Valve don't exactly like to give out sales numbers, so we often have to make educated guesses but sometimes with huge hits like Black Myth: Wukong, it gives us a slightly clearer idea on how the Steam Deck is actually selling.

A particularly fun bit:

So then, how about Fortnite on Linux / Steam Deck? Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said when it hits “tens of millions of users” that it “would actually make sense to support it”. We must be pretty close by now right? Why ignore a platform that’s sold multiple millions, and is clearly just continuing to fly off the shelves?

  • Lad@reddthat.com
    1·
    3 months ago

    The steam deck is user repairable, has very good hardware, is reasonably priced, and has fully customisable software.

    Obviously can’t speak for everyone but those reasons are why Valve got my custom. Personally I think it’s a fantastic device and I can’t praise it enough. Buying one was a no brainer for me.

    (Apologies if this reads like an ad lol)

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    3 months ago

    The article says “no need for steam deck 2”. Valve is on record saying they wouldn’t do an incremental upgrade, they want to wait until there’s a major advance in the available technology.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      3·
      3 months ago

      Even if they were working on it, they wouldn’t tell, otherwise a bunch of people would be waiting on the steam deck 2 instead of buying the current one.

      • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        They’re gonna make a Black Myth 2? We’ll shit, I can skip the first one.

        Alternatively…

        What if they might make a Steam Deck 3? Better skip the 2nd one as well.

        • TechieDamien@lemmy.ml
          3·
          3 months ago

          We all know there isn’t going to be a steam deck 3. Best we can offer is a steam deck 2 episode 2.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          That’s a poor comparison, as Black Myth has just come out and games take a long time to develop. And the Steam Deck 2 literally doesn’t exist yet.

          If Nintendo announced a Switch 2 tomorrow, saying it’s compatible with existing Switch games, do you think sales of the Switch would go up, or down?

        • ekZepp@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          The Deck is a beauty, but let’s face it, people would “run” to buy a deck 2. We had thousands selling their old handheald when the new oled model came out and it was barely a (very good) mid-gen upgrade.

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        3 months ago

        That would be absolutely wonderful. If they could somehow future-proof their board design even if you had to have tech skills to replace it, enthusiasts could do it on their own and people who don’t want to could take it to the local tech repair shop.

      • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Or it being 5 years in the future with significantly more efficient SOC’s and batteries

        That being said, the Nintendo DS’s last US patents should expire in November. Maybe they could do a dual screen?

    • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Valve can be lethargic but they generally know when not to fuck with something that works.

      That on its own is quite grand.

    • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      If a vendor strangely insist on not working on a new product, it’s lying.

      In this case it’s obvious, considering we already got 2 minor revisions of steamdeck HW.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      3 months ago

      Wasn’t the steam deck OLED the incremental upgrade? I thought they did a sight spec bump along with the screen upgrade.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        3 months ago

        Specs are the same, the APU is just now 6nm instead of 7nm which is more efficient and lets it run a few degrees cooler and therefore boost a bit higher without overheating, and the RAM bandwidth went from 88Gb/s to 102Gb/s.

        Consensus seems to be somewhere between 5-10% better fps, which means a game that ran at 50 fps might go up to 55, or one that ran at 28 might finally hit 30.

  • Beaver@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s ironic that Tim Sweeney is against Linux as it would give Epic more independence from Microsoft. Doesn’t he want to avoid “gatekeepers” like Apple and Google.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      In his mind Epic doesn’t need independence from Microsoft because Microsoft isn’t taking a cut of his Fortnite money. Microsoft is bad but Apple and Google take it to the next level. Imagine if Microsoft needed companies to verify their software and with that verification Microsoft can take a cut of every purchase done in that software. So if Steam was verified games sold in the steam software would cost more than opening up a steam website and buying from there. That is Google and Apple in a nutshell. That is actually the case with Twitch subs, they cost more in the Twitch app because of the fee Google adds.

      • lengau@midwest.social
        3·
        3 months ago

        Valve are one of the major reasons that Microsoft’s attempts at the iOSification of Windows failed. Their investments in Linux are directly aimed at preventing what Apple is doing.

        Tim Sweeney is a freeloader depending on companies like Valve to protect him from these threats to his company.

    • Leaflet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      They did sponsor/donate to someone who got the Epic Games Launcher working through wine. Don’t remember the exact details and can’t find a link though.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
        01·
        3 months ago

        I think it was a one time grant for lutris or something, not Wine. It wasn’t out of their good heart or ethical fibre. It was also a one time thing 5 years ago for so little money that it wouldn’t cover even a single developer for a single year.