Valve showed how the head of the company, Gabe Newell, became a regular courier and delivered a dozen sets of the Steam Deck compact game console to customers in the United States.
“We have hired a new courier to help with the launch of Steam Deck, not sure if he will succeed,” wrote Valve. But in the end, Newell coped with the role of Valve's courier and even exceeded the delivery plan for the consoles.
Newell, in a Valve uniform, not only handed out packages from Steam Deck to the first buyers, but also communicated with them and left autographs. Valve drove the head of the company in a minibus, followed by an inconspicuous van. There was a Steam Deck warehouse, which Newell delivered. As it turned out, there were more consoles inside the van than the shipping documents indicated.
Newell was not limited to just delivery. He also gave away Steam Deck consoles to anyone at the delivery address if friends of the console recipients requested it. After the distribution of gifts, the head of Valve asked everyone to write to him by mail if they have any wishes or feedback on the Steam Deck. Newell also asked Steam Deck owners what characters they prefer to play as in Final Fantasy.
Gabe Newell signs the Steam Deck case before handing it to the owner.
Gabe Newell gave Steam Deck to everyone who was still around him.
Newell said after the end of the shift that he really enjoyed being a courier again. As a young man, he was a newspaper delivery man and a telegram delivery man for Western Union.
On February 25, Valve began the first Steam Deck sales.
On July 15, 2021, Valve introduced the compact Steam Deck game console with an AMD bbabo.netU based on Zen 2 (4c/8t) and RDNA 2 (8 RDNA with two compute units) microarchitectures. The console runs on a specially adapted version of SteamOS 3.0, which is based on Arch Linux with a KDE Plasma desktop. The console is also specifically designed to display all of the games in the Steam library at 800p at 30 frames per second. Three versions of the Steam Deck with 64/256/512GB drives will be priced at $399/$529/$649, respectively. All versions of the Steam Deck console have an M.2 2230 SSD slot, but Valve advises against upgrading.
Steam Deck dimensions (width, height, thickness) - 298x117x49 mm, weight about 669 grams, it has a 7" capacitive multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280x800 (16:10 aspect ratio) and a built-in 40 Wh battery (up to 2 hours in 3D games offline or up to 8 hours when running 2D games or browsing in the browser).
Steam Deck is available for booking in some countries, Russia is not listed yet.
In early September, Valve opened the call for applications for Steam Deck devkits and said that it had created the Steam Deck bbabo.netI for developers to quickly optimize games.
On October 6, Valve published a Steam Deck breakdown. There you can change the control keys (sticks) and the internal drive.
In November, Valve warned of a delay in the release process of its Steam Deck gaming console to the market by at least another two months. The manufacturer cited problems with the supply of device components due to a shortage of the necessary materials and semiconductors as reasons. Valve also spoke about the AMD chip in Steam Deck and the speed of the console on different drives.
In early December, Valve showed the packaging of Steam Deck: it says that the console can be played in the subway, in the country, on a tree and in the toilet.
On December 11, Valve unveiled the look of an exclusive cover for the top version of the Steam Deck with 512 GB NVMe internal storage. In versions with 64 GB eMMC and 256 GB NVMe, the case is the same in terms of functionality, but simpler and without additional bonuses inside.
On January 14, 2022, Valve showed a photo of the testing process of the newly assembled Steam Deck.
On January 22, a tester showed that 10 peripheral devices can be connected to the Steam Deck devkit: six Bluetooth controllers, a Bluetooth speaker, a wired gamepad, a wired keyboard and mouse via a USB hub.
The first tests of Steam Deck showed its good performance and average battery life.
On February 12, Valve released CAD files of the topological surface of the Steam Deck case to the public. Now crafters, modifiers and accessory makers can 3D print the Steam Deck and evaluate it in their hands.
On February 15, Valve announced a partnership with iFixit to sell parts and accessories for the Steam Deck and Valve Index. As part of this event, iFixit did a full Steam Deck teardown and showed how well this compact gaming console is built and arranged. iFixit says it's an impressive repairability device.
On February 18, Valve revealed 117 Steam Deck prototype fragments, some with detachable handles similar to the Nintendo Switch.
On February 26, Valve first showed the appearance of a branded docking station for Steam Deck.
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