Hi! I’m relatively new to the gaming community, started my journey about 4ish years ago and became completely hooked! I’ve got the PS5, Xbox series, and Switch. I really want to persue the PC outlet now buuut I know nothing about gaming computers. I’m curious if it’d be worth it to buy the steam deck (if so, older version or newer/ OLED?) instead of trying to go the pre-built route… considering it’s alot cheaper then any decent gaming PC setup (that I’ve seen) and portable. ~Also are there AAA titles that are exclusive to Steam?
If your looking for a full pc replacement I would honestly look at the legion go or rog ally bc the steamdeck struggles with newer triple a titles. Rog ally goes on sale for like 480 open box at bestbuy.
Issue with Deck is the hardware isn’t powerful you can play a lot of games on LinuxOS and some AAA but often 30fps and lowest visual settings. Instead suggest you build PC around $800-1000
You could get a more powerful desktop PC (It is very easy to build a PC these days, children can do it.) for the price most likely but as an entry level “console like” device the Steam Deck is absolutely astounding and worth picking up if the portable nature and simple software call to you. The biggest downside is that since it relies primarily on Linux and has a non standard control scheme (as in, a controller) for a computer you won’t get the full multifaceted desktop experience.
Regardless of that you will be able to run the vast majority of desktop games and it’ll be a great experience, it really is a wonderful piece of hardware with great software.
Steam is simply a marketplace on an open platform, there are plenty of ““exclusives”” between launchers but it’s rarely as a result of deals, more that Steam is the de facto PC storefront and as a result gets almost every game.
Mind, even if it is a little bit more troublesome to navigate maybe, the Steam Deck is still a full fledged PC. You can load any OS you want onto it and install any software you feel like, SteamOS/Linux just happen to be what is installed by default and the most custom tailored and user friendly experience but the sky is the limit with such an open device.
The Deck is amazing if you want to play stuff on PC that isn’t on console, or stuff that’s on console that you don’t want limited to console. Elden Ring is a great example of a game that became better when I wasn’t rooted to the PS4. I started a new save and beat the game for the first (and last) time in less than 60 hours, all because I was able to put the console to sleep until I could pull the Deck back out during breaks at work.
I don’t regret getting mine. I snagged the 64GB option, popped a 512GB micro card into it, and have yet to find a flaw with its purchase. Most will recommend getting at least the 128GB option for the increased space needed for the shader cache files for your games. I’ve yet to have a need to screw around with that in the several months I’ve had mine, though.
Keep in mind: While the Deck itself is pretty good at running PC games, it’ll struggle with some titles for various reasons. Sometimes it might be due to graphical options being too high, or maybe the game doesn’t play too nicely with the Linux OS on the Deck. Thankfully, that’s why ProtonDB exists. You could even install an emulator or four and run roms on it if you’re keen on that sort of thing.
As for exclusives: There’s really nothing AAA that’s inherently exclusive to the platform. Most that are tend to be indie games (the good and the bad). You do have PC exclusive games, though, so stuff llike Rimworld, Factorio, and Valheim are available options. You can tinker with in-game setting and system settings to try and get things looking and running well, though.
TL;DR - It’s great. Totally recommend getting one, but do your research.