Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
I fantasize about the idea of starting private companies for things currently dominated by public companies, with the sole idea of not being greedy and shitty.
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
I honestly don't understand why most companies aren't private instead of public. Like which founder looks forward to answering to investors when they could just be answerable to themselves and their employees and maybe board, like are they looking for a massive exit payout by going public or to raise funds to become a bigger company, but I argue if you are making enough to be profitable why chase being bigger
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I care less about power and more about silence. I would pay double for a Steam Deck that doesn't sound like a hair dryer when I try to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on low.
That's kinda about power though. Think about going up a pulling a trailer up a hill with a vehicle that has a small engine versus a bigger one.
The small engine vehicle might make the hill, but it's going up gear lower, rev higher, and probably heat up a bit.
The bigger vehicle will handle the hill and load with more grace, but may also use more fuel in everyday situations or cost more.
BG3 is kinda stretching the Deck's engine (APU), and the fans are running like made to compensate for the heat running at 100% for longer periods. I've a few games that stretch the Deck's capabilities so for those I just stream from my more powerful PC
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I have a switch
I’m sorry for your lo$$.
I had a first gen and bought it at a discount (10% for Newsletter sign up I immediately cancelled after ordering hah). Iirc it cost me about 350€ which was still a lot but compared to what's going on now...
Gifted it to my mother for the grandkids because I bought a steamdeck and never used the switch again.
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That's kinda about power though. Think about going up a pulling a trailer up a hill with a vehicle that has a small engine versus a bigger one.
The small engine vehicle might make the hill, but it's going up gear lower, rev higher, and probably heat up a bit.
The bigger vehicle will handle the hill and load with more grace, but may also use more fuel in everyday situations or cost more.
BG3 is kinda stretching the Deck's engine (APU), and the fans are running like made to compensate for the heat running at 100% for longer periods. I've a few games that stretch the Deck's capabilities so for those I just stream from my more powerful PC
Thats only Part of it, the others are efficence, Formfaktor and weight. Make it 2-5cm thicker and its now nearly silent
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Once again Valve proves they actually understand what people want; a relatively cheap and effective system that lets people play the games they want to play
Well people also want HL3, and here we are...
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I honestly don't understand why most companies aren't private instead of public. Like which founder looks forward to answering to investors when they could just be answerable to themselves and their employees and maybe board, like are they looking for a massive exit payout by going public or to raise funds to become a bigger company, but I argue if you are making enough to be profitable why chase being bigger
wrote last edited by [email protected]You don't want to be profitable. You want to be rich
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Thats only Part of it, the others are efficence, Formfaktor and weight. Make it 2-5cm thicker and its now nearly silent
I think even 1cm would be enough. Take a look at the ifixit steamdeck heatsink replacement guide to see how small the heatsink is.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Heatsink+Replacement/148904
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Crys in Australian
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Newer handhelds might have more power, but I still think the Deck is the best value for what it offers.
I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
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The Steam Deck is not sold at a loss. The initial pricing for the 64 GB unit was barely profitable, but this quickly changed with production ramping up.
This was confirmed by Valve themselves in an interview that happened months after Gabe's famous comments about the pricing.
So yes, Valve profits from the games too, but that's not used to subsidize the Steam Deck's price.
Could there be an argument about the R&D costs not being factored in there? So for companies that can't compete, its literally a skill issue.
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I think the big difference is that they seem to be optimizing for customer satisfaction where others are not.
My favorite example I use often is how the Steam Deck comes with a case. It’s free and there’s not even an option to not get it. They know you need one, they include it. The Switch doesn’t come with a case. They know you need one but they don’t care. You’ll buy one if you want it bad enough and that’s more revenue.
It’s just a different type of optimization.
I'm still amazed that the Lenovo Legion Go costs almost $300 more than the SD but does not come with a case.
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Well people also want HL3, and here we are...
The hype train for hl3 is so off the rails that valve can't release it. It would never live up to the hype, so it's a pretty sound decision not to make it.
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I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
So essentially a Steam Link/Moonlight thin client? Yeah, I like the idea of that.
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I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
wrote last edited by [email protected]You want a linux psp, a media device that had a web browser too. The psp was som far ahead of its time.
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I think even 1cm would be enough. Take a look at the ifixit steamdeck heatsink replacement guide to see how small the heatsink is.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Heatsink+Replacement/148904
I was thinking about a bigger fan. Diddnt someone bolt a pc fan on? Dont remember, but that was my tought tiny fan replacing with Silent 80-140 and the noise is gone.
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
They must be too busy enabling children gambling on hats
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I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
I think a budget android handheld could work well for game streaming. TechDweeb and Retro Game Corps newest videos show android handhelds that cost less than 100€.
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I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
There are loads and loads of really cheap Android-based emulator handhelds. The YouTuber TechDweeb does lots of reviews of these devices. These things have effectively spawned their own retro gaming ecosystem around them.
An alternative is to pick up a used New Nintendo 3DS (New being part of the name, distinguishing it from the original 3DS which is way less powerful). This device can be hacked to run many different emulators and play thousands of games. While the screens are not as good as the best Android handhelds, the form factor is ideally suited for running DS and 3DS games (which obviously run natively on the device) while still being great for older single-screen systems (the unused touch screen is excellent for emulator controls such as pause/resume and save/load state).
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Crys in Australian
