Just read Ars Technica's article... Gosh! That's ugly! Let's wish the best to Libera.chat!

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Quoting: rustybroomhandleThe developer program mentioned might be some kind of incentive for developers to specifically optimize for/support this device. This would be generally good for us.

As for the price of the device. They'd have to sell it for close to cost or at a loss to compete with the Switch.

Yeah but no. The Switch is underpowered for VR. Because that was the discussion about, when Newell said "You'll see before the end of the year". Unless I misunderstood? And I doubt they would sell a device that can't run the Valve Index... Valve must be thinking about the Steam ecosystem as a whole, I guess.

I'd target Xbox Series X and PS5 if I were Valve (specs and prices).

Just brainstorming... Based on something similar to laptop hardware... Taking into account it's a fixed hardware configuration and adding to this scale economies... And maybe selling it at no profit or under cost... Maybe something can be done to lower the prices.

Edit: I'm working on a 17" laptop with i9-10980HK and Quadro RTX 3000 that weighs no more than 2.2kg (4.85lbs)... It's going to be smaller and and weigh less too. Convert that to gaming hardware... Ryzen 5800H? RX 6600m? Probably a couple of tweaks will be required to get the best of the battery. Just ideas... Or my personnal wishlist.


Edit2: Rumors pretends it's a Van Gogh APU (codename Aerith) 4c+SMT / 8CU rdna2... 399$ USD... Too bad for my wishlist, AAA gaming and probably VR, but better for price and battery life:

https://videocardz.com/newz/valve-steampal-handheld-gaming-console-rumored-to-feature-amd-apu

Jupiter? Neptune? What does that mean? Wrong planet or another device spec?

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Thing is, Gabe Newell talked about the end of the year and consoles, related to VR... If this is what he had in mind, it should be minimally in the range of an XBox Series X and PS5 hardware specs.

Hopefully, same price range too...

If that's the case, I'm getting my budget ready.

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Reading the Ars Technica article you linked, I just remembered the patents for a Steam Controller V2... I look forward to see if it will get incorporated into the SteamPal with switchable inputs like being able to replace the sticks with trackpads...

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Quoting: Liam DaweUPDATE: the website Ars Technica has reportedly spoken to "sources familiar with the matter" who have confirmed it's real and will be Linux-powered.

Paint me hyped!

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Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: no_information_here

QuoteThen again, it could end up just being a Steam Controller 2 and these optimized games are just setup for it ready.

Yes, please bring me a new Steam Controller. I have no interest in a handheld gaming thing.

Everyone has smartphones that can play games and the switch is everywhere. What kind of minuscule niche would this live in?

If I'm not interested in stupid smartphones and their buttonless controllers? And I don't like Nintendo and its ecosystem?

Heard about the Razer Kishi? Makes your smartphone look like a Nintendo Switch. The real problem with smartphones is the screen size... Under 6 inches, it begins to feel quite small, in my experience.

https://www.razer.com/ca-en/mobile-controllers/Razer-Kishi/RZ06-02900100-R3U1

When using Steam Link, I personnally use my Steam Controller with a mobile phone clip for Xbox... It usually works, same form factor:

https://www.powera.com/moga/

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Quoting: c00kie55i vote for a steam stream hybrid. can play small games on the go and stream the bigger games :)

Tought about that one too... In the context of a ChromeOS based machine... Steam-Neptune game store for local play of titles the hardware can handle and Stadia for AAA.

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Quoting: EikeI'm yet to see my first Chromebook here in Germany...

That might be a reason... In NA, it's selling like hot cakes. I was never able to sell Linux to my wife... Got her a Chromebook, for Christmas 2019 (ASUS C223NA)... Personnally I find it way too underpowered, but she fell in love with it... I even proposed to replace it with a Win10 Laptop... "No way! Over my dead body!"

Go figure.

Edit: Oh yeah! And Chromebooks are easily accessible at Walmarts, Bestbuys, Costcos, etc...

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: MohandevirChromebooks overtook Mac in the OS marketshare, it could boost the number of Linux native games support directly, as a consequence.

Netmarketshare noted 0.4% ChromeOS vs. 9.5% MacOS in their last statistics...

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/02/data-shows-googles-chrome-os-officially.html

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-worldwide-2020-cutting-windows-market-share/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-worlds-second-most-popular-desktop-operating-system-isnt-macos-anymore/

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

I guess we can at least conclude that OS market share measuring is very difficult when OS X ranges from 7.5 to 17 % and Chrome OS ranged from 0.4% to 10% last year...

But I really have a problem with the .4% marketshare figure considering the wide success of educationnal Chromebooks everywhere... Net Market share might not be looking at the right places, in these cases.

During the pandemic, I've witnessed complete shipments of Chromebooks sent to many of my neighborhood schools. Never saw anything similar with Linux preinstalled.

I mean, it's impossible that the ChromeOS market share is under Linux's, by that much... It should be at least twice the Linux share, imo.

Edit: We can also conclude that ChromeOS is on the rise, thanks in part, at least, to the pandemic.

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: MohandevirChromebooks overtook Mac in the OS marketshare, it could boost the number of Linux native games support directly, as a consequence.

Netmarketshare noted 0.4% ChromeOS vs. 9.5% MacOS in their last statistics...

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/02/data-shows-googles-chrome-os-officially.html

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/chromebooks-outsold-macs-worldwide-2020-cutting-windows-market-share/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-worlds-second-most-popular-desktop-operating-system-isnt-macos-anymore/

Edit: This said, if it turns out to be a new Steam Machine in the form of a handheld, I'd be more than happy. But I really think that all this Borealis development will come into play in that picture, somehow.

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