Seven months after its initial announcement, Valve’s Steam Deck has finally shipped to consumers. Though users haven’t had their hands on the system for long, initial impressions are positive, with many customers hailing the device as potentially game-changing. Though the now unfortunately standard scalper problem limits availability, we wanted to investigate whether the Steam Deck could be worth a purchase in the coming months.
What is the Steam Deck?
In essence, the Steam Deck illustrates a new generation of handheld gaming devices. Rather than working with a closed architecture like the Nintendo Switch or DS line, the Steam Deck is a computer within a handheld system. While it’s certainly not small enough to be considered pocket-sized in any way, the device’s hardware easily makes it far more powerful than its traditional gaming contemporaries.
Why is the Steam Deck Special?
The elements which make the Steam Deck special are tied to its performance potential and its open firmware. With open firmware, the system is capable of free access to a wide range of opportunities difficult or impossible to achieve on other consoles. Playing videoslots casino titles, for example, have traditionally had problems on handhelds and consoles thanks to limited browser support. On the Steam Deck, titles like Starburst and Age of the Gods are easy to access and play at full speed without compromise.
The same level of accessibility applies to emulators. These are systems that mirror the functionality of other gaming devices, like the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Super Nintendo. Emulation is rarely possible outside of a brand’s platform on other gaming handhelds or consoles. With the Steam Deck, emulation gives players access to thousands of titles from the history of gaming, giving the device the largest library from any mainstream handheld.
In regular contemporary video games, Valve runs a service called Steam Verified to check what sort of usability a player could expect with its tested titles. Valve has tested hundreds of games from the last decade and a half, many of which perform far better than spectators expected. Control, a popular game from 2019, couldn’t run natively at all on Switch. On the Steam Deck, the game can hit the all-important 60FPS mark.
Even the recently released (and poorly optimized) Elden Ring managed to play on the Steam Deck. Already receiving updates to better performance, the gameplay experience on the handheld isn’t too far removed from the performance expected on last-gen consoles like the Xbox One and PS4. Though it won’t be hitting 60FPS soon, this still illustrates just how capable the humble machine can be.
Affording this performance and these capabilities are the hardware within the Steam Deck. For the best comparison here, we could turn to the Switch running in its more powerful docked mode. In this mode, the Switch boasts GPU performance of 500 gigaflops, while the Steam Deck reaches 1,600. For reference, the PS4 reaches 1,843, and the PS5 hits 10,280. While like for like comparisons along these lines are more complicated than just the numbers, these metrics still illustrate how much more powerful the Steam Deck is over other handhelds.
It’s still far too early to tell the effect that the Steam Deck could have on the greater gaming industry, but if Valve stays the path, the implications of the system could be immense. Handheld PC gaming has been an untapped marketplace for years, and if successful, the Steam Deck could blaze a path for many to follow. Whether you’re a player or a developer, Valve’s new system is worth keeping an eye on, at least if it doesn’t end up in the dreaded Valve graveyard.
