I've had a look at what SSDs this thing should support, it's the uncommon 2230 variant that looks like this -



That one is 128GB and costs 20 quid, there's some 256GB SSDs on Ebay for a little more. I would be wary of sketchy looking listings from China, I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be a bunch of scam listings in the run up to Deck launch. I haven't been checking but I also wouldn't be surprised if people start buying up the stock of the previously unpopular form factor, so prices might go up and availability go down.

GurtTractor wrote:

There's at least one 'Steam Deck compatible' listing already on Ebay, seems overpriced for 256GB..

Taking their chances, innit. Hooray for capitalism.

Which just means that you need to open up the shell with a screwdriver and maybe a plastic pry tool or old credit card, then there should be a slot right there that you can swap a new drive into.

Gabe has apparently confirmed that you can replace the SSD, but obviously they would prefer you spend mad bucks on the more expensive versions, and there's not an easy access hatch to expose the slot so that's why they've said it's 'not intended'. If you've ever opened a laptop it should be a doddle.

We know from the Epic court case that Spencer and Newell were having a number of meetings recently. I suspect that there’ll be Microsoft support for this in one way or another.

I bet there’ll be a native streaming app, beyond that yeah, as long as you can put Windows on then you can have the full Game Pass experience on it.

It's entirely possible that we'll see stores from other vendors getting some Linux love, I guess it depends on how successful they think the Deck will be.

As long as there's basic drivers available for Windows for the Deck, stuff like docking should work as expected. If Valve doesn't supply the appropriate drivers then I'm sure some enterprising individuals will extract them from Steam OS.

Microsoft are overhauling the entire store, it should deal with those bugs.

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-microsoft-store-finally-gets-a-much-needed-overhaul-for-windows-10-and-windows-11/

I'll believe it when I see it. I assume they'll still be doing the same stupid encrypted/hidden game directory bullshit.

Pre-orders on this thing are nuts.

Nope. My issues were running games as well as buggy UI. Regularly lost the license key and it was random too. Had to run a shell command then reboot the PC to get it working. In the end, combined with the janky UI I gave up.

Edit - I’ve said it before but it’s embarrassing that MS make the OS and the GP software. They control it all but can’t make an app as good as third parties.

New vid up.



RE hardware quality, I bet this thing is going to feel solid. The build quality of the Index is second to none and Valve are finally competent at doing hardware. This thing will own.

I wonder if they've made an easy way to network link local Decks together? So you can play games together via LAN.

Yeah but wireless, like the DS had a local area connection thing for multiple machines as I recall. The Stardew Valley thumbnail above got me thinking about it.