one of the best purchases I've ever made. It definitely doesn't fit everyone's use-case, but it fits mine very well!

Yeah, more horsepower can't beat being able to play from an airplane!

It's the perfect balance, I used to love my switch but this is a lot better while retaining 90% of the portability. And the key thing - it's not better only in terms of performance (graphics), but in terms of compatibility: it will take most of the games available on switch, either natively as pc versions or through emulation. But also a truly vast array that goes from Sega's sonic adventure to cyberpunk2077 or Starfield. It's awesome.

The only problem with this plan is that Valve have massive issues when it comes to counting to 3.

I wouldn't call the steam deck the greatest piece of gaming hardware ever. There are many very well equipped PC handhelds out now. The difference that Valve brings is that their software is impeccable and they have a good history of supporting their hardware with up to date software for many, many years.

It's a handheld that can play basically any game through the previous generation and even some current AAA titles. If you have a steam library already, most of your games are suddenly playable on the go. The hardware is open with spare parts easily obtainable so that you can repair it yourself if you drop it. Valve is very engaged with maintaining and updating the software to be an enjoyable experience whether you prefer console or PC. Because it is subsidized by software sales the hardware costs less and drove down prices in the industry for competing products. When my 10-year-old motherboard gave out in my desktop, I was able to use the Steam Deck as my primary PC for a month while I took my time putting together a new computer. Also, you are very correct that it has had a meaningful impact on Linux gaming.

In my opinion, there's a lot to like.

Tell me you haven't tried a steam deck without telling me you haven't tried a steam deck.

I get what you're saying. I thought that myself, that it would be niche. Then I got it and now it's part of my standard carry. I think the tricky thing about it is that it doesn't do anything surprising, so you wouldn't expect that it would be so successful. But once you try it yourself, you realize that the appeal is primarily in how balanced and versatile it is. In other words, it doesn't do anything new, but it does everything that it tries to do very well

You can throw it in your backpack and go around the city on roller blades screaming "hack the planet" because you've literally got a fully functional PC in your back pocket.

It's solid. when my laptop went out and I needed a back up, it serves as a daily driver for a few days while the replacement shipped. No issues.

I have two for my kids, and will be getting a third. With the dock, it acts as a regular desktop computer with monitor on an arm, mouse, keyboard, etc, giving my kids an inexpensive desktop computer that can play games. It's emulation is so robust that I downloaded battle net from Blizzard, added the installer as a non steam game, ran it with proton compatibility, and they can now play diablo 2 resurrected.

In desktop mode it is just a regular Linux desktop, so they can browse the web, and I have a nuc running Windows that they can remote into to learn Windows OS stuff as well. It is a way better experience for them than any other micro PC you might find for $400. And it can be mobile. Pretty crazy device.

That said, I wouldn't need one for myself unless I traveled a whole lot more and wanted my steam fix on the road. But for a kids first desktop they are amazing.

This was one of those products that, when it was announced, I thought to myself “meh, I have no need for this.” But through the urging of friends, I pre ordered it back in July of 21, because hey, it was only 5 bucks to deposit and I could cancel.

Then as they started coming out, and I heard about everything they could do, I thought “well damn that’s pretty cool.” And then my own hype grew until I managed to get it, I believe August of last year. By far the most fun I’ve had with a device in quite some time.

i don't get this, it's a handheld PC that can play games really well, in what universe would that not sell well?

That's almost impossible to answer because it all depends on how you're using it, what games you're playing, screen brightness, etc.

But in general I would say it's pretty good.

Depends on your game, settings, screen brightness, etc. It's highly tunable with stuff like FPS limiters and even custom TDP limit settings built into the UI. Just running a Gameboy Color emulator, for instance, you might get 6+ hours. Running Baldur's Gate 3 at reasonably optimized settings from an online guide, you'd get about 1.5-2 hours

You can literally make a steam deck last 30 mins at minimum. Lol. I would say most users are getting 2 to 3 hours with reasonable settings. So many variables at play. Your best bet is to go in with realistic expectations.

Are you thinking of the OG Steam Machines? They tried a PC console before that flopped, a while ago.