iPad Steam deck proves Apple missed an opportunity

[jclardy]

The magic of the Steam Deck is Proton, which allows you to play the vast majority of Windows games pretty seamlessly without Windows. Without Proton, Valve's investment in Proton, and the deep integration of Proton in SteamOS, the Deck would be just another handheld PC. There were dozens of them that were completely forgettable before the Deck, and there will be dozens of after. Proton is what makes it special.

Apple built that already, the Game Porting Toolkit - it's just not as seamless as Proton, because Apple doesn't have all the windows binaries on their servers to give to users.

The core problem is the interface and market. For Mac, the market for a AAA game sold through the app store is tiny, because users have been conditioned to not look for games there. And if you go for iPad/iPhone (A much larger market) you have to invest into making control schemes that work with touch, because you can't sell an iOS game that requires a connected controller. And you have to somehow balance the low end 32GB iPhones and high end ones in terms of asset storage (Which the app store doesn't help with, but Steam does.) And then the biggest problem - your $60 AAA game is competing with 10k freemium games that have 1000x the number of downloads/ratings/engagement which means you get lost in the app store search results.

Hence, no ports. The tech is there and ready, but Apple corporate is not ready to budge on software going outside the app store, or changing the app store to support anything other than microtransactions & subscriptions.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

you get lost in the app store search results.

Never quite bought this point. If an app is good, it gets a wide signal boost everywhere such that something like Zenless Zone Zero is known by name by a wide number of potential customers. They don’t go to the app store searching for “good game”, they find out about good games on a far more powerful, more far reaching search engine, Google. Then when they go to the App Store, they just type “Zenless Zone Zero” and download it.

If an app is not being talked about by a large number of people… well… that seems like a problem only the developer/publisher can fix.

 

[kc9hzn]

There is a lot of revisionist history going on here. Apps started out charging less than $3 so the low value was baked in from the beginning. The assumption was that consumers pay $40 for an 8 hour game so an 8 minute gameplay loop necessitates a lower entry point. There were free titles from day one but these were often littered with ads which consumers did not like.

Ngmoco’s iOS FPS ‘Eliminate’ introduced freemium barriers to gameplay, partially to lessen the blow on servers for a small dev. Paying for more lives on a 10-minute title though is the exact same game mechanics the Arcade industry had been using since the 1970’s.

Despite the iPhone, Nintendo sold over a 100m DS consoles, Sony still sold 70m PSPs and the 3DS sold over 75m units.

And despite perceptions to the contrary, the premium market on iOS has been thriving. You can play every major JRPG released between 1986 and 1999, many of which go for $20+. The platform has indie parity with the Switch, with titles like Hyper Light Drifter, Hades and Cassette Beasts littering the market.

Capcom seem to think that porting more Resident Evil titles is a good idea so clearly they made some profit from doing so. The iPhone has been home to a lot of PlayStation titles for a while. Games like Flower, Journey, Unfinished Swan and Death Stranding are nowhere near Android.

Devs of quick-play titles still offer everything up front. Alto’s Odyssey on iOS is a $3 upfront title; on Android it’s F2P with pay-to-unlock on everything therein doled out piecemeal.

As a gaming platform iOS is in rude health. Free cloud save backup, cross-buy and play between TV, iPad and iPhone, support for every major controller going, infinite controller profile rebinds (something my Xbox doesn’t have) and now emulators are on the platform.

Loot boxes, Gacha mechanics and leftover currencies are all scummy casino-style mechanics designed to addict gullible players. But when even the EU hasn’t outright banned them are they as addictive as the media make out? The freemium market created itself and like it or not it makes a lot of money. Hoyoverse, makers of Genshin Impact (actually a decent game!) make more money from two/three titles than Sony or Microsoft.

Well, the casino mechanics probably aren’t as bad relative to actual gambling. Relevant to the discussion of Valve is their role in the market for CSGo skin trading (and therefore CSGo skin gambling, and the black market casinos that have sprung up around it). That seems to be a much more potent inducement into gambling than loot boxes are by themselves. Though I suppose not all loot box UIs are made equal, some probably exploit the near miss illusion more effectively than others (and would probably be more lucrative).

Of course, when it comes to 1) the cheapening of games and 2) the proliferation of freemium games, Valve is hardly innocent.

 

[rui no onna]

But it runs on switch somehow, 4 gb ram, ancient Nvidia ARM processor from 2013 I guess. Many new iPads have 16gb now but honestly, RAM is only for faster level loading. They can divide map into zones like on Switch

It runs but how well?

That said, 140 million Switch consoles sold with a lot being dedicated gamers willing to spend $60+ for a game is probably a big draw into developing a Switch port even with its woefully inadequate hardware.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

Honestly, I get really annoyed with PC gamers. It’s perfectly fine to have a niche interest, as long as you recognize that it’s niche. (It’s also fine to wish that your niche interest was less niche.)

But PC gamers seem to think that everything should cater to them, as if gaming is the reason computers exist. Never mind that console gaming is more popular and more accessible (and has better exclusives), so PC gaming is niche even in the larger gaming market (even if we exclude freemium smartphone games). If it’s not suitable for gaming (using their definition of gaming), it should be changed so that it is.

Gaming is the only thing that the average person can do to push a system to it's limits. So that means, at least from a content creator perspective, that "PC enthusiast" means "gamer."

 

[kc9hzn]

It runs but how well?

That said, 140 million Switch consoles sold with a lot being dedicated gamers willing to spend $60+ for a game is probably a big draw into developing a Switch port even with its woefully inadequate hardware.

Also provides an extra incentive to optimize the heck out of the game. I do have a Switch Lite and, in handheld mode (so, limited to 720p), I don’t typically notice significant performance issues even in games noted for performance issues in TV mode (Pokémon Gen 9 or Rune Factory 5, for instance). Maybe that’s the optimization target developers are going for?

 

[shadowboi]

It runs but how well?

That said, 140 million Switch consoles sold with a lot being dedicated gamers willing to spend $60+ for a game is probably a big draw into developing a Switch port even with its woefully inadequate hardware.

Enough for having some fun throwing some poachers into each other and flying around on a broom in 1080p 25-60 fps. Not a solid framerate but still nice.

But yeah, 60$ ain’t cheap. But on the other hand, if it was 10-19$ on AppStore, they would have had better revenue with the huge player base (who are willing to spend normal kind of money on a game they will play occasionally)

 

[rui no onna]

Also provides an extra incentive to optimize the heck out of the game. I do have a Switch Lite and, in handheld mode (so, limited to 720p), I don’t typically notice significant performance issues even in games noted for performance issues in TV mode (Pokémon Gen 9 or Rune Factory 5, for instance). Maybe that’s the optimization target developers are going for?

I have a regular Switch and Switch Lite but I always use handheld mode anyway.

One cozy game I play (Disney Dreamlight Valley) crashes all the time on the Switch but works perfectly well on PC. Game’s still buggy but at least it doesn’t crash every 5-10 minutes like on the Switch. One of the reasons I ended up buying a Steam Deck.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Apple built that already, the Game Porting Toolkit - it's just not as seamless as Proton, because Apple doesn't have all the windows binaries on their servers to give to users.

If Apple built that already, Macs would be able to play all the games a Steam Deck does.

 

[Abazigal]

Also provides an extra incentive to optimize the heck out of the game. I do have a Switch Lite and, in handheld mode (so, limited to 720p), I don’t typically notice significant performance issues even in games noted for performance issues in TV mode (Pokémon Gen 9 or Rune Factory 5, for instance). Maybe that’s the optimization target developers are going for?

I purchased darksiders 3 for the switch when it was on offer, and the game ran very slowly on my device. Most noticeable were the loading screen times (well over a minute) which is probably a side-effect of the limited ram.

I think games designed for the switch from the ground up will do fine, but stay away from console / PC ports.

 

[Shirasaki]

I’d argue free casual gaming is what proliferated in the App Store because Apple allowed it. Then companies used tactics to make games based off addicting style casino games and the game store has been trash ever since. Honestly the only thing that could fix the store at this point would be for Apple to ban all freemium games.

Apple won’t ban Those freemium games because 1. That market competition is still quite fierce. Just because you throw pretty anime girls doesn’t mean your company can turn investment into a profit. I’ve personally seen many can’t even survive the first anniversary before dying down. 2. Apple collects that whopping 30% commission from all in-app purchases as we all know. Take genshin impact Jan 2024 revenue of $35m as an example. Apple would collect $10.5m from that game alone. Multiply by 20, that’s $210m from top mobile game market alone. What kind of paid game can generate $35m revenue in just ONE MONTH? Why refuse such easy money?

 

[Spock]

If Apple built that already, Macs would be able to play all the games a Steam Deck does.

It pretty much can, you can use Whiskey to install the Windows version of Steam and it emulates almost the same way the Steam Deck does. I play a few of my favorite games with it, the only downside is your machine will get hot after a while.

 

[teh_hunterer]

It pretty much can, you can use Whiskey to install the Windows version of Steam and it emulates almost the same way the Steam Deck does. I play a few of my favorite games with it, the only downside is your machine will get hot after a while.

I'm sorry, but Whisky is nowhere near Proton. I've tested a vast number of games using Parallels and Whisky and Crossover and the majority are not acceptable experiences.

 

[Joe Dohn]

As a gaming platform iOS is in rude health. Free cloud save backup, cross-buy and play between TV, iPad and iPhone, support for every major controller going, infinite controller profile rebinds (something my Xbox doesn’t have) and now emulators are on the platform.

Apple doesn't have a good reputation on keeping your games. True, Steam games get delisted as well. But in general, the developer has to actively push for it, and if you bought it, Steam has a reputation that they simply allow you to keep your delisted games. With X86's excellent compatibility, your game is either guaranteed to run for a good 10+ years, or someone hacks it to keep running, or you can plain virtualize your old, unsupported platform (a good last resort).

 

[Ctrlos]

Apple doesn't have a good reputation on keeping your games. True, Steam games get delisted as well. But in general, the developer has to actively push for it, and if you bought it, Steam has a reputation that they simply allow you to keep your delisted games. With X86's excellent compatibility, your game is either guaranteed to run for a good 10+ years, or someone hacks it to keep running, or you can plain virtualize your old, unsupported platform (a good last resort).

I mean it’s not a very good game but I can still play games as far back as the launch of the App Store 16 years ago on modern hardware.

 

[macguy360]

Obviously Apple is a company just like other companies and they don’t always make good calls. The disaster that is Apple Vision is the most recent example. Their short sightedness of allowing freemium has burnt a lot of people. You can read countless stories of parents who found out their kid purchased expensive add ons or people who couldn’t control themselves and spent a lot of money on a freemium game.

I am very anti freemium because I look at Apple and see what it could be. The m4 processors are some of the most powerful in the world. If Apple banned freemium garbage and worked on releasing gaming peripherals and using their Mac OS wrapper for games but carried it forward as a wrapper for windows/linux based games, they could create a game ecosystem that beats out steam.

Yes someone here earlier brought up that Apple has more in iPad sales than all of steam. Imagine how their sales would be if they had a solid gaming ecosystem. To say that Apple doesn’t care about games for iPads doesn’t match up with their launch presentations. Just about every iPad launch since it was first created always showed a gaming example.

Lastly, I’ll say this; iPads are getting to a point speed wise where upgrading each year or two is less and less noticeable. If they continue down the path of “iPad doesn’t replace a laptop” and have iPad as a jack of all trades master of none, there will be less and less reason to continue to upgrade as new iPads come out.

 

[ericwn]

You can spin it a hundred different ways but the freemium system that you personally dislike is used and loved by way more people it seems that traditional old fashioned games. While not for me, claiming something like a game can be addictive, is also not just applicable to freemium games. I can just as easily become a game horder on steam or elsewhere and I can lose myself in plenty of full traditional games just as much.

Outside of keynote demos for their hardware show off Apple has never cared about becoming a platform for traditional console or pc games.

If anything the success of Apples platforms show us that the gaming you’d like to see really is a niche market for them, as long as dedicated systems are able to thrive and coexist they have very little motivation to have these users migrate.

 

[Abazigal]

Lastly, I’ll say this; iPads are getting to a point speed wise where upgrading each year or two is less and less noticeable. If they continue down the path of “iPad doesn’t replace a laptop” and have iPad as a jack of all trades master of none, there will be less and less reason to continue to upgrade as new iPads come out.

Who exactly is this mythical user base that is buying a new iPad every year? Technology simply does not improve quickly enough to sustain this sort of churn, nor is it desirable.

I don’t see people upgrading their iPads more often even if Apple did what you suggested. People were already replacing their Macs far more slowly than iPads, so I don’t see how making an iPad more like a Mac is supposed to speed up the upgrade cycle any.

People upgrade less often, but the key here is that they are not replacing them with other devices. Apple doesn’t need you to keep buying new hardware, they just need you to keep using them. Revenue will continue to flow into Apple’s coffers by way of services, IAPs, accessories, even Apple Pay.

All proceeding as planned.

 

[erasr]

Curious to hear if anyone picked up a Deck after the recommendations in this thread?

 

[Ctrlos]

Obviously Apple is a company just like other companies and they don’t always make good calls. The disaster that is Apple Vision is the most recent example. Their short sightedness of allowing freemium has burnt a lot of people. You can read countless stories of parents who found out their kid purchased expensive add ons or people who couldn’t control themselves and spent a lot of money on a freemium game.

I am very anti freemium because I look at Apple and see what it could be. The m4 processors are some of the most powerful in the world. If Apple banned freemium garbage and worked on releasing gaming peripherals and using their Mac OS wrapper for games but carried it forward as a wrapper for windows/linux based games, they could create a game ecosystem that beats out steam.

Yes someone here earlier brought up that Apple has more in iPad sales than all of steam. Imagine how their sales would be if they had a solid gaming ecosystem. To say that Apple doesn’t care about games for iPads doesn’t match up with their launch presentations. Just about every iPad launch since it was first created always showed a gaming example.

Lastly, I’ll say this; iPads are getting to a point speed wise where upgrading each year or two is less and less noticeable. If they continue down the path of “iPad doesn’t replace a laptop” and have iPad as a jack of all trades master of none, there will be less and less reason to continue to upgrade as new iPads come out.

The freemium software model has been around since the 1980’s. At the turn of the century we were downloading shareware with limited functions and a paid unlock to the devs (this is where software cracks came from) The actual term was coined in 2006, years before the App Store.

Companies with that model only profit on 5% of players. Most people, because they have busy lives are not actually limited by the model because they can put the game down for a few days.

The issue is not freemium itself but rather the predatory, scummy methods used by some devs to extract more money from players. It can be very subtle, like the way Fortnite always leaves you with change after a purchase making you more likely to spend again.

Riddle me this though: if we have devs on one half exploiting players and the more hobbyist gamers abandoning AAA releases because they’re too pricey, where does this leave things?

 

[Zest28]

the iPad is clearly more powerful than steam deck and could play games better. However, Apple decided from the get go to allow companies to make freemium garbage and ruin the gaming ecosystem of iPad.

Hence, Steam Deck was created to fill the niche and also windows gaming handhelds. If Apple were to partner with Valve to allow steam on iPad it would be a game changer, but we won’t see that and it will continue to get outclassed by these new gaming handhelds coming out.

Check again who outclasses who. Apple is the 3rd largest gaming company in the world, even beating Nintendo and Microsoft.

 

[Aka757]

Curious to hear if anyone picked up a Deck after the recommendations in this thread?

I would encourage any gamers that are interested in a deck to pick it up, it’s one of my most used devices since i’ve gotten it! Comes in handy especially as a parent that sometimes needs to mobile with a young child.

 

[bousozoku]

The magic of the Steam Deck is Proton, which allows you to play the vast majority of Windows games pretty seamlessly without Windows. Without Proton, Valve's investment in Proton, and the deep integration of Proton in SteamOS, the Deck would be just another handheld PC. There were dozens of them that were completely forgettable before the Deck, and there will be dozens of after. Proton is what makes it special.

Steam itself is a big asset. Windows doesn't have a worthy game launcher and those from ASUS and Lenovo just don't do the job well.

When I go to the desktop in Linux, I have two launchers for Epic, GOG, and other games I've bought over the years.

People claim that Windows is the only way to go, but these handheld machines aren't much of a desktop, although you can connect a keyboard and mouse.

 

[bousozoku]

Proton has made me question whether I actually need Windows at all on my desktop. It's pretty impressive how well everything runs, even with an Nvidia GPU.

Nvidia is working on making their drivers better on Linux.

 

[bousozoku]

I remember a Dave2D video comparing some of those devices, or similar ones… But everyone I know that has a Deck is delighted by it.

I’m not saying there cannot be better devices than the Deck, but most people I know have Valve’s machine.

I guess I’ll take a look at those machines, just out of curiosity.

I watch WindowsCentral go on and on and on about the ASUS ROG Ally, as if it is the best gaming machine ever. They always fail to admit that it cooks the SD Cards regularly. Anything not Steam Deck and not Apple is the best for them, no matter the issues.

The Lenovo Legion Go has much to like, especially with the detachable controllers, but given its weight, they're important.

Steam Deck is still a trickle of sales, but Valve has put their sights on the future of gaming with it.