And we had to do a bunch of stuff, like make massive min commits, and other kinds of things in order to get to the volumes that would allow us to hit those sorts of price points.' 'The $399 price point was sort of written in stone. 'One of the core challenges that we thought we had to take on with this generation was the price point,' says Gabe. 'So I mean, pretty early on, we were driven by a set of ergonomic considerations, by performance considerations, and by price point.' 'We always thought that the price point was one of the critical things,' Gabe tells us. Though these aren't deal-breakers, certainly in terms of PC gaming at such an aggressive price point.Īt a time when the barrier to entry for PC gaming is sky-high-with the price of graphics cards still at a frankly offensive level, and almost everything else seeing a demand-related price premium attached to them-for the Steam Deck to come in as such a value proposition actually seems almost anachronistic.īut that was always part of the plan for the Deck. And right now AMD is still messing around with Windows drivers for the Van Gogh-based Aerith APU at the heart of the device, so you can't really install Microsoft's OS on there yet. We already know two of the biggest games, Fortnite (opens in new tab) and Destiny 2, aren't supported (opens in new tab) for SteamOS, so you'll need to be running Windows (or streaming via GeForce Now) to play either on the Deck. And, though Proton is doing a fantastic job of getting Windows-only games running on the Deck's operating system, some don't work, and some aren't being supported deliberately. The Linux OS is incredibly accessible, whether in the simple, handheld-focused Deck UI or the desktop, but it is still Linux and has a bit of a learning curve. Less if you opt for the 64GB version and fill it with micro SD cards. And you can get all that for a little over $500. It's incredibly versatile, portable, and surprisingly powerful a PC that can almost be anything to anyone.

With the Steam Deck you can get your PC gaming done on the go, in the garden, in a bar (opens in new tab), on your sofa, or at your desk, plugged into a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Especially since the highest tier integrated graphics from either AMD or Intel are perennially pegged to more expensive CPUs. And forget about trying to build a desktop PC with vaguely capable gaming chops for anything like the price of the Deck.

Is the steam deck a pc