Steam Deck Is Launching In Japan, Tantalisingly Close To Australia

5 responses to “Steam Deck Is Launching In Japan, Tantalisingly Close To Australia”

1. 

   The_Riddick

   August 4, 2022 at 4:15 pm

   At this point probably better waiting for Steam Deck 2…

   Reply
   1. 

      Ruen

      August 4, 2022 at 6:08 pm

      That’s implying that they’ll ever release the hardware in Australia.

      Remember you still cannot actually buy a Valve Index on Steam, if it detects an Australia IP it actually completely removes all Valve Index items on Steam itself.

      I fully expect the same thing to happen with the Steam Deck

      Reply
   2. 

      Westbrook

      August 5, 2022 at 1:09 pm

      I think you’re safe with the Steam Deck for a while yet for two reasons:

      First, the Steam Deck was released February 25, 2022. It hasn’t even been out 6 months. Even money grubs like nVidia operate on a 2 year update cycle. So, as a general tech product cycle rule, I’d expect a minimum of another year and a half until there’s a Steam Deck 2.

      There might be an interim updated version like Switch OLED (eg. screen, thumb sticks, ssd, cooling back case), but those are mostly user upgradeable components anyway.

      So, 2024 before Valve can justify a Steam Deck 2 to its customers.

      Second, all three Steam Deck tiers have the same gaming guts (CPU/GPU/RAM) and we’re unlikely to see a change to that until there’s a proper Deck 2. The APU is custom built by AMD and there is nothing else released with better graphics core at that power draw. Similar versions of the APU (Mero, Van Gogh, Aerith) are being rolled out to other AMD customers now.

      The rumoured AMD successor to this APU is “Little Phoenix”. We’ve only got one source for those rumours (Moore’s Law Is Dead), but he’s speculating a higher price and late 2023-2024 before we see it. That fits with a 2 year cycle for Valve.

      A third reason not to wait for Steam Deck 2 is pricing: The low price of Steam Deck’s base model was “painful” for Valve. Gabe’s mentioned that he was surprised that the top tier was the most popular. “That’s an example of us being a little surprised by what our customers are telling us,” Newell told Edge. “They’re basically saying, ‘We would like an even more expensive version of this’.”

      So, combining that note with the price bump for Little Phoenix and we’re likely to see a more expensive Steam Deck 2.

      If the price doesn’t matter to you, and you want a more expensive and powerful Steam Deck, then you should already be looking at Aya Neo’s lineup instead of waiting for a Steam Deck 2 in 2024.

      Based on what I can see, waiting for a Deck 2 doesn’t make much sense.

      Reply
2. 

   thyco

   August 4, 2022 at 8:29 pm

   meh ive shelled out for the Ayaneo Next anyway as its comming out at the end of the month. the Steam Deck isnt going to be released here for long time, and like the VR sets before it it wont even be announced that is up for sale until you see the box in an EB Games store

   Reply
3. 

   boxhead

   August 5, 2022 at 1:25 pm

   Tencent and Logitech announced a Cloud Gaming Handheld that’s suppose to function with direct streaming of games from GeForce Now or Microsoft XCloud.
   , we might see that before Steam Deck.

   That said with the current economy and supply issues we may be waiting a while before we see any Steam Deck competitors come roaring into the market.

   Reply