Steam Deck looks great, but Valve’s hardware track record doesn’t

Steam Deck looks great, but Valve's hardware track record doesn't

(Image credit: Valve)

Final week, Valve revealed Steam Deck: a handheld PC that looks like a NIntendo Switch, but packs as much power every bit a decent gaming laptop. Pre-orders for the Steam Deck went live on Friday (July sixteen), and hordes of eager fans well-nigh crashed Valve's servers. This Dec, PC gamers will accept a chance to play their favorite titles in a handheld format — no cloud gaming, local streaming or compromised console ports required.

While Steam Deck sounds interesting, I've adopted a await-and-see approach regarding Valve's inventive new device. Part of the reason is that I think there's notwithstanding a pretty articulate separation between games that are optimized for a handheld, and games that are optimized for a large screen, the Nintendo Switch nonetheless.

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The other reason for my caution, of form, is because I've observed Valve's arroyo to hardware over the past few years, and the company has stumbled just as often equally it'southward succeeded. Since I've started working at Tom'due south Guide, Valve has attempted iii major hardware initiatives: the Steam Controller, the Steam Link and Steam Machines. The first 2 came and went; the last one barely materialized at all.

While the route to success is paved with failure in the gaming industry as much as anywhere else, I still wonder whether Valve volition evangelize a revolutionary handheld console or abandon the Steam Deck projection if it'south non perfect out of the gate.

Steam Controller and Steam Link

For context, let's expect at Valve'south hardware initiatives up to this point, and how each one played out.

Start, in that location was the Steam Controller, which debuted in 2015. I reviewed the inventive peripheral when it came out, giving it a mixed score:

"While the Steam Controller can adequately replace a traditional controller, a mouse and a keyboard all at the same time, it doesn't fill whatsoever of the functions of those devices specially well," I wrote at the time. "The impromptu mouse pad feels imprecise; there aren't enough buttons to replace a full-fledged keyboard, and it seems to introduce a limitation to just well-nigh every genre that wasn't there earlier."

For those who never tried 1, the Steam Controller was a large peripheral, intended to piece of work with SteamOS, and to work in place of a traditional controller, mouse and keyboard all at once. It was an aggressive idea, and like many ambitious ideas, it didn't fully work. Notwithstanding, the amount of customization it offered was incredible, and a small-scale only dedicated community of fans still laments the demise of that product to this day.

The problem wasn't that the Steam Controller was imperfect; it was that Valve released it to middling fanfare, didn't practice much with information technology, and quietly let information technology disappear. A second version could have ironed out a lot of issues present in the first.

Steam Link, which also came out in 2015, was some other ahead-of-its-fourth dimension step toward streaming PC games. Past hooking this small box up to their TVs, gamers could stream their Steam libraries to a big screen, successfully bridging the gap betwixt PC and living-room gaming. The device price simply $fifty — much cheaper than buying a 2nd gaming PC.

To be fair, Steam Link functionality even so exists, as you can get it on Android phones or program information technology into a Raspberry Pi. But the Steam Link hardware was another perfect instance of Valve producing a perfectly viable slice of tech, then seemingly losing interest in it and abandoning it, just when it could have been about useful. Recall well-nigh how many cloud gaming headaches a full-featured Steam Link could have solved, years before Google Stadia or Xbox Cloud Gaming fifty-fifty existed.

Steam Machines

However, Valve's biggest hardware misstep came in the course of Steam Machines. This promising thought surfaced in 2014, when Valve announced that it would partner with a multifariousness of gaming PC manufacturers to brand its ain line of gaming rigs. Each Steam machine would come preinstalled with SteamOS, and would run the gamut from peak-of-the-line gaming PCs, to pocket-size-form living room fare.

Valve made a big to-do about Steam Machines before they launched, and got major manufacturers like Alienware and iBuyPower onboard to piece of work their magic. However, as the Steam Machines' release dates grew nearer and nearer, Valve said less and less near the machines. In the terminate, very few Steam Machines actually came out, and near no i bought them. Valve stopped discussing them entirely.

Between the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines, we can see a consistent design with Valve'due south hardware plans. The company announces an ambitious device; the device comes out; the device gets a mixed (or negative) reaction; Valve quietly lets the product die.

At that place'southward no guarantee that Steam Deck will follow suit, of course. But of Valve's previous efforts, Steam Deck is most similar to Steam Machines, right downward to the SteamOS interface (and the possible Linux-related limitations that come forth with it). Valve's previous foray into gaming computers ended poorly. If the visitor wants to unmarried-handedly make handheld gaming PCs mainstream, Steam Deck will need to be a technical success, a critical darling, or a popular fan-favorite. And so far, none of Valve's hardware has succeeded on more than than one of those counts.

Steam Deck outlook

And so over again, Steam Deck is notwithstanding half-a-year abroad, and I don't have any special insight into how well it might work, or sell. If pre-orders are whatever indication, gamers seem much more excited about Steam Deck than the Controller or the Link. Furthermore, a handheld gaming PC is something people have been clamoring for; I don't know if I can say the same about a SteamOS-optimized controller.

For gamers who admittedly, positively must have a Steam Deck, I wish yous good luck with the pre-order meshugas. However, waiting for reviews in this case might be the wiser motility. Valve may very well have a hitting on its hands — merely many fans thought the same affair back in 2014.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom'southward Guide, overseeing the site'south coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you tin find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.