Just checked (UK, like the article says)

They are not in stock.

I mean, custom steam deck resin buttons containing insects is probably niche enough not to have to source many of them.

Worth noting that despite this, support is currently only 32%.

There is no chance Valve will make HL3 SteamOS or Linux exclusive.

A PS5 Pro is far more powerful than the average gaming PC.

And I don’t know why you think an APU can’t achieve good performance. The PS5 Pro manages it despite being a small die size and an old CPU architecture.

You talk of the need to make it manufacturable cheaply - that’s what APUs are good at. Having it across several chips that need more expensive board layouts, far more memory, and more advanced cooling adds cost.

Not a laptop-class one, no. That’s why I said custom. A PS5 Pro uses an APU and is more powerful than most people’s desktops.

It absolutely would. 16GB of VRAM and another 16GB of system RAM adds up. Plus the other associated costs.

The rumour is nonsense and Valve isn’t making a console with a 9070.

Like I said, it’s likely cheaper if you’re not going to sell many units, but if you can recoup the design costs through selling a decent amount, it can easily become cheaper.

Less in the way of packaging costs, fewer VRMs and other power circuitry, a less advanced cooling setup, and – probably most critically – you only need one pool of memory, not dedicated RAM for the CPU and separate VRAM for the GPU.

Interesting that it uses a dedicated 9070 (ugh that name), rather than being a custom APU, like the other AMD consoles and the deck. That just adds cost and design complexity. You’ve got to package multiple chips, have separate power circuitry for both, have separate memory pools, and a more complex cooling system.

That said, perhaps they’re being cautious - if you can’t sell a lot of them, a custom APU isn’t worth it. It’s also probably much faster to bring to market if you’re using off-the-shelf parts.

E: the source appears to only say Valve is working on 9070 drivers, therefore a steam machine must use a 9070. That’s a bit of a logic jump. For starters, any driver work on the 9070 will improve any other RDNA4 chips (including APUs). Also, Valve has done driver work on plenty of things that they don’t use in their own hardware, from various AMD cards, Intel graphics, and even work on the open source Nvidia drivers - they are gearing up to a general release of SteamOS, after all.

TL;DR: this rumour is almost certainly bullshit.

Nobody’s forcing you to buy one.

It would still be beneficial to have more people gaming on Linux/SteamOS.

Other than some of them having some really… quirky drivers (which is a big deal), nothing.

But most people don’t like installing OSes, and it’s still better to have official support than no support, so I think it’s still a benefit to the user to have it as an official option, and still benefits us to have a larger SteamOS userbase in general.

There are some in this community who are willing to go into “2008 web forum user in a PlayStation vs Xbox thread” over basically any consumer electronics they buy. Not just in terms of PC handhelds, but stuff like graphics card vendor too. It’s wild.

Bought a steam deck? Well then everything else is utter SHIT and those people are MORONS. Anybody that doesn’t buy a Steam Deck should be Windows only, even if that disadvantages me too!

We should be welcoming of people running whatever OS they want, and welcoming of manufacturers giving the option of SteamOS. Even more so when it will benefit Linux (and by extension Steam Deck) gamers.

As for the “poor Linux support” - that’s exactly what people are talking about reversing. If it officially supported SteamOS and had up-streamed drivers in the kernel, it wouldn’t have poor Linux support.

As for the other stuff, sure, perhaps you’re right. But nobody is saying you have to buy it. It’s still a benefit to you as a SD user to have more people using SteamOS.

To everybody dismissing this because they already have a steam deck: do you not think more SteamOS devices is a good thing for Linux/Proton gaming? This benefits Steam Deck owners too.

I have a deck and would 100% buy a Deck 2 assuming the price isn’t crazy, but I absolutely want more SteamOS offerings from other companies too.

Additionally, the artefacts that appear onscreen are more noticeable as that frame is there there for longer, as opposed to if you went from a base FPS of 100 and took it up to 120 with frame-gen.

There is no fight, they’re different markets. Sure they’re similar on the surface, but I use my deck differently to the Switch.

But if people insist on having this be a stupid “war”, then Nintendo would obviously win. Even a Wii U level flop would vastly outsell the Deck, Deck 2, or any PC handheld. The Switch sold over 147 million.

I will continue to mainly play on my Deck while hoping for a Deck 2, and consider picking up a Switch 2 if the price is right and there are good couch multiplayer games. We don’t need to turn this into a Sony Vs Microsoft-style fanboy war.

Even a Wii U-level failure would vastly outsell the Deck.

I get what you’re saying, but there’s just no way on planet earth that the market will ignore the Switch 2 in favour of the Deck 2.

Plenty will, I’m sure. But mostly PC gamer types.

I think if you’re expecting the SD2 to sell anywhere near the Switch 2 you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

I’m so glad Valve never went public.

£60 before adding all the DLC 😵‍💫

In fairness, it’s always been one of those games that goes on sale a lot and is priced low when it does. Patience is a virtue.

If it’s anything like 6, yes, but the Linux version won’t get quick updates so effectively no, since players have to be on the same update.

There’s no reason the Proton version won’t work, though, I suppose.

Here’s hoping the Linux native version fares better this time around…