Are you one of the lucky few to secure a pre-order invitation for the Steam Deck? If so, you might want to reconsider before purchasing the device, or perhaps even cancel your pre-order, especially if you value the opinion of Shuhei Yoshida, a former Sony executive.
On social media, the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios shared his impressions after testing Valve’s latest hardware innovation, and he is far from impressed.
Yoshida simply noted that “3D performance is just… meh,” and that the system recommends a 1080p resolution, which he criticized by asking, “am I going back to the PS4 era?” Beyond that, he explained that game startup times are “looooooong” and the price is simply “not affordable.”
He did, however, acknowledge some “great features” such as the option to boot from the Steam controller, an “easy to use” user interface, the swappable faceplate, and random startup videos.
But none of these positive features were enough to prevent Yoshida from concluding on a rather blunt note: “Hard to recommend, except for research purposes.”
So, perhaps Valve hasn’t quite perfected a winning product with the Steam Deck? Regardless, it’s important to remember that this is just one person’s opinion on the device, and the public’s verdict will only be rendered when fans have truly had time to test the Steam Deck, now that it has recently begun to be marketed worldwide.