Comment on Steam Deck sales still going strong over three years later
dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 week ago
No surprise there. It’s backed by a reputable company, built well, supported well, and continues to receive updates that affect not only the handheld itself, but the rest of the linux gaming scene all together. Plus it’s an absolute steal for the money.
Other brands had it all written out for them, but they all opted in for a quick buck, with generic bullshit with no understanding of what made the Deck so appealing
I haven’t bought it because previous hardware has been quick to get discontinued or support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link) and I didn’t like that.
Told myself I’d buy a Steam Deck 2 because that would show long term support, though.
Steam Machines we’re DOA, and anyone that actually bought one from one of the manufacturers likely got one that came with windows installed, because valve delayed the controller and software for so long the manufacturers pivoted to putting windows on them to be able to start selling the inventory. That meant very few that actually run SteamOS made it into the wild, most of them getting sold as just console-sized windows PCs.
And if you still have one, it’s just a PC. You can slap Bazzite or Windows on it and it’ll work just fine even today.
Both steam controller and link continue to get software support, and also function to this day. Valve stopped manufacturing and selling them, but support has not stopped.
No matter how you look at it, buying valve hardware has meant that even as it ages, they make sure it doesn’t turn into a brick, or even have its usefulness compromised.
Yup. My Steam Link was a semi-cheap purchase when they were on sale, and over time their continued support of it only pushed me to use Steam more and more. I still use it today, and it was a big part of why I adopted the Deck right away.
I had one of the Alienware Alphas with the 860m and desktop haswell 4130t. You could swap in a 4160 but your big enemy would be heat.
I swapped the steam OS for windows and threw in some cheap 240gb adata ssd. Ran it for years.
Only problem was the cmos battery would fail every now and again and I’d have to solder a new one in because Dell……
Anyways, I was in it ~$400 and it was a great htpc. Only real problem was haswell couldn’t decode 4k YouTube.
The steam controller I still have, and it’s quirky. But I like it for the mouse function.
Was the soldered CMOS different than the removable one? I fought the battery (removable) in mine for a year or two and eventually just shelved it. Would love to get it running as a low energy emulation station if it’s salvageable
I said or, not and.
Steam Link is kinda obsolete now, but I would have loved another iteration of the controller.
Fair enough. But that only further confuses me on how you came to the conclusion you did.
Surely it’s enough for a given product to be worth the price one pays at the time of purchase, and for that product to not lose that value with age. Judge a product for what it is, not what it will be.
We almost certainly are getting a second controller, but that will in no way take away, nor improve, the value that people who bought and still use the first one got and get out of it.
Previous hardware mostly immediately flopped. Steam Deck has been seeing regular hardware and software improvements over the last several years.
If you’re waiting for Steam Deck 2, you’re most likely going to be waiting a while. Valve doesn’t do anything quickly or on a regular basis.
Yeah I don’t mind waiting for that. Not very susceptible to FOMO. I do think it’s been going better for the SD than the other hardware though, so I’m happy for the userbase.
Fwiw, I almost always get some amount of buyer’s remorse when I make a purchase, usually on expensive items. There’s some hidden cost or feature that isn’t quite what I’d hoped for.
Not so with the Steam Deck. It has been virtually everything I hoped for, and not once have I felt like it did or had something I didn’t want. When you pull the trigger, I hope you get the same experience.
SD is here to stay. You have nothing to worry about there. It’s pretty damn amazing and what we have been waiting for all our lives.
I’m not even exaggerating.
Dude, my Steam Link and Steam Controllers are still in active use and get updates to this day. I even have 2 backup Steam Links - at the end they were selling them at 5€ per piece, and since i use it to stream pretty much everything to my TV, i got some in reserve.
I’m still on the first one, and one of the Controllers is now working with my Steam Deck out of the box.
I agree (a bit) on the Steam machines, those were pretty much a flop when seen as isolated device - but they laid the groundwork for the Deck.
support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link
Steam Link is still getting software updates. Steam Controller doesn’t get updates anymore afaik, but it did get updates for a long time including firmware updates that added BLE support. Steam input on both the steam deck and in big picture mode still supports it and still allows community sharing of controller profiles.
In general I think Valve supports their less successful hardware pretty well by industry standards.
The Switch is none of those things and yet still manages to sell 100x more units.
Orange juice is nothing like apple juice, and yet both still sell
And yet one sells 100x more than the other.
The switch has brand recognition, loyalty from decades ago, and ease of use (for the less tech savvy).
Steam has all of those as well.
It has exclusives iirc, steam deck “just” has the rest.
The switch also has coop multiplayer and a few other things going for it as well.
Switch is more portable and also easier to dock.
Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 days ago
Agreed, the ease of repairs and ability to upgrade the SSD were a huge selling point for me.