The Steam Deck has potential — if Valve can stay committed

Valve confirmed long-standing rumors and recently announced the Steam Deck – essentially a handheld game console that can rival the Nintendo Switch based on the PC giant’s Steam platform. Although it won’t ship until December, it’s already causing a stir among the people Android authority Crew and could possibly set the gaming world on fire … if Valve throws enough weight behind it.

In a nutshell: The Steam Deck is equipped with tailor-made AMD processors, a 7-inch touchscreen and between 64-512 GB of internal memory, which can be supplemented with microSD cards. It offers a variety of control options, including thumbsticks and trackpads, and can also be connected to TVs, monitors, and docks via USB-C. Since this is ultimately a hyper-optimized PC, many (but not all) games from your existing Steam library will run on the Steam Deck. You can also install Windows on it if you want, and even with competing gaming platforms like the Epic Games Store or Xbox Game Pass. Bluetooth headphones, keyboards and mice are compatible. Simply put, it’s a PC, but it’s portable.

While it won’t kill high-end towers and laptops, the Steam Deck’s potential lies in solving two PC gaming problems: cost and convenience. The cheapest model costs $ 399, just $ 50 more than the recently announced Switch OLED model coming out in October, and arguably offers a far better deal in terms of performance and breadth of its game library. It’s also half the price of other niche handheld PC hardware we’ve seen from GPD and other brands to date.

Also read: Why the Nintendo Switch OLED model is not the professional of your dreams

In terms of convenience, a mainstream handheld gaming PC could be revolutionary. Traditionally, PC gaming has meant sitting in front of a desk or busy with a bulky laptop. It is of course possible to connect a computer to a television directly or via Steam Link. However, the process can be complicated at times, especially when compared to simply plugging in a switch, Xbox, or PlayStation.

The Steam Deck is also an instant-on device with an integrated gamepad. Much of the appeal of a switch is the ability to simply pick it up, press a button, and play anytime, anywhere. Even if they have a laptop, PC gamers usually had to boot into Windows and plug in a mouse or other external controller, which won’t take that long in 2021, but extra steps can make all the difference between someone playing Superhot or watching HBO. And of course most people don’t pull out a laptop and controller to play games on the bus.

Valve’s history could haunt the Steam Deck

The real test for the Steam Deck will be whether or not Valve can fully update and support it. The company has a mixed track record of hardware, to say the least. While the index is widely considered to be one of the best VR headsets – for people who can afford the $ 1,000 price tag – Valve has historically launched and abandoned hardware products, including the Steam Controller and the Steam Machine PC -Platform. It even discontinued the dedicated Steam Link set-top, despite an enthusiastic following.

That fuzziness won’t fly with the Steam Deck, not if it’s meant to compete with consoles. At the very least, people expect their $ 400 investment to be relevant for a few years. Console makers like Nintendo and Sony don’t give up on hardware if it’s not immediately successful. If necessary, they also make refinements as sales slow down and new technology becomes viable – hence the Switch OLED or the last generation PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.

In fact, with the rapid pace of development in PC graphics, Valve will likely have to iterate faster than its competitors. The current deck can run games like Control and Doom Eternal, but not with the maximum level of detail. The product is dead in the water, even if it has the same specifications in three years. Valve needs to keep its AMD partnership active and constant, and improve performance as the gaming industry demands.

Valve President Gabe Newell makes promising statements, for example tells IGN that the company “does this in the long term” and that profit margins are “painful” to “establish a product category”. This is certainly the approach that console manufacturers are taking – trading a hardware loss for money in games and accessories. Whether Valve has the stomach for it remains to be seen, although it’s worth noting that Valve is working on selling people. Only the 256GB and 512GB models have fast NVMe storage, and the latter (priced at $ 649) has anti-glare etched glass to sweeten business.

Engagement becomes even more critical when the deck takes off. PC makers like Dell, HP, and Microsoft could hit the market quickly with clones, and if their products are superior, the deck’s market share could quickly dry up. Valve will still be ahead if Steam remains the dominant PC business, but rivals will no doubt try to get Steam out of the loop if they can.

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If Microsoft gains a foothold, it could be game over. In addition to offering its own storefront, the company could offer instant access to Xbox Game Pass subscriptions and native Windows support. Xbox Cloud Gaming might even eliminate some of the need to step up processing power like regularly with new hardware.

That’s a big if, however, and one that is probably too far in the future to speculate about. The Steam Deck is already breaking new ground. Every step there will have an oversized impact and must be carefully considered. There are many unanswered questions – will we be able to buy one from Target? Will there be a big Christmas marketing push? Will there ever be a Steam Pass? A “yes” to any of these points could affect the product’s chances.

So far, Valve seems to be making the right moves. The company could easily have screwed up its announcement with expensive pricing, poor controls, or poor performance. The fact that it shows no commitment to understanding players and that’s half the battle.