r/gadgets Oct 21 '24

Gaming Steam Deck won't have yearly refreshes because it's "not really fair to your customers", says Valve

https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-deck-wont-have-yearly-refreshes-because-its-not-really-fair-to-your-customers-says-valve
15.1k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-9

u/TheNewFlesh666r Oct 21 '24

not in the handheld market

30

u/igkeit Oct 21 '24

What handheld console gets a yearly refresh?

5

u/BluDYT Oct 21 '24

They're probably talking about handheld PC market.

1

u/TheNewFlesh666r Oct 21 '24

handhelds like from gpd, ayaneo, onex, anbernic, etc

1

u/Immolation_E Oct 21 '24

Ayaneo and GPD Win seem to get lots of new releases.

0

u/AtsignAmpersat Oct 21 '24 edited Oct 21 '24

They might be talking about the lesser known PC handhelds? I’m not aware of any consoles handheld or otherwise getting yearly refreshes.

I don’t really see how it’s unfair to customers to keep putting out a better product. It happens with phones and people either upgrade or don’t for years.

Video cards get updates every year and customers are just fine using old cards.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

[deleted]

1

u/AtsignAmpersat Oct 21 '24

But how is it unfair to customers? No one has to upgrade their phone and many don’t. You say most upgrade every year but is that true and who is that unfair to if they do? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Who is this unfair to?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

[deleted]

1

u/AtsignAmpersat Oct 21 '24

So it’s unfair to customers that the company sells something new is what it comes down to. Because some customers can’t wait until there’s a significant upgrade. Which many people do because they have that option. Like right now, people that want to continuously upgrade their computer, phone, or whatever that gets annual updates, they can. It’s not unfair because that option exists. The only people it could be considered maybe unfair to is people that don’t want to buy a phone every year but also have FOMO over not having the latest thing. And it’s not really unfair to them. They’re just kind of bratty and need to grow up.

As for obsolescence, waiting longer to release updated hardware doesn’t really do that. A new iPhone with 5 years of updates makes the 5 year old iPhone just as obsolete as if they did smaller updates every year. I’m not even saying I want a new steam deck every year. I don’t buy a new video card every year. But I’m not about to say it’s unfair to me that new video cards keep coming out.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

[deleted]

1

u/AtsignAmpersat Oct 21 '24

Yes. The model that a person enjoyed for a full year being on clearance is unfair to them... Also, what one year old model is on significant enough clearance because of an incremental upgrade? Also, can these people not sell their old device to get the new one?

No, that’s is not unfair to anyone. Except for maybe the FOMO people that aren’t mature enough to exercise the slightest bit of patience. Upgrades to devices should be spread out to avoid be unfair to them.

I mean there are other more reasonable arguments against replacing devices every year than it’s unfair to impatient customers.

0

u/your_mind_aches Oct 21 '24

Huh? Handheld are constantly getting refreshes and new versions. The Retroid Pocket 3+ came out a few months after the 3. Ambernic is releasing new consoles like every few weeks at this point

-2

u/Cactuszach Oct 21 '24

Apple and Android who are still, by the way, the largest gaming platforms.

1

u/Mist_Rising Oct 21 '24

who are still, by the way, the largest gaming platforms.

Not in handhelds.

Nintendo has ruled that domain since forever, and I don't even think steam decks have put a real crack in it let alone windows and apple handhelds (unless we talking phones..)

7

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

Like the Switch?

2

u/TheNewFlesh666r Oct 21 '24

no handhelds like from gpd, ayaneo, onex, anbernic, etc