It’s been a busy month for Valve as the company has started shipping its long-awaited Steam Deck console to eager fans. In the month since launch, Valve has continued to develop the SteamOS platform and, in a recent blog post marking its one month since launch, has detailed its future plans for the Steam Deck. Fans still waiting to get their hands on Valve’s portable console or players currently in possession of the Deck should have lots to look forward to.

The Steam Deck was first revealed by Valve in July of 2021, promising to bring all the freedom and power of PC gaming to a handheld format. Initially, Valve aimed for a December 2021 release; however, the console was delayed by a couple of months, finally shipping the product at the end of February 2022. Fortunately, the delay has done the console well as Valve has continued to work on SteamOS and has smoothly shipped out the first order of the systems. Valve states that shipments for the Steam Deck are ramping up, and this week’s blog post detailing future plans brings positive news for fans of Valve’s Steam Deck.

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First up on Valve’s blog post is all about the console’s most significant focus, the games. The Deck is now celebrating over 2000 Steam Deck Verified or Playable games with promises of more to come as testing continues internally at Valve’s offices and with feedback from the Steam community. Additionally, support for anti-cheat services is expanding thanks to a more streamlined path for developers to implement BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat on SteamOS. These anti-cheat services are among the biggest in the PC gaming space and a significant hurdle in Valve’s Steam Deck verification process. Lastly, Valve is looking to further support Windows on the Steam Deck, with Windows 11 coming to the handheld soon. Support for fTPM for Windows 11 is in beta right now, and the company will share some “good news” about Windows audio drivers in the near future.

The Steam Deck still has some kinks and quirks to iron out before it fits Valve’s full vision for the portable console, though it appears that progress is coming along quite nicely. Since launch, the console has also made significant improvements in the Steam Store user experience, power management, and keyboard interface. However, not everything has been perfect for the console. Windows on Steam Deck appears to be more of a hassle than an exciting feature, but even then, Valve is still taking steps to fix and support a feature that so far has not been very popular with fans. Valve states that the future of the Steam Deck and improvement of the platform relies on user feedback, something that has been a cornerstone of the system's success.

In its short time since launch, the Steam Deck has been turning some heads in the gaming world. The collaborative efforts made by Valve and its community to verify the playability of Steam’s behemoth games library has been unlike anything seen before. Now developers are beginning to join the mix and tailoring their games to fit the Deck better. In a recent update, CD Projekt Red even shipped out Steam Deck optimized settings for Cyberpunk 2077, potentially setting the trend for upcoming PC game settings. There is still a way to go for the Steam Deck, but its future is looking bright.

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Source: Steam