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Gabe Newell says gamers have never had a great mobile hardware optionPresumably Valve are hoping Steam Deck is the answer
Presumably Valve are hoping Steam Deck is the answer
Valve announced their portable PC gaming machine earlier this month and the interviews and details about theSteam Deckhave been rolling in steadily since. Among them, courtesy ofanother IGN interview, are some of Steam Deck’s origins. President and co-founder Gabe Newell says that the Deck began as a “natural conversation” about how Valve would contribute to PC gaming in the future, and also dished some of the early names from the Deck drawing board.
Gabe Newell Talks Steam Deck’s Origin, Goals, and FutureWatch on YouTube
Gabe Newell Talks Steam Deck’s Origin, Goals, and Future
“A lot of times the conversations we’re having internally are about ‘What can we contribute? How are we adding something to the PC gaming community?’,” Newell explains. “So it wasn’t that strange a conversation. We’re always talking about mobile gaming platforms and the tradeoffs we feel exist for ourselves as game players and as game developers.”
Beyond that, Newell thinks that gamers have always been looking for a serious PC gaming handheld gaming contender. “I think a lot of gamers have always felt that there’s not a great mobile gaming hardware device out there for us to use,” Newell says, referencing touch controls as not great for FPS games and the “proprietary direction” of other handheld devices.
As for other early days of the Steam Deck, naturally other names were in the hat before Deck won out. “Steam Buddy,” Newell says, and also “Steam Pal,” as waspreviously rumored.
I dunno, maybe they should have called up Kojima and had a talk about the Steam BB, eh?
We’ve learned a lot of other things about the Steam Deck in the last few weeks. Valve say they’re takingno risks on stick driftwith the Deck and that it will support installing other game storesand game mods. Ubisoft, who’ve not been bringing new games to Steam in the last few years, say they’llconsider bringing games to the Steam Deckif it’s big.
Preorders for the portable PC have already opened up overon Steamfor the three different models.
