75% of the Most Played Games on Steam Are Playable on the Steam Deck

https://boilingsteam.com/75-of-the-top-100-most-played-games-on-steam-are-playable-verified-on-the-steam-deck/

by ekianjo • 3 years ago

376 211 3 years ago

jadbox• 3 years ago

This also means that these often played games work on Linux. Now if Nvidia would just give Linux a little more Wayland love...

smoldesu• 3 years ago

KDE's Wayland session on Nvidia hardware is a dream right now. Mutter has a few outstanding issues, but last I tried it was in a usable state.

Nvidia can still do better going forward, but but the bridge has to be built from both sides.

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

Bought one of these during the recent sale. It is a marvel. I had been thinking of waiting for an eventual v2, but it's honestly so cool today that it's not worth waiting. For me the main "wow" moments:

1. The first party, deck verified steam experience is super smooth, feeling just like a game console. It's like a switch with a deeper library and better controls. I love the community contributed control layouts as well.

2. The hardware itself is fantastic. The controls are great for both gaming and light desktop computing. Great feel in the hands, pleasant screen for gaming, and really just a much more comfortable experience than sitting at a desk or playing on the TV. It feels like curling up with a good book.

3. Linux with great windows compatibility layer out of the box. You pop it over into desktop mode and you have a Linux machine with ability to run most of the software out there for windows. You plug in a usb-c hub and you have a full desktop, keyboard mouse experience. And if you really have the need, you can dual boot into windows.

4. An insanely helpful community. Tons of knowledge out there for getting it to do anything you can dream of. So many people hacking on their favorite game to improve performance or play experience. Many folks writing auto-config scripts for anything from turning it into a retro gaming powerhouse to tweaking the swap file performance characteristics.

flatiron• 3 years ago

I agree. Last gaming PC I built was 2002. Decided to give the deck a whirl and I’m amazed by it. Playing octopath traveler 2 right now. Even though it has Denuvo antitamper I’ve had 0 issue. Put steam in offline mode and went on a plane and it worked great. Emu deck is also very good. My kids like to play super Mario allstars and they just fire it up like any other game.

SamuelAdams• 3 years ago

I wonder how the power draw compares to say an Xbox or PlayStation. Could the steam deck replace power-hungry consoles using a thunderbolt cable and dock?

This could be a big win for Europe as electricity prices are going up considerably.

vel0city• 3 years ago

The Steam Deck itself is like <20W. A Playstation 5 uses ~200W when playing games.

That's before thinking about what your TV power usage is. A Steam Deck could use its own screen within that <20W power envelope, while a Playstation or a docked Deck is going to probably use an extra 100-200W on a TV.

pja3• 3 years ago

If you’re happy with 1080p PS4-ish level performance on the Deck’s 720p screen, sure.

It’s probably not going to keep up with a PS4 on a 1080p TV, but Valve has done a lot of optimisation work & the output might be surprisingly “good enough”.

chaorace2• 3 years ago

An insanely helpful community. Tons of knowledge out there for getting it to do anything you can dream of.

This may actually be one of the biggest lasting impacts of the Steam Deck. It puts a lot of enthusiasts with a common interest on a highly reproducible and officially supported configuration. If a game doesn't work, you can file a bug with Valve on Github about it and most of the time it'll be fixed within a week. If the system itself is misbehaving, you can feel safe knowing that there are thousands of others on the exact same configuration.

Just two weeks ago, I had an issue with the system resuming into a blacked-out screen, so I vaguely Googled the symptoms and "Steam Deck", which led me to a Reddit thread with oodles of people experiencing the same issue[1]. Someone said it was a bug related to the new customizable boot animation feature -- I turned the feature off and I could go on with my day without even opening a single log file!

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/11ubgfl/latest_u...

jupblb• 3 years ago

I have the same issue with my Steam Deck but didn't have the time to Google it. Thank you for saving me these few minutes!

philistine2• 3 years ago

Welcome to the greatest benefit of the Mac community since 1984!

matheusmoreira4• 3 years ago

I wonder how comfortable it is to write code on the deck. I'm already addicted to programming on my phone with Termux, this could be an upgrade for me.

JeffeFawkes• 3 years ago

For what it's worth, the on-screen keyboard is kind of awful. You can also type using the two thumb touchpads, so I guess you could do it with that, but it sounds like an exercise in frustration unless you're using an external keyboard of some sort.

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

I suppose if you are already coding on your phone it could be an upgrade. I find the touch keyboard to be pretty basic, but it does have all the symbols and special characters visible like on a physical keyboard. Once you get used to the double trackpad and hot keys, I think the coding experience could be maybe even better than a phone.

For real coding plugging in a dock and going real keyboard, mouse and monitor would be a must for most.

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

It's terrible; the device is quite bulky and bigger than people seem to expect. I like the on screen keyboard, but it's not exactly fast or fully featured and the touch screen is too far away from your fingers in any comfortable holding position to type more than a name or a message here and there. It's also quite heavy if you hold it horizontal with only one hand.

With a docking station or a small Bluetooth keyboard you could probably turn the Deck into a portable dev platform, but it's simply not designed for text entry.

bdw5204• 3 years ago

You basically need an external keyboard because the built in onscreen keyboard takes up about half the screen and the resolution doesn't get scaled down. And there's only one USB-C port so you need to buy a hub to extend it to multiple ports (and the charger is USB-C so a C to A hub means you can't charge while using your keyboard) or a Bluetooth keyboard.

siver_john• 3 years ago

As others were mentioned, it sucks with the onboard keyboard, but I used it for a bit to type out my dissertation with a portable type-c keyboard and a 3rd party stand and it was great.

jnwatson• 3 years ago

I have a Deck and a first gen M1 Air, and I still pull out the Air to code. The Air is lighter, packs easier, lasts longer without charging, and has a real keyboard and a bigger screen.

fredsmith219• 3 years ago

With an external mouse, keyboard and monitor it’s great. I use vscode to write javascript and Python. You can do it with the built-in screen with external keyboard and mouse too, it just isn’t as comfortable due to the small screen. Trying to code using the touch screen keyboard will drive you insane.

codetrotter• 3 years ago

Bought one of these during the recent sale

Was the Steam Deck itself on sale? Or you bought a Steam Deck during Steam game sales?

How much did you pay for your Steam Deck, and what model/features did you buy?

estebank2• 3 years ago

There was a Steam Deck sale. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/valves-year-old-steam...

dmonitor• 3 years ago

Steam Deck was on sale 10% off mid-march

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

The Steam Deck was 10% off just two weeks ago to celebrate its first year of being out, at every performance tier I believe. I also think they discounted the Deck Dock.

Crazy how it's only been a year since the Deck came out, given the impact it's had on the gaming market.

cyrialize• 3 years ago

I bought the 64 GB model and then picked up a 1 TB Sabrent Gen 4 SSD to install into it.

Pretty straight forward! The Steam Deck is repairable and there are a ton of iFixit guides.

The only things I didn't really like were:

- Unhooking plastic clips on the case - I dislike this generally since I'm always afraid of breaking a clip

- Disconnecting the battery was a PAIN. Everything is pretty compact - it took a long time to get it out.

- Flashing the OS requires you to have a good internet connection - it won't tell you if it can't connect, it'll just say it's trying to connect. Just press B, re-select a network, and move into a better spot.

- During the flashing OS process the buttons won't work. They work after everything is done installing.

ggregoire• 3 years ago

really just a much more comfortable experience than sitting at a desk or playing on the TV

Can I ask what types of games do you play?

I feel like the ones I play wouldn't be as enjoyable on the Deck than on a big monitor with a keyboard and a mouse. Especially for very long sessions. Strategy, FPS, ARPG... I'm still thinking about getting one to occasionally play JRPGs (FFs, Yakuzas, Personas...) and other story driven games that were originally designed for consoles (God of War, Red Dead Redemption, The Last of Us...). I guess it works great for this type of games and it would be more comfortable than playing on a laptop in bed.

saidinesh55• 3 years ago

In the last 1 month, Games I have enjoyed on my steam deck:

* A Plague Tale: Innocence

* Shadow tactics: Blades of Shogun

* Metro 2033

* Mark of the Ninja

* A way out (co op only)..

My only recommendation for playing in bed is that get some kind of stand or something so you can rest the deck on your chest/stomach and comfortably play for 2-3 hours at a time.

slickdork• 3 years ago

You're right in your thoughts. It's the perfect form factor for those single player narrative games, especially if you don't own a tv w/ a steamlink or the like. I usually have trouble finishing games, because i'm often distracted. I found when I can't alt tab to the internet, i focus a lot longer on narrative games. The steam deck has been wonderful for me.

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

Yes, I’ve mostly played games that had a console release and came out of the box with reasonable console controls. That said, the steam deck is really at the next level when it comes to being able to control PC-centric games. The combo of mouse control through the touch pads, touchscreen, and key combo mapping to buttons means that you can have a decent quality of life on a lot of titles meant for PC. And someone has probably already done that hard work for you and just uploaded a community controller profile to steam. It’s really a lot better than trying to play a lot of games with a laptop keyboard and trackpad. Certainly you sacrifice something to portability for a game designed only to be played with a full keyboard and mouse.

giobox• 3 years ago

JRPGs and PS3/4-era story driven controller games have been my goto on the Deck, and I'm not traditionally a big JRPG guy outside of the really well known ones.

There is a huge range of them out there I haven't played, and the Deck's hardware is extremely well suited to running most of them. I've found I've played stuff that completely passed me by on the desktop - Ni No Kuni, Valkyria Chronicles etc.

The less intense gameplay of these just fits drop in/drop out gameplay on a mobile device surprisingly well too, especially as the Deck can sleep the game at any point, regardless of whether you've been able to save in-game or not.

The PS4 era action games you list also work pretty well - thinking of the Deck as a portable 720p PS4 I think actually describes its abilities pretty nicely. Yakuza 0 clips along at a great 60fps with reasonable battery life on medium settings.

The only genres I avoid are the really mouse heavy ones - strategy games and anything first person. Outside of these two genres, most things do work well with a controller or the Deck.

zem• 3 years ago

yeah, I've been very tempted to get one, but what's holding me back is that I don't play games all that much, and when I do it's usually 4x games. I tried playing civ6 on a borrowed steam deck and it technically ran fine but the screen felt a bit too small for it.

nerddadnear40• 3 years ago

I play a lot of solo adventure games from yesteryear that I just didn't have time nor the opportunities before acquiring the Deck. With kids in the house, this little device is great!

Adventure/RPG/Story Games: Tomb Rader 2013 Trilogy (TR, Rise, Shadow), Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order; SOMA, RiME (both haunt me to this day, highly recommended), Skyrim/Oblivion, Assassins Creed 1-3, Black Flag

Racing: Grip Combat Racing, Redout

Shooters: Halo MCC, Bioshock 1-Infinity

Other: Rocket League, Minecraft - Java with shaders! With a LOT of tweaking, it's possible to add Minecraft Java as a shortcut and pre-load it with shaders and mods. It looks incredible and can easily handle 7-12 chunks at 60 fps with shaders depending the settings.

pja3• 3 years ago

Likewise. Bought the cheapest Deck & put a 512Gb SSD in it.

It’s going to be a lifesaver on the next long holiday drive with the kids.

_joel• 3 years ago

It's great that you've trained them to be able to drive for so long so you can relax and get some sweet frags

rozal• 3 years ago

I never understood the steam deck.

Most smartphones are much more powerful in terms are hardware, better screen technology (OLED and high refresh rates)

More importantly, you can easily stream games on to them.

So why on god earth is everyone so excited about a crumby screen that can play a few games on medium settings?

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

For one, game streaming is not portable past the range of a strong Wi-Fi signal. I have done game streaming on a phone with a Bluetooth controller and I found the ergonomics and screen size to be pretty uncomfortable. It can be done though and I played all the way through subnautica like that. And the swore to never do it again!

dimitrios1• 3 years ago

You are right, you simply lack any understanding what-so-ever if you think the only thing people care for are hardware specifications or having the latest and greatest tech.

BadBadJellyBean• 3 years ago

Most smartphones have more powerful hardware than a steam deck? I doubt that.

timw4mail2• 3 years ago

No way are smartphones more powerful in hardware, and streaming adds latency to controls, regardless of the quality of the network connection.

sleepybrett3• 3 years ago

Let me know when you get mainline AAA windows games running on your smartphone. Steamdeck does this through a software layer called proton. I guess you could try to port this to android or ios ... https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton

The hardware may be more powerful on your phone (but it probably isn't). The screen is probably better but the steamdeck's screen is pretty great to my eyes.

I can also easily stream games to my steamdeck just like my phone, and sometimes do.. however that really only works if I am on the same local network unless I want to take a huge video compression quality hit.

I can take my steamdeck on an airplane and play any game that doesn't require a really reliable internet connection (or games without that requirement of course). But if you are trying to stream games, have fun with that I guess.

johnchristopher2• 3 years ago

I almost bought one but then got curious about its fan noise level, read a bit on the internet and decided I wouldn't risk it. I still remember a laptop computer I barely used because of a whining coil. Fan noise that sounds like leaf blowers are a turn-off for me and I can't use headphones because of tinnitus :/.

delecti• 3 years ago

Honestly the fan noise is pretty overblown. It's barely noticeable on less intensive games (which naturally stress the CPU less), but I did a ~100 hour playthrough of Elden Ring (a recent and graphically intensive game) solely on my Steam Deck, and only ever noticed the fan noise in the lull of silence in the moments as my heartrate came back down after losing to bosses.

activitypea• 3 years ago

It’s going to be a uphill battle to get to much higher percentages, as the remaining bastion of unsupported titles is mostly the matter of anti-cheat support

How is Apex steam deck certified?

ekianjo3• 3 years ago

Because they supported the Linux implementation of EAC.

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

EasyAntiCheat, and I believe some other common anticheat libraries, have been made compatible with Proton gaming. They've actually been fir a while thanks to Valve working with the companies behind them, but game studios did need to update their libraries to get that support so older games often lag behind the curve there.

Apex Legends was verified on Deck this month. I don't know what changed, but I assume Valve's efforts in the DRM space have paid off.

gambiting• 3 years ago

It runs great - I play it a lot on the deck, it’s a very smooth 60fps experience. Plays better on the controller than it has any right to.

chaorace2• 3 years ago

Apex Legends uses Epic Anti-Cheat ("EAC"). Valve collaborated with Epic to get EAC functional in Wine back in September[1]. This Wine support is an opt-in flag at build-time, so many games using EAC still remain incompatible (e.g.: Fortnite). Apex players asked for EAC-on-Wine to be enabled and the developers obliged by checking the checkbox.

The reasons for why this is opt-in only are not public knowledge, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was some sort of special reduced-security mode. The APIs available to EAC-on-Wine are more-or-less a strict subset of those available to EAC-on-Windows, after all. FWIW: I don't think any Wine-exclusive exploits have ever been found in the wild.

[1] https://dev.epicgames.com/en-US/news/epic-online-services-la...

jsheard3• 3 years ago

EAC runs in kernel mode on Windows, but is limited to user mode on Linux. It's relatively easy to evade detection by the Linux version, and that's reflected in the fact that the most popular Apex Legends cheats now target the Linux version even though most of the people using them probably aren't regular Linux users. Dual-booting into Linux is a small price to pay to minimise the chance of getting caught and losing your account.

noirscape2• 3 years ago

Then, on the other end, you have Bungie with Destiny 2. That game uses BattlEye and Bungie have pretty much openly declared war on the Steam Deck.

If they ever figure out you're running off of a Steam Deck, your account gets banned. Bungie support also went out of their way to specifically state that if you install Windows on the Deck (which some people do), they will still ban your account.

It's... an interesting decision to say the least.

Thaxll• 3 years ago

EAC on Linux does not run as a driver ( kernel ) therefore it's vastly inferior to its Windows version.

It means that if you enable EAC on Linux the security is low.

That's the the reason why Fortnite from Epic which owns EAC does not allows Fortnite to run on Linux: https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/149056592564871578...

andrewmutz• 3 years ago

I recently started gaming in Linux after my windows partition borked itself (again)

I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. About half my library was available. All the games ran perfectly.

Without a doubt, if more game publishers supported Linux, I would never fix that windows partition.

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

I've been playing a game on my Deck that's been reported as unplayable (Hitman, the remake) and I can't figure out what's supposed to be wrong with it. The stupid online requirement works, for better or for worse, so it's not DRM. The only thing I can think of is that I can't use the controller to click the Play button on start (need to use the touch screen) but that's rather minor.

I've seen other cases where "not working" means "you need to hit Steam+X manually to open the keyboard in certain settings". These playability standards seem rather high, which isn't a bad thing, but can sew the numbers. On the other hand, you an find plenty of stories of users playing verified games that become bad later in the game, presumably because no company is going to spend 100 hours on every game to verify that every single thing works. I haven't run into that yet, though.

Steam Deck and Proton really changed gaming on Linux and otherwise. Certain features of well-integrated games (Euro Truck Sim providing a list of named actions for key binds, for example) are unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. The ability to add overlay menus, with multiple levels even, to any game add even more to the way you can play PC games with a controller.

At this point, I hope Valve releases a second Steam controller: one that's just the Deck without the PC inside. Coupled with the new Steam Big Picture, I'm confident Steam consoles could take off.

londons_explore2• 3 years ago

I've often wondered, for a typical steam game, how big is the burden to make a tiny tweak (for example, making the start button clickable with a button not the touchscreen)?

On one end of the scale, it's probably only adding 5 lines of code and could be done in 20 minutes by the right person...

But on the other end of the scale, the company that made the game may no longer exist, the employees working on the game may no longer work there, the build environment for the game might be highly custom and take weeks to re-set-up, etc. When re-built, a bunch of QA and testing ought to be redone, especially if the build environment is new and some stuff might not be at the exact same version, etc.

londons_explore2• 3 years ago

Steam has an incentive to make sure that the rebuild effort for their games is very low.

One way they could do that is require game developers to upload source code to some source code repo (perhaps a 'code holding company', whose expertise is looking after source code). Code in the repo could be built automatically, ensuring that at any time a hotfix could be made with little friction. When publishers upload to steam, they are also giving the right for steam to make bugfixes if the original developer wont/cant.

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

The funny thing is that Hitman 2 uses an almost identical menu where the controller input does work. It's also marked as verified on Deck.

In practice, I don't think any side cares. Hitman 2 (also the remake) and later includes the option to play Hitman 1 through DLC so for new players the experience will be better sticking to the second version. That's why I doubt it's going to get fixed soon. The only people affected are the people running Steam as a console without a mouse attached, and that's a small minority of PC gamers.

for1nner• 3 years ago

At this point, I hope Valve releases a second Steam controller: one that's just the Deck without the PC inside. Coupled with the new Steam Big Picture, I'm confident Steam consoles could take off.

Isn't this just a steam controller + the steam Link? I'm not clear on what you mean by "without the pc inside"

aaomidi• 3 years ago

With a screen but only as a thin client.

g4d• 3 years ago

I think they stopped selling the steam controller - they want a new one that's closer to the steam deck

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

I have a Steam controller and it's really Not It. The build quality is quite mediocre and the controls are laid out weird. The clickable touch areas are hard to click right and controls generally just don't feel that great.

The Deck controls are worlds ahead of the Steam Controller. Better buttons, better hand positions, better quality, better all around.

emurray• 3 years ago

It's more like a steam controller + mini laptop. It runs things directly. The specs are at https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech/

baq• 3 years ago

The first steam controller is discontinued. The op wishes for a v2. (I’ve got 3 v1s personally, I love them)

stonemetal12• 3 years ago

Their verified ratings are all over the place. I have seen fully verified rated games that lock up for minutes whenever they play a sound effect, or you change something in the character creator. On the other hand Skyrim is marked as "playable", but not fully verified because you have to manually pull up the keyboard to enter your character's name once at the beginning of a new game.

If I had to hazard a guess as to why, is that every time they push updates to proton they don't test the whole catalog. So fixes and regressions happen without them knowing.

singron2• 3 years ago

This game is rated platinum on protondb, which is the highest rating. I think Valve just doesn't get around to verifying games.

noirscape2• 3 years ago

For anyone interested in a more flexible list, there's always Protondb[0]. Works like the old WineHQ tests (right down to unplayable/bronze/silver/gold/platinum rankings) where users basically report their findings and what tweaks they had to do to get things working.

They also tell you when stuff like GloriousEggrolls fork of Proton (which has a few features not in the Proton upstream) is the solution to use.

Putting that aside for a second, it's a marvel how Steam basically managed to get people to use an immutable, almost entirely flatpak-based OS that works quite well. I have one and while Big Picture has a very sporadic meltdown (usually connectivity issues with Steam), desktop mode works almost perfectly.

I've never had a moment where the filesystem being root-locked was an issue for using it, which is quite the interesting experience coming from other Linux distributions where touching the root filesystem is at some point expected to change a config file or to enable a driver. To put it simply: "it just works".

[0] https://protondb.com

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

ProtonDB is definitely a treasure for Linux gaming and it's often more up to date than Valve's ratings. I don't bother with custom Proton packages though, I bought the thing to play games, I have a desktop and a laptop to tinker with Linux. I also refuse to disable the write lock to my system partition, because things should Just Work without root access already.

The Steam Deck proves what Canonical and others have been trying to prove for years: restrictions can be good for your experience sometimes. I still despise Snap, but its model is extremely close to what Valve managed to succeed with. Fedora's attempt is even closer.

I don't think I'll ever accept snap in a world where Flatpak exists, but I think sandboxes are the future for letting normal people use Linux. The simple fact of the matter is that if you need to touch the terminal or edit obscure text files to do any normal task, your system has failed and it sucks to use. Take away a dev's ability to rely on that and software seems to get a lot better. Hopefully this trend will also slowly turn people on support websites to stop telling people asking questions to open a bash shell for changing things that have buttons and settings screens, though I fear I may as well wait for the Year Of The Linux Desktop.

saidinesh55• 3 years ago

Do not forget the protondb plugin on deckyloader:

https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader

This shows the protondb status directly on steam UI.

waboremo2• 3 years ago

Valve labels Cyberpunk as verified, which by default tries to get you to play the game at an absurdly low framerate (even by handheld standards).

This means that playability standards aren't high, but rather their goals regarding these standards aren't high enough as they're too focused on some usability aspects (having to touch the screen once to use the "mouse" = no verified) and not caring at all in other regards (how a game actually feels to play on it).

Or you can go with the conspiracy theory that Valve is ok offering verified to publishers who want to pay for it.

freeone30003• 3 years ago

It’s the former. “Verified” guidelines are based on using a controller for everything, text being readable, button prompts being correct, and so on. Elden Ring is Verified, and meets all of this! Even character name entry! And runs at 3fps.

hellotomyrars• 3 years ago

They are very conservative on what is verified and even playable. But I think it makes sense because to position this as a mass market device and not just an enthusiast PC gamer device.

For wha it’s worth, I had random crashes with Hitman 3, though more recent versions of ProtonGE seems to have resolved it.

But a game called Ultimate Chicken Horse was labeled incompatible for a while because of a weird corner case with special characters.

I think over time they have been less strict about flat out incompatible flags but also the human review process leads to some variability.

I love this thing and the trackpads to me are key and none of the clones seem to want to or are able to replicate that part of the product.

Ultimately it is easy to push it beyond its guardrails to ensure a smooth experience for people who just want to play games without fuss and I think that is the right balance to strike with a device that has aspirations to be as mass market as a switch but has a core audience of enthusiast PC users.

1-6• 3 years ago

I wanted a mini PC so I bought a Steam Deck. I wish it looked a lot less like a gaming console with removable controllers like the Switch but the two track pads are surprisingly usable on the virtual keyboard.

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

Maybe something like the onexplayer 2 (https://onexplayerstore.com/products/onexplayer-2-amd%C2%AE-...) ?

Personally i don't really fancy removable controller as they seam to add a lot of mechanical complexity and bulk to console design.

scambier• 3 years ago

I got mine 2 months ago, and had to send it for RMA this week (one of the speakers is busted).

Though I really like it, the finishes are really not great compared to a Nintendo Switch. The plastic feels cheap, the case creaks a bit, one of the triggers squeaks, the buttons clicks are super loud, and well, a speaker broke. There are also a few small software issues that are definitely not deal-breakers, but quickly add up as annoyances.

I still find it's a good device, it does what I expected it to do (sometimes even better), but for the price, I expected something a bit more robust.

jeroenhd10• 3 years ago

From what I've heard, hardware quality for the individual consoles seems to be a bit of a lottery. Some units arrive with scratched screens, stuck buttons, creaking plastic, all the works, while others are Just Fine.

In terms of price, I'm not surprised in the difference in build quality. Nintendo is shipping five year old smartphone boards out for a premium price, that means the plastics can receive quite a bit of love. You couldn't possibly play PC games on Switch level hardware, not even on the 800p screen. As a result, Switch games run just as well or even better on the Deck once an emulator dev puts in the optimisation effort for a Switch game, despite the ARM to x64 translation overhead.

The Deck's PC competition all costs twice or three times as much, usually for good reason. There are gaming handhelds out there that will come with good build quality and run Windows so things like DRM are not a problem, but you pay for that luxury. They used to be priced even higher but it's clear the Deck has disrupted this part of the industry quite significantly.

kitsunesoba3• 3 years ago

Nintendo has seemed to have gone the route of Texas Instruments calculators with its handhelds for a long time now. The 3DS must’ve cost almost nothing to make by the time they stopped selling it.

RegularOpossum• 3 years ago

I adore my Steamdeck. I've had mine for the past six months and during that time I've had to spend more time in hospital waiting rooms than I'd have liked, but it's been an excellent companion. Over the years I've owned many consoles and built a few gaming PCs, but my entire interest in how I interact with games now is portable first. It's funny, I feel like I've gone back to where I started when my first game system was the original Game Boy.

Symmetry• 3 years ago

The existence of the Steam Deck has been a huge boon for those of us who plan Steam games on regular Linux desktops as well. It seems like nearly every Steam game I'd want to play these days works, and not just from publishers like Paradox who make an effort at compatibility.

time_to_smile• 3 years ago

Just wanted to second this experience.

I'm one of those people that has perpetually wanted to use linux as my main desktop, but inevitably find myself dual booting Windows for gaming, and then just making my desktop a Windows gaming box and then using a Macbook for dev work. I think I've had about 3 major runs of trying to be Linux desktop only, and that typically lasts just a month or two.

For the past year I've been using exclusively Linux (Pop!_os) as my desktop for everything I do, and that has involved quite a bit of gaming. It's really insane how giant a leap forward Proton (driven by the need for Steam Deck compatibility) is as far as Linux gaming goes. It does occasionally take a bit of tweaking to get things to work just right, but nothing too crazy.

It's also worth mentioning that, at least for me, System 76 has really solved the problem of "just open the box and turn it on" support for Linux. Extremely high build quality and most important, seamless support for Nvidia drivers. It is a blast to spend the day building deep learning models and then make use of that nice GPU to play AAA titles at max settings.

Any gamer who has been wanting to go full Linux Desktop for a while, it's really quite possible now.

duffyjp• 3 years ago

I'm in a similar stage as your first paragraph. Macbook for work and a dual boot desktop where Windows only handles games.

My linux SSD is on its last legs though, and I've been planning to do a fresh install when I get a new one. I'm using Kubuntu currently but with all the headaches Snap has been giving me I think I'll give Pop!_os a try instead. Everybody that chimed in the other day on the thread about Ubuntu dropping Flatpak was raving about Pop!_os as a sensible alternative.

I just wish it didn't have such a silly name. :P

modeless• 3 years ago

I tried Pizza Tower on Ubuntu and it worked perfectly. Then I tried it on Windows and it didn't recognize my gamepad correctly. I felt like I was in bizarro world. Since when does Linux work better out of the box than Windows does?

This is the real secret of the Steam Deck's success. And it's something Valve has been working at for a decade now, starting with Steam Machines which completely failed. It's a strategic move to reduce their reliance on Microsoft and it must be great for them to see it succeed now after failing for many years.

Exendroinients• 3 years ago

Overall the most played games are all on phones. That market absolute dwarves steam. In developing countries nobody have a pc and they all play those mobile games without the existing console/pc market.

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

And that's okay. The world is big enough for all kind of devices/gaming preferences. The idea that valve shouldn't try to capitalize on their dominant position on the PC market because the phone market is larger i don't is a good one. As long as valve makes money, and that valve customers are happy with the product, i saw live and let live

kitsunesoba3• 3 years ago

The Deck seems pretty great even in its first gen, but I’ve been holding off for future revisions not for power (I’m aware that Valve intends to target its current performance level for the foreseeable future), but for a better screen and hopefully an APU manufactured on a smaller process node and thus offering the same performance while being cooler, quieter, and less energy hungry.

I don’t need crazy graphical settings (and as such, the Deck’s specs are fine) but I have a strong distaste for fan noise and short battery life, and the only way to get around those with some games right now is to turn settings down super low to the point of being an eyesore.

It would be be neat if Valve replaced its fan with one or two of those solid state cooling cards that got posted here a while ago. Seems like a perfect fit for that tech.

manojlds• 3 years ago

Yeah I waited for the v2 Switch and was worth the wait. Improvement in battery (life) is what I prefer

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

a better screen

I would have loved if valve offered a tier with better screen. That would been a worth while upgrade.

catdog• 3 years ago

Same here, the picture quality is quite mediocre. Also it does not use all the available real estate and could be a bit bigger.

Would definitely be a reason to upgrade to a V2 Deck even if the internals stay the same.

jakogut• 3 years ago

It would be be neat if Valve replaced its fan with one or two of those solid state cooling cards that got posted here a while ago.

Link for people who didn't see the article, myself included.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34467937

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

I was in your boat, but the sale and the announcement not to expect a v2 for a few years pushed me over the edge. And once I got it in hands I realized that it’s fantastic as it is and that there was really no need to hold out. Im sure V2 when and if it ever comes out will be excellent, but I can just sell V1 and upgrade if that happens.

timw4mail2• 3 years ago

I absolutely understand your concern about battery life, but:

- A better screen would likely require more power, especially if the resolution was higher. OLED screens are also prone to burn-in, which can be a legitimate concern, especially with games that have a persistent hud.

- I think it's quite impressive we've managed to get the current battery life, considering how relatively small the battery is.

Overall, it's a great first generation product, which would likely not have been possible just a few years ago.

kitsunesoba3• 3 years ago

An OLED would be nice but is certainly not a must. A high-grade IPS panel would be fine too.

Agreed that the current battery life is impressive, but even so for me it hangs in that awkward spot of "just good enough to be technically usable", at least where more demanding games are concerned. It's probably already amazing if all that's being played are older non-emulated titles that have low enough resource demands to be able to run the Deck downclocked.

ronnier• 3 years ago

It's still wild to me that I can play Steam games in my Tesla on a big 18" screen. I believe this is just running Steam Deck.

rockbruno• 3 years ago

As someone who has been primarily a PC gamer since I was a kid and never enjoyed consoles that much, the Steam Deck is mind blowing. It took me a long time to buy it because I usually play games that generally don't fit the handheld style very well and I was unsure how the deck would handle those, but eventually decided to give it a shot.

1) It doesn't matter if a game doesn't fit the handheld style. The deck is by all means a regular computer; plug a USB-C hub with a monitor and a M+KB and you're instantly good to go. I thought this experience would be crappy but the performance is insane for its price point. Obviously you won't be able to max AAA games, but it handles them quite well still. I organized my work desk so that all of my Macbook accessories passed through a single hub, and when I want to play something I simply unplug the hub from my computer and put it into the deck. Instant gaming machine.

2) Whole thing is extremely customisable and full of buttons. If you don't like the controls for a particular game, you can just make your own or download a layout from the community.

3) It actually got me to enjoy the handheld style. The small screen and trying to read really small text bothered me at first, but for some reason I feel that my brain and eyes "adapted" to it. Now, when I play with it on the couch, I get the same "feeling" as if I was playing on a huge screen and it doesn't bother me anymore. Not sure how to describe this, it was a really interesting surprise for me.

jszymborski• 3 years ago

I too am a "not usually joystick-friendly gaming" kinda person, but the fact that "it's just a PC" really helped alleviate that worry.

That being said, I'm surprised how well I can use the joysticks, trackpads, and tocuhscreens to comfortably navigate most games. I still wouldn't play Crusader Kings III w/o a mouse and keyboard, but man it's shocking to me how little I need to break them out.

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

I have a 4k TV that’s too far from my couch for optimal viewing, but is what it is. The apparent screen size of the deck on my couch is pretty similar to the TV. I can’t see all that resolution from 10 feet away anyway.

smegsicle2• 3 years ago

year of linux on the gaming console (playstation doesnt count)

ta8903• 3 years ago

Playstation is BSD.

smegsicle2• 3 years ago

and the ps2 and ps3 linux features dont count either

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

I pre ordered my deck on mostly a whim and also because i couldn't get my hand on a decent graphic card around 2021/2022. I used to think that the idea of portable gaming PC was kinda dumb : It's like a gaming laptop and worst in every way.

But i have to admit that i was very wrong, and in the now 8 month i have had the device, it been my main vector for playing games and by a long shot.

The interesting thing about this device, at least in my case his that it changed my preferences in term of which game i buy and mostly play. I almost never play big AAA anymore and nowday focus on simple indie/pixel arts/2D games and for that this console really shines. Actually i would love to trade some of that CPU/APU performance for a better AMOLED screen and smaller size.

Now if only MSFT could also launch a portable console tied to a game pass subscription... One can only dream

juped• 3 years ago

Hurry, fix that typo on word 5 before your edit window closes!

LewisVerstappen• 3 years ago

Is there a variant of Cunningham's law where you intentionally include a funny typo in your first sentence to get extra upvotes?

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

omg! thanks

Zhyl2• 3 years ago

Now if only MSFT could also launch a portable console tied to a game pass subscription... One can only dream

The success of the Steam Deck and the success of Game pass means that I guarantee that MS have at the very least got an email chain around this possibility going on at the moment.

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

I am not sure a steam deck like device would fit in MSFT gaming strategy. I think they would much prefer sell people something closer to logitech G cloud and push them toward their current cloud offerings.

perryizgr8• 3 years ago

Now if only MSFT could also launch a portable console tied to a game pass subscription...

You can install windows on steam deck and use your game pass subscription.

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

Yeah i tried that, but the experience is not that great. The main issue is that the steam deck inputs only work as steaminput (vs xinput) so only work natively with steam games. I have seen some third party app to convert, but never had the patience to try them.

birracerveza• 3 years ago

I almost never play big AAA anymore and nowday focus on simple indie/pixel arts/2D games and for that this console really shines.

Yep. I mean yes, it can run The Witcher 3 just fine, but Pizza Tower is where it's at.

pja3• 3 years ago

A HumbleBundle subscription used to be pretty close to GamePass in quality, but I’m not sure if that’s still the case? Worth checking out though.

ThorsBane• 3 years ago

I'm glad Steam made hardware. I'm going to go ahead and buy one of these to support the initiativeveven though I barely play games anymore. Maybe 1 every year or two.

soulbadguy9• 3 years ago

I love the steam deck, but if you aren;t really using it what's the point. I am sure there might some indie/small project somewhere who would have better use of your 400-600 than valve. Plus you can get some tax write off:)

arvigeus• 3 years ago

Convenience is key here: play a game for 30-ish minutes, put it to sleep, pick it up the next day and you are right back where you left it. I think Steam Deck is actually more unsuitable for people who play games all the time.

kzz102• 3 years ago

I don't understand why people at Microsoft's gaming division are not acting like their hair is on fire right now. The only reason I and many people stay on Windows is because of games. The success of Steam Deck makes Linux a major gaming platform, opening the way for PC gaming to migrate to Linux. The only reason I have not switched already is my kids needs to play Minecraft.

MineBill• 3 years ago

Are you talking about Bedrock edition? Because the Java edition runs perfectly fine(maybe even better) on Linux.

AnIdiotOnTheNet• 3 years ago

Honestly I don't think Microsoft cares about Windows, or to the extent they do care they'd rather people not use a Desktop computer at all. Almost every decision since Windows 8 has been to the determent of the user experience on Windows, and it is getting difficult to believe that is accidental at this point.

neogodless• 3 years ago

I think there are a few puzzle pieces to look at...

PC gaming Windows licensing is probably not significant to their revenue.

For now, most PC gamers still buy laptops/desktops with Windows, or build a desktop and obtain a Windows key.

Xbox Game Pass seems to be an important piece of their plan, because subscriptions are gold.

They release games that are PC and Xbox compatible (that might work on other systems, e.g. Linux). As long as Xbox Games is selling games, they are less concerned with how the games are played.

Giving up the PC Gaming on Windows part of their strategy does not necessarily have a big immediate effect on Microsoft. (But may be short-sighted in the long term.)

ranger207• 3 years ago

Microsoft seems to care less about platforms than apps nowadays. Windows and Xbox are important, but mostly because they get people to buy Office and Microsoft games. On the platform front though, the Steam Deck is for most people purely a gaming device, but their PCs are both gaming devices and workstations. SteamOS only solves the gaming part. Microsoft might be worried about their platforms if they put work into getting the workstation part better, or they might embrace it and dive entirely into selling apps and games

glenstein• 3 years ago

I don't understand why people at Microsoft's gaming division are not acting like their hair is on fire right now.

I completely agree, although perhaps their hair is on fire, which has inspired them to acquire Minecraft and pursue Activision.

The success of Steam Deck makes Linux a major gaming platform, opening the way for PC gaming to migrate to Linux.

I think this has been brilliant by Steam, is great news for PC users, but it's something that has taken time. It has been so frustrating to see articles in the Verge declaring that SteamOS, or the Steam Box/Steam Machine were 'failing' because they did not result in overnight market dominance. But they were necessary steps to get to this point.

darknavi• 3 years ago

The trajectory of gaming at Microsoft seems to be "play our games anywhere" (for the most part). It doesn't seem like gaming at MSFT has any allegiance to Windows.

Now if the Windows org is banking on gamers staying on Windows, then I can see why they'd be sweating.

barbazoo• 3 years ago

The only reason I and many people stay on Windows is because of games.

100% for me. I loathe having to boot my Windows PC, figure out why the Keyboard isn't working, getting a different one, installing a driver update, restarting to update Windows because it's been so long since I last played, ...

What I want is either a small device that's aimed at gaming, I guess that would be a game console or a device that's small and portable that streams to whatever TV I want to play at (we have 2). I guess that would be Nvidia GameStream, is that still a thing? Oh and Linux, would I love to have the PC run Linux.

ThrowawayR2• 3 years ago

Why would they? Proton is an adapter that allows Windows games to run on Linux so the Deck's popularity is simply cementing Windows' APIs as the preferred API for games development and burying the hope of Linux-first games development in its grave forever. Proton will forever be playing catch-up to DirectX as it iterates, meaning the most current gaming experience will always be on Xbox / Windows as well.

Aside from that, what would you even suggest Microsoft do? Building their own portable game console would be suicidal, with Nintendo firmly entrenched with a large stable of games on one side and Valve's Steam and their monopoly on Windows games distribution on the other, which even Epic flushing billions of dollars down the drain hasn't been able to dent. Even Sony bowed out of the handheld console market and they were in a much better position to compete.

kaba02• 3 years ago

burying the hope of Linux-first games development in its grave forever

Nah, there are much graver (pun not intended) problems on Linux, but especially not having a standard environment to program against (which libc will be available?), and even more so the terrible terrible binary backwards compatibility/longevity.

surgical_fire• 3 years ago

Well, I moved to Linux for good now that I can play most of my Steam and GoG libraries on Linux.

I don't use a Steam deck, but its success makes Linux a viable alternative for me.

Now... If a lot of people play on Linux (either directly like me or indirectly through Steam Deck), why would devs not make games directly for Linux instead?

phendrenad2• 3 years ago

There are an estimated 1 million Steam Decks sold. There are an estimated 1 billion PC gamers. Maybe a 1/1000th of Microsoft's hair is on fire.

zamalek• 3 years ago

I don't understand why people at Microsoft's gaming division are not acting like their hair is on fire right now.

They have tabloids in the start menu to supplement income, of course. There is a bit of truth in that joke, they have completely lost touch with their customers. You have PMs and designers making decisions about Windows... on their Macs.

Games were one of the few moats that Windows had. Now, you can get most productivity tools on a Mac, and most games on Linux. With no adverts on either. And the PC gaming customerbase aren't really tolerant of adverts. Possibly the only remaining advantage with Windows is that you can do both.

mmh0000• 3 years ago

I don't own a steam deck (yet). But, I absolutely love that Valve has been pushing Linux quite hard as a gaming platform.

Like many of you here, I run Linux as my full-time OS, and because of that, I refuse to support any non-linux software.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I do spend several hundred a year on Linux games. I'm very excited for what the future will bring.

hesdeadjim• 3 years ago

Our game’s Windows build ran basically out of the box. The only failure point was that Unity’s TextMeshPro input fields didn’t trigger the Steam Deck native keyboard UI. Took a little hacking on it, but easy enough.

The Steam Deck version of the game might be my favorite platform for it. We can run in high quality mode at a full 60 fps. Don’t even get me started on the garbage pile that is the Nintendo Switch…

coldpie5• 3 years ago

The only failure point was that Unity’s TextMeshPro input fields didn’t trigger the Steam Deck native keyboard UI. Took a little hacking on it, but easy enough.

Sounds like you figured it out, so probably you know this, but the soft keyboard can be invoked using either the Steam API, or by triggering it with the standard Windows input accessibility APIs. So it usually works for games that already support soft input on Windows, with no further effort from the dev :) Maybe the TextMeshPro devs would be willing to add accessibility support in future versions, which would fix it on Steam Deck and also benefit Windows users.

koinedad• 3 years ago

Steam deck is pretty awesome

brundolf• 3 years ago

With the glaring exception of a lot of multiplayer games :(

Anti-cheat is a solvable problem here. Notably, Microsoft got Halo Infinite multiplayer (!) running flawlessly on the steam deck (which I assume means it'll work on a Linux desktop too!) But other big games still haven't bothered to add Linux support to their anti-cheat

livelielife• 3 years ago

but the Steam Deck is not buyable where I live. :(

BiteCode_dev2• 3 years ago

Just bought Horizon, a game I would have never tried without the Deck, and it's been a blast.

With the click on a button, I dive deep inside a the wonderful post apocalyptic hunter-gatherer world they created, in 2 seconds, thanks to the deck flawless sleep mode.

Seamless sleep is something you could never dream on a Linux system, and here not only it works, but it gives this nice instant experience of a console, for PC gaming.

It's so sweet.

didsomeonesay• 3 years ago

Sleep mode is working so well; i use it as a pause button for Elden Ring (offline mode) - a game where pausing was omitted by design.

(I believe they designed it that way due to the multiplayer features, which i don't care about.)

esturk3• 3 years ago

I agree it is pretty nice, a minor nic I have with it is that sleep time counts toward the 'hours played' in the steam profile.

http-teapot• 3 years ago

sleep time counts toward the 'hours played' in the steam profile

That's surprising; when I exit a game, it briefly shows the wrong total and immediately recalculates the value.

flippinburgers• 3 years ago

It is an awesome piece of hardware. Got mine during the recent sale and play on it almost every night. So quick to wake! Sleep at the touch of a button! Great catalogue of games. Too good and well done Valve!

outime• 3 years ago

I bought the cheapest one during the recent sale (370 €) and swapped the eMMC with a big SSD in 10 mins. I have only used it for like a week but it has surpassed my rather low expectations. It works really smoothly and had no issues so far, all games I wanted working and all. Who could have told me the first console I’d ever buy myself would be from Valve!

emodendroket• 3 years ago

To be honest, I have kind of regretted buying one because most of the games I've felt like playing since I got into it either do not work, or work with big caveats (for instance, PGA Tour 2k23 works on the Steam Deck, but your progress is not shared across devices so I'd need to have two separate careers. Sonic Frontiers works but it had some bugs that made it impossible to finish some parts of the game. Wild Hearts just performs too poorly to play). 75% sounds like a lot but I think that can be less good than it sounds in practice.

I also just find it too big and bulky and I'm not crazy about how high and small the controls are. It feels like the ARM revolution has a lot to offer as far as making this kind of device nicer.

Kalanos• 3 years ago

Are these additive or overlapping? e.g. double counting 1 game as both verified and playable

Steam Deck Verified: 26 / 97 = 26.8 %

Steam Deck Playable: 47 / 97 = 48.4 %

Steam Deck Unsupported: 22 / 97 = 22.6 %

thsbrown2• 3 years ago

Just picked one of these up during the sale as well! Primarily because I can see that the steam deck is picking up steam...no pun intended and I thought it would be an awsome opportunity for my game.

I'm an indie developer and I've always had plans to port my game from mobile to steam but seeing the steam deck gain so much traction really got me excited!

My game is very much a pickup and play type of game and I'm seeing small indie games like that excel on the steam deck. Vampire Survivors and Brotato to name a few.

I received my steam deck yesterday and played for a few hours last night. I can't tell you all how excited am to get my game ported over and verified for this thing. It really is an incredible piece of gaming tech and it's got me super excited as an indie game developer!

For anyone interested my game is called Command Center Earth. I'm set to launch a huge update next week (2.0.0)!

https://www.commandcenterearth.com

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

Valve should get a free/discounted deck into the hands of every developer over a certain number of sales on steam. This is such a great story!

thsbrown2• 3 years ago

Thanks! That would be an amazing idea.

I get the feeling though that the scales are starting to tip in their favor where we are going to be needing them more then they are going to be needing us soon haha.

Kudos to valve though, it feels like they have been driving toward this dream for a while and they're finally starting to hit the sweet spot with the steamdeck.

baby3• 3 years ago

Mind if I create a subthread on your favorite games to play on the Deck? I'm looking for some new games to play.

coldpie5• 3 years ago

RPGs are great. I'm currently playing Octopath Traveler 2.

That new Monkey Island game, or any other adventure game, works great on Deck. Don't forget it has a touchscreen for your mouse input!

Rhythm games work great, no input lag.

baby3• 3 years ago

I thought about the new Octopath but I thought if I was really going to invest time in an RPG why not go full final fantasy / chrono tiger / etc. It feels like the different characters is a bit of a gimmick, at least in the first one.

tmtvl• 3 years ago

If you want to lose thousands of hours building factory complexes in space, check out X3: Albion Prelude (part of the Terran War Pack).

mostlysimilar• 3 years ago

I've been back and forth on buying one. I want to support Valve so they continue to do great work on things like Linux support, etc. I just wouldn't use it very regularly, I game mostly at my desk with keyboard/mouse or via remote play (Steam Link) on my couch with a controller.

Actually my biggest complaint at the moment related to Steam Deck is that the new Big Picture mode is absolutely broken on remote play. Maybe it's because I'm still using a Steam Link (I'd die for a new one to be released) but my god it's awful. So many annoying little bugs since they updated the UI to be the same as the Steam Deck.

Usually the remote play experience is slightly wonky but a little bit of tweaking gets me where I need to be, or Valve releases an update that will fix my issues. But I've been dealing with the following ever since the UI update and no fix in sight:

- Frequent, like 50%, of games won't have focus upon open. I have to open the Steam Link layer overlay and toggle on mouse controller mode, click the window to focus, and then open the overlay again to turn that mode back off. Often focus stays on Steam, so my controller is moving around in the Steam UI (I can hear the sound effects) instead of the game

- Same bug as above but in reverse: when I quit a game and land back in Steam, it isn't focused, and I have to jump through the hoops above

- Opening the store page for a game and then pressing B to go back loads the desktop/browser version of the store page instead, which has zero interactivity with my controller (I have to close the store and open it again, losing my place)

andrewstuart2• 3 years ago

I would wager you will be surprised how much you use it. Sleep and resume are very seamless which makes casual gaming a lot easier. I'm a dad of three, and I have been able to game again somewhat casually because if somebody needs something, I can easily hit the power button, take care of things, and power back on and keep going whenever I'm freed up again.

Decabytes• 3 years ago

Been playing Katamari Damacy Reroll and it is incredible on the Steam Deck. It's only 7.99 right now too. Feels good that when my joysticks start drifting, or my battery gets old I can just replace it.

Valve getting the Steam Deck on retail is the next huge steps. Hopefully they are seeding decks to major game studios so they can target the hardware. Looking forward to a Steam Deck 2 with a better battery and OLED screen!

korijn2• 3 years ago

As great as the deck is, it's got two major downsides that you should be aware of before buying:

* It's insanely heavy and if I don't support it with a pillow on my lap, my hands and wrists start tingling after about 15 minutes of play.

* The dock is absolute garbage and so is the support. It can't charge the deck fast enough AND power itself. With the standard charger the dock powers itself off, and with a more powerful one it stays on but the deck's battery will drain, and you get constant warnings about "a slow charger".

I've reported this on the forums and via official support months ago, I've tried two official chargers, and two alternatives (apple and dell), nothing works.

The only workaround I have to play on the TV with the dock is to disconnect the charger and play until the battery runs out.

I feel like I've been lied to and want to return the dock, but I couldn't get myself to do in in the hopes Valve will reward my trust and patience a fix. But I'm not holding my breath.

dougmwne11• 3 years ago

I think you have a hardware defective dock. Try an RMA. No reason you should be having power issues unless you are powering a usb-c display or some other high drain device off the dock.

korijn2• 3 years ago

Turns out the (official) chargers were defective. Got another one and everything works.

esturk3• 3 years ago

For those curious, you can see the Steam Linux OS usage here. [1] As you can see, it (Steam OS Holo) is already 20+% of the Linux OS market share after 1 year.

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/?platform=linux

wilsonnb3• 3 years ago

For reference, Steam still reports Windows at like 96% and Linux at like 1.5%.

So that 20% is of the 1.5%, so about .3% of all steam users are on SteamOS Linux.

esturk3• 3 years ago

If you click on the line item "OS Version" (for all 3 platforms), you'll see the "Steam OS Holo" is missing. I suspect the aggregated stat might not be updated properly. For one thing, the top Linux OS is still "Arch Linux 64 bit" at 0.13% when it should be "Steam OS Holo" as you mentioned at 0.254%.

costanzaDynasty• 3 years ago

Last year I would've said the Steam Deck was kinda a dumb idea. Then I bought someone in my household a Switch. Now I understand and want one.

galkk• 3 years ago

In addition to all the praises in this chat I can also add another. This is great companion for remote play on my 13900k/4090 desktop

ishyfishyy• 3 years ago

I love everything about the steam deck, just like everyone else here, with the exception of 2 things,

1. The touch screen hardware is there, but the touchscreen software needs significant improvement.

2. The weight. Holding it for longer than an hour is… hard.

Bonus: Steam store on the deck is essentially a webview - clicking on a game from the store home page then clicking back loses all scroll progress. A better integrated store experience would be nice!

75% of the Most Played Games on Steam Are Playable on the Steam Deck

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