Steam Deck: Gamers React to the Portable PC's 64GB Storage

Steam Deck, the handheld device unveiled yesterday by Valve, already has gamers salivating at the prospect of playing their favourite PC games on the go. Yet one aspect of the portable machine has raised eyebrows: its relatively limited storage space.

How Much Internal Storage Does the Steam Deck Have?

Although it bears a striking resemblance to the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck has far more in common with a contemporary gaming PC. You can use it to play titles from your Steam library (with all the mods and settings intact), download third-party applications and generally do most things that you would do on your home computer.

It also has impressive technical specs, with 16GB of RAM, 4 cores of AMD Zen 2 CPU with 8 logical threads and 8 CUs of RDNA 2 GPU. This means it is capable of playing games such as Control or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on their higher graphical settings.

In terms of internal storage, the amount of memory varies. The most expensive version comes with 512GB for $649, while the next model down has 256GB and a $529 price tag.

The cheapest Steam Deck is $399, but has only 64GB of storage. A lot of modern titles already exceed this capacity, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which takes up an extraordinary 231GB. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep need 150GB and 105GB respectively to be installed on Steam.

Although 64GB is actually double the storage of the launch version of the Switch, file sizes are greatly compressed on the Nintendo handheld, whereas the Steam Deck will be running PC games.

Gamer React to the 64GB Internal Storage

Users cannot upgrade the internal storage of the Steam Deck, but there is an inbuilt SD card reader for handling bigger files. Nevertheless, some gamers have expressed their concerns on social media.

Twitter user @OwletinSoT said the only thing tempering their enthusiasm for the Steam Deck was the storage size.

@Holofun1 remarked that many contemporary releases exceed the 64GB limit of the cheapest model. Echoing these sentiments, @RGBThighSocks questioned how much you can get out of 64GB in 2021.

Some gamers pointed out that 64GB should be enough for those who only want to use their handheld to play indie games. Others were more critical. One user, @Muckbeast, suggested that Valve was out of touch with their audience.

@Platonymous reiterated this point, speculating that the $399 model was only there to entice bargain-hunters.

@WulfLavra goes so far as to claim that the Steam Deck is "practically unusable" unless you buy one of the more expensive models.

User @phazeronest shared a meme from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, to express their concern about whether their Steam library would fit on the portable PC.

@APantaloni joked that the cheapest Steam Deck would only be able to contain half a modern video game.

Some gamers, such as @StarPandaTV, said 64GB would meet their needs, however.

@PenLlawen also said he was happy to use his PS5 for playing AAA games and the 64GB Steam Deck was well suited for playing indie titles on the go.

In other handheld gaming news, pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch OLED model went live yesterday. If you missed it, you do not need to worry too much as the console represents only an incremental upgrade over its predecessor.