With Valve announcing its upcoming hand-held PC, the Steam Deck, people have seemingly been scrambling to find out as much about the device as they can. While it sounds like it has the potential to be something of a game changer, especially for PC users, there are some niggling doubts about its efficacy. For example, there are concerns that Valve's machine won't be able to support online games such as Dead by Daylight, due to the anti-cheat feature that comes packaged with such games. However, the company has since said that it has yet to find a single game that doesn't run.
Recently, Valve has talked more about the Steam Deck, insisting that the device is capable of running not only the entire back catalog of games, but titles that are coming out this year. Developer Pierre-Loup Griffais said that some games would struggle to play on early prototypes of the hardware, but since then he seems confident that the "entire Steam library" is now running as intended on the Deck.
While Griffais doesn't specifically address the concerns about online games being compatible, it's perhaps comforting to hear him speak with authority about how every game, particularly Steam games, should have no problem running. Valve also spoke about the spec of the device, reiterating that the hardware features a brand new AMD GPU and processor, as well as RAM which is speedier than originally thought, having quad-channel memory as opposed to dual-channel. Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat boasts that Valve might be the first company to use the LPDDR5 RAM.
Whatever goes on inside the machine, it's the games that people are going to be interested in. With word recently that the Steam Deck will fully support mods just like a PC, the company is arguably trying hard to move away from people comparing its hardware to that of the Nintendo Switch, which many have already drawn comparisons with. It's a tall order to put out a gaming system that is basically compatible with every Steam game, but hopefully Griffais' words will alleviate any doubts.
With the Deck coming out at the end of this year, other companies are beginning to take an interest, as well. Recently, Ubisoft said it would release games on the Steam Deck if it becomes big. While Valve has a solid reputation for being the biggest PC gaming platform in the world, it doesn't have a great track record when it comes to hardware, examples of which include the Steam Controller and the largely-forgotten Steam Link. With everyone paying close attention to this new device, it's something which is going to come under a lot of scrutiny, no matter how big it gets.
The Steam Deck is released this December.
Source: PC Gamer