Thread by @CaseyExplosion

I see a lot of criticism of the Steamdeck's specs, especially the 64GB storage on the base model, and I might say something controversial here, but... I think far too many people have bought into the myth of PC gamers being obsessed with the highest fidility and AAA performance.

I want you to take a look at the latest Steam Hardware survey, specifically GPUs: store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/video…

The most popular by far is the 1060 at nearly 10%, with the 1050ti close behind. My own graphics card, the 3070 is just slightly more than 1%.

The vast, VAST majority of steam users are playing in 1080p. Far more people are using 1440p than 4k.

The idea of the PC gamer who is always spending on the latest hardware and needs everything to run 120fps 4k? They're absolutely mythologized, most PC gamers don't care. At all.

I cannot underpin just how much this guy doesn't exist, never mind being a core demographic.

"But you can't install X game on the internal storage of the base model!"

I think this attitude is looking for edge cases, as if people aren't gonna load it up with all the indies from their existing library and go hog wild.

I'm in the target demographic for this device. For example, I've been using the GPD Win2 for years now, it's a fantastic device and I have gotten so much use out of it. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPD_Win_2

Just like the SteamDeck, it has an SD card slot, and I have had a 64gb in it. Lemme tell you, I have no noticeable difference in performance running games off of the SD card.

The kinda thing I have installed on it? It's stuff like Slay The Spire, Griftlands, Monster Train, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, X-Com, and many more. I've got dozens of games installed here, and probably get as much use out of this as I do my desktop.

Like, no you probably won't be able to fit the latest bloated CoD game on the base 64GB SteamDeck, at least not without an SD card. But you know what will fit?

Troubleshooter is only a few gigs, and I know I'll be installing that and having Korean Anime XCom on the go.

Nobody is looking at this and thinking "pfft, it's not gonna run 4K 60fps Call of Booty? No care!"

Everyone who's interested is gonna be looking at their existing Steam libraries and thinking about how many of the games they already own they're gonna load up on it and play.

Damn this thread has really taken off, so go follow my steam curator page for recommendations for games you can fill up your Steamdeck with whenever you get your hands on: store.steampowered.com/curator/283401…

And yes, there's gonna be some games that it's going to struggle with, but those are going to be edge cases. It running Control smoothly is a good idea of where performance for AAA games will be. Judging it on what it can't run is genuinely missing the appeal of the device.

I expect the 256GB version is going to be the most popular by far, it's got the nicest price point/storage, but I do feel the 64GB version is a good entry price if you can easily slap a cheap 128GB SD card in there. It's literally what I've done with my GPD Win 2.

Sorting my library by install size, there's only a handful of games that break 64GB. Stuff like Sekiro? Dark Souls Remastered? They're relatively small install sizes.

To heck with it...

I'm having to take yet more time off from streaming this month due to the heat, which is gonna be a massive hit to my income, so if you've found my thread interesting, thoughtful, or helpful, consider tossing me a little tip over here:

ko-fi.com/caseyexplosion

Also, following me on twitch.tv/caseyexplosion might be an idea, for when I can stream again.