VG247: Valve was rumoured today to be working Source 2, a brand new version of the studio’s bespoke game engine. Dave Cook looks at the benefits of a serious tech leap instead of the company’s normal increments, and what it could mean for the reveal of Half-Life 3.
Valve gave a user Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for free as compensation for the long wait during their Steam Deck repair.
I had a similar experience when I initially pre-ordered my Deck. There was an issue during shipping and they offered me a customer service perk for the hassle and let me pick any game on Steam. It was super nice of them. I got a copy of Rime.
There have been plenty of comparisons online between the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2, but does Valve really need to compete?
Steamdeck plays Switch games better than the switch hardware.
I see no reason why this won't continue with the successors. Switch will sell more, sure. But those who game on PC always come out ahead both in enjoyment and value for their money.
you think a Steam Deck is going to emulate a Steam 2 when it's arguably more powerful than it?
Interesting..
We're going to have to wait and see. Currently, there's no technology that would allow a Steam Deck 2 to achieve a performance leap over the Steam Deck 1 similar to what the Switch 2 offers over the Switch 1, without sacrificing the device's portability.
We'll either need AMD to seriously improve the efficiency of their cores, so we can get something with the rasterization power of a Radeon 8060S but without the power consumption of an Xbox Series S, or Valve would have to invest heavily in a translation layer for ARM. Neither of these paths is easy to achieve, so we probably shouldn't expect a Steam Deck 2 for at least a 3 or 4 more years.
Considering that other companies have shat out multiple PC handhelds already while Valve hasn't even mentioned a successor tells me they aren't looking to compete with anyone. They went for a console experience and that includes holding off on new hardware til there's a generational leap.
None of those other companies can realistically compete with Valve either. Valve can sell the hardware for a minimal gain and still know they are for the most part, just having every user still use Steam.
Every other handheld has to make its profit entirely on the hardware, which is why most of them went for an even more PC enthusiast market/price point
That is the one point where Nintendo does compete with Valve, or Sony with their rumored handheld or even more so MS, if they release a first party handheld (with a decent version of handheld windows)
What many people don't get is that most of Steam Deck users have a high-end or at least a good enough PC alongside the Steam Deck. Yes, we like better graphics and higher refresh rates and we get them in our PC, we are not relying on the Steam Deck for them. We use the Deck for other reasons and in other eventualities, where we are willing to compromise on all these things, because we still get to enjoy them when we can/feel like it in the PC. Thus, a direct comparison with a sole device like the Switch is misplaced. Of course you need the Switch 2 to be strong if there is no stronger alternative to play your games in. By the way I got a Switch on day 1 and I loved it, it's just that I'm not really playing it anymore.
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A Half-life 3 launch on the source engine would be extremely disappointing. Every year without any news of HL3 the more expectations the fans get.
Its fine to spend time on a game to make sure it's good when it gets released. But waiting too long might make fans have unrealistic expectations. Just look at Duke Nukem Forever.
What was Portal 2 running on?
So now the team working on half life : black mesa can restart all their work, to the new engine, and still never release the game
I've suspected for a long time that's what their plan was. Once HL EP3 development hit the 2 year mark, I thought there could be no rhyme or reason for that kind of development time other then Valve building a new engine and making it HL3.
But even still, after all this time, both should've been completed.
It's funny this comes out a fews days after the article...
"Who Sony’s Special gamescom Guest Could Be"
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Gabe...no....no he wouldn't.....would he ?
No one was expecting the Portal 2 announcement...just saying