Even more supporting evidence towards the Steam Deck being a nice success for Valve, with SteamDB reporting that the Steam Deck was the #1 top seller last week.
Their list goes by revenue, so it's not a huge surprise considering the price of the Steam Deck, however it's going up against the likes of Elden Ring which has sold over ten million copies (and lots of those were on PC), as The Verge reported. Not only that though, it's also fighting the Valve Index, which is in the top 10 for last week as well and costs quite a bit more — so it really is a show of early strength for Valve's newest hardware.
Maybe 2022 really is officially the Year of Linux Gaming. The key point of that though (that some across the net missed from my take), is that it doesn't mean it's going to suddenly take over, it just means it's at a stage where it really is good.
I also did a quick-take video on how it's doing across the weekend in case you missed it:
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There's another mildly amusing point I saw come up recently like "Am I the only one hoping that Valve releases a more TV-centric version of the Steam Deck?" on Resetera that I saw pop up on Twitter. People sure do forget quickly huh? That was the Steam Machines. However, the Steam Deck clearly has a market waiting for it but I bring this up for another reason — Valve has solved so many of the problems that plagued the Steam Machines that caused their failure.
Especially with the newer Deck interface, Proton, how far Steam has come as a platform with many more features and the list of improvements just goes on. If in a few years they made another attempt, it might not go as badly as some think. What do you think though? Let me know in the comments.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: elmapulbut it wont be enough to compete with things like switch or give it enough users to compete with windows.
They're already "competing with" the Switch. Both sell to the market of mobile gaming. That's competition.
(*edit* Looking up the translations to German, it seems "to compete with" can mean both, "be in a competition/market", as well as "winning the competition". Well, that's some wide field of meaning. :) )
And both sell well. Though you're sounding like Steam Deck could only be called successful if it sells more items than the Switch... I would call it a success if selling the devices plus selling more games yields more money than they paid for it. (And that would be leaving out the backdoor against Windows closed shop part.)
Last edited by Eike on 19 April 2022 at 7:56 am UTC
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: elmapulbut it wont be enough to compete with things like switch or give it enough users to compete with windows.
They're already "competing with" the Switch. Both sell to the market of mobile gaming. That's competition.
And both sell well. Though you're sounding like Steam Deck could only be called successful if it sells more items than the Switch...
they arent competing in the sense that:
1)many people simply cant chose the steam deck since its not avaliable for purchase, at least not imediatly, you have to wait for the shipment, that is, if its even avaliable at your country.
2)no developer is opmitizing for the deck, its was valve who had to fix elden ring for instance. (and make it better than even the windows version)
and while it dont have to sell as much as the switch, if we can sell like this, then the problem of games not supporting linux and we having to rely on proton may disapear for ever, proton would be for backward comp, while new games support it natively.
not to mention that competition kind of assume that people chose to buy one instead of another, instead of chose both (if they can afford) they save the money on one of then to buy more games on the other.
another thing to consider is that, if their margin for profit is too small, they might become unable to have an competitive hardware in the future, but that is an stretch.
also i wouldnt count things like android competition, google playstore is a joke, trying to find an good game there is harder than finding an needle in a haystack, i rather port my self an good game or make one than try to find anything google on playstore.
*by good i mean no pay to win bullshit, no lootbox/gacha.
Last edited by elmapul on 19 April 2022 at 9:01 am UTC
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Quoting: buckysrevengeWhat's nice about those of us that bought Steam Machines back in the day, they've greatly benefited from all of Valve's work on Proton... I bought my Alienware Steam Machine r2 a little over 5 years ago, did some minor upgrades and it works better than ever now that I can play even more of my library.Haha, funny you mention that. I just brought my Alienware Steam Machine out of storage for my wife to use to power a kiosk for an art installation she's doing, and I was playing with it and had the same thoughts, "Wow, this is actually now better than ever!" All the games I've always loved on any platform (Linux, and now too, Windows) still play very nicely on it and even more modern titles can be run at performance or low to medium settings. Considering that years back my local Gamespot was giving them away after the Steam Machine's "failure" (I think I bought mine for $299) it's been a ridiculous value given all it's given me over the years.
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Quoting: elmapulonce they ramp up their production capacity
I'm sure they'll change things once the production surpasses the demand - but as that seems to still not be the case for the Index, i doubt it'll be too soon.
And i'm not sure if that's a bad thing.
As polished as the Deck already is, i wouldn't say it's something a completely oblivious person should just grab from the shelf of a big vendor because they like the packaging.
I'm also not sure if it really needs to compete with the number of switches shipped, at least not for "our" purpose. It "just" has to solve the chicken&egg problem - and seeing how many devs are jumping at it, it seems to be doing a pretty good job at that.
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Quoting: Termyi doubt VR will ever have the demand that deck have, playing almost any game ever launched on the go, will have a bigger demand than playing the few VR games we have, especially considering that not all games work in VR.Quoting: elmapulonce they ramp up their production capacity
I'm sure they'll change things once the production surpasses the demand - but as that seems to still not be the case for the Index, i doubt it'll be too soon.
Quoting: TermyAnd i'm not sure if that's a bad thing.
As polished as the Deck already is, i wouldn't say it's something a completely oblivious person should just grab from the shelf of a big vendor because they like the packaging.
I'm also not sure if it really needs to compete with the number of switches shipped, at least not for "our" purpose. It "just" has to solve the chicken&egg problem - and seeing how many devs are jumping at it, it seems to be doing a pretty good job at that.
most of thos devs are indie devs, im still waiting to see if big devs will start opitimizing for the deck.
i have to agree that i dont care about marketshare so long we can play any game we want, and run any software or use case we want (use alternatives to the windows exclusive softwares with the same esential feature)
but if we can reach console level of sales (75~150 millions of units shiped) then we might as well solve the chicken and egg problem foreblem as well as optimization problem forever.
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Quoting: elmapulmost of thos devs are indie devs, im still waiting to see if big devs will start opitimizing for the deck.
Well, Apex Legends is not something i would consider "indie" ;)
There have been several not-so-small studios that released patches to optimize for the Deck, so i wouldn't say its just the indies, albeit they surely are the majority.
Of course it would be nice to have dozens of millions of sold units to "force" the industry to finally care about linux, but i'm pretty happy with the progress we've seen in the last few months already. ^^
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Quoting: TermyQuoting: elmapulmost of thos devs are indie devs, im still waiting to see if big devs will start opitimizing for the deck.
Well, Apex Legends is not something i would consider "indie" ;)
There have been several not-so-small studios that released patches to optimize for the Deck, so i wouldn't say its just the indies, albeit they surely are the majority.
Of course it would be nice to have dozens of millions of sold units to "force" the industry to finally care about linux, but i'm pretty happy with the progress we've seen in the last few months already. ^^
that is why i said "most of", now, steam deck have a good momentum, but it will have to keep it momentum in order to get support from more big publishers and will have to get this support for the long run.
nes and snes had an good momentum but that was not enough to ensure n64 would have for instance.
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Quoting: elmapulanother thing to consider is that, if their margin for profit is too small, they might become unable to have an competitive hardware in the future, but that is an stretch.
It's very fortunate for us that they are a non-stock company (with enough money), so they can choose to continue on stuff with low or no margin if they want to.
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Quoting: elmapulfirst they should fix their supply issue
Not knowing how many they have made or pre orders taken you cant make that assumption.
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Quoting: pete910Quoting: elmapulfirst they should fix their supply issue
Not knowing how many they have made or pre orders taken you cant make that assumption.
"In the first month very quickly we'll be in the tens of thousands, by the second month we'll be in the hundreds of thousands. And beyond that it'll grow even quicker."
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-says-steam-deck-production-will-be-in-the-hundreds-of-thousands-by-next-month/
havent you being following the news?
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