The Steam Deck will perform the same in docked and handheld mode

[Burty117]

Very true, but with Steam OS, I wonder how many Windows games will run on it. I know we can install windows, so that will be an option to make sure it runs any Steam game.

Is Proton even any better than WINE was?

These are all very good questions that really we don't have answers to yet! That's the exciting part, Valve are claiming it'll run "virtually any" game in Steam. You can see how well games run on Proton by visiting ProtonDB.com

It seems most games do run, the problem people run into is DRM / Anti-Cheat kicks in and boots you from the game. That's where I hope (assuming the Steam Deck sells well enough) some work on Linux will be made by devs, integrate Anti-Cheat into Linux properly, Even if it means specifically SteamOS.

Proton is WINE but with Valve updating it and setting it all up for you, so you don't have to spend months tinkering with 30+ settings and it's all built into Steam, you literally just download your chosen game and start it, no extra setup, basically as easy as Windows now, it's just the DRM / Anti-Cheat stuff really holding it back and of course not ALL games work well with it, ProtonDB.com will show how well certain games work.

Here's something that baffles me slightly. Destiny 2 has a Stadia version, I assume Stadia isn't a bunch of Windows 10 VM's running on Googles cloud? I'm sure they've said it's a custom backend, most likely all Linux based, meaning there's probably a Linux build of the game. Yet there isn't a native Linux version on Steam and Proton cannot run Destiny 2.

Makes you wonder how many games out there do actually have native Linux versions but they're never released to the public.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Reign in your expectations guys. This is a niche product that mimics several other already existing niche products in the same space. Arguably it is more restricted as other mobile PC gaming systems use windows.

If you think developers are going to optimise and push software for this device you are badly deluded. Leaks show Valve have taken about 100,000 preorders, this will apparently take them until Q2 2022 to fulfil. This is nothing on the sales of the switch, which sold millions in its first week. Even the switch lite has reportedly sold 13 million units in its first 3 months. On top of this, users on the switch spend more money on software than their steam counterparts, everybody knows switch games cost more on the switch than on PC (and it’s more than just the cost of the game card). Compare this to the steam deck where most users will have already bought their games. Devs stand to gain practically nothing for spending money to optimise their games for the deck. This is the same reason that I feel we won’t see Apex, Fortnite, Minecraft etc on the deck, there just won’t be enough profit in it. In theory Java minecraft (the best version) could work as it runs on Linux. But we would need Valve to step in for that and being Java there won’t be any cross play with your mate on their switch/mobile phone/PS4 etc.

I won’t be buying one but I hope enough people do to inspire dev support and to push Valve to making a much smaller revision with a better screen. But crucially, we need games developers to take the time to make sure this format delivers a good experience for paying customers.