Quoting: Purple Library GuyBy the way--Steam Deck, huh? Not a terrible name. Sure better than "Steam Pal".

I wonder if they'll release different coloured models? I'm hoping for "The Colour Of Television, Tuned To A Dead Channel."

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Quoting: g000hI'm waiting for Microsoft to offer Valve a free Windows licence for each Steam Deck, or even better - Pay Valve to put Windows onto the device. I'm just jesting, but if this thing skyrockets, I wouldn't put it past Microsoft.

Windows is already free for devices with small screens. A hangover from them suffocating netbook competitors, I think.

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Quoting: slaapliedjeI think the real question is how many new games will we get as Linux native when developers want to make games for this new 'console' and can finally convince publishers there is enough interest?

It's hard to say. There was a big uptick in native titles with the Steam Machines coverage, but that died out when they didn't take off. I can see it flipping indies using Unity from "probably no" to "probably yes," but the big studios might feel burned from last time and wait-and-see, or just lean on Proton. More "officially support Proton" is something, but it's not full support.

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Quoting: scaineFor a device like this though? Who cares if it's Arch?

ChromeOS is based on Gentoo, but the user experience of using a Chromebook is nothing like the user experience of using Gentoo on the desktop.

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Quoting: dubigrasuWait, I see underneath paddles, 4 of them. Wasn't a big lawsuit about this?

The patent was for having a rocker across the width of the controller; Valve had also tried buttons on the back, but didn't feel they'd be as good. This device is way too wide for a rocker so it wouldn't have infringed even if they hadn't recently had the case loss to sharpen their attention on the issue.

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Quoting: ShmerlI want to load ScummVM on it.

Quoting: GuestAnother thought: DOSBox.

Steam already has the ability to use miscellaneous compatibility tools (and other versions of Proton) by just putting the relevant files in the compatibilitytools.d directory. There are already projects that set things up ready to go for those two: Roberta and Boxtron, respectively.

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Quoting: GuestOn a different note, what games would people think to play on this? It's not like most of the games in people's existing Steam library are designed for this form factor.

It's funny you should ask. I gave some broad strokes in the last article, but just the other day I was having a look at my Steam wishlist and thought to myself, "those Supergiant Games [External Link] games would be just perfect for playing on a Steam Pal, if Valve release one. "

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I've just had a horrible thought: am I going to be compelled to say, "I use Arch, btw," everywhere I go?

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Quoting: 1xok

Quoting: CatKillerSo it is Van Gogh - Zen 2 and RDNA 2 - and it does have 16 GB RAM. It's not quite as big as I was hoping for, but I guess it couldn't hit the right performance target for 1080p.

It has a 1280 x 800px display (16:10).

I know. That's why I said that I was glad that it's 16:10. In the last article I was hoping that they'd go for 8 inches and 1920×1200.

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So it is Van Gogh - Zen 2 and RDNA 2 - and it does have 16 GB RAM. It's not quite as big as I was hoping for, but I guess it couldn't hit the right performance target for 1080p. I'm glad to see it's 16:10, though.

The price increases for more storage are steep. 64 GB really isn't much for a Steam library; I think the base model mostly exists to get the headline price point, and they're only expecting to break even/make a small profit with the middle 256 GB tier at $529. Then the 512 GB gets pushed all the way up to $649 to make the first price bump not look so outrageous. SSDs access chips in parallel, though, so the bigger ones will be faster as well as bigger.

They're getting people to pay a small (£4) deposit with their preorders to combat bots.

Wishlisted.

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