Gabe Newell: Hitting Steam Deck Price Was 'Painful' but 'Critical'

IGN : Valve characterizes the Steam Deck price as "very aggressive," saying that it's vital that it feel like a high-end PC gaming device without being too expensive.

[masterfox]

299 would it be an insta-buy imo, have dozens of steam games , but still not having a dpad really sucks

[Outlawzz]

It does have a dpad

[masterfox]

Holy!, you are right, from the first image since it was from an angle didnt realize it was one in there all the way to the top left, my bad .

[John_McClane]

Making a mistake doesn't justify all the downvotes, anyone could have done the same.

[esherwood]

Even if it was junk? They stretched to get it at the price point it’s at and they want the thing to run AAA pc games. id rather pay the extra money then waste $300 on something just because I can afford it . Look at the specs on it compared to the switch

[darthv72]

$400 is a great price for the power you get compared to the $350 of the new OLED switch. A regular switch is $300 and the $50 price hike for just a better screen is not worth it. But $100 more for a fully fledged PC in your hands (that is cheaper than even the latest smartphones/tablets) that you can literally play tens of thousands of games ranging from Atari to Xbox using native store launchers as well as emulators.

count me in.

[Vegamyster]

The price is great but PC games are quite large, the base model is really only good if you plan on playing smaller or older games, the 256gb model here in Canada is $659 which is really the minimum if you're doing AAA games.

[mkis007]

The microsd slot should be compatible with tb cards... the 256gb ones arent expensive.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

You're not factoring in a few things.

First, it's $400 for the base model but it has terribly low storage for PC games, especially if you wipe it and load Windows 10 onto it. Second, there are a ton of games that don't work natively with a controller and the amount of time that will need to be spent configurating controls for each of those games (as well as trial and error) is going to take a while collectively. Finally, we're still not even sure how this is going to run most modern games as well as just how quickly will it kill battery life.

If there is a remodel down the line, I'd wait for that one or get one of the higher priced models when it launches, but that wipes away any value it once had at the $400 (even higher in other regions) prince point.

[Bladesfist]

If anyone wants the stats you can just get them from steam's all products page as it allows you to filter based on controller support. You wont find many games that release on console and don't have controller support on PC.

There are 55,953 games on steam.

25,272 have full controller support.
18,513 have partial controller support.

[esherwood]

Really hope this puts pressure on Nintendo to step it up though I doubt it. The switch oled was definitely a disappointment

[porkChop]

It's still too high. It's $499 in Canada for only 64GB. For PC gaming that's not nearly enough. It should have had at least 128GB minimum. And not having the anti-glare glass unless you pay $819 Canadian is unacceptable.

I mean at this price Valve is going up against the Series X and the PS5. Other than portability, what is the value proposition?

[Vanfernal]

They used Death Stranding as an example of the games it can run. The Steam file for Death Stranding is 80gb. XD

[Profchaos]

I guess the benifit is that the base model has expandable storage meaning you can get a micro SD card and expand it

[DOMination-]

Can you split a game between internal and SD if its over 64GB ?

[darthv72]

Id agree... 128gb for $400 would have been right for the entry level model

[GameBoyColor]

Thats my only complaint, why pull a nintendo and skimp on the storage. The nvme options are even more of a turn off. At least you can expand with micro sd but still...

[Vegamyster]

To keep the price down they had to skimp out somewhere, there is a reason the best phones on the market cost well over $700+ and Laptops cost more than the desktop equivalent. The smaller the device the more it costs, it's not a matter of a company trying to screw over consumers, you look at other powerful handheld PC systems it's no different.

[kneon]

@Vegamyster

You are correct, except for a certain fruit flavoured phone maker that does screw over their customers by changing many times the actual cost difference if you want a phone with more storage, and of course do not support a microSD slot so that you have no other options

[Elda]

I'm interested.

[DonDon3000]

The price is great at $399 since I have hundreds of games from throughout the years. Only $50 more than a Switch plus I have a ton of games already. I'm sold.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

You'll need a lot of storage to play those hundreds of games, and since it's only going to be expandable via Micro SD cards that will get pricey fast. 1TB Micro SD cards on Amazon go for $220 or more currently, not to mention the load speeds might be a problem.

[Bladesfist]

I have 500 games installed on a 6TB drive on my PC, I hope they build in an option to transfer games over your local network in steam.

[HOLDERofFOOD]

Anyone concerned about the very noticeable input lag in all of the gameplay videos? That would def be a dealbreaker for me. Love playing competitive shooters on pc and it’d be amazing to do that on the go in cafes and stuff but huge miss if there’s awful input lag.

[GoodGuy09]

Perhaps pc gaming can become a bit more popular among casuals this way. $400 is quite daring. The number one complaint ppl dont game on pc is because they think its very expensive after all. Which is true lol.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

The majority of casuals will absolutely not buy this, they will go buy a Switch or a last gen system like a discounted PS4 instead. Ease of use is a huge factor with this stuff, and expecting casual players to just up and understand how to navigate an entirely new OS to them is a big understandment.

[FPS_D3TH]

Lmao you’re acting like steam is impossible to navigate, understand or that’s it’s all that different than Playstations or Xbox OS.

[jjb1981]

Now is a great time to play Windwaker HD on the Steam Deck.

[melons]

I highly doubt this considering CS:GO generates the gross annual income of Scotland every day with its skins.

[Atomicjuicer]

Preordered. Cant wait!
This will be sold out.

[Spenok]

I just bought myself a really hefty PC, but I'm still getting one of these.

If I can play FFXIV on the go with it, SOLD!