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Happy Birthday to the Steam Deck!
It has been one year since the Steam Deck officially launched.
At the time:
- you had to wait a long time, months even, to be able to get the hardware
- the number of supported games was low
- the software was still highly buggy and rough around the edges
Currently:
- it is available on-demand, though unfortunately not for all countries
- there are nearly 3,000 Verified and 5,000 Playable games on the device (with many more unconfirmed titles that work anyway)
- the software is much more mature and a healthy ecosystem of third-party applications and support has sprung up
For those here who have Steam Decks, let us know your thoughts on the device, this past year, and the future to come.
Happy Birthday, Steam Deck!
I got a Steam Deck mainly so I could connect it to my TV and an xbox controller and use it like a game console. It's been convenient for this!
The official Quake 2021 rerelease is great on it, but it doesn't fully support certain popular mods, so I've been working on a fork of vkQuake (an open source port of Quake) to add better controller support and other features to make it work excellently on the Steam Deck specifically. It's exciting having something like a console but is open to mod, develop on, and release software for.
That’s incredibly cool that you’re adding controller support and other Deck-related goodies yourself. Amazing to think about how many people are going to enjoy the game in the coming years as a direct result of your efforts!
Docking the Deck is nice, but I do think it needs some more time to cook. I tried to take mine on the road as a portable local multiplayer system (I like the idea of being able to set up some 4-player games easily when at friends’ places), but the docking and controller pairing/management were super spotty for me. This is one area that I’m hoping gets some attention soon.
Oh yeah there's some jank with the Deck in docked mode. Here's my notes with some workarounds:
I hope these parts of the Deck get better because it's close to being a polished experience. Thankfully I haven't run into any show-stopping issues.
i would love to get one, but sadly they dont sell in mexico, and getting one in the aftermarket costs me 200$ more :-(
I could ship one to you at cost if you want.
thank you for your offer!
Shipping it is still expensive, the least expensive option I found was with USPS and still costs about 70$ and then it goes through Correos de Mexico, which means it will take at least a month more time until (if) it arrives.
Fedex and DHL all cost about 150$ to 200$
so maybe i wait till I get to europe and try and get it there :-/
I’m hoping they open it up to other markets soon. Sucks that you have to wait so long for one. I have a friend in China who got one through a third-party dealer, but it has hardware issues and he can’t RMA it.
I just used mine to finish all major and secondary quest lines in Skyrim, finally closing out the College of Winterhold line on a plane trip. It’s amazing to have a portable all in one machine that can run Skyrim Special Edition on high settings with mods and get mostly 60 fps!
As soon as it was announced I knew I was going to buy one. Seeing what Valve had done with Steam Controller, I was fairly confident in build quality. It being a Linux-based PC-Console made want to vote with my wallet.
It has exceeded all expectations. For the most part, things work. If they don't, its usually either due to questionable legality (putting some proprietary fonts/codecs in Proton) or a third-party needing to fix (glares at Epic's anti-cheat stance for Fortnite).
Don't get me wrong: There is jank. A console player expecting a 100% hassle-free experience will not be satisfied. But for a PC gamer? If you only use Steam in GamingMode, its way easier than managing a typical PC. The roughest part you'll hit is modifying layouts, which if you're a puzzle solver is satisfying on its own...
How I got Vanilla Wow 1.12 working, and some of the cool controller tricks.
To get the game itself running:
For anyone who has played an MMO, you'll know there's hundreds of keybinds available.
a/b/x/y are bound to 1/2/3/4. Right touchpad, when holding left grip, is a touch menu with 5->=. When holding left grip, a/b/x/y change the action bar. The right analog stick is bound to mouse, and outer ring binding (with activation set im very close is right click, which lets me use analog sticks like you would for any third person game. Double-tapping right stick jumps, double-tapping left stick pops a health pot. And this is just a rough starting point at < lvl 20.
Since Wow 1.12 is all about community mods, I'll play on different servers. To save disk, I took the plain client, removed WDB and realmlist.wtf. Then I used
cp -Lrto recursively hard link files. So now I have a dedicated client folder for each server (as most don't touch the client files other than realmlist.wtf, and only add their own). Saves a lot of disk space.Once you start going into Desktop Mode, you start getting into full PC problems. Linux users will feel mostly at home, Windows users will be in unfamiliar territory, though having a consistent platorm should make following guides easier.
Games that have trouble with the Steam overlay will have trouble with the Deck's input. If you're venturing off 'playable and verified' you should probably have an external keyboard/mouse for backup input. Doubly so if you're venturing into Desktop Mode.
As others have said, the level of software refinement is unprecedented, especially from Valve. After much trial and error though, I'd say they delivered a successful PC console. I can't wait to see what comes next.
I'd love to see more about how you set up wow, particularly for different servers.
I'll clean up my instructions and make a seperate post!
Got it.
Love it.
Have now convinced two other people to buy them, I should be making commission.
I generally use it to play games that work better with a controller and/or I feel are a waste of the GPU I have in my main rig.
If you have a game you really like and it says it's unsupported on SteamDeck then it's worth checking the forums. My boss bought one after trying mine out during my NYC trip and he plays Guild Wars 2, which is officially listed as unsupported, on it with a community button layout.
I reserved on Day 1, sorta on a whim. I play a lot of JRPGs, which are perfectly suited for handhelds, so it made sense for me to get one. Was able to get into Q2 delivery, so got mine last April.
I was also the "beta tester" for my group of friends. And I was blown away by how amazing it is. The first few months, I was using it like everyday, even at home. It definitely comes with me on any trip. I don't even take my gaming laptop with me anymore when traveling.
One time, I even tried it for productivity, with a mouse and keyboard. Aside from the tiny screen, I was largely able to do basic work: Email, Teams, Web-based services, etc.
Anyway, my glowing recommendation made like 4 of my friends get a Steam Deck. And they largely love it, just the same. Some have gone further and put on various emulators, like a Switch emulator. They "hacked" their Switches to do so. They said they don't even touch their Switches anymore.
Recently put FFXIV on it. And I was shocked at how well it ran (with a mouse and keyboard; haven't tried controller/gamepad yet).
The Steam Deck is easily one of the best purchases I've made.
I made a Steam collection of Verified/Playable games that also have controller support, and I pretty much pull what I play from there. There are a good number of games that technically work on the device but that I would much rather play on a M/KB setup (e.g. point and click adventures).
I wish Valve would let us make categories by excluding criteria as well. I’d love to make a corresponding collection for my PC: games that AREN’T Deck Playable/Verified and DON’T have controller support. I could fully split my gaming library into two separate halves that way, and have a full set of Deck games and a full set of PC games with no overlap.
This is one of those things that they'd probably like to know. It's well established at this point that someone at Valve pays very close attention to the SteamDeck subreddit /r/steamdeck. A suggestion there could go pretty far.
Same for me. I have a dynamic collection for Installed VR games, and Installed Pancake games. Usually I'm in the mood for one or the other, so splitting them up makes sense. Except I can't exclude VR games for the Pancake collection, so I have to do it manually. Feels like a large omission.
When Valve first announced Proton, I was thrilled. I started submitting compatibility reports for it back when ProtonDB was just a shared Google Sheet.
Proton ended up being so good that I bought a Linux laptop as my daily driver. I did have to compromise some — many games didn’t work — but there was more than enough to keep me occupied. Plus, over time, some of those incompatible games became compatible.
Proton now is, well, breathtaking. I’m amazed at how much just runs properly, with no fuss. I used to obsessively check reports for each game before installing and booting. Now I just try to run something and, more often than not, it works perfectly.
Proton, to me, is the special sauce that makes the Steam Deck the incredible piece of hardware that it is. Without it, the device would still be powerful and impressive, but it would be much more niche and a tinkerer’s device — a device for the kind of people that run Linux.
Instead, I know four people who have Steam Decks and have absolutely zero interest in Linux. If I asked them what Proton was, they’d scratch their heads and maybe offer an answer involving subatomic particles?
My husband just finished a playthrough of Marvel’s Midnight Suns on the device. That game is a big-name, high-profile, recent release that isn’t supposed to run on Linux. I asked him how it ran on the Steam Deck, and he said “perfectly”.
Yes, some games don’t work, and yes, there are still some rough edges that need some TLC, but the device is so fantastically capable — so much more capable than it has any right to be — that I remain impressed with it even months later, after its novelty and luster have worn off.