It's an exciting time to be a PC gamer right now, what with Valve having recently released its mobile gaming machine, the Steam Deck, and it, subsequently, meeting a lot of expectations. Currently, there are more than 1,200 games compatible with the Deck, at the time of writing, and that number is only expected to go up as the weeks and months tick by. On top of that, it looks as though one of the most beloved open world RPGs in recent gaming history has also now been verified for it.
According to a recent post from the game's official Twitter profile, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red's most popular game to date, is now fully playable on the Steam Deck. Those who already own a copy of the game on their Steam account can now boot it up on the device as they would on a regular PC. The fact that the game has been "verified" rather than being labeled as "playable" means that it should run as expected, with no bugs.
Given that The Witcher 3 is considered one of the best and most immersive open world games of this generation and the last, it's hardly surprising that work has been underway to make it function on Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is, for those who aren't aware, essentially a mobile PC which allows gamers to play their Steam library while on the move. While around 1,200 titles are now compatible, either fully verified or playable, it's still a way off the storefront's 50,000 total games in its database. Of course, many of them will be obscure releases, and it's obvious, based on this development, that popular games want to be the first to be onboard.
So far, Valve's device has proven rather popular, with the Steam Deck set to be released in more countries later on in the year.
While it does come with Valve's own operating system pre-installed, the company has made it clear that the Steam Deck is capable of having Windows 10 installed on it, given that it is supposed to be a transportable device that functions like a regular PC. As exciting as it is, this could be just the beginning, and future products, either through Valve or other companies, could usher in a new era for mobile gaming. Gabe Newell himself has said that the Steam Deck represents a "stepping stone."