There is just over two weeks to go until the Steam Deck is finally unleashed unto the world. Although Valve has a history of poorly-received hardware projects, it's looking more and more like this latest endeavor could be what shows the corporation is capable of a life outside software. Testers and studios are already singing its praises, and there's a good chance it could be a literal game-changer when it's released soon. In the meantime, there is the little matter of getting games ready to be compatible with it on launch day, and that list is growing all the time.
According to a database over on SteamDB, a third-party site that tracks what Valve's lucrative client is up to, there are now more than 240 titles, 243 to be precise at the time of writing, that have been fully verified for the Steam Deck. Currently, on the list are such games as Portal 2, of course, Resident Evil 2, God of War, Dark Souls 3, and Death Stranding, to name just a few.
While Steam currently has around 50,000 games in its entire database, 243 being verified is still a pretty good achievement. Considering that, just a week and a half ago, more than 100 games were verified for Steam Deck, it shows that there is definitely excellent progress being made. Many of the games that are being made compatible will likely be the ones that most fans will want to play anyway, which means of the ones that won't be verified in time, a lot of them will likely be more obscure titles or ones that only have a very niche following.
With Half-Life 2 getting a UI update to make it suitable for the device, it seems evident that Valve and its partners have used the extra time to continue working tirelessly on it. As many are aware, the Deck was originally scheduled for a Christmas 2021 release, but had to be pushed back due to the ongoing tech shortages.
Although games like Fortnite won't officially be getting updated for the Steam Deck, there will still be a lot of great games that will should be playable from day one. With the list of verified titles growing frequently, there will almost certainly be at least a few hundred that will be ready to go come February 25. It may have meant waiting a little longer, but these couple of extra months have allowed everyone involved to put in some last minute efforts.
The Steam Deck is scheduled to launch on February 25.
Source: SteamDB