Valve has announced the Valve style, its latest attempt to stand alone Steam compatible devices: Steam Deck, which seems to be directly similar to Nintendo Switch. It is a portable gaming device with a docking station that can be directly connected to the player’s Steam library. There are several different models of the device, all of which come with customized AMD accelerated processing units, based on Zen 2 and RDNA. Its 7-inch LCD touch screen displays 1280 x 800 resolution (16:10 aspect ratio) and 60 Hz refresh rate and claims to use a 40 Wh battery to provide 2-8 hours of battery life. The $399 model includes 64GB of internal eMMC storage, the $529 model includes 256GB of internal NVMe SSD storage, and the $649 model includes 512GB of internal NVMe SSD storage and anti-glare etched glass.
The deck includes a dock that allows users to connect Steam Deck to a TV or monitor, such as Nintendo Switch, but unlike Switch, it will be sold separately from the basic equipment. In IGN’s extensive practice, Valve confirmed that users will be able to simply use any third-party USB-C adapter to connect displays and peripheral devices, such as PCs. Steam Deck runs on a customized version of Linux based on SteamOS, although Valve emphasizes in practice that Steam Deck is essentially a PC that can run any operating system and users can install any store. If you can do it on a PC, you can also do it on the Steam platform.
The physical device has a controller design similar to that of the Nintendo Switch, but the buttons are slightly smaller and higher, and two touchpads are located under the joystick. The developer section on the Steam Deck website seems a bit concise at the moment, and it currently says that no migration is needed to prepare games for Steam Deck. Details on how to upgrade your game to run on the Steam platform can obviously be found on Steamworks. Valve is obviously very keen that the dealer is not the first to come into contact with this device. Their reservation system does not allow Steam users to book devices unless they make a purchase within the first 48-hour window before June 2021. Steam Deck will start shipping in December 2021.
