Sean writes, "I fundamentally believe a portable gaming PC isn’t truly portable if the battery life and user interface aren’t built for the road. I also believe most people interested in this machine would be better off spending $300 more for our favorite gaming laptop (by Asus, no less). If you really want a portable, maybe save a couple hundred bucks by buying a $400 Steam Deck and adding your own small SSD. 5/10"
ASUS ROG Ally owners are reporting crashing issues when playing The Last of Us Part 2 with the new AFMF 2.1 support update.
The Outerhaven writes: The mighty handheld gaming PC holds its own with SNK's latest fighter, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and does better than expected.
New data has revealed sales figures for PC gaming handhelds across the board, which even collectively haven't even surpassed Sony's failed PS Vita.
I didn't expect such a low number - about a 4 million.
Well, Nintendo dominating handheld market.
We have to consider how this device is sold. In the markets where it is available, it cannot be purchased at retail. It is also not officially available in some of the world's largest PC markets, including South America and South Asia. In fact, among the top five countries with the most Steam users, it is not officially sold in three: Brazil, Russia, and China.
It is not truly competing head-to-head with anything. Even its PC handheld competitors have much stronger distribution channels and are available in far more regions. Considering that, selling around 4 million units is actually pretty impressive.
As someone from Southeast Asian region, the steam deck can be purchased anywhere in the region. The only reason I think why the device is niche on the region is because majority of the people who opted for a portable gaming device either went for a switch or a mobile phone.
Maybe it's different for us here but we can buy it via retail here in Australia through JB hi-fi and EB Games but not in store
Lol at the disagrees. Well, it's not that they disagree, it's that you have provided evidence contrary to their belief, and they don't like it.
Because Steamdeck is freaking huge, you can't put it in your pocket. Is mostly for couch gaming not a travel friendly device with a shitty battery.
You triggered the bots somehow. Why are you getting down voted when you are spitting facts.
Its a bummer because the Steamdeck is actually a legit piece of hardware. IMO a great example of 'Sales doesn't reflect quality'.
Shame it didn't do better tho
Sales aren't bad though. I bet that Valve is satisfied with those sales. They were never trying to 'outsell' Nintendo or PlayStation. And, it doesn't really say much about a potential Xbox handheld because it wouldn't be a portable PC... unless of course Microsoft throws a curveball.
Far from the first time this has happened though the vita was a incredible device that was cut short because of the market conditions it launched in there was a ton of hype around iPads iPhones at the time they were advancing so fast people legit thought phones would be more powerful in a few short years that never happened.
The Sega nomad could play console games on the go but Gameboy killed it
About 10 other 90s era consoles could have been far more capable but we're also killed early
It kind of makes sense, since Steam Deck is basically newcomer and more handheld PC. While Nintendo is very well established company in handheld, since up to Switch, they had DS and its variations. And I kind of always expected Steam Deck being held back by being a PC. Because your average Joe, will still way more likely buy Switch, because despite console like limitations, they buy it, all games work out of the box, performance might be poor, but they work, no tweaking required, no settings to change, no questions if it will work. While Steam Deck is more in a way enthusiast thing. You aren't guaranteed that everything will work. Like latest one, Monster Hunter Wilds, it doesn't do 30FPS on Steam Deck at low settings. Also not all games work, if they have too tight DRM or anticheat. And don't get me wrong, Valve moved mountains to get things working as good as they do. Like hats off, full respect to them. But there are limits to what they can do. PC isn't closed platform, so ultimately it will be down to developers to cooperate. And this will always be worse experience for someone who just wants to buy any game on platform and play it out of the box. Hence why something like Switch will always be more mainstream.
But if I consider where Linux was for gaming before Valve brought Proton and Steam Deck, those are extremely good numbers. Like I tried gaming on Linux before Proton and it was anything but smooth and good experience, if you weren't into tinkering. Compatibility was worse and it really was like for really big enthusiasts, not just for gaming, but also Linux. The way Valve made it moved the needle for lightyears. And I really do wish Vavle success with it, to move needle further and to succeed. Because Steam Deck and Steam OS are awesome. And Valve looks like gets what Linux community and developers don't. Things just need to work for your normal person to have good experience. Linux enthusiasts are way too used to type few "simple" commands into Terminal to fix issues and get things working. That is not how you get general crowd on Linux. Like I remember when I worked in store that also sold PCs, once in a while we would get few with Linux preinstalled. They way too often came back because people didn't want to put up with quirks of Linux or just got lost. And fact that there are distributions is not used enough to make bigger targeted variety of Linux distributions that cater to different users. Which is shame and I hope Valve is the one that finally does it.
Switch is a home console 1st and foremost. Switch 2 will even the playing field once more with PlayStation and xbox.
You didn't expect it because as usual the internet completely blows out of proportion the size of next gen PC gaming, Yes a lot of people have PC's but only a small amount play AAA games on them or can afford too. That is why console manufacturers are ok with PC releases.
Most comment sections on websites or platforms are represented by a vocal PC minority posing as a majority saying this is great or this is the best and constantly trying influence companies decisions in their favor but it is all fantasy land talk.
All gaming handheld PC's like the steam deck and Rog ally have only amassed a total of 6 million units sold when combined together.
Steamdeck currently sits at around 3.7 million in total
Honestly very surprising and not what I expected at all
Honestly, it’s not all that surprising. They are pricey pieces of equipment. When steam deck released it was the cost of an all digital PS5 for the 64gb model. It cost more then a ps5 with disc for 256gbs at 529. And the founders addition was 649 for 512gbs. The very thing people screamed about the ps5 pro being the highest tier of steam deck was for less value in tech.
I don't know - for Valve, Steam Deck is almost like a companion device - like PS Portal is for Playstation. It probably isn't being used as the main platform. So if it only sells a million a year or something but keeps those users more engaged in your platform, maybe that's enough.
I've gotta think with just ~ 4M Steam Decks that's not enough to cover the costs of the R&D for Valve because that whole Proton thing is a lot. It's a stickiness play. And maybe foundational work for the Steam Box 2.
Regarding MS, they have R&D going into adding SteamOS like features into Windows. Assuming they can do that, anyone can build the hardware. If they push their own store as part of this, that makes sense - another pass at competing with Valve (spoiler alert - they'd probably fail). I think if they sell hardware and people just end up using Steam there's little point other than to keep Windows alive for gamers,
Its like some people are just realizing this, ive brought up how little the Steam deck has sold before and got alot of disagrees. The thing is these devices offer next to nothing over a gaming laptop and without dedicated exclusive software they will never be that big.
Better portability? Good luck trying to play a gaming laptop when you're laying on your bed or couch. Lol
@lanmanna
I can stream games from my PC to my phone. If I owned a Backbone controller I could play many of my favorite PC games of the past 10 years on my much lighter phone the same way I can play PS5 games with the PS Portal (or with the same phone and controller in PS5's case).
If Microsoft released a handheld that supported Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Xbox/Microsoft Store, and larger game stores I may not have mentioned, it'd sell even better than the Steam Deck.
People don't even buy their consoles, they won't buy their handheld either. Also, Valve will not want Steam to be supported on any Xbox handheld.
That's what is rumoured for the next gen console and with the advance of tools like wine which can translate Xbox one and series games to PC's it seems the next console will likely be a highly specced PC
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I thought they had been a success. But these numbers show how difficult it is to break into the mainstream market. These are very sobering numbers. I didn’t expect this.
You can’t laugh at something for not competing with the switch or consoles in mass markets sales when the device obviously hasn’t been pitched at the market.
The deck isn’t available retail, not marketed, expensive, not mainstream family or kid friendly at all.
It sells to the hardcore gamers and is almost universally loved and hyped up by that group hence why its importance then appears exaggerated in forums like this.
It is available in retail. You wouldn’t pour so much into R&D for it to not go into retail.
Why are you personally invested? Its a shitty outdated device for uber nerds. I’ve always said handheld devices are a waste of resources, and these sales number reflect that.
Yeah that's the thing though it is available at retail I can find 5 retailers in my area that stock it every time it's a order online type deal but retailers do stock it
Example
https://www.gamesmen.com.au...
In America, it's only available through Valve. And a handheld is a waste of resources? I guess Nintendo didn't get the memo. Lmao
Wrong! You can buy the Steam Deck new through Walmart.com even if its only available online to ship to your home. Walmart is a retailer.
