Gabe gear
Steam Deck: can Valve’s portable PC succeed where Steam Machines failed?
Boasting around two teraflops of power, its performance compares favourably to PS4
The timing could hardly have been better. A little over a week after the underwhelming announcement of Nintendo’s new OLED Switch model (better screen, bigger stand, and, well, that’s your lot), along came Steam Deck – a significantly more powerful handheld console a few wags determined was the real Switch Pro. The process for reserving units may have turned into a bit of a mess, with some Steam users told their accounts were too new (did the past decade or so really mean that little, Valve?) while others were informed they’d made too many purchases before their deposit had been taken. Yet these obvious signs of servers being overrun would probably have been music to the platform holder’s ears: a leak of the queue sizes suggested 100,000 reservations were made in about two hours.
Not a bad start, then, though Valve’s Steam account stipulations that were intended to stop scalpers had little effect, with eBay listings for Steam Deck preorders set at extortionate prices cropping up almost immediately afterward. More problems soon emerged: the first batch of preorders may be set to arrive with players in the first quarter of next year, but those for the mid-range 256GB model and high-end 512GB unit won’t be with players until Q2 and Q3 respectively.
The hardware itself comes with similar caveats. For a handheld, it’s something of a beast: boasting around two teraflops of power, its performance is streets ahead of Switch, comparing favourably to Xbox One and PS4 on paper. In practice, it’s reportedly even better: with its seven-inch screen outputting at 1280x800, even recent games such as Control and Death Stranding look good and run smoothly on their default graphical settings. Its battery life, too, is roughly comparable to Nintendo’s handheld (the original model, at least), though that will vary significantly depending on what you’re playing. Crucially, the vast majority of your Steam library will be compatible with the device. If nothing else, that gives Steam Deck the greatest launch lineup of any portable gaming hardware.
Concerns that its Linux-based operating system might be incompatible with the anti-cheat solutions used by several of the very biggest online games – from Apex Legends to PUBG – have already been addressed by Valve, which is promising that it is working closely with gamemakers to ensure the device’s updated version of SteamOS will ensure these games will still be playable. Yet many will be compromised by the move to a seven-inch screen (imagining the text on some PC games is already making our eyes hurt), while the capacitive trackpads are unlikely to be an effective substitute for mouse control on many games. Many PC games now boast controller support, of course, but if Steam Deck takes off, will studios have to spend more time tailoring their games to a smaller display?
Friends who’ve gone hands-on with the device insist its size isn’t an issue, and that it’s more comfortable in play than its appearance suggests. Yet we have our doubts about the heft of the thing: at 669g it’s nearly two-and-a-half times the weight of a Switch Lite, which feels like bad news for extended play sessions. The placement of its face buttons isn’t exactly elegant, either: its B button that looks in danger of sliding off the right edge of the device, while X is close enough to the right analogue stick to suggest that Musou players will find it hard not to simultaneously nudge the camera as they’re whaling away on those hundreds-strong hordes.
Following Steam Controller and Index, Valve’s hardware division deserves the benefit of the doubt, though given the failure of Steam Machines, there is still uncertainty around Steam Deck’s ability to break into the mainstream. At twice the cost of a Switch Lite, even the 64GB model feels like a luxury device – and if a major part of its appeal is the prospect of a handheld console with the power of a PC, that sort of storage will severely limit how much of your library is truly portable. It could yet be a powerful streaming device, however: with Valve positioning this as an open PC, players should be able to access their Game Pass titles on the go, too. (Though given cloud gaming is available across many devices already, it’s hard to see that particular feature being a system-seller for most.)
While there are still a few too many ifs and maybes around Steam Deck, this is clearly hardware with huge potential: it’s difficult not to see the appeal of a relatively affordable and portable PC for which players won’t need to concern themselves about builds and specifications. Whether that transmits to wider success remains to be seen – and given its maker has previous form in abandoning promising initiatives, you’d be forgiven for questioning its staying power. But there’s no denying that it’s off to an encouraging start.
TIME TO SWITCH? It would be easy to look at the disappointed response to the OLED Switch model and the comparatively rapturous reception that greeted Steam Deck and assume that Nintendo is in trouble. Yet while Steam Deck’s form factor has clearly been inspired by Switch, the two devices are aimed at very different markets. Outside of dedicated hobbyist circles, where there is some audience crossover, Nintendo’s relatively underpowered hardware simply isn’t a concern for most of its vast installed base. And even those threatening to make the switch, you sense, will miss those firstparty titles that make Nintendo’s device so appealing to the masses. Having the whole of your Steam library available at any time is an attractive prospect, but until such time as Steam Deck can play Breath
Of The Wild or Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo surely won’t be sweating too much.