https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/11/10/steam-deck-sales-multiple-millions-valve-announces
Steam Deck has been a huge success for Valve. And the new statement from the company indicates that its portable PC continues to sell well.
Can't say anything bad about this. They made a good product that people want, it doesn't have a walled garden, and it's supporting the Linux community at the same time.
I hope they continue to keep hold of the values that gave them this success.
They likely will until Gabe either sells his shares or someone else inherits them and sells them. (Though maybe whoever inherits his shares might continue the legacy, who knows). At that point Valve will probably either get acquired or go public, and become another shitty tech company, beholden to quarterly growth above all else.
Valve is a great example of a private company not becoming another cog in the machine, but that probably won’t last forever
I really like Valve. They have done a few things that really annoyed me (usually owing to their refusal to sell stuff outside of the US)… But you can’t argue with their excellent support of the community and loyalty to their customer base.
I'm seriously considering giving up my gaming desktop in a year or two and switch to a Steam Deck instead of building a new battlestation. I'll likely keep my desk and get a docking station for it.
The fact that it's open and let me run games outside of Steam (I have many games bought on GOG) is a major selling point. Plus almost all of the apps I rely on are available in Flatpak format, which should work great when I'm not gaming.
I'd advise waiting for the next incremental release, OLED seems like a tempting upgrade but the next one will likely be more powerful and and also have even better battery life.
Of course If you do want to I'd recommend putting the original SSD back in it before selling so you can put your 1TB SSD in the new OLED and then you can just get the lowest OLED capacity.
Also the Matte finish screen is a waste, best to get a normal one and put a screen protector on it (you'll come to regret not using one if you don't since it can scratch or crack easier without one) normal ones work better with a screen protector because their glass is smooth.
but the next one will likely be more powerful and and also have even better battery life.
That's the implied promise of every next iteration
Nice. Sort of sets a low end standardized hardware baseline companies can try to get working knowing there's that many units out there. Even if it doesn't end up running great on the Steam Deck some attempts at optimization for it could help better hardware.
They're not selling the OLED version yet, so I have to assume this is either cumulative to this point, and/or as a result of the massive price drop for the LCD version.
I think the headline is ambiguously worded. My interpretation is that, after they announced the OLED version, they also confirmed that Steam Deck sales to date amount to "multiple millions." I highly doubt they've sold multiple millions since the announcement.
Are they talking existing sales, or sales after the announcement? If this is just post-announcement, holy fucking shit