I really appreciate how Valve saw the immense growth of the PC gaming market, during the COVID lockdowns, and decided to expand the reach further with the Steam Deck.
Yes they're capitalising on it, but in the best way since the product is revered as being rather good (and not half-arsed).
If I didn't have a gaming PC already, I'd consider it for sure.
My wife never gamed before and I got her a steam deck in April. She’s already beat more games than I have in my entire life. Got my kids some decks too and they love them. Fantastic product.
I have a gaming PC and bought a Deck. It's a fantastic deal for the price, and I love being able to lay in bed and play for an hour before I go to sleep. I brought it on a vacation and played a bit on the airplane. I pack it to work in case I want to play on a break.
It's just super convenient, and I end up playing on it more than my PC. There are absolutely games I wouldn't play on it, and those I save for my PC, but a lot of my purchasing decisions for games these days include where I'll play it (Deck or PC).
I can't think of any hardware that Valve has abandoned. Sure they've stopped making plenty, but pretty much everything is still supported, and in many cases works even better because the software developed for them still exists and gets updated(SteamVR, Steam Input, Steam Link, etc). Closest you can get to abandonment were the Steam Machines, and even then they were just PCs and you could easily install another Linux Distro on them, or even Windows.
Maybe I've just been desensitised to stupid business speak but it seems really strange to call out the phrase "road map" in the headline. It's like writing an article called "Valve has something called a 'business plan'". Like... yeah, obviously!
You don't get it. Valve never has a business plan! It's a hierarchyless place where everyone just moves their desk whenever and works on whatever they want. Plans? Who needs them!
Is it so obvious? It's something you would expect a business to have, but it's not always true. Regarding Valve specifically, do they have a roadmap for VR? I'd hope so, but they've been fairly quiet on that front.