Valve's Steam Deck is a portable gaming computer that was released on February 25, 2022. The Steam Deck, like the Nintendo Switch, may be played as a portable or connected to a monitor. It's an x86-64-v3 device with built-in gaming inputs that can play the entire Steam catalog, including Windows PC games, thanks to the Proton compatibility layer, which is based on Linux. The system is an open platform that allows users to install other compatible games or operating systems such as Microsoft Windows on the device.

It's been a month since Gabe Newell personally hand-delivered the first Steam Decks, and Valve has commemorated the occasion with a blog post looking back on the previous month's events. To begin with, there are now 2,000 games that have received the official seal of approval as Deck Verified or Playable."It's been wonderful to see the range of games the community has been playing - new or old, big or tiny, every genre - it appears that players have had a tonne of fun on Deck," Valve adds. "We'll keep charging through the Steam catalog, and we can't wait to reveal the next huge milestone here," said the crew. Valve has included a feedback function for Deck Verified games, allowing Steam Deck users to agree or disagree with a rating.
On the topic of anti-cheat, which has prevented some games from being verified, Valve states, "BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat, the two most popular anti-cheat services now offer a streamlined approach for developers who want to enable support for Proton and Steam Deck. So far, Elden Ring and Apex Legends are two examples of games that have benefited from this effort."

There are upgrades to the on-screen keyboard and dual trackpad typing, as well as the fact that the game mode keyboard may now be used in desktop mode and the inclusion of keyboard themes to the Steam Deck's OS. Valve adds, "We've spent some work on Deck making the Steam Store more responsive and snappier." "Furthermore, we understand that navigating between libraries might be difficult if you have a large number of games, so we've made it easier by implementing quick scrolling. We've also included the option to construct dynamic collections based on tags and other game properties within your library." On the question of battery life, which is "always high on our agenda," Valve has added the ability to reduce the framerate to 15 frames per second. "This setting works wonderfully for visual novels, puzzles, and a number of simulation games," it adds, adding that "for those who like to dabble, we've made TDP (CPU power), GPU Clock control, and FSR (screen scaling) settings available to further optimize power."

Finally, Valve claims to have been working on Windows drivers with hardware partners such as AMD."The beta version of fTPM support is now available, and once it is released, Windows 11 can be installed. The final major component is Windows audio drivers, which we hope to have positive news about soon."