Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Gives His Initial Thoughts On Valve's Steam Deck

This system is definitely not for me, Strong pass for me.. Also Phil being classy as always..

I hadn’t heard of this until today, I don’t have a PC and there’s games on steam I’d like to play. Being able to put Gamepass on it is pretty interesting too. It’s basically the price of a next gen console here in the UK, £470 for the middle model and as much as I’m interested I think it’ll be a pass for now.

I like the idea, but like the user above me said, it's more expensive for the middle model than a Series X or PS5 in the UK.
The base model is pretty pointless as you'd be lucky to fit one AAA game on 64GB and the storage is slow compared to the 2 higher models.

All the best to them though.
The idea of playing native Xbox and PlayStation PC ports on the go is a superb prospect.
Wouldn't shock me if Phil Spencer pushes even harder to get Game Pass on Steam now.

The low storage was my main concern but I just saw that it can take micro sd cards so shouldn't be a problem, will probay wait until next year to get one though

Phil: "Nice! Another access point for Game Pass. Gotta praise it!"

64gb storage? I'm sure it's fast and all that, but seems a crazy small amount!
i'd leave the steam deck purely for steam game, not Xbox streaming, as isn't 720 a bit too low-res to be streaming games to? Could you read text in Xbox games?. A large 6.5" phone with £10 phone_controller-holder is probably perfectly functional for streaming.
I wonder is there a 1080 streaming device about 7.5 inch about, cheap, as an alternative?

Idk about how serious Valve is with this thing, primarily because they do not currently plan on selling it at retail. Might be a decent device and it's cool Phil Spencer seems so down to Earth.

If you can get gamepass on it then it's more profitable than an Xbox for MS. No loss on the console

I've got the preorder preorder on the 256gb model, really excited to give this a go as there are lots of games available for PC that can't be played on modern consoles

Travelling again recently I’m really enjoying remote play and xCloud streaming on my iPhone and Razer Kishi. I can see this being pretty popular. Apparently steam was brought down by the amount of people trying to pre-order it today so it seems like there’s quite a demand.

It's a killer handheld console/PC, makes Switch look like a toy. Xbox games sell well on Steam and you can run Game Pass Cloud on the browser so it's good for Microsoft but I wonder if Steam will allow the Xbox Game Pass app on Steam OS to make things smoother.

The reaction video by Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter is definitely a must-watch for anyone interested. He mentions lots of pros and cons and also concerns.
I think it works fine for current games and games of the past X1 era but I doubt there is much use for it 2-3 years down the line when proper UE5 applications are everywhere.

Consoles work because you optimise the game down to a very core level. A linux-based OS using tools to run Windows games ... I don't know.

It's a dope concept. I will wait on it to see how it goes. Especially if a native gamepass app is added on.

@carlos82 hey man I’m pretty ignorant of this and even attempted to look this up.

So is this a console like system where I could down load the games on the deck and play offline ?

@BlueOcean

I just pre ordered a switch oled.
Now that I’ve seen this ….. May have to cancel.

People: xbox series s is gonna hold back game development with its low end specs
Valve and the steam deck: hold mah beer

@BlueOcean Wondering the same thing about game pass potentially being added to steam os. Thats a make or break for me because I don't have any games on steam so there's not much incentive for me to shell out the money. Also i'm kinda ***** with technology lol I don't want the bother of changing the OS and whatever else would need to be done.

steam deck seems awesome more powerful than a switch and cheap steam games as well win win

@matt1040 basically yes, it's essentially a handheld PC but just going onto Steam and buying games is no different to how you do it on any console and they'll all play on the system without Internet, apart for online games of course

@BlueOcean I wouldn't imagine Steam would be against the Gamepass app being supported, they seem more than happy to let you know that you can use the other stores or even replace their OS

@Wilshiire I think that it will be likely to get the Game Pass on Steam OS as @carlos82 suggests but we'll have to wait for more information. I expect customised OS and middleware for Steam Deck from the homebrew community but because Valve is marketing this as a handheld PC that you can use they way you want (the opposite of Switch) I think it's likely that it will get the Game Pass app for the stock OS.

The next step would be downloading Windows games (Play Anywhere games). Most Steam games run on Windows and Steam Deck is able to play Windows games. Downloading and running Xbox games (Play Anywhere games) would be awesome but I don't know if that will require another OS or middleware. The possibilities are endless and if you follow a guide it should be easy to do lots of things because it's not a closed environment like a Nintendo handheld. Lately, Nintendo spend more money on anti-hack technology than on software development.

@BrilliantBill “ Consoles work because you optimise the game down to a very core level...”

Gosh, I remember when that was a true.

Haha, he's just happy to not have to keep considering the fans who want a portable Xbox.

Given the specs, this will be more powerful than minimum requirements likely for any upcoming Xbox games on Steam for awhile, since this thing is more powerful than a One S. So, we'll be able to play Halo, Forza, Gears, Sony games like Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn and emulate a game like BotW all on one device.

I don't think people realize how broken this will make things, lol.