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[–] 39 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Seems like a lot of these handhelds are rushed and lacking R&D. Makes the steam deck seem like an even better option

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    R&D is very expensive. I have no idea what the margins on these devices are, but I imagine it's a tough market.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Margins must be pretty good for everyone and their mother to pump one out.

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  • Yup. It was more expensive for Valve because they have a custom chip. These other devices are using off-the-shelf chips, so it's a lot cheaper.

    Look at the minipc market (e.g. minisforum), and then add a screen, battery, and build in a controller. It's really not a complicated product for a company that already makes similar devices, especially since they can probably reuse parts in other products.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Valve can go into the negative selling Decks, something that their competitors can't reasonably do because they will get money from Steam store sales made on the Deck. I for one went from buying 3-4 games a year to like a dozen because it's been so convenient.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Seems a lot like competing launchers, a lot of companies want a slice of the pie that Valve discovered but aren't willing to do the same amount of work. I've heard good things about the Ally, at least.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    More like Valve created. There were PC handhelds before, but they were too expensive, had a crappy UX, and not high performance enough. Valve produced a device that addressed each of those and created a market for itself.

    If you make a compelling product at a good price, the demand will come.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Oh but that requires money and effort, and creates a fair exchange for the purchaser, no can do. Hardware companies are more focused on how to force people to subscribe to their own devices.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    Oh look, it's exactly what everyone thought would happen. Well, good thing they've already said they're making what, 3 or 4 iterations?

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    The takeaway is not to buy it.

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  • [–] [B] 0 points 2 years ago

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