It's annoying that the Deck hasn't gotten a proper Australian release. Thinking about buying one through an importer and wondering if there will be any end of year sales coming up to save some cash. Hoping something will happen with Black Friday.
What are you thoughts?
Valve is, or was anyway, the most profitable company in the world per employee. They make money for nothing just because they did it first, why would they risk that by giving consumers rights. They don't even need to risk money making games anymore, why would they when they get 30% of other people's games.
I still can't fathom how they are allowed to have a monopoly and take 30% of everyone's hard work for doing nothing.
They aren't even making a hardware platform, well hardly not making hardware considering most people using their own PCs. At least Nintendo/Apple/Sony/Xbox are putting in the work making, marketing, and perfecting the consoles and controllers. The PC gaming market would exist with or without Valve, but the console makers make their platforms in the lounge room and our pockets out of thin air.
At least Nintendo/Apple/Sony/Xbox are putting in the work making, marketing, and perfecting the consoles and controllers.
But Valve have created hardware in the past; the Steam Controller, Steam Link, Index… and they've built the Steam Deck most likely based on all their learnings from those projects.
The Steam Deck is one of the most open platforms in recent history, that's something that should be praised. The 30% cut is big, can't disagree with that.
@Ghost47: The fact that Valve hasn't successfully made a "PC" console, despite all their money, their massive library of games, is testament to why they don't deserve the money they've been making. Steam Deck is too little, too late. And too big.
@AustriaBargain: What do you mean by PC console? As in a console-sized PC that runs Windows that you can play with in the lounge? If you want a PC in the lounge room can't you just build your own PC and hook it up to the TV and use Steam Big Picture mode? Would you be satisfied with a console-sized PC that just runs Steam? Because the point of a PC is that you can also do other things on it like browse the web, work, stream etc.
Can't the Steam Deck basically be used as a console too? Just dock it and connect it to the TV.
@Ghost47: If dragging a PC to the lounge is what it took to become a console it would have already happened. If making a game console controller compatible with enough PC games was enough, then Microsoft would have made it happen. But Valve had a whole platform with every, nearly every, PC game. Valve tried to make a "Steam" console but failed. But they shouldn't have failed. I think the problem was Valve wasn't truly ready to invest the money into it. Making enough PC games be effortless to install and play just like console games takes real work, it takes money, man hours. Making a console should have been the easier thing in the world for Valve. But as usual they invested too little and too late. Looking back we can see the writing was on the wall for Blockbuster when they were making peak profits, and I think the writing is on the wall for Valve today.
@AustriaBargain: I forgot to mention that Valve also created Steam Machines, so Valve already did release a PC console. It didn't seem to take off though, I don't know why, maybe the market just wasn't there for it.
I personally don't think Valve is going to go anywhere and I would actually like Valve to thrive even more as a business because they aren't beholden to shareholders.
@Ghost47: Valve are on they're deathless. They may be making more money than ever before, but their time in the sun is done. They wasted so much money and time. They never developed a social feature, so Discord thrived, and Gabe's greed prevented him from acquiring Discord. Valve never developed a video or streaming platform, so Twitch thrived, and Gabe's greed prevented them from buying that. They have no future except their own insular Steam audience, but that can't last more than a single gaming "generation".
@AustriaBargain: Valve are definitely good at not doing things that they don't find to be a priority, I guess time will tell what happens to them. I personally don't see them going anywhere anytime soon. I'm guessing that Steam's market share is still huge even with other stores being available e.g. Epic Games Store, EA Origin.
@Ghost47: Maybe Gabe doesn't actually care about Valve's long term future. He's not going to live forever, gotta stop being involved and retire at some point. Steam's marketshare isn't as much huge, the issue is more that that there are enough devoted Steam users that giving up 30% of the game fee to tap into that market is still worth it compared to not selling a game on Steam at all. EPIC can afford to not sell on Steam and Apple, but most game publishers and developers cannot afford to throw away free money.
Their charger supplier (Chicony) even got the AU charger certified in anticipation, but Valve is all "yeah nah". (I don't believe the model number for the Steam Deck's chargers are used anywhere else…)
Where'd you see that?
I recall one of the lead engineers mentioning on a stream that they were looking into officially releasing the Steam Deck in Aus around the same time as Japan, never happened though.
https://equipment.erac.gov.au/Public/Profiles.aspx?Applicati…
Same model name apart from the last letter being C.
A, B and D are the other region chargers, as can be found on iFixit as spares.
@Namidairo: Ah, that's interesting. I do wonder what the hold up is at Valve with an official Aus release, because it is weird in that stream the guy would say Australia even if they weren't looking into an Aus release. That certification date is also close to the date of the stream.
@Namidairo: Valve customer support confirmed to me that ERAC certification corresponds to the genuine AU charger but unable to have it sold through iFixit as spares.
I just hoping second hand 64gb model for $400 or less
Simples Yes.
Create an alert for "steam deck".
That's what I would do too.
Valve won't release the Steam Deck in Australia because they cracked the shits with our strong consumer rights.