Valve won't be releasing a Steam Deck with more performance until at least 2025. Given the smartphone market's reputation for disappointing incremental updates, this is the right choice. Valve should, however, throw gamers a bone with a Steam Deck 1.5.
    • theragu40@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      9 months ago

      The term “mid-generation” is pretty meaningless here as well. This is a first gen product, we have no idea how long they intend this version to remain relevant. We have no idea if they ever really planned a direct sequel device. We know really nothing. All these articles about a supposed follow-up device are pretty worthless IMO. There is zero reason to expect that Valve would be treating this the same as a normal console.

  • dlove67@feddit.nlEnglish
    391·
    9 months ago

    “Delay” is a weird term to use. It was never even hinted that there would be one soon.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      Delay is a weird way to phrase “not planned any time in the next few years.”

  • .:\dGh/:.@lemmy.mlEnglish
    13·
    9 months ago

    That argument that any SoC upgrade wouldn’t be noticeable right now is partially true. A better SoC can be fabricated, but that would offset any cost Valve would willing to accept given the current Steam Deck pricing.

    It’s better to wait for what AMD creates. Surely they’re preparing new RDNA and ZEN architectures, plus TSMC new nodes. Those guys have an special sub-node to target low power devices, being the latest the one Apple eats every iPhone launch.

    If they pushed a new Steam Deck, it would be marginally better and most folks wouldn’t be so compelled to upgrade. Also, you fragment your development team, now you have to maintain two devices.

    Yeah, it’s better to wait a good timing when AMD and TSMC aligns, then you push forward and you offset the prior 4 year old model.

    • Fidelity9373@artemis.camp
      5·
      9 months ago

      Given how repairable the steam deck already is, it’d be nice if it could be pushed one step further and make some sort of mini-socket for the SoC.

      Obviously that’s not a Valve thing to do but an AMD, and trying to downscale a desktop CPU socket style is primed for failure (a lot of companies are soldering on for a reason), but if AMD could make a standardized “whole system chip” that can just be swapped every generation, you wouldn’t have to purchase the chassis over and over again.

  • Shin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    9 months ago

    Honestly all I want is a Steam Deck Mini. Fuck bigger and more powerful, I want a small indie/AA game machine that’s easier to carry around and use as a handheld outside of the house. The Steam Deck has been primarily a bed machine for me.

  • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
    1·
    9 months ago

    Annual phone refreshes make perfect sense.

    You don’t have to buy a new one every year. But a stable production cycle is very useful at the volume Apple moves. Spikes and troughs for a multiple year cycle would be much more difficult to manage, and if you do actually need a phone at the end of a 3 or 5 year production cycle, you end up with a product 2 or 4 years of development behind what you could have, without even getting the benefit of being able to get it at the price of a phone a couple cycles behind.

    The steam deck is functionally a console. It doesn’t have the volume to manage the same frequency of new devices.

  • missingno@kbin.social
    0·
    9 months ago

    I don’t need a higher spec Steam Deck, most of what I play is all 2D indie games anyway. What I really want to see someday is a Steam Deck Pocket in a DS-sized form factor.