I love my Steam Deck, as any regular reader will know. It's my favourite gaming device but it could always be better right? And with competition hot (hi Nintendo), I hope Valve have more plans.
Now, I'm not dumb enough to think that the Steam Deck is in actual competition with the Nintendo Switch. That's just not a reality. The Switch has sold over 140 million units and continues to sell millions, it's in stores everywhere, people buy it for their children, for themselves and yeah — you get the idea. But still, for us PC fans the Steam Deck (and specifically us Linux lot) and other PC handhelds are simply awesome.
We all knew a Nintendo Switch 2 would happen, there just hadn't been any real proper confirmation, until now. Writing on social media, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa posted on May 7th:
This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.
So sometime before the end of March 2025, the Nintendo Switch 2 will be revealed.
That leads me to think about the future. The Switch 2 will no doubt sell by the truck-loads once again. So let's just set that aside because it's a different market overall. Still, we have other handheld PC gaming vendors appearing often like the ROG Ally, Legion GO, MSI Claw, various devices from OneXPlayer, GPD, Ayaneo and more on the way so there's really a lot of these devices now.
To me, handheld gaming like this is the future. You may think I am heavily biased, and in many ways I am (obviously, I run this website) but I'm a tech-fan. I have a PlayStation, a Switch, an Xbox and more. But it feels increasingly weird to have a dedicated solid box permanently attached to a single TV. I actually don't like that at all now. Being able to take a much smaller device with you to play anywhere, and additionally have the ability to hook it up to a TV whenever you want just feels so much better. Nintendo definitely had the right idea, as did Valve.
We've seen in the past that Valve have said pretty clearly they had plans to keep going, and with the Steam Deck still continuing to sell constantly, it would be crazy if Valve didn't produce a Steam Deck 2. Even though you could argue the Steam Deck OLED is such a ridiculous improvement it might as well be a Steam Deck 2, I want more. A lot more.
The current shell design is just fine, I don't think Valve really need to do many changes there at all. The OLED design gave us enough improvements inside to various parts so thinking on what they should add in for the big number 2: a newer generation AMD APU to bring performance up, with a slightly higher resolution screen and I honestly think I would be ridiculously happy. It doesn't take much. Performance being the biggest one and with more new AMD chips on the way, give it another year for the generation after that (or their refresh) and we could be looking at a really fun performance boost.
So, let's say a Steam Deck 2 announcement in late 2026. Make it so, Valve.
What do you think? And what do you now want from a Steam Deck 2?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: R3BiRtHthe seemingly intented purpose for the device to be the standard "lowest common denominator" target for developers to make sure their games are ready to be supported for handheld gaming PC's.
Does anyone actually view it that way? It sure seems superior in many ways to most of the competition.
QuoteThe Switch 2 will no doubt sell by the truck-loads once again.
Hmm, maybe, but remember, only every-second Nintendo console ever sells well.
From a purely "consumer" point of view, always more, more, best, let me buy new stuff all the time is the norm. Moar shiny and all that, but also just get the most popular thing. This includes all those Nintendo customers, but all the PC master racists, too.
For a "thinksumer", all these other considerations come into play: is the company making the product a bunch of cunts, what about the planet, maybe I'll go on a holiday instead or invest in big tech shares.
It's certainly much easier being a consumer. We all know that, though, right? This being a Linux gaming site and all.
Edit:
But on topic: I'll welcome a Deck 2 in 3 years (meaning: I'll buy it gladly. If they put it out sooner I'll buy it ungladly). I think switching to a 16:9 aspect ratio would be best for seamless portable-docked transitions, I love 16:10 in a laptop, but less so for a purely gaming device. I'd like it to have 2-3x the power in the same power envelope (20W). The form factor is fine, something perhaps a touch smaller would be great. I don't need a higher res screen, but I'd like Valve to put more pressure on devs to test their games on small screens. A higher resolution at 7-8" doesn't mean all those tiny letters will now magically become readable.
Last edited by damarrin on 9 May 2024 at 5:38 am UTC
spacemonkey May 9
Quoting: spacemonkeyI would prefer "Deckard" (rumored portable VR headset) over a Steam Deck 2.
when the oled was being touted by quite a few before its release that it was going to be the 2.0, when i went looking through the documents that were available, there is potential that the deckard tv box is likely in the works, and there is a possibilty that it could also be compatible with the next steam deck as well. (My personal speculation based on what i read, but not a definite)
the wifi 6 specs and its range in footage along with some not yet utilized specs in the oled version could potentially elude to it. which in my opinion would be a decent prospect. Especially since deckard has been in the works for a little over 2 years now.
Furthermore, people asking for Deck 2 to run current games... do you guys want to throw $1K or more on your handhelds? I know I wouldn't, I find the current Deck perfectly fine for what I realistically expected would run on it, besides, setting up Sunnine/Moonlight was easy enough I'd never bother with a more powerful handheld if I can locally stream all my demanding games (which aren't many) from my capable PC.
I'd probably be more into the idea if there'd be specific exciting features and innovations coming with a Deck 2, not just adding more RAM etc.
Quoting: grigi* 6-8 cores (no need to go above 8) that's very power optimizedafaik, runing 1 core at 4ghz consume way more power than 2 cores at 2 ghz, so maybe increasing the ammount of cores might be a good idea
Quoting: grigiThe 8 year cadence of the switch is too long as it has definitely been losing developer interest in the last two years as it's too weak to support on multiplatform releases anymore.because those developers are developing for switch 2...
i mean look at how many units switch 1 sold, do you really think anyone would be crazy to not relase their games for switch 2?
Quoting: PyrateFurthermore, people asking for Deck 2 to run current games... do you guys want to throw $1K or more on your handhelds?Couple to few time that, top of the line struggling with current release "quality" and "optimization" way to often.
Hopes... proper jump in hardware, not undervolted laptop APU/SoC; proper world wide and average (big) electronic store release and availability; not targeting enthusiast and people with no sense and too much cash to burn... not many can replace hardware every 3 year or less (or get free samples), a lots beyond 5 or even 8 year mark.
Quoting: PyrateFurthermore, people asking for Deck 2 to run current games
Running current games is not adequate. If the Deck 2 is releasing in 2026/2027 then it needs to be able to run games from 2028 & 2029.
It needs to have sufficient performance to minimise the work of game devs to make that happen, and it needs to sell in sufficient numbers to make that effort worthwhile. Those two factors are inversely related: the Switch could command game developers putting in epic amounts of work for their games to run on its underpowered hardware because it sold >100 million units; the Deck 2 isn't going to sell that many so the work required needs to be less. Lower resolution and a smaller screen than the mainstream will get some of the way there, but not all of it.
Quoting: slaapliedjeTime to fire up those Amigas, Atari STs or DOS systems and play the loads of games that released for them that you never had time to get to! Or even the loads of new games that have been coming out for them!With how the industry is going to have to lie in the unsustainable bed that it's made for itself, I'm currently preparing for an emulation-heavy approach to gaming in the future until things right themselves again, so I'll certainly be checking out the new stuff alongside revisiting old favourites and digging into stuff that passed me by!
Quoting: PhlebiacI don't know if there are newer stats available, but anecdotally I think tablet use peaked around then, and has declined a lot since.I struggled to find more recent ones because I didn't know where to look - many thanks for digging those up.
Edit: here's some recent browser stats, which have it at around 2%
https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet
I didn't look exhaustively, but I think it peaked at less than 7%
https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet/worldwide/2014
And was already on the decline when mobile overtook desktop
https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet/worldwide/2016
It's still just as sad of a picture, though, since for all intents and purposes "Mobile" and "Tablet" are the same thing here, with people opting to use phones and tablets (all running the same mobile OSes) interchangeably for internet tasks, instead of PCs - when you put the two together, you get 60% of the market in favour of the mobile/tablet side (with an unknown amount of the PCs also being portables themselves, I'm sure).
Last edited by Pengling on 9 May 2024 at 9:10 am UTC
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