Steam Deck? Oh, you mean the Balatro machine!
Yesssss
I just wish Slay the Spire worked as well. I mean it works, but you can tell controller support was definitely an afterthought. But those 2 games are probably most of my played hours on it.
The controls for STS are very simple, you could get away with mapping keyboard keys to the controls or using the touchpad.
If you wanted to get fancy you could even map the touchpad to the card selection area (for easy card peeking) and use the buttons for everything else.I’m more talking about peeking itself doesn’t let you see everything. As in, everything is frozen in place while peeking, so if I’m checking enemy HP, it usually blocked by whatever card is selected, and you can’t back out of the selection you’re peeking through, so you’re stuck. That is just a problem with the game itself though, not the controller support.
But selecting a card should be visually more obvious, at least for non attack cards. I can’t count how many times I’ve selected a card intending to consider my move but accidentally playing it because I didn’t see it was already selected quickly enough. Now that’s maybe my fault for going too fast sometimes, but a better visual indicator would be nice.
Also, defaulting the enemy selection to the one I targeted last instead of the one closest to the left would also be super helpful.
I only play on the deck now since I found out about the recent Intel microcode issue the hard way, and I can’t afford to replace the 2nd and 3rd most expensive parts of a computer. Fixed disability income means I won’t get that done until I get my next job.
I think an important factor people seem to forget about the steam deck is that it won’t simply cease to be supported like sony or nintendo do with their consoles. If a game comes out on steam and works on linux, it’ll work on the deck. Considering the amount of people developing wonderful but lightweight games, I doubt you’ll ever think 'this platform is dead".
Well, Valve may drop support for the firmware. Edit: Gaben simps need to accept that vendors do drop support at some point.
The Deck is a regular computer and you can run any OS on it.
Not having firmware updates doesn’t mean software suddenly stops working on it.
And on the flip side, I wouldn’t be surprised if software still gets updated as Valve keeps its minimum requirements as low as possible. As long as the drivers work, there isn’t a reason for different editions of the Steam Deck to run different versions.
You‘ll need a community effort to continue driver development.
Thats kind of a “yes, and?” sort of statement though.
486 and first gen Pentiums are still supported, though I’d expect not for much longer. But you’re still talking 35 years after release.
True, but they make their money via game sales.
Other OEMs make their money via hardware sales.
Valve has a much bigger incentive in keeping their firmware supported than AYANEO or ASUS…Yes but thinking a piece of hardware will receive support for eternity is naive. That’s all I‘m saying.
Bro it’s fucking Linux based. Did you not think before speaking?
I wrote and didn’t speak, did you think? The drivers will need maintenance.
No they won’t
source: literally everything Valve has ever made still works.
It may work, but there are software dependencies that will become end of life. The first to go will probably be the GPU drivers. In 10 years or so, Linux will discontinue the GPU drivers and you will not be able to run the latest Linux kernel.
Weird, my ten year old laptop still works.
Linux will discontinue the GPU drivers
It’ll be community-maintained at that point. If it’s worth updating and there’s demand for it, someone will bother, just like any console, and made all that much easier running open software.
I’d actually willingly bet anyone here $1500 that the Deck will be able to boot a mainline Linux kernel in 2035.
That’s no guarantee. It‘s naïve. And Steam stopped working on Windows 7 machines, so—
Microsoft is generally far more savage about dropped OS support than Linux. The latter undergoes fewer forced overhauls.
Yes, but this has nothing to with my initial statement.
Steam stopped working on Windows 7
You’re trolling, right? It wasn’t exactly up to Valve lmao. The world stopped supporting Windows 7.
Plenty of software still supports Windows 7. So literally not everything they made still works, there is no guarantee.
hugs Steam controllers
And if you buy a game on PC, it doesn’t stop being playable in a generation or two like consoles.
Speaking of consoles, if you buy a game for PC then boom, it’s also on your Steam Deck.
I pretty much always consider games through the lens of my Steam Deck. If it’s a cross-platform game that would run well on the Deck, then I get it for the Deck.
And this is primarily because I can freely install those games to other PCs. If my Nintendo Switch were to get destroyed, then I lose my games with it (outside of emulation, of course). I don’t want games being so temporary. I still play games that are nearing 50 years old!
I use it to stream from a gaming PC, super long battery life and no loud fan. Amazing way to use the deck.
Can you describe how you do this? I have mixed experience with in-home streaming via Steam (latency, disconnects, inability to connect when the host is running Windows with no monitor) but would be very interested in giving it another go with a Linux host and the Deck.
Like, what’s your setup and how does your typical way of using it look like (startup, streaming, etc.)?
Depends on what your usecase is.
My brother wants to play demanding AAA games on a big screen. He doesn’t see the point of a Steam Deck and is about to sell his.
I play indie games and emulated retro games. The Steam Deck is perfect for me to play. I can sit with my kids when they play in the back yard. The hardware isn’t going to go out of date for me for a very long time.
I’d say that’s probably a better use case for a console like a PS5 than a Steam Deck.
i play both AAA and indie titles. works fine, its just not going to run at 120fps with all the trimmings.
in most bigger titles I get like 25-30fps. which to me works perfectly. especially on such a small display.
performance doesn’t annoy me. the size of games nowadays annoys me. i can’t have more than one triple A title installed at any time because the damn things are like 200 gb now. i long for the days of 30gb downloads. even on big games.
but I can understand how if you’re looking for a smooth experience, the steam deck might not be as powerful as a full desktop.
not going to run 120fps with all the trimmings
Requires a separate gaming PC, but with Steam Link / Sunshine / Moonlight it can!
Don’t really see a reason to run games like Cyberpunk on low settings at 30FPS when I can pipe it in from the other room at 60FPS+ high / ultra settings
Came in clutch with the poor optimization of MH:Wilds. It was a struggle to run at my monitor’a resolution, but running at 1080P to send to my deck made for a decent experience.
indeed. if I owned another PC I would absolutely do it that way, but I install files locally for the time being.
but yes that is a great way to get insane fps on a steam deck. you just have to own more than one gaming computer lol.
can’t agree more. I have no ambition to play graphically intense shooters on my deck. It’s for chill controller games, which usually are not very heavy to run.
Graphically intense games can be good too, especially in bed, streaming from a PC in the other room.
It’s an outstanding machine for little rogue-likes at the bus stop, or some Star Fox, but I’m not even going to try to load something like Expedition 33 on it.
The steamdeck still holds up well halfway through a console’s generation.
I have about 100 games i have yet to play on the SD - so, yeah, it holds up.
My brother has a Lenovo Legion Go, and I can’t lie, the much bigger 144hz display and more powerful chipset make the Steam Deck look outdated when side by side and running more graphically demanding games (RDR2 for example).
However, the ergonomics of the Steam Deck are superior. SteamOS as well, but that doesn’t really count since you can get it on other devices now. Also the fact that you can actually buy replacement parts for the Deck is amazing.
The sooner we get another Steam Deck, the better. Pls Valve, bigger display and more power. And a second USB-C port. That’s all I ask.
And a USB-A wouldn’t hurt. Having just one port means you’re charging and that’s it unless you have a dock or splitter handy. Crazy.
It’s over 200% of the price though, comparing the cheapest options. I payed 320 for a refurbished SD. Cheapest Legion go I could find was 700+.
Bigger screen and another usb C would be great, agreed, but im gonna ride this Steamdeck all the way to hell if it’ll let me .
Yeah, I have no problem running the games I’m interested in and no interest in buying a new handheld if it’s not a steamdeck 2.
I hardly play newer games anyway, so maybe I’ll just get a new battery for the steamdeck in a few years.
The Steam Deck was never supposed to be a powerhouse. It was intended to be extremely high efficiency and long-lasting and to this day no one competes with them on that. Nor do they compete on peripherals or cost effectiveness.
We won’t see another Steam Deck soon, and I think that’s a good thing. Gives developers a hardware target for their games.
That’s true. I guess what I’m saying is, I personally want a powerhouse Steam Deck. If it costs twice the price of the current one, I’d still buy it.
I have both and my biggest gripe about the Lenovo is the abysmal battery life. It feels like a portable that constantly needs to be near a plug.
Yeah I’ve played it a bit myself and its dreadful. Its portability feels limited for this reason.
I have a decent desktop with a wide screen display, but I love the portability of the Steam Deck. It just works with syncing save files and continuing my game when I am not at home or want to lie in bed.
I know what I’m getting when I’m not at my desk, and want usability over specs.
Got one last year for my bday
It’s 100% worth imo
Even if you don’t play games, it’s a fully functional linux computer for like <$400 that can play most modern games and handle anything less intensive than gaming no prob
While I wholeheartedly agree. I do want to make one small note for anyone that reads this and thinks like I did.
Don’t get one if you want to use it for professional audio work. It’s a niche use case I know but I thought I’d be able to install Reaper and use it as a little music workstation since reaper is just right in the discover store. Unfortunately, the Steam Deck’s audio drivers are basically only good for playing back audio. When trying to do audio work they were unusably buggy and had a bunch of latency.
If you want a little computer to make music with get a raspberry pi instead. Use the steam deck for gaming like it was intended for and don’t be dumb like I was.
Time for a successor, though. Sometimes I think Valve really doesn’t like money. They could make a crapton by bringing out a new Steam Deck and a Steam console.
They upgraded the steam deck already. And the steam machine already failed once. I just don’t think that there exists a console that is high end enough and also cheap enough that pc enthusiasts are interested. I saw a prototype of an old steam machine and just the reactive halo light thingy is seriously so damn cool, but console people look at that and think: well a ps5 is only 600 dollars. PC players look at it and think: i could build something better for cheaper.
Steam machines were a long time ago. They could build something they can sell for $500-600 today, that can play any modern game at a decent frame rate. The console people will appreciate the huge game library and relative absence of enshittification. PC people will appreciate the simplicity. Obviously, people who build their own PCs won’t be interested, but that still leaves a huge addressable market.
What gives you this idea?
AMD just launched the 9700 and 9700XT earlier this year, with MSRP’s of $550 and $600. They’ve faced a ton of consumer backlash because MSRP cards were virtually nonexistent. Most of the graphics cards actually produced were retailed for hundreds of dollars more, and many were then scalped on top of that.
NVIDIA has been even worse, just cranking up their prices with very little performance improvement. Tons of issues with their power connectors damaging cards. Most of the company’s focus has been on AI, and gamers have been left out to dry.
So yeah I think now would be a terrible time for a steam machine. Unless Valve can somehow get their hands on some unreasonably cheap silicon.
Once you buy a few million of things, the problems of retail customers don’t tend to apply.
The Steam Deck, in all its variants, has sold under 4 million units as of February .
The PS5 has sold over 80 million units. Even the miserable Xbox Series has over 28 million units sold.
All use custom AMD APU’s. Valve is more than an order of magnitude away from even competing with Sony. And we haven’t even touched on laptops yet.
But also compared to desktops… I can’t find how much AMD in particular did, but I can see that 251 million desktop GPU’s were sold in 2024. I don’t know how many Deck’s were sold in 2024 by comparison, but given that the total fron the 2021 launch to early 2025 is estimated at 4 million units on the high side, it’s not even blip on the radar. It’s not a statistically significant amount. The Deck is absolutely miniscule in comparison.
That’s all true but doesn’t in any way contradict my point. AMD were happy to work with Valve on the APU for the deck and now the concept is proven, they’ll be even more happy to do it again.
It’s a PC, essentially, so the hardware is always evolving, they could upgrade whenever they choose to. The advantage of any console, the Steam Deck included, is it offers a very consistent set of specs the developers can target for years. If Valve iterates too quickly, then two problems arise: One, there’s one performance goal for devs interested in making a portable game to work towards, there’s many. In addition, the Steam Deck Verified program gets a lot harder to maintain if there are too many flavors of Deck to manage. I think Valve is planing on a lifecycle similar to the major consoles.
The upside is it is all PC hardware, and there are other handheld manufacturers out there, some even running SteamOS, so if you want a higher performance rig before Valve’s ready for the SD2, you can certainly find what you’re looking for.
The steam deck is getting long in the tooth and will increasingly have trouble playing newer titles. In PC gaming, you can’t have console-like product cycles.
I would argue the Steam Deck was never really meant to target the newest and greatest.
Sure, but at some point it’ll be just too outdated.
Maybe outdated for future CPU and GPU hungry games.
The same emulators that run now will continue to do so as will very likely indie titles.
In the end it depends on what you want to do with the SD.
Do you have a steam deck?
Yes.
