I don’t think there’s currently evidence that this new “Deck” is a Deck at all. Releasing a standing console box with the Deck’s internals but better cooling, ethernet and better wifi, HDMI/DP out, 3.5" SSD support, and SteamOS 3.5, but no screen / integrated controls / battery would make a lot of sense for Valve. And I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t probably buy one - the docked Deck has been fantastic in that role. It would probably be cheaper than the Deck since durability, battery, and screen are all likely expensive investments for them on the actual Deck.
Steam Machines failed because there wasn’t a successful base model for companies to clone, and because Big Picture mode sucked. The modern Deck UI and UX are on par with Sony/MS/Nintendo’s and you get to sell the console as “it works with the controllers you already have and the games you already bought”.
I don’t think there’s currently evidence that this new “Deck” is a Deck at all. Releasing a standing console box with the Deck’s internals but better cooling, ethernet and better wifi, HDMI/DP out, 3.5" SSD support, and SteamOS 3.5, but no screen / integrated controls / battery would make a lot of sense for Valve. And I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t probably buy one - the docked Deck has been fantastic in that role. It would probably be cheaper than the Deck since durability, battery, and screen are all likely expensive investments for them on the actual Deck.
Steam Machines failed because there wasn’t a successful base model for companies to clone, and because Big Picture mode sucked. The modern Deck UI and UX are on par with Sony/MS/Nintendo’s and you get to sell the console as “it works with the controllers you already have and the games you already bought”.