Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls the Steam Deck an 'amazing move' by Valve

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What just happened? Yesterday, Valve revealed the Steam Deck, its first handheld gaming device. Though it has the appearance of a dedicated console like the Nintendo Switch, the Deck is a full-blown PC inside, with all the benefits that come with that. The concept is so good that even Tim Sweeney (CEO of key Valve competitor Epic) took to Twitter to praise the device, calling it an "amazing move."

It might seem strange for Sweeney to bother discussing a competitor's new products at all. Surely he's just lending Valve some free marketing, right? Why not keep his thoughts to himself, or even lampoon the device for its shortcomings?

The answer is rather simple: whatever you might feel about Sweeney or his business practices at Epic (disclaimer: I have never and likely will never purchase a game from the Epic Games Store), he cares about PC gaming as a platform and welcomes innovation that pushes our favorite medium forward. As Sweeney points out in his tweet, which you can see below, the Steam Deck is an "open platform" where users can install whatever software they please.

By default, the Deck runs the SteamOS fork of Arch Linux, which allows Steam and its games to run and play as seamlessly as possible. However, you could quite easily boot the machine off of Windows or any other OS you prefer. You can even, Sweeney notes, install other game stores (such as Epic, perhaps?).

Yes, the Deck's storage capacity is limited, with even the high-end model capping out at 512GB by default (without third-party expansions). Yes, the screen is only 800p. However, according to Valve, it'll still run the latest AAA games well and operate for at least a couple of hours at a time when undocked.

As for the opinion of Valve's CEO, Gabe Newell feels confident that the Steam Deck will sell in the "millions," thanks to its "very aggressive" pricing and, hopefully, its balance of cost and performance. Newell is not unbiased here, but it's not as if the company has been pumping out terrible hardware as of late -- the Valve Index was pretty darn good, by all accounts, and even the ill-fated Steam Controller had a few fans.

All in all, the Steam Deck is an exciting device, and we're very much looking forward to seeing what reviewers and ordinary end-users think when the first units begin shipping out in December. If you want to be among the first to grab one, reservations are open now for $5 a pop.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90455-epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-steam-deck-amazing.html

 
The answer is rather simple: whatever you might feel about Sweeney or his business practices at Epic (disclaimer: I have never and likely will never purchase a game from the Epic Games Store), he cares about PC gaming as a platform and welcomes innovation that pushes our favorite medium forward.
Click to expand...

Nice thought but nah, guess again: He cares about more potential clients for his Epic Store which is guaranteed to work on this device.
 
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disclaimer: I have never and likely will never purchase a game from the Epic Games Store
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Same, mainly because they keep buying (timed) exclusives. And their app is barebones compared to Steam.

I do, however, like the free games and like Epic picking a fight with Apple though lol
 
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I might get one, it will be very very interesting as an emulation station machine. Will def be beefier than running a raspberry pi based unit and should have no problems with N64/GameCube/PS2 games.

Personally speaking I would wait and not jump on the very very first iteration release.
 
m4a4 said:
Same, mainly because they keep buying (timed) exclusives. And their app is barebones compared to Steam.

I do, however, like the free games and like Epic picking a fight with Apple though lol
Click to expand...

It's a shame EGS is neglected, competition means lower prices for all of us.
 
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Chemicalfacist said:
Considering the First Amendment and the freedom of speech it covers is based on governmental censorship and Twitter Jack is a private company, He doesn't have to care at all.
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Twitter was ruled to be a "public forum" where Trump couldn't decide who he could block, so yeah, Dorsey does have to worry if any administration decides to finally apply the pertinent laws.
 
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Epic should stop being d!cks to Linux.

That said, I am really excited about SteamOS 3.0.

Specially if MS keeps moving Windows to the cloud and as a SaaS.
 
terzaerian said:
The same way Twitter Jack cares about freedom of speech
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Hate him and EGS all you want, but the comparison is flawed to the extreme.

Like all big players in this space, he's guilty of both bad and good things. None of them are exempt from this, NONE.

Here is just one good thing (not gonna bother to name others, one is enough to dismantle your statement): Unreal Engine.

Have those twats from twatter done anything good? At least one single thing? I don't think so...
 
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psycros said:
Twitter was ruled to be a "public forum" where Trump couldn't decide who he could block, so yeah, Dorsey does have to worry if any administration decides to finally apply the pertinent laws.
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Twitter has never been ruled to be a public forumwhich has to protect freedom of speech, but nice try. Trump not being allowed to block people was to do with not legally being allowed to limit governmental communications. Twitter is a private company, read section 230 ffs.

It’s like the right WANT to look dumb.

“ The court acknowledged that Twitter was a private platform, but concluded that the President exercised sufficient control over certain aspects of the @realDonaldTrump account—including the power to control who may retweet or reply to the President’s tweets by blocking users—that parts of Twitter could be considered a public forum. The court further determined that the President’s control over the account was “governmental in nature” because “the President presents the @realDonaldTrump account as being a presidential account as opposed to a personal account and, more importantly, uses the account to take actions that can be taken only by the President as President.” The court rejected the government’s argument that the President’s personal Twitter account represented acts taken in his personal capacity, similar to a public official giving a campaign speech, rather than state action subject to the First Amendment”

Access to view content is NOT the same as allowing promotion of hate speech and lies, as Donald Trump is known to share and promote.
 
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Kosmoz said:
Hate him and EGS all you want, but the comparison is flawed to the extreme.

Like all big players in this space, he's guilty of both bad and good things. None of them are exempt from this, NONE.

Here is just one good thing (not gonna bother to name others, one is enough to dismantle your statement): Unreal Engine.

Have those twats from twatter done anything good? At least one single thing? I don't think so...
Click to expand...

Other than Twitter, here’s one: Square.
 
mattferg said:
Access to view content is NOT the same as allowing promotion of hate speech and lies, as Donald Trump is known to share and promote.
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I'm not a fan of your demonstration of hate speech and lies toward Trump. I'm not here spreading BS about Biden. But I can start, if you really want the drama. From your comments you really do.
 
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I looked at Nintendo Switch, never owned a console before, it looks kinda interesting but there are not many games that I would like and it seemed too expensive for what it is at the time.

I prefer gaming in comfort, none of that mobile gaming on the go BS but I keep an open mind.

Seeing Steam Deck really got me interested since it runs Steam Library. Definetely an interesting thing for me to follow.
 
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cliffordcooley said:
I'm not a fan of your demonstration of hate speech and lies toward Trump. I'm not here spreading BS about Biden. But I can start, if you really want the drama. From your comments you really do.
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Yet he isn't wrong. Trump does do that and it's unfortunate that there still are people who will defend a freaking president of the US on this. Please start the drama, I really want to see your justification/arguments on defending Trump's spread of hate and lies. (it usually makes for a fun read for me)
 
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I've reserved mine, UK £4, reckons it won't be available until Q2 2022 though (the 512GB model that is, the 64GB model is showing as Q1 2022).

Even if I don't use it that much to play games on, great little machine to fiddle about with, test software and what not.

Great value really, all it's competition (GPWIN for example) is all at least double the price.
 
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I got to this part

"(disclaimer: I have never and likely will never purchase a game from the Epic Games Store)"

And decided u were not worth listening 2.
 
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Everything that brings competition to the market is a good thing. Steam is an excellent platform, but I don't want Valve to have a monopoly in PC gaming.
 
Fearghast said:
Since GPD is doing the "same" thing for years, I wonder if you even heard of them :)
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They're not really worth talking about though. Yes, they are cool, but the pricing makes them pointless.
Biostud said:
Everything that brings competition to the market is a good thing. Steam is an excellent platform, but I don't want Valve to have a monopoly in PC gaming.
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You can install anything on the Steam Deck. You can literally install windows and install EGS.
 
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Burty117 said:
They're not really worth talking about though. Yes, they are cool, but the pricing makes them pointless.
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GPD is around $1000 for i7/16GB RAM/1TB nVME + dock included + Win10 licence ... I would say that is really comparable :-D
Not saying it's better, but considering every option and feature, they are much closer to each other.
 
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