Valve Expanding Steam Deck Availability To Asian Markets

[rabcor]

An active volcano in your backyard is at least as exciting as the Deck.

There are so many active volcanos in iceland it's not even funny, one of 'em is eruptiing right now pretty close to the capital even, the earthquakes were crazy, we got a bunch of magnitude 5s i think, which is uncomfortably close to 6 which would be actually serious earthquakes.

[Flaburgan]

What about Switzerland? Every neighbouring country has it…

Just order them in France or Germany and go pick them? I can do that for you if you leave close to Geneva.

[Jabberwocky]

Same with Taiwan, its official name is Republic of China or ROC.

At any rate, when do we get them in Australia!?!? Want to get my 5yr old son one for his Lego games and Sonic collection!

I believe the correct spelling of China is West Taiwan.

[Grim85]

Its OK us down under in Australia haven't been mentioned or thought about either

They'll do what they did with the index here in Australia, give a half a dozen of them to ebgames to sell on their webstore and say job well done

[mdedetrich]

What about Switzerland? Every neighbouring country has it…

Probably because you aren't in the EU where as the neighbouring countries are?

[Paradigm Shifter]

60,000JPY is pretty good. Was expecting double that, I'll be honest. The competing options (running Windows, it must be said) which are already available here are in the 100-150,000 ballpark.

An active volcano in your backyard is at least as exciting as the Deck.

Japan says hi.


edit:

I have a Steam Controller that I wasn't a fan of, so I was always worried about this aspect of the deck. Unfortunately there's no way to know how you'll feel about a controller until you use it.

Yeah, I never really got the obsession people had with the Steam Controller. It felt cheap and I found it incredibly uncomfortable to use for any length of time. But you're absolutely right - like any controller, you need to actually try it before you know whether it's OK for you or not.

[geearf]

Yeah I assumed it'd be free money with the initial delivery around Christmas 21, but after that I stopped caring. I shouldn't have. :/
I think mine was a 256.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Damn, I regret letting my pre-order expire now.

Yeah, if you got in on the pre-order it was basically free money if you ended up not being enamored with the device. I didn't intend to sell either of mine when I ordered them. I was super pumped about the device, and ordered one 512GB and one 64GB. The store was getting obliterated when pre-orders first opened and the checkout was failing all the time. I was going through the process simultaneously on two different machines over and over again and ended up with two. I realized pretty quickly after unboxing and using the first one that it wasn't for me for two main reasons.

• Even for games that I thought would be a slam dunk on that form factor, like esports fighting games, I didn't actually like the controls. They didn't feel anywhere near as precise as something like an 8BitDo Pro2. I have a Steam Controller that I wasn't a fan of, so I was always worried about this aspect of the deck. Unfortunately there's no way to know how you'll feel about a controller until you use it.
• For FPS games, I figured out I'd never like playing them on a controller. I've always played them with a keyboard and mouse, and that won't be changing anytime soon.

There were a few other things. The Steam Deck is freakin' huge. Most people don't seem to mind, but if you are accustomed to a smaller form factor like a 3DS XL, the deck is almost comically large. It's so big that I found myself playing with it sitting in my lap, with my neck craned downwards in an uncomfortable position.

tl;dr: I wanted to love it, and i think it's cool as shit that Valve made a portable gaming system running something much closer to "normal" Linux than most people would have dreamed of years ago. I didn't end up loving it, but I did love the cash they brought in. Even the 64GB one sold for over $1000. I used the $600 margin I made from that one to buy a mint condition used HP ZBook 15 workstation with a hex core i7, 32GB of RAM, and a Quadro P2000. Most importantly for mobile gaming, I put a LTE WWAN card in it for $30 (already had a SIM), no more Wi-Fi or hotspot tethering required.

[geearf]

Looking at the trend of eBay pricing, they are getting closer to catching the supply up to demand in the western market.

• I just watched a 512GB deck go for $870 USD last night. That's only 37% over MSRP.
• I sold my 512GB for over $1,300 USD a few months ago, more than 100% over MSRP.

Damn, I regret letting my pre-order expire now.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

60k isn't a bad price, but weren't they already struggling to supply the western market due to high demand?

Looking at the trend of eBay pricing, they are getting closer to catching the supply up to demand in the western market.

• I just watched a 512GB deck go for $870 USD last night. That's only 37% over MSRP.
• I sold my 512GB for over $1,300 USD a few months ago, more than 100% over MSRP.