Komodo announced today that they're expanding the retail presence of the Steam Deck into Japan now, with South Korea to follow after.
Back in March, they put the Steam Deck in the first retails stores in Hong Kong and Taiwan. That will expand starting April 29th, with the first store in Japan receiving the Steam Deck and the official Docking Station at EDION Namba Main Store (Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka).
Komodo mentioned additionally there will be an in-store trial event which will run from April 29th until May 7th. More retail partners in Japan will be announced "Soon" and they stated South Korea is next up in the list.
From the press release:
“We are excited about opportunities that provide Steam Decks to more people,” said Ricky Uy, CEO of KOMODO, “and we hope anyone interested in trying Steam Deck in Osaka has the opportunity to visit the EDION Namba Main Store during the trial week.”
All good news, and with the Steam Deck reportedly on track to hit well over 3 million sales total this year, an expanded retail presence is only going to keep pushing that number higher. The Steam Deck from Valve is just going from strength to strength, especially with big Proton upgrades further improving compatibility like the recently launched Proton 8 and the Proton Experimental update following it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I hope this will lead to many doujinsoft developer have Linux release in the future! Not to forget their own local game store as well.
For context, doujinsoft (≈indie games) in Japan are like their own world. They have their own distribution platoform with more experimental game scene that you will never see on international platform like itch.io or GameJolt. Yet, only less than 10% actually released globally, especially the one catering to Akiba-kei otaku --"
Most of those doujinsoft are only released to platform like DLsite (Windows-only DRM site 👎), booth.pm, Freem, or Tyrano's Novel Game Collection.
I heard Chinese, Taiwan, and South Korean also have their own unique platform with their own interpretation of gaming culture :)
However, even though I personally love the size and ergonomics of the Deck, I think if Valve really wants it to be a success in Asian countries, especially Japan, they really need to design a slimmer, more pocketable version. Additionally, it needs a 50WH battery upgrade and more vivid, colour accurate IPS panel.
Last edited by Mrowl on 22 April 2023 at 12:03 pm UTC
Nice!
I hope this will lead to many doujinsoft developer have Linux release in the future! Not to forget their own local game store as well.
For context, doujinsoft (≈indie games) in Japan are like their own world. They have their own distribution platoform with more experimental game scene that you will never see on international platform like itch.io or GameJolt. Yet, only less than 10% actually released globally, especially the one catering to Akiba-kei otaku --"
Most of those doujinsoft are only released to platform like DLsite (Windows-only DRM site 👎), booth.pm, Freem, or Tyrano's Novel Game Collection.
I heard Chinese, Taiwan, and South Korean also have their own unique platform with their own interpretation of gaming culture :)
i really hope that happens.
linux is already niche, japanese indie (doujin) games are niche, making japanese doujin games work on linux is a niche of a niche, a hell to find tutorials to setup then.
its like:
i cant wait to play this "kids anime game on my computer" years later, ok i can play it now, but im an adult i dont care about this anime anymore!
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