Quote:Video game and hardware studio Valve has been secretly building a Switch-like portable PC designed to run a large number of games on the Steam PC platform via Linux—and it could launch, supply chain willing, by year's end.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that the hardware has been in development for some time, and this week, Valve itself pointed to the device by slipping new hardware-related code into the latest version of Steam, the company's popular PC gaming storefront and ecosystem.

On Tuesday, SteamDB operator Pavel Djundik spotted the change in Steam's code, which pointed to a new device named "SteamPal." The name is a derivative of a previously discovered code term, "Neptune," which began appearing in September of last year and came with a "Neptune Optimized Games" string. At the time, curious code crawlers thought this discovery referred to some type of controller.

Technically, that's true. The "SteamPal," whose name we're putting in scare quotes because we do not have confirmation of the device's final name, is an all-in-one PC with gamepad controls and a touchscreen. In other words, it looks and functions like a Nintendo Switch (albeit without removable "Joy-Con" controller functionality).

(05-31-2021, 07:37 AM)demonboy Wrote: This is good news. Nintendo is the only competitor when it comes to mobile gaming , other then apple/android (not really the same imo) I hope this encourages Nintendo to lower prices possibly because everything is so expensive Lol.

(05-31-2021, 07:53 AM)Oni Wrote:

(05-31-2021, 07:37 AM)demonboy Wrote: This is good news. Nintendo is the only competitor when it comes to mobile gaming , other then apple/android (not really the same imo) I hope this encourages Nintendo to lower prices possibly because everything is so expensive Lol.

As you said, it's basically just Nintendo. Sony hasn't really had a portable console since the Vita, which was discontinued 2 years ago.

(06-17-2021, 11:52 PM)Feat Wrote: If they can actually go and put a decent amount of hardware power into this thing, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I was a big fan of the PS Vita's when they were around and I personally don't enjoy using the switch. So, I'm excited to see what they have in store.

(06-18-2021, 12:10 AM)Oni Wrote:

(06-17-2021, 11:52 PM)Feat Wrote: If they can actually go and put a decent amount of hardware power into this thing, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I was a big fan of the PS Vita's when they were around and I personally don't enjoy using the switch. So, I'm excited to see what they have in store.

Mostly hoping it isn't reliant on streaming to function. Similar services already exist and never work as good as advertised.

https://stadia.google.com/
https://moonlight-stream.org/

(06-18-2021, 04:31 AM)Feat Wrote: it's honestly only good if you have really good internet speeds but other than that it's dog shit.

Spoiler:

(06-18-2021, 04:31 AM)Feat Wrote:

(06-18-2021, 12:10 AM)Oni Wrote:

(06-17-2021, 11:52 PM)Feat Wrote: If they can actually go and put a decent amount of hardware power into this thing, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I was a big fan of the PS Vita's when they were around and I personally don't enjoy using the switch. So, I'm excited to see what they have in store.

Mostly hoping it isn't reliant on streaming to function. Similar services already exist and never work as good as advertised.

https://stadia.google.com/
https://moonlight-stream.org/

That's like the one that NVIDIA put out, it's honestly only good if you have really good internet speeds but other than that it's dog shit.

(06-18-2021, 05:05 AM)Oni Wrote:

(06-18-2021, 04:31 AM)Feat Wrote:

(06-18-2021, 12:10 AM)Oni Wrote: Mostly hoping it isn't reliant on streaming to function. Similar services already exist and never work as good as advertised.

https://stadia.google.com/
https://moonlight-stream.org/

That's like the one that NVIDIA put out, it's honestly only good if you have really good internet speeds but other than that it's dog shit.

I tried Playstation Now a while back, and even with good internet it was subpar. Maybe it's better now, but it'd only be usable for games that have checkpoints/saves.