Valve revealed the Steam Deck in July. Quickly gaining traction with gamers, the company advertised the system as a portable gaming computer. Like many other new devices on the market, the Steam Deck sold out very quickly. One of the reasons behind the demand for the system was due to Valve’s claim that the handheld PC could access a user’s entire Steam library.
Recently, Valve announced that it had started testing its impressive library of games. The purpose of this testing is to see what games in the Steam collection are compatible with the soon-to-release Steam Deck. With over 50,000 games existing on Steam, this is no small job. In addition, new titles expand the library each day. To help Valve complete this enormous project, the company has started hiring more people to help check games in the Steam Library for Steam Deck compatibility.
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Unfortunately, Valve didn’t reveal how many testers it was hiring. However, given the enormous amount of games on the Steam platform, it’s a potentially sizable amount of people. In addition, the developer noted that it is prepared to hire even more people in the future if needed to support the project. Furthermore, it acknowledged that the process of reviewing every game in the Steam library is a massive undertaking and said that the job could take a considerable amount of time to complete.
According to Valve, these new jobs involve testing games and providing a rating based on performance. The different assignable ratings for a game include Verified, Playable, Unsupported, and Unknown. For a game to receive the Verified label on Steam Deck, it must meet several criteria. These requirements include: support the system’s controls, have readable text fonts, support the system’s default resolution (1280x800 or 1280x720), and have a default graphics configuration along with a playable frame rate.
In addition to reviewing existing games, the company plans to use these testers to check the compatibility of upcoming Steam releases with the Steam Deck. According to Valve, the process of having a new title verified for the system involves the game developer submitting the game for a compatibility review before release. While the time needed for testing depends to a certain extent on the “current size and complexity of the other titles in the queue,” Valve anticipates reviews take around one week to finish.
It will be interesting to see the reception of the Steam Deck once it gets in the hands of customers. Early signs look promising, with even Xbox’s Phil Spencer praising the design of the portable machine. Boasting dual thumbsticks, dual trackpads, a large screen, and many other features, it looks to provide a comfortable on-the-go gaming experience.
The Steam Deck releases this December.
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Source: PCGamesN