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[AndrewRyan]

Before the steam deck had been eyeing some of the $1000+ win handhelds and you just knew they were going to require endless tinkering and forum searching just to get things half working.

The Switch OLED that had just been released with no power upgrade and it was such a let down. Even those were freakin' sold out everywhere. About two weeks later finally some OLEDs became available at Target. I had one in my shopping cart and was re-reading the specs trying to convince myself that it was fine and that's when the Steam Deck was announced out of nowhere!

Ordered it the same day and gaming has never been the same or so good.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

As much as I love the Steam Deck...nah. It and these "handhelds" aren't true handhelds, with games designed to be played in short bursts in a very portable form factor. I'd say the 3DS family was the last true wave of handhelds

 

[64bitmodels]

As much as I love the Steam Deck...nah. It and these "handhelds" aren't true handhelds, with games designed to be played in short bursts in a very portable form factor. I'd say the 3DS family was the last true wave of handhelds

Good. Handheld gaming needs to evolve besides just being the small mobile system with lower budget, short burst games. By the definition of "handheld" you're suggesting, there isn't much seperating the 3DS's library of games from the Google Play Store's library of games.

Mobile phone gaming has upset the market and we need something better than portable short burst games to sell modern gaming handhelds.

 

[bender]

Thank you N-Gage.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Good. Handheld gaming needs to evolve besides just being the small mobile system with lower budget, short burst games. By the definition of "handheld" you're suggesting, there isn't much seperating the Switch's library of games from the Google Play Store's library of games.

Any owner of handhelds knows that those handhelds and Sony's stuff like PSP/Vita ≠ microtranasction bait app games. They're full fleshed out games like you'd find on consoles...but their scale is smaller, more befitting of a portable experience.

Like I stated before, I love the Steam Deck...but I don't consider it a true handheld. It's hard to take it places because it's so bulky, so I usually dock it to the TV to play my Steam library and emulators in the living room TV. Even if there's a smaller more portable revision of it...I have a hard time picturing myself playing console designed games on the go, something like God of War 2018 for example. If I want to replay that, I'd rather immerse myself in it properly on a TV, which defeats the portability aspect.

I miss true handheld experiences, which could also be pretty diverse in range as well, from quirky things like Tomodachi Life to arcade style action that can be enjoyed in bursts like Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D...to giving dead franchises another chance like the various Megaman games on PSP and DS, etc.

 

[G-Bus]

Cmon Sony. Bring it back.

 

[BlackTron]

As much as I love the Steam Deck...nah. It and these "handhelds" aren't true handhelds, with games designed to be played in short bursts in a very portable form factor. I'd say the 3DS family was the last true wave of handhelds

Kinda this...and why I still kinda want to nab a New 3DS XL before they get too old, for posterity's sake while I still can. It's the actual top-shelf Nintendo handheld out there. And it's full of software that is really tailored to playing on the unique hardware. IMO, DS/3DS games on real hardware haven't really stopped looking juicy yet. For the type of games that work well on a handheld a Retroid Pocket is probably fine...but you can get that any time, the last true handheld with an exclusive library of portable games is only going more extinct.

Not to derail and turn this into a glory to DS thread though lol. Really, Whether you like big chunky mini PC handhelds or small nimble GBA type handhelds, I think the Deck (and by extension, the Switch before it) was really really good for the industry, tightening up design standards SUBSTANTIALLY across form factors and price points. This still benefits someone buying a smaller handheld to load with actual old handheld games, so hey. No one loses.

 

[BeardGawd]

Pre steam deck

GPD win's terrible handhelds, Retroid Pocket 2, Alienware UFO (never went anywhere).... uhh, that's it really.

POST Steam Deck
The Deck itself, AYN Odin (actually good PS2 emulation on a 200 dollar device!!!), AYN Loki, retroid pocket 3, Asus ROG ally, Ayaneo 2, etc etc etc

ALL of this. in 1 year.

This is exactly what I predicted when the system was first unveiled. It hasn't been a year and everyone's scrambling for a piece of the action. As the years pass, these devices will only get better and better, cheaper and cheaper.

The future of gaming handhelds is looking bright.

You should really be praising AMD as it's their SOC that allows for this form factor and decent battery life.

 

[Spukc]

 

[Topher]

Do not get the homage being paid to Nintendo here. The form factor we are talking about predates Switch and doesn't steal any of the stuff that makes Switch cool and unique such as detachable joycons that can come together and make a separate controller, etc. In fact, the stuff that makes Steam Deck truly unique has nothing to do with Switch or consoles in general.

1) Steam Deck is still an open system. Unlike consoles, you still have that PC freedom to install whatever you want and even change operating systems.
2) No other handheld has offered the flexibility in customizable control schemes as Steam Deck. Dual touchpads, back buttons, touch screen along with built in software to change schemes.
3) Proton. Literally taking Windows gaming away from Windows. This is what has breathed life into Steam Deck.

You should really be praising AMD as it's their SOC that allows for this form factor and decent battery life.

This as well

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Kinda this...and why I still kinda want to nab a New 3DS XL before they get too old, for posterity's sake while I still can. It's the actual top-shelf Nintendo handheld out there. And it's full of software that is really tailored to playing on the unique hardware. IMO, DS/3DS games on real hardware haven't really stopped looking juicy yet. For the type of games that work well on a handheld a Retroid Pocket is probably fine...but you can get that any time, the last true handheld with an exclusive library of portable games is only going more extinct.

Not to derail and turn this into a glory to DS thread though lol. Really, Whether you like big chunky mini PC handhelds or small nimble GBA type handhelds, I think the Deck (and by extension, the Switch before it) was really really good for the industry, tightening up design standards SUBSTANTIALLY across form factors and price points. This still benefits someone buying a smaller handheld to load with actual old handheld games, so hey. No one loses.

This! Both can co exist

 

[Roxkis_ii]

If only the other windows handhelds were in the same price range as the steam deck.

I also think the retro (android\Linux based) handhelds have been a thing before the steam deck.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Anyone interested in buying my Steamdeck?
It's the 500GB version and I also have a 500GB SD card and the Steam Deck Dock.

 

[64bitmodels]

You should really be praising AMD as it's their SOC that allows for this form factor and decent battery life.

gotta thank AMD in some part too since they make the chipsets responsible for powering many of these handhelds. Their expertise in efficiency and APUs is paying off big time and it's generating more benefits for us all around

AMD's rapid improvement in APU technology is probably the main reason why we're able to get handheld PCs this capable to begin with

 

[64bitmodels]

2) No other handheld has offered the flexibility in customizable control schemes as Steam Deck. Dual touchpads, back buttons, touch screen along with built in software to change schemes.

dare i say no other controller in general. The Dualsense is the only thing that comes close and it's still missing the capacitive joysticks and the dual touchpad (only 1 which isn't even used for aiming)
If they made the deck's control scheme into a Steam Controller 2 i'd throw away my Series controller and buy 10 of them. Extra points if they improve the Steam API to make mapping it and working with games hassle free as possible. If that shit got released I wouldn't need a mouse and keyboard for anything besides the most extreme FPS games.

 

[Crayon]

The hardware is neat. Great even.

For me, the extraordinary contribution is the work on steamworks, steamplay, dxvk and other countless bits of software working towards "pc" meaning fucking pc instead of windows.

Well if it can be the machine that will motivate more devs to port their games outside of Windows that's good. The thing is, proton was mandatory for it to be a success, and then it can also be seen as a necessary evil because devs, aren't in the end encouraged to port their games.

I got to be careful not to go on at length here but in many ways it's better for everyone to work on windows compatibility for games. My favorite two examples are wow and eve. On eve they had a linux version. At one point they depricated it. People were understandibly upset, but eve was not giving up on linux. They put some effort into making sure that the game ran well on WINE. Basically chasing down little details and bs that would break the game through wine. Turns out linux users had a better experience. Better compatibilty, and they got to stay right up to date with the windows build. WOW was similar but they never had a linux version. Someone there was just sympathetic towards linux and quashed things that would break the game in WINE so it worked smoothly as often as possible.

There is still disagreement in the community, but I think the compatibility layer approach has proved itself on the practical benefits compared to the philosophical benefits of wanting native development.

 

[BlackTron]

Do not get the homage being paid to Nintendo here. The form factor we are talking about predates Switch and doesn't steal any of the stuff that makes Switch cool and unique such as detachable joycons that can come together and make a separate controller, etc. In fact, the stuff that makes Steam Deck truly unique has nothing to do with Switch or consoles in general.

I think it's that the Switch concept of a honking wide portable dockable system was proven in the marketplace first by Nintendo. N64 wasn't the first analog stick either, but that's where it was implemented and packaged to sell the masses on how and why they need it now always and forever. Remember everyone here thought Switch would be a colossal failure when it was unveiled - in my opinion, Switch's blow-up success was a necessary catalyst for Valve to venture into releasing a hardware in this form factor. I'm not sure, without Nintendo's precedent, they would be eager toss their hand into the pile of Chinese-style handheld PCs we already have.

Just all of these 3D third party games being played on weak Switch systems created an enviornment where Deck was more likely to exist to answer the obvious question "what if more power though?"

 

[rodrigolfp]

these "handhelds" aren't true handhelds, with games designed to be played in short bursts in a very portable form factor.

Like Pokemon where people spend dozens of hours playing?

 

[Nautilus]

the best part about this boom is that we don't just have to use Nintendo handhelds

But the Switch isn't a handheld. Then yeah, you don't have to use handhelds if you're playing on a Switch.

 

[ReBurn]

I have an Anbernic 35xx, just sold my 353m and have the 405m on the way. The retroid and Anbernic devices are awesome for retro gaming.

I love the metal Anbernic handhelds. I have an RG351m that is perfect for Gameboy Advance emulation. I'm going to get the RG405m, too. It's looking like it's going to be great for 4:3 retro gaming.

OP seems to be trying to give Steam Deck credit for pushing these little emulation handhelds along but it really didn't have much of an impact on them. They were evolving nicely as standalone Android and Linux devices well before Steam Deck released. And at their price point and feature set they're not even going after the same base as Steam Deck.

 

[Topher]

I think it's that the Switch concept of a honking wide portable dockable system was proven in the marketplace first by Nintendo. N64 wasn't the first analog stick either, but that's where it was implemented and packaged to sell the masses on how and why they need it now always and forever. Remember everyone here thought Switch would be a colossal failure when it was unveiled - in my opinion, Switch's blow-up success was a necessary catalyst for Valve to venture into releasing a hardware in this form factor. I'm not sure, without Nintendo's precedent, they would be eager toss their hand into the pile of Chinese-style handheld PCs we already have.

Just all of these 3D third party games being played on weak Switch systems created an enviornment where Deck was more likely to exist to answer the obvious question "what if more power though?"

I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. So sure, thank Nintendo for that, but beyond that the focus really is not the same. Steam Deck doesn't include a dock in the box and really doesn't advertise the hybrid experience like Nintendo does. Steam Deck aims to bring the PC experience to handhelds, but also includes the innovations I listed prior. So yeah, if Valve had made a carbon copy Switch then we would all be saying as much, but that isn't really the case and someone flatly saying "Thanks Nintendo" (not saying you) either really hasn't put very much thought into it or they should expand on what Nintendo is being thanked for.

 

[Bragr]

Do not get the homage being paid to Nintendo here.

The Switch showed that big handhelds can work and can become extremely popular and is 10.000% the reason why Steam Deck exists.

That people have tried making handheld PC's before, and that the Steam Deck has different features, has no impact on that.

The Steam Deck exists because Valve employees and Gabe Newell were sitting around playing Mario and Zelda on the Switch and saw that tens of millions were doing the same. They understood there and then that a handheld PC can become more than a gimmick and that people want this if it's done right.

Nintendo fell on its ass with the Wii-U but had the balls to believe in the handheld controller and made the Switch out of it. That is a gutsy move and they absolutely deserve praise for it and what they pulled off.

 

[Topher]

The Switch showed that big handhelds can work and can become extremely popular and is 10.000% the reason why Steam Deck exists.

That people have tried making handheld PC's before, and that the Steam Deck has different features, has no impact on that.

The Steam Deck exists because Valve employees and Gabe Newell were sitting around playing Mario and Zelda on the Switch and saw that tens of millions were doing the same. They understood there and then that a handheld PC can become more than a gimmick and that people want this if it's done right.

Nintendo fell on its ass with the Wii-U but had the balls to believe in the handheld controller and made the Switch out of it. That is a gutsy move and they absolutely deserve praise for it and what they pulled off.

Similar to what I said here....

I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. So sure, thank Nintendo for that, but beyond that the focus really is not the same. Steam Deck doesn't include a dock in the box and really doesn't advertise the hybrid experience like Nintendo does. Steam Deck aims to bring the PC experience to handhelds, but also includes the innovations I listed prior. So yeah, if Valve had made a carbon copy Switch then we would all be saying as much, but that isn't really the case and someone flatly saying "Thanks Nintendo" (not saying you) either really hasn't put very much thought into it or they should expand on what Nintendo is being thanked for.

 

[daveonezero]

Is this Steam Deck or AMD APUs?

I think Ryzen is the big factor.

 

[64bitmodels]

Is this Steam Deck or AMD APUs?

I think Ryzen is the big factor.

 

[Bragr]

Similar to what I said here....

The dock or hybrid focus has no impact on this. Whatever focus they have is secondary to the point that the Switch showed it's possible. It showed that gaming on a relatively large handheld works, whether it's a console or a PC. That's the greenlight that Valve needed.

 

[Captain Toad]

I'd say the 3DS family was the last true wave of handhelds

You can say whatever you want, but it's factually incorrect.

 

[Topher]

The dock or hybrid focus has no impact on this. Whatever focus they have is secondary to the point that the Switch showed it's possible. It showed that gaming on a relatively large handheld works, whether it's a console or a PC. That's the greenlight that Valve needed.

"I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. "

 

[64bitmodels]

The Switch showed that big handhelds can work and can become extremely popular and is 10.000% the reason why Steam Deck exists.

Likewise, the Steam Deck proved that even bigger X86 handhelds can work, and proved that Linux gaming can be just as good, if not superior, to gaming on Windows. This handheld's software combined with Microsoft's repeated failures with Windows could shape PC gaming for the next decade.

it's both handhelds existence that's the reason we see so many companies hopping on the PC handheld train.... to credit only NIntendo for it is missing the point

 

[Captain Toad]

"I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. "

WELL, MY COMMENT IS SO IMPORTANT, IT WARRANTS, LARGE FONT, BOLD AND ALL CAPS.

 

[64bitmodels]

WELL, MY COMMENT IS SO IMPORTANT, IT WARRANTS, LARGE FONT, BOLD AND ALL CAPS.

i think he formatted it that way because the dude wasn't really getting the point.....

 

[Topher]

WELL, MY COMMENT IS SO IMPORTANT, IT WARRANTS, LARGE FONT, BOLD AND ALL CAPS.

Simply highlighting the fact that we are agreeing.

 

[daveonezero]

Yes and sWtich. Its just a sign of the awesome capabilities of portable devices and also the improvements of tools to be able to scale to these devices.

Me personally I'm looking to buy a Ryzen mini pc just to play Elden Ring.

 

[Bragr]

"I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. "

So, I don't know how to approach this, because you are trying to ignore the other stuff you said by bolding your words like a kid, and this statement right here doesn't really mean much either.

The 3DS, PSP, and DS clearly showed there was still a market for handhelds when smartphone gaming was booming. The mobile market and console market have been proven to be separate before the Switch.

 

[Paltheos]

Just be glad we have actual options for handhelds besides Nintendo for the first time in a decade

My love

 

[BlackTron]

I think what Nintendo proved was that there is a market for handheld gaming outside of smart phones. So sure, thank Nintendo for that, but beyond that the focus really is not the same. Steam Deck doesn't include a dock in the box and really doesn't advertise the hybrid experience like Nintendo does. Steam Deck aims to bring the PC experience to handhelds, but also includes the innovations I listed prior. So yeah, if Valve had made a carbon copy Switch then we would all be saying as much, but that isn't really the case and someone flatly saying "Thanks Nintendo" (not saying you) either really hasn't put very much thought into it or they should expand on what Nintendo is being thanked for.

They do indeed have a different focus, but Switch still proved that a honking super wide handheld game system that isn't a phone could be a thing, which is the part I think was critical for Deck to exist. The hybrid aspect of Switch is just a gimmick -it requires this gigantic plastic dock and was artificially taken away from Switch Lite. All the Deck needs to connect to a screen is a cable. In other words they didn't flaunt it because it's just another feature on yesterday's system, like motion controls, and they're not relying on gimmicks like Nintendo. (Nintendo relies on them to create and normalize the market to begin with though so more power to them).

Sega had their own good ideas too but only after Nintendo showed them it was even fucking possible. It doesn't have to be a 1:1 copy and this isn't the first time Nintendo set up the stage of a market to tap (and expand) with their own risk and balls.

Of course Switch was only the first step. It wasn't until Deck showed up with an open platform that all the Chinese handheld makers went OH SHIT and tightened their game up right quick.

 

[cartman414]

You can say whatever you want, but it's factually incorrect.

Last portable you can slide in your pocket and not think about.

 

[GHG]

My love

Nah it was shit, terrible ergonomics. The whole thing was made worse by the memory card situation.

Some of the games were decent and the screen (oled models) was fantastic but apart from that, failure in every way. I'd even say the psp did a better job.

 

[Valkyria]

Steam Deck praise triggers some people a lot

 

[cartman414]

we need a steam deck 2 for a third impact.

How about a 3rd Strike?

 

[Bragr]

Likewise, the Steam Deck proved that even bigger X86 handhelds can work, and proved that Linux gaming can be just as good, if not superior, to gaming on Windows. This handheld's software combined with Microsoft's repeated failures with Windows could shape PC gaming for the next decade.

it's both handhelds existence that's the reason we see so many companies hopping on the PC handheld train.... to credit only NIntendo for it is missing the point

Sure, the Steam Deck pushed it into the PC realm and is influencing the future in that space for sure, but even most of these new PC handhelds are still trying to be PC Switch with their looks, even with the Deck out there with a superior layout.

 

[Bragr]

The whole thing was made worse by the memory card situation.

Wait, did it have the same issue as the PSP, where the memory card would "disconnect" randomly? I had so many issues with the memory card on the PSP that I still feel frustrated.

 

[GHG]

Wait, did it have the same issue as the PSP, where the memory card would "disconnect" randomly? I had so many issues with the memory card on the PSP that I still feel frustrated.

No, it had ridiculous expensive proprietary memory cards and you needed to use them if you wanted to build out a digital library of any sort.

 

[robor]

It will be my next gaming system.

 

[64bitmodels]

My love

Maybe next time.

 

[Topher]

So, I don't know how to approach this, because you are trying to ignore the other stuff you said by bolding your words like a kid, and this statement right here doesn't really mean much either.

The 3DS, PSP, and DS clearly showed there was still a market for handhelds when smartphone gaming was booming. The mobile market and console market have been proven to be separate before the Switch.

The other stuff I said was part of a different conversation that I was having with BlackTron . Sorry about enlarging the text. Trying to highlight the point. Didn't meant to offend. I should have just copy and paste that single text I was trying to focus on.

You make a good point about those other handhelds although in the end, Nintendo was the only company left making successful handhelds. Prior to Steam Deck, the conventional wisdom among gamers seems to be that no one but Nintendo could make a successful handheld, certainly not in the PC space with an open system. So I'm left here changing my mind on how much impact Nintendo really had. Did Nintendo Switch pave the way for PC handhelds? Or was that simply a matter of Nintendo continuing to excel in handhelds, but also merging their products into a single line. I think that's a debatable point.

 

[BlackTron]

You can say whatever you want, but it's factually incorrect.

To be fair, 3DS is the last system with actual handheld games made for it. And not just the same thing you have on TV but smaller.

 

[Drell]

Proton means that devs don't need to devote their time and resources to making a Linux port... they can design the game for Windows and be absolutely sure it will work on Linux because of how accurate and great proton is. Native ports don't exactly guarantee better performance either.
The issue comes with idiots like Bungie and Epic who can support proton by modifying their anticheat (a single toggle in the settings and a whole new audience gets to play Fortnite and Destiny 2 on Linux), but refuse to for literally 0 reason.
Destiny 2 is the one thing keeping my friends from jumping over to Linux and it's a game i do miss playing sometimes. Bungie choosing to actively not support it is a dick move

The hardware is neat. Great even.

For me, the extraordinary contribution is the work on steamworks, steamplay, dxvk and other countless bits of software working towards "pc" meaning fucking pc instead of windows.



I got to be careful not to go on at length here but in many ways it's better for everyone to work on windows compatibility for games. My favorite two examples are wow and eve. On eve they had a linux version. At one point they depricated it. People were understandibly upset, but eve was not giving up on linux. They put some effort into making sure that the game ran well on WINE. Basically chasing down little details and bs that would break the game through wine. Turns out linux users had a better experience. Better compatibilty, and they got to stay right up to date with the windows build. WOW was similar but they never had a linux version. Someone there was just sympathetic towards linux and quashed things that would break the game in WINE so it worked smoothly as often as possible.

There is still disagreement in the community, but I think the compatibility layer approach has proved itself on the practical benefits compared to the philosophical benefits of wanting native development.

While I agree with both of you that it is a viable approach, that it simplifies work for devs and that Valve/Steam did a fantastic work with all the tools they developped for that goal, I wish that maybe in the future, Windows and DirectX become a little bit less of a monopoly on the PC gaming market. Apple could've made things move for a long time but they didn't really ever gave two shit about gaming on their Macs (IPhone is another story). Since Valve ported Steam for Linux, things moved a little bit but more than it ever has. And so, after their steam machines were a massive failure and disapeared as quickly as they came, I saw the success of the Steamdeck as a new opportunity to try again to kickstart native gaming on Linux distros (SteamOS being obviously the main one). But of course, I won't blame any dev who don't port its games, even more if it is proton friendly.

 

[CGNoire]

Wake me up when we get SteamDeck Oled.

 

[West Texas CEO]

Steam Deck praise triggers some people a lot

It has barely been out, yet more and more gamers are recognizing that its the best handheld ever built.
This fact conflicts with people who have such fond and irrational attachments to past handhelds, when they're clearly inferior to the Steam Deck.