Valve's upcoming handled PC Steam Deck is a product that has the potential to push forward mobile gaming technology. With the likes of Xbox's Phil Spencer praising the device, it has got the gaming world talking, particularly with regard to the fact that it has the potential to play every game in a person's Steam library. As studios begin to look at making content compatible with the device, Valve recently announced that it has now started shipping development kits to partners.

In a post on the official Steam website, dev-kits are now heading out to those who need to test games on the upcoming Steam Deck. The post also says that dev-kits have been limited, but that they allow studios and partners to make sure their games are compatible with the handheld system. In another post on the Steam documentation page, it states that the development kits are essentially the same as the ones customers will be getting upon release, but will be slightly different cosmetically. However, it does say that this shouldn't have any impact on testing.

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Of course, the Deck is still in development, so partners are reminded that updates to the dev-kit will be a periodic thing and that people testing games should not share images of SteamOS, the Liniux-based operating system that the Deck uses. Outside of that, Valve says partners are free to share photos and videos of the dev-kit's hardware, so long as it's only related to that development team's specific games that are being tested.

Despite the comparisons between this and Nintendo's new Switch OLED which is due out at the end of this year, the Steam Deck seems to be something a little different in the handheld gaming world. It's essentially being built as a fully portable PC. Valve has even said that the Deck will support game mods, essentially just like a normal home computer can currently do. While it will come pre-installed with SteamOS, it's alleged that the device can be formatted and have a copy of Windows installed instead, again, similar to many people's PCs.

Although there have been some concerns that the Steam Deck may not work on every single game, it's still touted as an impressive piece of hardware. With it coming out in December, Valve are still hard at work bringing the device to the standard it's looking for. While Valve has had a reputation in the past for some doomed products, this could be the one that sets a new standard, especially for mobile gaming.

The Steam Deck is due out December 2021.

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Source: Steam, Steamworks