I am whelmed. Never been the biggest mobile gamer, will skip

It’s not “mobile gaming” it’s more “handheld pc gaming.” I get it sounds pedantic but “mobile games” and “mobile gaming” for 99% of people means games released for smartphones.

Competition…lol

I mean conservative estimates have over 20 million people using game pass and the steam deck is getting long in the tooth technology wise. Also, Ilove my steam deck so much, but it is not the most user-friendly for newbies sometimes. You have to be comfortable troubleshooting occasionally, especially if you ever plan on using desktop mode. Which is not required of course, but you are leaving a lot of the appeal of the device in the first place on the table if you don’t use that ever.

I fucking hate Microsoft, I am over the Xbox ecosystem, but ultimately this will be a very pick up and play device. It will likely sell at least half decently (likely underperform their estimates as always). I think anybody saying it’s doomed to fail is honestly ignorant of the current state of gaming.

the steam deck is getting long in the tooth technology wise

lolwut? The Deck was released only three years ago.

And how long do you think a $300-$400 handheld PC is supposed to stay on the cutting edge?

You can already see its ability to play AAA games slipping. It’s an incredibly impressive machine but the days of BG3/cyberpunk/etc. dropping on it and being solid experiences are wrapping up. I’m sure it has several years of viability in store but come on.

Nintendo wiped the floor in the mobile gaming market for decades despite their competitors having beefier specs. The DS lasted for years before we ever got the Switch. Let the Steam Deck mature.

The steamdeck has matured and because of its architecture there is no meaningful upgrade or change you can do to it yourself besides storage.

Valve has made it very clear they have no plans to release another one, the OLED was their final refresh of the design. Their focus in that arena is on bringing steamOS to different platforms, perhaps another round of Steam machines, but they have explicitly said they are not taking another crack at mobile hardware right now.

Even if you’re correct, it’s still too early, anyway. That’s my point.

The DS had a seven-year lifespan and the original Switch had eight. Even living room console have an average near decade long lifespan. So, of course Valve isn’t going to throw their money into a second generation.

The DS had countless iterations and refreshes. The Switch was Nintendo’s flagship product. I also never said the steamdeck was useless or done. You know I didn’t, yet you pretend like I’m treating it as if its practically e-waste. I was very specific/nuanced in how I talked about it. I don’t know why this is such an important hill for you to die on but I think I’m being more than fair to the deck.