Gabe Newell Wants to Sell 'Millions of Units' of the Steam Deck - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 August 2021 / 3,850 Views
Valve this week announced its portable gaming device the Steam Deck with a starting price at $399 for the 64 GB eMMC model. The price goes up to $529 for the 256 GB NVMe SSD model and $649 for the 512 GB NVMe SSD model.
The head of Valve Gabe Newell speaking with IGN said he wants to the Steam Deck to sell in the millions.
"Our view is, if we're doing this right, we're going to be selling these in millions of units," said Newell.
"And it's clearly going to be establishing a product category that ourselves and other PC manufacturers are going to be able to participate in. And that's going to have long-term benefits for us. So that's sort of the frame in which we're thinking about this.
"We don't have some tie-in ratio. we don't say, 'Oh, and then we have to sell eight games for each one of these, otherwise it doesn't make sense.' Our calculus is more, 'Is this the right product, and is it a great way to test out the assumption that there's a huge amount of value, both to game players and game developers, to extending the PC ecosystem in this direction. That's the real test, more than anything else."
The Steam Deck runs on an AMD APU. The CPU is a Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32), while the GPU has 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32). The APU uses 4-15W. The handheld also comes with 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s).
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Imma just gonna point out that even Wii U sold millions
So did the Sega CD.
Unlike Nintendo this is just an adjunct to their main business they would be satisfied with Wii U numbers
I think the question everybody is asking now is what is Michael Pachter prediction on this. :P
It will sell millions, but I don't think it will take off. The vast majority of people who want to play games purchased from Steam will use continue to use laptops and desktops.
Agree. Outside of emulation and homebrewing, this won't cause that big of a splash. I'm more amused with the fact that the Switch is singlehandedly reviving the handheld market.
handheld market never died lol... nothing is being revived, the 3DS sold tons
I know, but it had shrunk a lot (from DS/PSP to 3DS/Vita), and mobile was eating its traditional marketspace. This has given handhelds a much needed boost.
exactly that shrinkage and the low Wii U numbers is why we got the hybrid switch.
I can definitely see that happening! The PC gaming landscape is HUGE as it is, and there are so many people that would want this either because they want to take their Steam library on the go/connected to a TV, or it could be for those that have been wanting to get into PC gaming and cannot afford a $1000+ PC. Or maybe even console players that wanna take their cross-save/crossplay games with them on the go as well.
Much less of a niche product compared to the Valve Index where you have to shell out $1000 for the whole thing when you already spent $1500+ on a gaming PC lol. Still an amazing VR headset, though!
Really? I wouldn't have guessed, I figured he only wanted to sell AT LEAST 10 of them....
Anyways, I already reserved the 256 gb model.
i want one
why sell 100,000's when you can sell millions.... Right Gabe Newell?
Considering how Steam keeps going down and the amount of network traffic that's been going on for the pre-orders, yeah, I'd expect the thing to sell decently.
I do think that they should change the first model storage capacity and type though, because it's been making it a non option for some pre-orders I'm seeing so far.
I want to sell millions of units of the rocks from my back alley. Doesn't mean its gonna happen.
Then he should rename it Gabe Gear
Duh.
Launch it with Half Life 3 built in and not available elsewhere...
Yes! this would be a way to guarantee millions of sells.
I don't know who this appeals to. If i wanted pc gming id buy a pc for a keyboard mouse to play fps and rts games. I'd be surprised if the ymanage to sell a million of these.
Appeals to people who already game on PC? Who want to take their Steam games on the go? Like me. It's not too hard to figure out.
Why would you want to lessen the experience on a small screen with worse controls?
Well, me personally, I have a high end PC at home. When I am not home, I can not bring my big tower and monitor with me and hook it all up at the same time, but maybe I want to play Quake Champions or Scum or something else while I'm at work, or simply away from home. You still following me?
No. I can't fathom that idea.
That's why you're not the targeted audience for this device.
The problem is weight, it is the double of the Nintendo Switch and we need to think how it will work with children. Even for the adults the Nintendo Switch, when you spend a several hours, your arms don't stand it too much.
oh an apple silicon device could blow anything out of the water at a lower price if they wanted to, but it would just be another closed ecosystem. and in that game, nintendo would have them beat.
Yeah but anything apple made would be 1,000 for the lowest spec. Gotta keep those profits above 500% per unit.
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