You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

How would you feel if Valve's Gabe Newell appeared at your front door to deliver a signed Steam Deck? Well, some people got to find out. Also, an overview of a recent IGN interview for you.

There's been quite a few reports now of Newell out and about with a Deck in hand, and it's pretty wholesome but it does sound quite a lot like some sort of marketing stunt. Not that anyone will be complaining about it of course, it's a great way to show it all off. Writing on Reddit, user "bitfiddler0" showed off the signed Deck along with a shot of Newell outside:

Across another report on Reddit, user "SeattleRainPidgeons" mentioned: "Saw a camera crew going up to my neighbors house while I was loading stuff into my truck. My roommate recognized the guy being followed as Gaben, I didn't believe him, our other roommate then verified it was indeed Gabe. After delivering my neighbor's Deck, we yelled "Hi Gabe!". At which point he asked how many were living in the house, then he went back to his van and grabbed us each a Deck. Was also filmed receiving ours so I assume these will be used in some promo or online. Very cool day."

Meanwhile IGN managed to get Newell to stay still for a little while to have a chat, here's the full video and below will be some notes on what was said:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

A quick overview for you:

  • Newell feels problems they're solving will help lots of hardware manufacturers in the PC space.
  • Thinks this is a permanent extension of the PC marketplace.
  • Said he wanted a device like this since "forever" (didn't we all?).
  • Expects to see a "wide variety" of hardware devices (meaning more PC portables) and continued innovation in software for it all.
  • He's been playing Final Fantasy online with family on it.
  • Newell thinks the Steam Deck is a "pretty good bargain" on the subject of bridging the gap with the shortages and high prices of other hardware.
  • No plans to increase Steam Deck price.
  • Far more people having been buying the most expensive model, more than they expected. So they will continue to look at the high-end. The 512GB model has significantly outsold the base 64GB model.
  • When asked about new Steam Deck models in future, Newell said "absolutely". Valve plans to ride the wave of new hardware, like newer and better AMD chips.
  • Demand overall is a lot higher than expected.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
32 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
26 comments
Page: «2/3»
  Go to:

Salvatos Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: pseudexI'm pretty sure if there is a deck V2 it will be backward compatible with the first one.
Surprisingly they sold more top tier decks then they thought. So far valve still earns my trust in buying the most expensive one. Unbelievable how open they are with it and the partnership with ifixit is unbelievable good news.
That's what I would call a sustainable product!
Compatible with what exactly? As Liam pointed out, the software itself is already independent from the hardware and runs on virtually any PC.
elmapul Feb 28, 2022
actually that is bad...
i cant remember the name, but there were an console in the past that was killed because it announced it sequel too soon.
people stop purchasing thinking: why should i buy an <console_name> if they gonna relase the <console_name2> soon and the one i just purchased will be obsolete? i will wait for the <console_name2> instead!
as an result, the company stop selling <console_name> and went broke before they could relase the <console_name2>...

i'm not saying valve will go broke, but announce an steamdeck2 too soon may afect the sales of steam deck 1.
Floyd Feb 28, 2022
Rather aside from the point, but very impressed and glad to see how much weight Gaben has lost. Good on him
Philadelphus Feb 28, 2022
QuoteFar more people having been buying the most expensive model, more than they expected. So they will continue to look at the high-end. The 512GB model has significantly outsold the base 64GB model.
Very interesting, for all the talk I saw in articles about how "you can buy the 64 GB model and upgrade the SSD yourself" it seems not a lot of people feel like doing that.
Purple Library Guy Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: elmapulactually that is bad...
i cant remember the name, but there were an console in the past that was killed because it announced it sequel too soon.
people stop purchasing thinking: why should i buy an <console_name> if they gonna relase the <console_name2> soon and the one i just purchased will be obsolete? i will wait for the <console_name2> instead!
as an result, the company stop selling <console_name> and went broke before they could relase the <console_name2>...

i'm not saying valve will go broke, but announce an steamdeck2 too soon may afect the sales of steam deck 1.
I've been browsing articles about the Deck outside of GoL, and I see a lot of comments from people saying they plan to wait--either for the software to mature a bit more, or for the next version.

Mind you, Gabe is saying they've got more demand than they expected, so that just might mean this machine will keep on getting buyers for some time.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 28 February 2022 at 6:48 pm UTC
slaapliedje Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: Salvatos
Quoting: pseudexI'm pretty sure if there is a deck V2 it will be backward compatible with the first one.
Surprisingly they sold more top tier decks then they thought. So far valve still earns my trust in buying the most expensive one. Unbelievable how open they are with it and the partnership with ifixit is unbelievable good news.
That's what I would call a sustainable product!
Compatible with what exactly? As Liam pointed out, the software itself is already independent from the hardware and runs on virtually any PC.
Ha, weird, I'd expect that to be a question posted anywhere but here, where we're all Linux gamers and should understand compatibility for future devices won't even be a worry. It's even less worrisome than 'will my game work in the next version of Windows' since Valve can either lock the proton version per game, or allow people to tweak that, and use the most optimum version of it. There are many games that are now unplayable on newer versions of Windows, but work fine with Wine, because you can tell Wine to use the APIs of older versions of Windows.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been browsing articles about the Deck outside of GoL, and I see a lot of comments from people saying they plan to wait--either for the software to mature a bit more, or for the next version.

Mind you, Gabe is saying they've got more demand than they expected, so that just might mean this machine will keep on getting buyers for some time.
Funny thing is, once SteamOS 3.0 is stable/released, people could/should see how it runs on the more expensive hand held PC systems to see how it'd run there. Then again the Deck was 'painful' to get to the price they got it to. Because they know damn well they'll make back all the money on Steam Sales!

So excited to get mine!
elmapul Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: elmapulactually that is bad...
i cant remember the name, but there were an console in the past that was killed because it announced it sequel too soon.
people stop purchasing thinking: why should i buy an <console_name> if they gonna relase the <console_name2> soon and the one i just purchased will be obsolete? i will wait for the <console_name2> instead!
as an result, the company stop selling <console_name> and went broke before they could relase the <console_name2>...

i'm not saying valve will go broke, but announce an steamdeck2 too soon may afect the sales of steam deck 1.
I've been browsing articles about the Deck outside of GoL, and I see a lot of comments from people saying they plan to wait--either for the software to mature a bit more, or for the next version.

Mind you, Gabe is saying they've got more demand than they expected, so that just might mean this machine will keep on getting buyers for some time.

i know they will take sometime to relase the steam deck 2, but they should make sure that people know it will take some time.
CZiNTrPT Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: pseudexI'm pretty sure if there is a deck V2 it will be backward compatible with the first one.
Surprisingly they sold more top tier decks then they thought. So far valve still earns my trust in buying the most expensive one. Unbelievable how open they are with it and the partnership with ifixit is unbelievable good news.
That's what I would call a sustainable product!

The minute I heard about this, I bought it! And because I loved the concept and it running on Linux, I wanted to support it so I bought the top tier! I guess there are a lot of enthusiastic people like me. Because tbh it can't bet the specs
Ardje Feb 28, 2022
Once I have my high end deck, I will order the "cheap" deck, so I can play with my wife.
TrainDoc Feb 28, 2022
Quoting: Salvatos
Quoting: pseudexI'm pretty sure if there is a deck V2 it will be backward compatible with the first one.
Surprisingly they sold more top tier decks then they thought. So far valve still earns my trust in buying the most expensive one. Unbelievable how open they are with it and the partnership with ifixit is unbelievable good news.
That's what I would call a sustainable product!
Compatible with what exactly? As Liam pointed out, the software itself is already independent from the hardware and runs on virtually any PC.
Commonly known as the Osborne effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.