The date a great many have no doubt be waiting for, Valve has today officially announced their Steam Deck handheld will launch officially on February 25.
It will go by the date each user put in their reservation of course, starting off with the first lucky few who managed to dodge Valve's server issues at the time. The first batch of order invitation emails go out on February 25, and each person has just 72 hours to make the actual purchase before it moves onto the next person in the queue.
As for shipping? Valve say the first lot will go out from February 28 and they plan to send out a weekly invitation for more people to place an order. That actually sounds pretty awesome, so hopefully it will move along reasonably quickly, it certainly sounds like it.
Valve has also confirmed they're arranging for review units to go out to press sites, so keep an eye out for your favourite sites to get their own hands-on time. Additionally, before the release on February 25 we will also see some preview impressions but they didn't say who would be doing it.
Some very exciting times ahead.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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My other worry is all the people that will just buy this and install Windows on it... seems to defeat the purpose of the Deck for me; as who wants to deal with another Windows install...
While _some_ would inevitably do it (like some inevitably install Linux on anything that computes), I'm not too worried. It'd be a miserable experience IMO. Windows is not attempting to make itself look like a console, so it'll give pop ups, update at the worst times etc. Some might bear it to have more games, but it will definitely remove the nice just-pick-it-up-and-game feeling.
Also, while some higher end games have problems with proton, I seriously doubt those would be the kind of games people play on this!
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[quote=ShabbyX]
I think that's the main point to be made against the possibility of such a scenario: the people who are obsessed with framerates and spend thousands of bucks on overpriced GPUs and watercoolers and are more likely to be powerusers able and willing to install Windows, aka the "Gamers", are usually fond of online competitive games and thus don't belong in the Steam Deck's target group. The rest of us, aka the normal "gamers", IMHO will mostly not even bother to entertain the thought, or at most will try to do it as an experiment for the heck of it.
As @denyasis more or less said above, if the Steam Deck turns out to be good as a product on its own, it has nothing to worry about.
Also, while some higher end games have problems with proton, I seriously doubt those would be the kind of games people play on this!
I think that's the main point to be made against the possibility of such a scenario: the people who are obsessed with framerates and spend thousands of bucks on overpriced GPUs and watercoolers and are more likely to be powerusers able and willing to install Windows, aka the "Gamers", are usually fond of online competitive games and thus don't belong in the Steam Deck's target group. The rest of us, aka the normal "gamers", IMHO will mostly not even bother to entertain the thought, or at most will try to do it as an experiment for the heck of it.
As @denyasis more or less said above, if the Steam Deck turns out to be good as a product on its own, it has nothing to worry about.
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I don't see the os being that big of an issue. Both will autostart with steam, which will run in BPM or something. Both os's can do that with no issue. Ideally, if this thing is meant to be a success, the average user shouldn't even notice or care about the OS, just like every other console.
Running windows on this won't be the same as steam deck as running windows on a PC vs Linux is not the same. In fact it's much worse running windows day to day than running Linux on the desktop IMO (and yes i experience both daily) ultimate compatibility aside there are on windows a surprising amount of video driver regressions,
Example: recently R6 siege got an update and the game became a stuttery mess on AMD, a game that can run 200- 300fps no problem on decent hardware, its very normal for gamers to revert to older video drivers on windows as has been historically the case where as on Linux you almost never do this. Then there are endless updates sometimes requiring a lenghy shutdown process. pop-ups & addware, UI oddities, and of course processes that don't need to be running that will slow the device down. And of course, lets not patronize the average user a lot at the time did actually care about disabling telemetry as that is a reason why so many people stuck on windows 7 for so long.. very much why the xbox kinect failed due to privacy concerns. These days i suspect less people care, but it's still something to look out for you would have the full telemetry suite of software running on windows alongside whatever cortana is called these days listening into the decks in built Microphone ( maybe valve will exploit this too, but at least on Linux you can be more sure you disabled the option on KDE and it is off ). Ohh and you would of course need to supply microsoft with an email and i believe is it now a telephone number they want also and the list goes on.. Not exactly a "plug and play console" thats what the XBOX is for.
While _some_ would inevitably do it (like some inevitably install Linux on anything that computes), I'm not too worried. It'd be a miserable experience IMO. Windows is not attempting to make itself look like a console, so it'll give pop ups, update at the worst times etc. Some might bear it to have more games, but it will definitely remove the nice just-pick-it-up-and-game feeling.
agree. You buy a console handheld to take the arse ache out of the PC gaming setup experience, that's why the switch is so popular.
Last edited by Lofty on 26 January 2022 at 10:58 pm UTC
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(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
The Steamdeck is Valve's logical conclusion of their original plans for a second steam controller. Combine the haptics and sensors of the knuckles controllers and the touchpads of the original steam controller (which still exist on the deck just in a different form) and then add a screen to it like various Steam controller prototypes did. Then, "just" add a small PC into it and tada, Steam controller 2: a.k.a Steamdeck.
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(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
The Steamdeck is Valve's logical conclusion of their original plans for a second steam controller. Combine the haptics and sensors of the knuckles controllers and the touchpads of the original steam controller (which still exist on the deck just in a different form) and then add a screen to it like various Steam controller prototypes did. Then, "just" add a small PC into it and tada, Steam controller 2: a.k.a Steamdeck.
Was I dreaming it, or didn't they say you can use the deck as a controller to a pc? That's SC2 right there (a very expensive one though).
If that's not true, then they should make it true!
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Spoiler, click me
Last edited by crt0mega on 27 January 2022 at 7:08 am UTC
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(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
The Steamdeck is Valve's logical conclusion of their original plans for a second steam controller. Combine the haptics and sensors of the knuckles controllers and the touchpads of the original steam controller (which still exist on the deck just in a different form) and then add a screen to it like various Steam controller prototypes did. Then, "just" add a small PC into it and tada, Steam controller 2: a.k.a Steamdeck.
Was I dreaming it, or didn't they say you can use the deck as a controller to a pc? That's SC2 right there (a very expensive one though).
If that's not true, then they should make it true!
Not to my knowledge. Personally I would rather not but that's just me.
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Philadelphus Jan 27, 2022
I made my reservation late in the afternoon the day Valve started taking reservations, and my shipping timeframe is "Q2 2022". I don't expect to see mine until Spring.What! I was on within five minutes of reservations opening, then spent over an hour fighting overloaded servers until I was finally able to get mine in, and my expected date is "After Q2 2022". There's just no justice in this world, I tell yah...
Which is fine. I'm in no particular rush. Gives me time to get a few good size microSD cards.
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Valve also explicitly stated that all NDAs are lifted the 25th. So the first invitees have at least three days to watch neutral reviews.
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Arehandoro Jan 27, 2022
Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xD
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Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xDYou had the deck dream? Do you know what this means?
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A quick note from the reservations page for the people comparing availability times and how long it took them to order:
As for me, I’m kind of hoping my slot comes up later than sooner. Still on the fence about how much I want one and would love to see more videos of people using it for things other than gaming to help make up my mind about that price tag.
the reservation queue and expected order availability times are specific to each region.
As for me, I’m kind of hoping my slot comes up later than sooner. Still on the fence about how much I want one and would love to see more videos of people using it for things other than gaming to help make up my mind about that price tag.
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slaapliedje Jan 28, 2022
A quick note from the reservations page for the people comparing availability times and how long it took them to order:The fun thing is to look at the prices of similar devices. They all float around the 1000 range, and have essentially an Xbox controller layout, instead of the rather impressive controller inputs of the Deck. Also, they run Windows...
the reservation queue and expected order availability times are specific to each region.
As for me, I’m kind of hoping my slot comes up later than sooner. Still on the fence about how much I want one and would love to see more videos of people using it for things other than gaming to help make up my mind about that price tag.
I have a GPD Win 2 and I would use it more if 1) it ran Linux better. 2) didn't have the battery life of a gaming laptop....
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Philadelphus Jan 28, 2022
Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xDNo no, see, that was the Dream Deck. Totally different console, but it's easy to see how they might be confused…
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Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xDNo no, see, that was the Dream Deck. Totally different console, but it's easy to see how they might be confused…
Now wait for Stream Deck!
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Philadelphus Jan 29, 2022
Don't have to, it's already out!Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xDNo no, see, that was the Dream Deck. Totally different console, but it's easy to see how they might be confused…
Now wait for Stream Deck!
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slaapliedje Jan 29, 2022
New Sega Console Confirmed?Last night I dreamed that I was the first customer to receive the console, but somehow felt small, light and with a tiny screen. I mustn't read GOL before going to sleep xDNo no, see, that was the Dream Deck. Totally different console, but it's easy to see how they might be confused…
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Mine's after Q2 2022, but keeping my money aside and waiting until I get my long awaited invitation. Can't wait!
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Mountain Man Feb 5, 2022
I am interested in the Deck, but I'm not going to be an early adopter. I'll let the guinea pigs go first and then decide if I want to buy after they've found all the problems.
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