We’ve all seen the news, Valve announced the Steam Deck. I have to admit that it’s an extremely innovative idea and concept but I’m really not sure how it’s going to play out. The Steam Deck offers anything you’d want in a handheld yet I’m cautious as to what to expect once it’s in my hands.
The good things are that it’s literally a handheld PC, you can use your own peripherals, download any OS you want, run other gaming libraries aside from Steam, and it doesn’t limit you from plugging it in just like a normal PC. Plus you can even play some PlayStation and Xbox games on it too!
The internals are pretty good and the previews show games like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order being played as well as Control. It's definitely worth it's price tag for what you get.
My hope is that this thing changes the landscape of gaming for good. Being able to take your PC around like this is like the evolution of a basic qwerty phone to a smartphone. The possibilities are so great and I could honestly see everyone carrying around something like this in the future. It’s more than just gaming.
It’ll be a booster not only for big publishers or developers but also to indie one-person teams that want to put together a neat little game. I honestly think that just by this announcement alone that there’s going to be a change in the landscape going forward.
There are more pros than cons here but the cons are pretty large and should be talked about. The first being that the design of the Steam Deck is pretty unfortunate. While I absolutely love just how many buttons and features there are, they are placed pretty awkwardly.
Valve opted for a design similar to the uncomfortable and notorious Wii U GamePad with the thumbsticks and face button being shoved to the top of its face. This is definitely the biggest bummer for me as I wasn’t exactly fond of the Wii U GamePad myself.
I think this design will make players’ hands fatigued very quickly whilst playing. I can’t really see how they went with this style as their final version but I guess it had to work well enough to let the public purchase it. I’m also a little leary as to why the touchpads are featured so prominently. I’m sure that this may be their gimmick and are trying to have players use these touchpads instead of the thumbsticks.
I for one have never been a fan of using touchpads even for just surfing the web so I’ve really got my guard up about these being implemented so heavily. I can see that for surfing the web on the Steam Deck, these may be better but in a gaming session, these will not be my go-to.
The other major con is that it’s still incredibly hard to get the proper parts needed to build this kind of tech so I feel that these are going to be extremely rare to come by. Just look at how elusive the PS5 has been. I’m hoping that I’m wrong but with how many different shortages there are, it’s not a longshot.
If anything, I hope this gives Nintendo a fire under their butts to put together a stronger Nintendo Switch. The OLED announcement was pathetic and it’s unfortunate that all they announced was a console with enhancements that should’ve been there in the first place, ie. an ethernet port.
Aside from my apprehensions, I’m optimistic about what this device will bring to the table and what ripple it has set off to revolutionize gaming once more.
What are your thoughts on the Steam Deck?
Are you feeling it? Are you not that into it? Or are you into it but are holding back your excitement until the product is out so that you can make the judgment call? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter!
