Yesterday, Valve unveiled its up-and-coming PC gaming hand-held system, which is already being compared to a well-known Nintendo console. The Steam Deck is Valve's hat in the hand-held ring, which was finally revealed after months of speculations. Since then, company CEO, and overall video game celebrity, Gabe Newell has spoken about how the cost of the device was something that was critical to its development.
In a recent interview, the Valve head honcho said there was a need for the company to be "very aggressive" when it came to the pricing of the Steam Deck. Speaking to IGN, he said that while the priority for the device was for it to feel like it works perfectly out of the box, cost was also a critical aspect as well, adding that the price point was "secondary and painful". Valve's hardware director, Shreya Loi, said the price was something the company considered from the very start, knowing full well that it was going to be a hand-held system that would need to meet the needs of PC players, which they admitted was "hard to achieve" in terms of cost.
Arguably, what Gabe Newell, who spoke earlier this year about how more Valve games are in development, and his company are attempting with the Steam Deck is to create a portable device that's capable of playing Steam's library of games. Reports indicate that this is more than just a hand-held console similar to the Switch. It's being likened to a mobile PC which has the ability to play Steam games either on the device or through a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
The device runs on Valve's proprietary operating system, the Linux-based Steam OS which was unveiled in 2013. However, because Steam Deck is more like a PC than a console, it's apparently possible for users to wipe the OS off entirely and install something like Windows itself. This is arguably one of the main reasons it differs to other hand-held devices, because of it not being locked into pre-installed software.
Valve have attempted other means of breaking out of the software industry. Back in 2015, the company launched the Steam Controller, which sadly did not really gone down to well and has since been discontinued. In fact, Valve was ordered to pay $4 million in damages for patent infringements on the Steam Controller. However, the Steam Deck is shaping up to be a much better device, and could introduce a way for PC gamers to play their favorite games without being tied down to a bulky machine.
The Valve Steam Deck is due for release this December, in time for the holidays.
Source: IGN