My son has hunted he wants a steam deck. I know nothing about them. We don’t game on a PC. Xbox and ps. So I was wondering if I buy this will it work out of the box like an old Gameboy. I know it’s all digital and I would need to get him games but I am wondering if a computer is needed for anything? Or if I can set it up to wifi get him a steam gift card and let him have at it. Any info you have would be great.
Yes to all.
Yes, you can set it up on WiFi, give him a Steam gift card, and go. It’s a standalone device.
if he plays mouse and keyboard games (city skylines, civ, etc) and has a monitor you might want to buy a usbc dongle with at least 2usbA, 1usbC for charging, hdmi and LAN
You don’t need a computer for it. A steam deck is a portable computer on its own, hook it up to a keyboard, mouse and monitor and then open up desktop mode and you’ve got a PC.
You can also just use it handheld or hooked up to a TV as a switch/console. That’s much more user friendly.
Just something that may or not interest you, but family sharing is a thing, with a lot of caveats though (like not being able to play at the same time, or not all games available, those who are will show on their steam page)
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/57A7-503C-991F-E9A8