It’s easy to dominate when you were only one in the market for so long time.
They got the formula right on this space:
- Linux, not Windows–Windows provides little that can’t be done on Linux in this space
- AMD, not Intel–AMD just has better products at this level (any level at this point, really)
- 720p–going higher doesn’t provide much at this size except suck battery life and requiring a more powerful GPU
- Price
Now, price is partially because Valve can afford to subsidize the cost and expect to make it up on Steam sales. I’d be remiss to ignore how they’re making their money. Still, they’re also able to have a good price because they didn’t try to make it as powerful as it could be, but as powerful as it needed to be.
I wonder how many people, like me, who really use their Steam Deck as a Pirate Deck.
If I see a game I like on Steam Store I simply go to STEAMRlP and grab it pre-installed. Then I run it through Wine/Proton. Installing dependencies is very easy, thanks to steamdb.info + Wine-/Protontricks.
Now, some games I do buy afterwards. KCD2 is one example. The Last Flame another. When I know that I enjoy it, I know what I get for my money, then I can make the decision to buy it.
Is there a guide you’d recommend following?
I am currently editing the guide, will finish tomorrow. but you might have luck following it already. Check out https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/38810596
I’ll reply tomorrow with a guide. Gotta create a Lemmy community for it and then I’ll make a post-guide on how to!
I’d guess not many. We’re a bit more Linux/tech savvy here but most users would hear “Wine/Proton” alone and freak out. I bring up my terminal and people somehow think I’m “hacking”. With all the convenience with buying and playing games on Steam, their model works (even on PC, with competing platforms and unlimited piracy potential).
Edit: They also have a really great refund policy.
Well, while probably not universally true, but I’m guessing that if you can afford to buy a steam deck, you can probably afford to buy games
If you’re just looking for sales numbers, which we haven’t had much of for a long time, the long and short of it is:
4M Steam Decks since launch, 2M of all of its competitors combined; expected that all handheld PCs sharing this AMD tech will sell about 2M more this year.
To put it in perspective there are 150 million Switches and 75 million PS5s out there. And 15 million Wii Us, if anybody is counting. This puts PC handhelds some ways ahead of the N-Gage and well behind the Game Gear.
I’m less concerned about who’s ahead in the handheld PC market and more interested on whether it’ll ever become a mass market space. I think a lot depends on prices for integrated GPUs not skyrocketing like their desktop counterparts and their performance stepping up a notch or two. We’ll see.
