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Valve’s Steam Deck handheld has been the biggest hardware success for the gaming company. Following the underperforming Steam Controller, and failure of Steam Machines, the handheld gaming platform has been a momentous release for the Half-Life company.
As more AAA games specifically target the handheld, including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Valve is doubling down on hardware. While it will still be a while until a Steam Deck 2, and the company doesn’t want to release constant revisions, the company believes the “future of hardware” is bright.
Steam Deck success changes Valve’s future
After a long history of underperforming projects, Valve celebrated the years-long success of the Steam Deck platform and its SteamOS software.
In a recent blog post, the studio explained that 2024 saw a 64% rise in player time on the handheld over the previous year, a number that’s still rising despite some major AAA titles being “too big for Steam Deck”.
“The future of hardware at Valve is bright,” the company explained. “Steam Deck, SteamOS and SteamVR are delivering tons of value to players and devs, built on top of a decade of investments into UI, linux compatibility, input support, custom silicon, motion tracking, displays, battery efficiency, and more.”
Valve explained that “every developer making PC games benefits from these investments”, especially as they allow players to “enjoy their PC games in so many new contexts”.
“Hardware teams at Valve are delighted to see Steam in the living room, the airport, the backyard, and wherever else customers want to bring their library of PC games,” the post reads.
The success of Steam Deck has also caused a major shift in PC gaming hardware. Companies like ASUS, Lenovo and more are releasing their own handhelds with future products adopting SteamOS instead of Windows due to the phenomenal support of Valve’s Proton translation layer.
Even Xbox is reportedly working on a handheld gaming device in response to the fantastic success of the Steam Deck. While not much is known about the alleged handheld, it’s clear that Valve’s success is overhauling the market towards portable gaming.
As for us, Valve’s handheld is an amazing piece of kit, especially in its OLED form. Being able to play thousands of PC games across decades of the medium alongside emulation of other devices on the go has changed almost everyone’s gaming tastes. While the handheld isn’t perfect and can’t run everything (although that’s why we use cloud gaming for very specific titles), it’s still a wonderful piece of kit.
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