First of all, I want to start this by highlighting that I do not believe this product is the “best” idea out

of the bunch we were allowed to choose from. This is because I do not have a general well-defined
way of quantifying greatness when talking about such diverse products/ services, and I do not feel
that I would do them justice by measuring their worth based on the revenue they produce. Building
upon this, it must be mentioned that these products serve different objectives, be they Darwinian,
missionary, or communitarian.

Zooming in on the communitarian objectives, we can see that, different products address different
needs and “pains” – as stated in the assignment definition -. I chose to focus on one specific
community, the online gamers. The product I would endorse in light of its future potential and the
current market is the Steam Deck.

Just as a short introduction, Steam is an online games platform that offers the possibility of buying
licenses to play games not only created by Valve ( founder of Steam ) but also by third-party
publishers. It also offers an online community where games can be discussed, reviewed, and even
improved through a collective effort. Despite being mainly a software-based company, they have
also tried creating their own physical products, such as the Steam controller, which has crashed just
as easily as it has risen from the ground. Taking this into consideration, being confident in Steam’s
ability to create a hardware product might be perhaps risky from a bird’s eye view. However, when
looking closer at the current gaming climate and the inner workings of the industry, I believe Steam
might just have struck gold.

Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer, which, as the name implies, has access to all the games
a user already has on Steam. Nothing unusual here, that’s already expected, right? To have access to
all of the games you already own on the computer without having to buy them again to play them
on a handheld accessory? Despite this being the expected behavior, the reality is quite the opposite.
The current market currently has 2 options for handheld gaming devices ( smartphones do not count
here, they will be addressed later ): Nintendo-switch-like devices, which I will call type A and
AYANEO-like handheld gaming devices, which I will call type B.

The main difference between the two types is that type B is in all sense a handheld computer. Type
B devices are created out of laptop parts, obviously adapted to fit into a smaller frame, thus
modifying their power consumption and specifications, and they run on Windows. Running on
Windows imposes high dependence on the OS’s whims. What I mean by this is that owners of these
products have repeatedly complained about their games occasionally slowing down, or dropping FPS
because Windows decided to do an update while in-game. Another important thing about Windows
is that it’s a closed-type product, which makes type B devices very dependent on Microsoft. Also, to
add insult to injury, for low-storage handheld devices, just the Windows installation alone takes
around 50% of the whole storage space. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, this type of device
has a very high cost (~2000$). This is caused by the fact that their associated companies gain money
through the sales of the products, rather than through their ecosystems (they have no ecosystems,
unlike type A).

Type A devices are less powerful than type B devices, they do not rely on Microsoft, and they cost a
lot less. The reason these devices have a lower cost is that their companies do not rely on the
products’ sales, but rather on the ecosystem they perpetuate. This could be very easily explained
with an example from the Epic Games vs Apple trial. Lori Wright, Microsoft’s representative, has
publicly said that Microsoft has not ever earned money on the sales of an Xbox. This seems shocking,
but in reality, it makes sense. They sell these devices at a loss, thus making them loss leaders, and
then make money through the other high-margin products that are being bought after the purchase
of that particular product. For example, Nintendo does not rely on the money earned by selling the
Switches themselves, but rather on the rest of the games that must be purchased alongside the
device.

Knowing all of this, it’s obvious that there is no middle way, a customer either buys a very expensive
type B device and doesn’t need to buy the games, or buys a type A device and buys all of their
favorite games. This is where the Steam Deck changes the status quo. They offer a non-expensive
(prices comparable to the Switch) alternative to the current devices. The strength of the Steam Deck
comes from the already strong foundation of Steam. Since its founding, Steam has become one of, if
not the biggest online gaming platforms. It’s quite obvious after looking at the users’ statistics that it
has been growing continuously for the past years, and it’s safe to say that most users have accrued a
decent number of games. And those games can be played on a computer, or from the 25th of
February, on the Steam Deck. Steam has the financial power, credibility, and the necessary technical
tools to make this project work.

The paragraph above might sound like an overstatement without looking at the facts, especially at
the novelty of the product. Unlike type B, Steam Deck runs on its own operating system, the
SteamOS. The fact that most games are only designed for Windows is the biggest constraint for
handheld devices. This is why type B devices are so dependent on Microsoft. But Steam Deck’s
SteamOS is just a Linux derivate that automatically runs Proton in it. Proton is a Steam product that
has been around for 4 years and has been consistently developed with the help of the online
community. It allows Windows games to be played on Linux, acting – in very broad terms – like
DirectX. It translates Windows system calls to Linux system calls, thus achieving the port-out to Linux
which game developers dread so much. So, Type B’s disadvantages are solved by this new product.
As for Type A’s disadvantages, those are also addressed by Steam Deck. More exactly, a customer
does not need to buy the same games twice, because Steam Deck can be linked to the customer’s
Steam account, and therefore it can offer access to games the user already owns. The same library is
shared through the Steam account on both computers.

The main innovative idea that Steam Deck offers is that it bases itself on openness and its
community. Just through the fact that SteamOS is Linux-based, it means that the source code is open
and can be improved by members of the online community. And this plays upon Steam Deck’s
hardware strengths. More specifically, the device has an AMD processor, which is associated with
FSR software. It’s software that allows lower resolution games to have better resolution and better
performance ( just like NVIDIA’s Super Scaling but without any dedicated hardware slots on the GPU
). People can customize this software to work on their desired games. The great thing about this is
that by opening up their source code, they allow their community to play a huge part in the
evolution of the product and its associated software. Generally, online gamers are frustrated when
development companies do not consider their opinions.

As I have said before, Steam Deck is a communitarian-oriented product. To better define the
community this product is addressing, I have looked into a few statistics over the years. The last one
I could find was in 2017. Back then, handheld gaming PCs were at their lowest point of interest
showcased by the gaming community. Even so, in 2017, a percentage of 1.5 out of the sample of
online gamers said their preferred device for video games was a handheld game device. To put
things into perspective, consoles were at 1.8 percent, PCs at 60 percent, and smartphones at 33.7
percent. Ever since 2017, handheld gaming devices have started to re-penetrate the market
according to Statista, showing an upward trend until 2021. Therefore, we can say that the Steam
Deck concerns 1.5 percent of the whole gaming community ( which in percentages seems low, but in
real numbers is pretty high).
Additionally, Steam has the opportunity to revitalize the handheld gaming scene by integrating the
ecosystems and the product in a way that is advantageous to the final user of the product.

I must also address the elephant in the room: other online platforms. At the moment, one could
easily say that Epic Games is Steam’s biggest rival. And Steam Deck skeptics could also raise the
question of how is Steam going to convince the gaming community to choose them instead of their
(at times) cheaper counterpart. This is where Steam Deck’s great marketing strategy plays a major
part. The online community wants openness. Linux-derivates are open-source. Epic Games does not
“like” Linux. The obvious syllogism here is that if Steam manages to make its users migrate to Linux
for more open interaction between the two parties, Epic Games is going to be left behind. And the
cherry on top of the cake is that currently, the lowest price of a Steam Deck (400$) is only about 35
percent more expensive than a Nintendo Switch. This means that the least performant version of a
Steam Deck (which is still infinitely better than a Nintendo Switch’s performance) is available at an
affordable price for normal customers.

I will admit that although Steam Deck sounds perfect in terms of hardware, its community, and its
core principles, it’s a product whose Litmus test’s results will be entirely defined by how well Steam
manages to make its software-related promises come true. Despite this, I remain optimistic that this
is product could be a GAME-changer in the gamer’s community.

To conclude, I believe Steam Deck’s core idea of not relying on Windows is going to be used by all
future handheld gaming devices companies, thus increasing the level of openness and accelerating
all growth. Realistically, I believe that if Steam Deck succeeds, it will probably be replaced by other
companies who can sell the product more cheaply with better performance, but I do not believe that
they will distance themselves from SteamOS or the open-community principle.
 References
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3KEYuqRgOE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjZ4POvk14c
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T0RZ6ustKQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coyeDmOgwYc
• https://www.pcworld.com/article/394895/what-is-valve-proton-steam-deck-
games-software-explained.html
• https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/pgwepv/never_used_linux
_how_will_proton_work_alongside/
• https://www.imore.com/nintendo-switch-oled-model-vs-steam-deck
• https://twitter.com/OnDeck/status/1492259379004854273?ref_src=twsrc%5
Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
• https://liliputing.com/2022/01/compare-handheld-gaming-pc-specs-steam-
deck-aya-neo-gpd-win-max-and-win-3-onexplayer-and-onegx1-pro.html
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/308330/number-stream-users/
• https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck/
• https://www.steamdeck.com/en/
• https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/05/nintendo_switch_has_now_sol
d_55_77_million_units_worldwide
• https://books.google.es/books?id=yLnLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA326&lpg=PA326&d
q=handheld+gaming+pc+interest&source=bl&ots=lmRcrR88py&sig=ACfU3U3E
LrPW7pzYZHQQeJWo-
qUJicVjbA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiys_T8noz2AhXH8bsIHRz-
BMQQ6AF6BAgcEAM#v=onepage&q=handheld%20gaming%20pc%20interest
&f=false
• https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/mobile-and-
handheld-gaming-market.asp