The Steam Deck wasn't the first handheld device, but it kickstarted the entire craze. Once the big hardware manufacturers saw how successful the Deck was, they got greedy and started pumping out their own handhelds. However, they completely missed the point from day one by launching devices at premium prices, unlike the Steam Deck. Over time, these companies have only strayed further from the original goal.

​The whole point was to create devices that were less powerful than a gaming PC but could run all games, including AAA titles. Some games needed optimization, but developers loved this idea. They were incredibly collaborative with Valve. Besides boosting sales, developers were excited to bring their games to a Linux environment, potentially opening up the gaming world to a huge new audience. The combination of a relatively affordable price and portability was also a game changer.

​But then, these other companies piled in. They started churning out ridiculous devices with absurd prices. Look, it doesn't matter if you cram 150GB of RAM and a million-teraflop GPU in there. There's a hard limit to the power these devices can draw and the performance they can actually deliver. They will never match the output of a proper laptop or desktop.

​For a while, they managed to fool some people with their marketing hype, but gamers are catching on. A certain awareness has set in. Not many people are shelling out nearly $1000 for an Asus ROG Ally X. Very few gamers are giving Lenovo $1300 for a Go 2, which is enough to build a decent system with a 5070. For a perfect example of this failure: the top-end MSI Claw A1M launched at $799 and was seen on clearance for under $350 in less than a year.

​Meanwhile, the Steam Deck, which on paper is a fraction as powerful as these devices, is estimated to have outsold all of them combined. Hopefully, the others will wake up and smell the coffee.

​Instead of focusing on a hardware race, they would have been much better off working with game developers on optimization and porting games for handheld PCs. Thankfully, Steam still gives us hope on that front. If the Deck 2 gets announced next year, you know that's what everyone will be waiting for.