The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

steamdeck verified is a lie, I bought a steamdeck and tested 20 games. Lots of problems.

What kills Deck for me are the game launchers.

I don't own one, so mostly just curious, what are some more prominent examples of this?

For me it was the lack of portability (it's a chunky beast), I just wasn't taking it anywhere because it takes up so much space in your bag. By comparison the switch with it's disconnecting controllers fits in my electronics bag along with a bunch of plugs, chargers and cables and hardly takes up any room, and weighs a decent amount less. Looking forward to a slimmer and narrower V2 though, if it ever materialises.

They really need to do much better about how they communicate this to users.

Developers are unable to opt out of the system and Valve will just put a "verified" tag on a game with zero input from a developer.

Valve needs to set proper expectations of who to be mad at when a game breaks on the Steam Deck if the developer themselves never pledged support.

Most users don't understand what an OS really is or how a game works on the Steam Deck (SteamOS) instead of Windows.

My feeling is that deck v2 will only happen around the time of next generation consoles (PS6, etc) so they can piggy-back off the AMD APU made for it again. Getting a chip as a slight variation on a mass-market product is going to be a lot easier

> Valve will just put a "verified" tag on a game with zero input from a developer.

This is a big claim, is there evidence for this? I'm an end-user, not a developer, but there are plenty of games in Unknown status. I would assume that should be the default, not Verified.

I can see an argument that Valve has incentive to have flagship games get that Verified badge, but there is also precedence for them downgrading popular games after launch. For example, Spider-Man 2 recently went from Verified to Playable (rightfully so, in my opinion).

I have a pretty big Steam library and have had no issues with any “verified” game and very few issues even with those that are just marked “playable”.

What problems have you seen?

Steam Deck owner since launch here -- I wouldn't say the Verified status is a lie, but there have been instances where games have received Verified badge status at launch, but performed poorly on Deck.

Some popular examples of this;

1. Baldur's Gate 3: It has Verified status, but the community unanimously agrees that the performance is very poor around Act 3, and makes the game nearly impossible to finish on Deck.

2. Spider-Man 2: It had Verified status at launch, but performed poorly in terms of graphics and visuals. It was recently downgraded to Playable status, meaning you have to change the graphics settings to comfortably play the game.

Personally, I think Valve's definition of Verified [1] is too vague. The 4 criteria don't actually mention anything about graphics or performance - it only says it should have "good default settings". What does that actually look like when you play it? Additionally, how much of the game is tested when evaluating those settings?

Valve doesn't actually advertise the process of how the badge is assigned, that I'm aware. Is the game 100% completed in evaluation? What percentage of input is there between Valve and the developer? Are certain publishers or developers given any bias or leeway? That part is still opaque to the end-user.

I think the Verification process is a good first cut at standardizing PC specs, where before there weren't any. But it can definitely be improved.

1: https://www.steamdeck.com/verified

this is what happens when you ship experimental software as "stable" on a handheld system. could have told you in advance. expect game-breaking crashes and bugs sooner or later the more you use it.