Valve has just released a rather fancy Steam Deck Booklet to introduce Valve, Steam and the Steam Deck to the new markets across Asia they're about to expand into and it gives some fun details.
A lot of it goes over all the stuff those of us across western markets already know, including where Valve has servers located, info on their previous hardware and how things like the Steam Link and Steam Controller enabled the Steam Deck to actually be a thing.
It also confirmed, again, that SteamOS will be getting a generic installer so that anyone will be able to install the latest SteamOS available from the Steam Deck on their PC. Along with that, hardware vendors will also be able to use it so we'll eventually see devices from others with some already looking into it like GPD and OneXPlayer.
What about a Steam Deck 2 then? Well, it doesn't get much more firm than "In the future, Valve will follow up on this
product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market." which was taken from the last info page:
The page mentions they want it to be "even more open" than the first generation too. I'm not sure how they plan to improve on that, since it's already one of the most open mainstream gaming devices around but I'm keen to see what they have planned.
What do you think about the future of the Steam Deck and SteamOS?
Good to see Valve taking this initiative. Never underestimate the value of localisation. About 95% of the world don't speak English as a first language, and 75% don't speak English at all.
Would be nice to see some more Linux distro websites translated as well. Hard to promote your distro to the majority of the planet if the majority of the planet can't read it.
For a quick sample, the following websites are only available in English as far as I can tell from looking at the homepage of their websites:
- https://linuxmint.com/
- https://manjaro.org/
- https://ubuntu.com/
- https://archlinux.org/
- https://www.centos.org/
- https://endeavouros.com/
- https://getsol.us/home/
- https://www.gentoo.org/
Shoutout to these websites for having numerous translations available on a visible dropdown on their homepage:
- https://getfedora.org/
- https://www.debian.org/
- https://www.opensuse.org/
Yes, it should improve. At least when installed have localization support.
Valve must improve here too. Some years ago, I signed a petition (with many people) to bring steam catalan support, but they don't care. They let people to translate the gui, but they don't want to add it.
And for steamos they should let configure the desktop mode/kde to other languages.
This I couldn't try if it's possible to install manually, but it should be easier.
they can make steam open source, but i doubt they will.
they can also improve the modularity of the hardware making it easier to repair/upgrade, but i doubt its easy to do, maybe its not even possible.
interesting notes:
1)they said that steam and steam games will be avaliable for all chromebook users, are they serious? i think that was a miss comunication, i doubt they can make it work in the first chromebooks launched.
2)they said they will learn from the users, but there are a few negative aspects with that aproach, for example, wii and ds would never have being invented if nintendo just relied on "telemetry" on seeing what already is popular, what already work.
i saw an video from valve channel for developers, where they said they used telemetry to see how people are playing their games and noticed that many people mute the music on their fps to better listen to the sound of fire arms and figure out where the shooting is coming from, or because they got tired of listening to the same song over and over again, their conclusion was that they shouldnt make more musics, because people will mute then anyway, honestly i think that is a bad aproach, as someone who listen to basically anime/game sounds, i would hate to see more companies follow that trend, instead they should make more/better music so people wouldnt mute then, i can understand that this isnt possible for some competitive games like fps, but imagine if they followed that trend on all their games?
3)holyshit, look at page 20, they did an great job at highlighting some of the games you can play, i mean, not only things that are popular in general, like cyberpunk2077 but specifically things that are popular on asia.
Resident evil, yugioh, final fantasy, guilty gear, project diva (vocaloid/hatsune miku), tales of, sekiro, eldenring, ace combat, Dragon Quest, code vein, musedash, scarlet nexus, meltblood, something i cant read, persona, yakuza, king of fighters, atelier, metal gear, devil may cry, nier, and maybe klonoa, im not sure
While it technically may be true that they are continuing to do R&D on something that may eventually become Steam Deck 2, that can be many years away. This kind of stuff takes a long time to develop, and Valve tend to take their time.Already happening. Current SteamDecks are already a little different from spring release ones. The model in the presentations when announcing availability in Asia are also looking a little different.
What is more likely in the near future is that they will replace the existing models with a new generation of upgraded/tweaked hardware. I am talking about stuff like a different fan, or better buttons. Not a completely different device in a different form factor.
" I'm not sure how they plan to improve on that"1) no idea, really. Maybe they can make Steam run and some pure 2D games will work well?
they can make steam open source, but i doubt they will.
they can also improve the modularity of the hardware making it easier to repair/upgrade, but i doubt its easy to do, maybe its not even possible.
interesting notes:
1)they said that steam and steam games will be avaliable for all chromebook users, are they serious? i think that was a miss comunication, i doubt they can make it work in the first chromebooks launched.
2)they said they will learn from the users, but there are a few negative aspects with that aproach, for example, wii and ds would never have being invented if nintendo just relied on "telemetry" on seeing what already is popular, what already work.
i saw an video from valve channel for developers, where they said they used telemetry to see how people are playing their games and noticed that many people mute the music on their fps to better listen to the sound of fire arms and figure out where the shooting is coming from, or because they got tired of listening to the same song over and over again, their conclusion was that they shouldnt make more musics, because people will mute then anyway, honestly i think that is a bad aproach, as someone who listen to basically anime/game sounds, i would hate to see more companies follow that trend, instead they should make more/better music so people wouldnt mute then, i can understand that this isnt possible for some competitive games like fps, but imagine if they followed that trend on all their games?
3)holyshit, look at page 20, they did an great job at highlighting some of the games you can play, i mean, not only things that are popular in general, like cyberpunk2077 but specifically things that are popular on asia.
Resident evil, yugioh, final fantasy, guilty gear, project diva (vocaloid/hatsune miku), tales of, sekiro, eldenring, ace combat, Dragon Quest, code vein, musedash, scarlet nexus, meltblood, something i cant read, persona, yakuza, king of fighters, atelier, metal gear, devil may cry, nier, and maybe klonoa, im not sure
2) Well, I'd argue if any company but Nintendo came out with Wii and DS, they would have failed. And there is a reason Switch is actually a lot more traditional again - the wii u showed them that they can't build another generation on gimmicks. Also, it's not like Valve are ONLY driven by telemetry. Their VR Headsets, the SteamController AND the Deck show they start with their own vision and then improve based on testing and feedback. That's a lot better then Nintendos *eat what we serve*-approach from my book.
3) agreed
the wii u showed them that they can't build another generation on gimmicksi wouldnt call wii and ds gimmicks, sure wii didnt had many good games, but the idea was good and someone had to try, unfortunatelly most developers dont want to make games that only run in one platform, and not every game franchise work in this type of controler, not to mention the under powered hardware, but think about it, if motion sensors were invented before gamepads with buttons and joysticks, how the industry would be nowadays? most games would be made for motion, they would have nailed the motion controls, polished it, perfected it, they would know what work and what dont with this type of controls, and when someone made an controller with buttons and an stick, that would be the one seeing as gimiick.
im not saying "motion control is better", im just saying that part of the reason why it didnt worked was that the market for traditional games was much more mature than motion controls, not to mention it was easier to make traditional games, so we couldnt exploit the full potential of this, and... wii mote had a lot of problems.
i wouldnt call that gimmick.
ds on the other hand, had A LOT of great games that only made sense in the controls they were designed for+great traditional games too.
WiiU? well, it had mario maker and that was the only good use that i knew for it touch... oh and splatoon made a nice use of the gyro sensor, but it was indeed an gimmick console, it was more powerfull than an ps3 so technically it could have great looking games... but it was relased to late so that power wasnt a big deal anyway.
But the real good news is it will likely be over 3TFLOP of graphical power so maybe a 1080p OLED this time around also since those are getting cheaper.
The SteamDeck 1 has a RDNA2 4core APU with a graphical powerhouse of 1.6-1.8 or something TFLOPS and 720p TN panel.
And yet Steam Deck 1 is still unavailable here :(
Just give up and wait for SD2.. I'm in Australia also and unless the SteamDeck gets discounted I'm not going to bother.
I'm starting to think Valve REALLY doesn't like AU/NZ for some reason... either that or middlemen at blocking its import. (just go via amazon, worked for Quest)
Last edited by TheRiddick on 26 August 2022 at 10:31 am UTC
2) Well, I'd argue if any company but Nintendo came out with Wii and DS, they would have failed. And there is a reason Switch is actually a lot more traditional again - the wii u showed them that they can't build another generation on gimmicks. Also, it's not like Valve are ONLY driven by telemetry. Their VR Headsets, the SteamController AND the Deck show they start with their own vision and then improve based on testing and feedback. That's a lot better then Nintendos *eat what we serve*-approach from my book.Respectfully, the Switch is probably Nintendo's biggest gimmick console... And I think this gimmick works extremely well.
It's also a gimmick that Valve borrowed for the Steam Deck.
- https://archlinux.org/There is https://www.archlinux.de/, it seems to be up to date, but the package descriptions are not translated.
It's also a gimmick that Valve borrowed for the Steam Deck.There have been many handhelds, including ones similar to Switch form factor like psp and vita. IMO Deck borrowed from all of them😁
Good to see Valve taking this initiative. Never underestimate the value of localisation. About 95% of the world don't speak English as a first language, and 75% don't speak English at all.
Would be nice to see some more Linux distro websites translated as well. Hard to promote your distro to the majority of the planet if the majority of the planet can't read it.
For a quick sample, the following websites are only available in English as far as I can tell from looking at the homepage of their websites:
- https://linuxmint.com/
- https://manjaro.org/
- https://ubuntu.com/
- https://archlinux.org/
- https://www.centos.org/
- https://endeavouros.com/
- https://getsol.us/home/
- https://www.gentoo.org/
Shoutout to these websites for having numerous translations available on a visible dropdown on their homepage:
- https://getfedora.org/
- https://www.debian.org/
- https://www.opensuse.org/
not to mention that some programs arent even tested on other languages.
for example, here i have an directory called "Music" and another called "Música" and the same for documents, pictures, videos and so on, why? because i installed some program that didnt considered the possibility of my system not being in english and created those directories as result.
i have no idea what program did that, i think it was libre office snap or something like that, something that definitely had to be tested (it wasnt too niche of an application) but wanst .
While it technically may be true that they are continuing to do R&D on something that may eventually become Steam Deck 2, that can be many years away. This kind of stuff takes a long time to develop, and Valve tend to take their time.and oled
What is more likely in the near future is that they will replace the existing models with a new generation of upgraded/tweaked hardware. I am talking about stuff like a different fan, or better buttons. Not a completely different device in a different form factor.
I don't think Steam Deck 2 is any time soon, remember we're working on Valve Time here
We keep making the same jokes, but Valve's obviously changed. They are quick now, and things can get a version 3.
But yeah, for sure SD2 needs to take a while. Like the other consoles, having something fixed to target is a bonus for developers, and you don't have something fixed to target if there's a new version every year.
I'd expect something like a new version every 5 years.
Compare consoles with phones for example. Long after PS4, PS5 comes and most people upgrade. However, every year your phone gets an iteration, but you spend a few years with your phone without changing. So with consoles, you get generations of games and something developers can target. With phones, there is no such thing.
Last edited by ShabbyX on 26 August 2022 at 6:15 pm UTC
(...) info on their previous hardware and how things like the Steam Link and Steam Controller enabled the Steam Deck to actually be a thing.
SO WHAT ABOUT STEAM CONTROLLER 2.0
connect Deck to a VHS player, and even a GBA camera."
amusing, lol
The SteamDeck 1 has a RDNA2 4core APU with a graphical powerhouse of 1.6-1.8 or something TFLOPS and 720p TN panel.
IPS panel.
Last edited by CatKiller on 26 August 2022 at 12:05 pm UTC
That program didn't follow XDG standards then, what is a far bigger issue than "just" localization. I have zero clue how Snap integrates with the system though, so I wouldn't rule out that it's a Snap issue either.Good to see Valve taking this initiative. Never underestimate the value of localisation. About 95% of the world don't speak English as a first language, and 75% don't speak English at all.
Would be nice to see some more Linux distro websites translated as well. Hard to promote your distro to the majority of the planet if the majority of the planet can't read it.
For a quick sample, the following websites are only available in English as far as I can tell from looking at the homepage of their websites:
- https://linuxmint.com/
- https://manjaro.org/
- https://ubuntu.com/
- https://archlinux.org/
- https://www.centos.org/
- https://endeavouros.com/
- https://getsol.us/home/
- https://www.gentoo.org/
Shoutout to these websites for having numerous translations available on a visible dropdown on their homepage:
- https://getfedora.org/
- https://www.debian.org/
- https://www.opensuse.org/
not to mention that some programs arent even tested on other languages.
for example, here i have an directory called "Music" and another called "Música" and the same for documents, pictures, videos and so on, why? because i installed some program that didnt considered the possibility of my system not being in english and created those directories as result.
i have no idea what program did that, i think it was libre office snap or something like that, something that definitely had to be tested (it wasnt too niche of an application) but wanst .
See more from me