The timing could hardly have been better. A little over a week after the underwhelming announcement of Nintendo’s new OLED Switch model (better screen, bigger stand, and, well, that’s your lot), along came Steam Deck – a significantly more powerful handheld console a few wags determined was the real Switch Pro. The process for reserving units may have turned into a bit of a mess, with some Steam users told their accounts were too new (did the past decade or so really mean that little, Valve?) while others were informed they’d made too many purchases before their deposit had been taken. Yet these obvious signs of servers being overrun would probably have been music to the platform holder’s ears: a leak of the queue sizes suggested 100,000 reservations were made in about two hours.
Not a bad start, then, though Valve’s Steam account stipulations that were intended to stop scalpers had little effect, with eBay listings for Steam Deck preorders set at extortionate prices cropping up almost immediately afterward. More problems soon emerged: the first batch of preorders may be set to arrive with players in the first quarter of next year, but those for the mid-range 256GB model and high-end 512GB unit won’t be with players until Q2 and Q3 respectively.
This story is from the October 2021 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 2021 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas