this post was submitted on 12 May 2025

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Steam Deck

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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Follow the rules of Sopuli
Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
No piracy, there are other communities for that.
Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
Have fun.

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 4 years ago

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Moxvallix@sopuli.xyz

Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz

416

Steam Deck sales still going strong over three years later (www.gamingonlinux.com)

submitted 4 months ago by abobla@lemm.ee to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

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[+] dinckelman@lemmy.world 159 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (9 children)

[deleted]

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 4 months ago

Agreed, the ease of repairs and ability to upgrade the SSD were a huge selling point for me.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I haven't bought it because previous hardware has been quick to get discontinued or support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link) and I didn't like that.

Told myself I'd buy a Steam Deck 2 because that would show long term support, though.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 42 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I can't really agree with that assesment of Valves past hardware.

Steam Machines were DOA, and anyone that actually bought one from one of the manufacturers likely got one that came with windows installed, because valve delayed the controller and software for so long the manufacturers pivoted to putting windows on them to be able to start selling the inventory. That meant very few that actually run SteamOS made it into the wild, most of them getting sold as just console-sized windows PCs.

And if you still have one, it's just a PC. You can slap Bazzite or Windows on it and it'll work just fine even today.

Both steam controller and link continue to get software support, and also function to this day. Valve stopped manufacturing and selling them, but support has not stopped.

No matter how you look at it, buying valve hardware has meant that even as it ages, they make sure it doesn't turn into a brick, or even have its usefulness compromised.

Same goes for the Deck, Valve couldn't brick the thing if they tried. When you buy one, you will still have what came in the box ten years from now.

[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

Yup. My Steam Link was a semi-cheap purchase when they were on sale, and over time their continued support of it only pushed me to use Steam more and more. I still use it today, and it was a big part of why I adopted the Deck right away.

[–] sparky1337@ttrpg.network 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I had one of the Alienware Alphas with the 860m and desktop haswell 4130t. You could swap in a 4160 but your big enemy would be heat.

I swapped the steam OS for windows and threw in some cheap 240gb adata ssd. Ran it for years.

Only problem was the cmos battery would fail every now and again and I’d have to solder a new one in because Dell…..

Anyways, I was in it ~$400 and it was a great htpc. Only real problem was haswell couldn’t decode 4k YouTube.

The steam controller I still have, and it’s quirky. But I like it for the mouse function.

[–] vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Was the soldered CMOS different than the removable one? I fought the battery (removable) in mine for a year or two and eventually just shelved it. Would love to get it running as a low energy emulation station if it's salvageable

[–] sparky1337@ttrpg.network 4 points 4 months ago

It was removable, but used Dells weird connection. I just had to solder the connections of the new battery on instead of paying Dell $20 for a watch battery haha.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I said or, not and.("has been quick to get discontinued or support has stopped")

Steam Link is kinda obsolete now, but I would have loved another iteration of the controller.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

Fair enough. But that only further confuses me on how you came to the conclusion you did.

Surely it's enough for a given product to either be worth the price one pays at the time of purchase, or not be. Judge a product for what it is, not what it will be. And in Valves case they've shown they won't arbitrarily take that away at some later date. Your only complaint then seems to be that they don't always add value with time.

We almost certainly are getting a second controller, but that will in no way take away, nor improve, the value that people who bought and still use the first one got and get out of it.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Previous hardware mostly immediately flopped. Steam Deck has been seeing regular hardware and software improvements over the last several years.

If you're waiting for Steam Deck 2, you're most likely going to be waiting a while. Valve doesn't do anything quickly or on a regular basis.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I don't mind waiting for that. Not very susceptible to FOMO. I do think it's been going better for the SD than the other hardware though, so I'm happy for the userbase.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Fwiw, I almost always get some amount of buyer's remorse when I make a purchase, usually on expensive items. There's some hidden cost or feature that isn't quite what I'd hoped for.

Not so with the Steam Deck. It has been virtually everything I hoped for, and not once have I felt like it did or had something I didn't want. When you pull the trigger, I hope you get the same experience.

[–] modifier@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 months ago

I say this quite a bit. Whatever the opposite of buyer’s remorse is, that is how I feel about the Steam Deck. Hands down the best purchase I made last year, and that is continually affirmed.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Glad to hear that! I don't really need one so it would be more of a spur of the moment kinda thing. Maybe when it's on offer 😏

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[–] a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 months ago

Dude, my Steam Link and Steam Controllers are still in active use and get updates to this day. I even have 2 backup Steam Links - at the end they were selling them at 5€ per piece, and since i use it to stream pretty much everything to my TV, i got some in reserve.

I'm still on the first one, and one of the Controllers is now working with my Steam Deck out of the box.

I agree (a bit) on the Steam machines, those were pretty much a flop when seen as isolated device - but they laid the groundwork for the Deck.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 months ago

support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link

Steam Link is still getting software updates. Steam Controller doesn't get updates anymore afaik, but it did get updates for a long time including firmware updates that added BLE support. Steam input on both the steam deck and in big picture mode still supports it and still allows community sharing of controller profiles.

In general I think Valve supports their less successful hardware pretty well by industry standards.

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[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 40 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I’ll preorder Steamdeck 2 so fast my pants will fly off

[–] abobla@lemm.ee 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I don't know how to react to this

[–] towerful@programming.dev 30 points 4 months ago

Proper decorum demands also removing your pants

[–] Scio@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

With the gift of suspenders

[–] randomname@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Same, sadly there probably wont be a steamdeck 2 for a while considering valve is working on the deckard, I REALLY hope they announce it sooner rather than later though. I gave my steamdeck to my girlfriend and I'm waiting next gen.

[–] Eggyhead 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don’t think a deck 2 is the goal. I think it’s Steam OS. Third parties will be building better hardware and just throwing Steam OS on it. Your Deck 2 will be made by whoever built the hardware configuration you prefer.

Deckard is probably a means to ensure Steam OS is VR capable as well, which would also liberate PCVR from windows and meta as well.

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[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’ll preorder the deckard so fast my shirt will fly off

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This is great news but I'm curious what it's going to take for your underwear to fly off

[–] Llewellyn@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Half Life 3

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’ll preorder Half-Life 3 so fast my dick will fly off

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

Wake up babe, new lower surgery tech just dropped

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[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's been 3 years ???? 😱😱

[–] FuCensorship@lemmy.today 4 points 4 months ago

Dude it feels like a year ago maximum, Jesus.........

[–] network_switch@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I was sceptical on how good it could be when it was first announced. Steam Deck 2 will be day one for me though

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Seems like they're making good on a promise of incremental improvements too. Really happy with that device.

[–] abobla@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not gonna lie, I was hyped since the announcement, and the love for this device hasn't died down.

I'm not a big gamer nor do I play on portable consoles, but the idea of an accessible portable console running a linux distro was amazing to me.

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[–] Macallan@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Just got mine in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I love it. I haven't played PC games since I was in high school in the 90's. My son has one, and my girlfriend's grandson has one. We're all connected with family sharing. My daughter is interested in getting one now too.

Side note: Desktop mode is getting me used to Linux and I'm enjoying it. It doesn't seem as intimidating as I imagined.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 4 months ago

Building quality products to earn money by providing value to customers, what a novel idea!

[–] JohnWorks@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 months ago

The main appeal for the deck to me is the ability to run games well on lower wattages. Sure the other options can run games better than the deck but it seems like you want handheld efficiency/battery life over better performance for less battery then the deck is the main choice.

[–] M137@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

And I'm just here dreaming about getting one, with no chance of that happening anytime soon (or ever)... :'(

[–] Eggyhead 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It doesn’t hurt that a brand new console, the switch 2, will ensure new AAA releases will still be playable on older mobile hardware. It guarantees that the current deck will still be able to chug along with new releases for another 6 or so years.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Never underestimate the siren song alure of releasing the least optimized UE5 game ever made. Publishers seem to really struggle with that temptation.

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[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

My kids freaking love it, and family sharing is crazy good. I use it on trips. My other two PCs are running Bazzite.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago

Just added a 1TB m2 SSD Upgrade in mine

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Seriously consider buying another one almost every day and the only thing that is stopping me is lack of free time. Wife and I usually co-op (or just play concurrently) on switch and deck but deck is really making switch redundant.

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Steamdeck is great. I love it. On the flip side, I have owned a Switch for a couple years and hate it. I loved SNES so I guess I hate Nintendo Online.

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I think every SNES game ever made fits on a tiny portion of the Steam Deck hard drive, if you can find where you stored your backups.

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