Edit

The Steam Deck was a flop? I was unaware.

I think if there are objective specifications of a device, and the device's specifications are measurably better than another device there's nothing wrong with comparing the two.

However, the root of my response, which has been so gracefully sidestepped, is regarding the root of the comment that the PS5 is old. Yes, it may be a few years old, but it is still the current console generation.

I guess everyone should just go out and chuck all their old consoles into the giant mountains of E-waste because we should all be setting up to have the newest most powerful thing!

By what metric did the Steam Deck "flop"?

The Steam Machine did not sell well, however it gave Steam the bandwidth to work on Proton and SteamOS which ultimately lead to the deck, that did not flop.

Might I interest you in the much lesser well known Steam Link? Also a Desktop-Console-type device. It gave Valve the experience to give us the ability to Stream games to other computers on the network via Steam, thus saving distributed space.

Or the Steam Controller, which is also referenced in the article? They learned lessons and fixed the problems with it for the Deck control scheme, which is now being used to create a better product.

Or the Valve Index, which is also referenced in the article? They learned many lessons by using this as a test bed, that allowed them to make the Steam Frame.

All you have done in this entire thread is indicate that you don't understand iterative development, and that a company would be willing to make mistakes to learn from them and improve.

I think it’s a bit premature to announce that someone is about to win something when they haven’t released it yet and the last time they released something a desktop console it flopped

Why is an 11 year old console that has been followed up by several successful hardware releases including a device that is basically a desktop with a screen built-in relevant at all to an assessment of the new Steam Machine?