They tried that method with the steam machines, it didnt work. A bunch of companies put out half arsed cash in versions and it went nowhere. By putting Valve’s whole weight behind one platform that they tested extensively they got a great product that has made waves. Opening it up now that it has momentum makes sense, but they absolutely made the right call making the steam deck the focus rather than making it hardware agnostic.
Even if Valve pushed their own Steam machine back then, it would have failed miserably. It simply had terrible game support because Proton didn’t exist (or integration with wine). Only the few native linux games out there would work.
But now Valve has Proton. I doubt the Steam Deck would have taken off if it wasn’t for that.
They tried that method with the steam machines, it didnt work. A bunch of companies put out half arsed cash in versions and it went nowhere. By putting Valve’s whole weight behind one platform that they tested extensively they got a great product that has made waves. Opening it up now that it has momentum makes sense, but they absolutely made the right call making the steam deck the focus rather than making it hardware agnostic.
Even if Valve pushed their own Steam machine back then, it would have failed miserably. It simply had terrible game support because Proton didn’t exist (or integration with wine). Only the few native linux games out there would work.
But now Valve has Proton. I doubt the Steam Deck would have taken off if it wasn’t for that.