but lets just say they use a super underpowered graphics card. or very little ram, or hard drives too small to install most games on etc
That’s why PC games have always had minimum hardware specs listed. Potential buyers will have to keep that in mind if the device they’re getting happens to be too weak to run something like CP2077 or Horizon Zero Dawn.
While I find it unlikely to happen, I can totally see an OEM doing that, the “absolute bare minimum SteamOS” (AMD A6-7000, 2GB RAM, 16GB HD), but the bang for the buck might make it a total sales failure, because unlike a general use computer (such as those walmart cheapo win10 with no usable disk space), buyers of any steamdeck-like devices have a very focused use case of games, so the minimum acceptable specs will probably always be halfway decent
Minimum specs etc… is something PC gamers are more than used to… but also why there’s a large console market that doesn’t game on PCs.
My fear is bad acting OEMs… playing on user ignorance to assume automatically that the steamOS logo means it can run most games, and shipping out hardware that utterly fails at that use purpose, and as uneducated consumers may think the “runs steamOS”, logo could be some form of endorsement from valve to imply it in fact is suitable for gaming.
That’s why PC games have always had minimum hardware specs listed. Potential buyers will have to keep that in mind if the device they’re getting happens to be too weak to run something like CP2077 or Horizon Zero Dawn.
While I find it unlikely to happen, I can totally see an OEM doing that, the “absolute bare minimum SteamOS” (AMD A6-7000, 2GB RAM, 16GB HD), but the bang for the buck might make it a total sales failure, because unlike a general use computer (such as those walmart cheapo win10 with no usable disk space), buyers of any steamdeck-like devices have a very focused use case of games, so the minimum acceptable specs will probably always be halfway decent
Right though that’s my point.
Minimum specs etc… is something PC gamers are more than used to… but also why there’s a large console market that doesn’t game on PCs.
My fear is bad acting OEMs… playing on user ignorance to assume automatically that the steamOS logo means it can run most games, and shipping out hardware that utterly fails at that use purpose, and as uneducated consumers may think the “runs steamOS”, logo could be some form of endorsement from valve to imply it in fact is suitable for gaming.