Tech

Steam Deck’s future-proofed potential borne out by ray-tracing tests

Enlarge / Quake II RTX and other games that support ray tracing have finally been confirmed as working on Steam Deck, both at 30 and 60 fps refresh rates. But the fancy-looking option could be better—if Valve steps up to finish the job for its default SteamOS. (credit: Valve / Sam Machkovech) In the weeks […]

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Microsoft Edge’s new Linux beta supports cloud-streamed games on Steam Deck

Enlarge / Web-based cloud-streaming is now live and awesome on Steam Deck, courtesy of… Microsoft? Sure. We’ll take it. (credit: Aurich Lawson) The Steam Deck’s viability as an all-in-one portable gaming machine just became stronger, as it now formally supports a one-click option to get any web-based cloud gaming service working—including Stadia and Xbox Cloud […]

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How Valve made Steam Deck the first PC to smoothly run Elden Ring

Enlarge / Artistic representation of having Elden Ring running surprisingly smoothly on Steam Deck. (credit: Valve / From Software / Sam Machkovech) While Elden Ring‘s recent launch has been a massive critical and commercial success, it continues developer From Software’s streak of leaving players in a technical lurch. Even on the newest Xbox and PlayStation […]

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Watch Sam Machkovech go hands-on with Valve’s Steam Deck

Produced by Sean Dacanay. Click here for transcript. (video link) Valve’s portable Steam Deck has been released, and if you put in your preorder early enough, you might have one of the devices in your hot little hands this very minute. For the rest of us, though, we’re stuck waiting until inventory catches up to […]

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Valve confirms Steam Deck shipment, review dates: By the end of February

Enlarge / Starting on February 28, Steam Deck will finally leave Valve’s hands and (possibly) land in yours. (credit: Valve) After delaying Steam Deck’s launch to a vague “February 2022” window, Valve has returned to keep its promise. Today, the company confirmed the date its portable, gaming-centric PC will begin shipping to some preorder customers. […]

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Steam Deck will get the trippiest cloud-save functionality we’ve ever seen

Enlarge / Steam Deck’s head is in the clouds—and thanks to Dynamic Cloud Sync, that’s a good thing. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) As Valve’s first portable PC, the Steam Deck, approaches its estimated February launch, the back-end work to translate third-party PC games to a Switch-like form factor has ramped up considerably. While […]

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Valve shows off final packaging, carrying case for the Steam Deck

Valve’s Steam Deck hardware might have been recently delayed by a couple of months , but the portable PC gaming device is still barreling toward release. As evidence of this, Valve posted some quick pictures late Thursday evening of the final packaging that will hopefully be reaching preorder customers early next year.

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Valve provides a deep dive into Steam Deck’s custom hardware design

Valve’s full, hours-long, developer-focused presentation. Valve’s portable Steam Deck hardware may be delayed by a couple of months, but that didn’t stop Valve from discussing plenty of interesting details about the system during a wide-ranging developer-focused livestream Friday. That included a lot of nitty-gritty talk about hardware specs and software interpolation, but also design decisions […]

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Valve delays Steam Deck launch two months, to February 2022

Enlarge / Sorry to anyone who expected Steam Deck to launch by the end of 2021. (credit: Aurich Lawson vs DC Comics) Steam Deck, Valve’s first stab at a “Switch-like” portable PC, has officially been delayed outside its original December 2021 launch window. The company’s Wednesday announcement has confirmed that all existing orders have been […]

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Valve’s “Deck Verified” program evaluates which Steam games are Steam Deck-ready

Enlarge / Games that earn the “Deck Verified” checkmark will appear in the “Great on Deck” tab of the Steam Store. (credit: Valve Corporation) Valve says it has started the process of reviewing all of the tens of thousands of games in the Steam catalog for compatibility with the upcoming Steam Deck portable. The company […]