This is still a stretch. Don’t consoles also have issues like this? What about the red ring Xbox 360s? Didn’t ps3 have issues with Skyrim saves becoming corrupt?

Steam Deck is as easy as any console, at least

Look at OS user numbers, most people aren’t the slightest bit savvy with a computer.

I’ve run into a few games that only have split screen on console so there’s that I suppose.

That would be the successor to Steam Deck, there’s rumors that Valve is working on a standalone console.

Sure, it’ll dock. They aren’t going to make waves.

Can’t give them your steam account.

You literally can? You can add any amounts of games to a family share and even play LAN with them

Can’t say I’ve ever had any of those consoles, just playing devil’s advocate here. Personally as a PC gamer who’s been called on for support countless times for driver issues, launcher issues and what not, that’s all I can attest for.

You can’t transfer your steam account, eg when you die. Against terms of service.

An who’s going to enforce that? No one is broadcasting to the newspaper that Someguy3 died and now their son is using their account.

PC gaming emulation on Android and hopefully someday high end regular Linux phones are going to be a big inertial multiplier for PC gaming. Performance for games that work isn’t far off from a Steam Deck from my testing on high end mobile phones. Compatibility and streamlining is still not great though. But a few more years at this rate and anyone with a phone as strong as a Snapdragon 8 gen 3 will have a pocket Steam Deck. PC gaming is going to grow a lot because of that

• Battlefield 6 (also bf2042)

• Call of Duty 2025 (whatever they’re calling it these days)

• R6 Siege

• Monster Hunter Wilds

• PUBG

• F1 2024

• FC 25

• Madden 25

Those are just a short list of popular titles that cannot be played on the deck, and in the case of BF and COD this year, possibly on your PC without tinkering. I don’t play most of these titles, just MH Wilds. I do know a LOT of people do play them though.

Consoles satisfy the lowest common denominator which covers most people. They’re easy and just work. Buy the game on a disc and put it in your PS5, let it update and you’re off to the races and very unlikely to have issues.

Windows PCs require minor tinkering from time to time, but they do need tinkering. Driver autoupdates in windows and you start crashing? Yeah, that’s happened a couple times in the past year. I had to get optiscaler going to keep framerate as well as settings high despite having very powerful hardware in Expedition 33 this year in windows, and it’s not even particularly demanding perf wise.

The deck though has tons and tons and tons of titles that need a little bit of poking or prodding, I love mine but it’s got many limitations. I’ve got games that just aren’t properly recognized by gamescope and thus no perf overlay works. After tinkering on linux i’m pretty sure this is a proton issue where it doesn’t properly recognize the game vs a launcher or anticheat.

I game a lot. I have a 9800x3d and a 9070xt running Pop OS (linux) and I can play basically anything I want to play, but it’s certainly not everything. I definitely need to tinker to get stuff to work on Linux, but it’s fairly painless once you figure out you need to carte blanche apply a pulse audio 60ms setting, and you get a good proton switcher to go between cachyos/GE/Proton latest/Proton Experimental versions depending on the game to find one that works without extra tweaking. It’s not easy for a layman, though anyone who has been a PC gamer and has built a couple of systems can probably manage it with a heap of patience and a dual boot config to fall back on when patience fails.

There’s no doubt that the steam deck has made linux more approachable than ever for gamers but it’s hardly a perfect implementation. All PCs require tinkering, and windows sadly is still the easiest among them. It is nice seeing a green checkmark on the deck for a game, but as i’ve seen with Eternal Strands this year, that’s hardly a guarantee that the game will be enjoyable without tinkering if at all.

TPM/Secureboot in BF6/Cod 2025

Windows Update Driver Updates -> System crashes

There’s more technical troubleshooting that goes beyond the scope of the typical tech illiterate human than you’d think. There’s a reason IT support requires no education and still pays decently well, because way too many people can’t troubleshoot at all.

As I just found out, if you want to play any borderlands split screen, that’s console only.

That was probably like 75% BF6 players.

Borderlands with a controller? Oh boy

How many are bots?

I mean sure, but should we also list all the games you can’t even purchase on consoles?

The “poking and prodding” is literally just settings that you are locked out of on consoles. Literally just purchase games that are verified steam deck compatible, and you’re golden.

Motion control is amazing if implemented well. Nintendo spoiled me with the WiiU.

Come on steam deck, we need more users of you! This will drive Linux as a real contender in the gaming market and steam is driving that.