Tag: Steam Deck

You can order a Steam Deck without a reservation now

Eight months after the portable PC from Valve launched, you can finally buy one directly without having to wait

If you dreamed of buying a Steam Deck without placing a reservation, well, your dream just came true. Eight months after Valve launched its portable gaming PC, the Steam maker announced on Twitter that manufacturing has finally caught up to demand, and you can order a Steam Deck without placing a reservation and waiting up to several months for yours to arrive.

Valve’s website lists the 64GB and 256GB Steam Deck variants available for their usual prices – $399 and $529, respectively – with an estimated delivery period of one to two weeks. The 512GB version ($649) still seems to be in short supply, though, as Valve estimates these units won’t be available until sometime between the date you order and December.

Previously, orders placed as early as February or March took at least three or four months to fill on account of supply shortages, specifically superconductor shortages.

Valve also announced the long-awaited Steam Deck dock is available for purchase as well. The Deck dock lets you connect your Deck to pretty much anything you can imagine. It comes with ports for HDMI 2.0, ethernet, USB-C, and USB and doubles as a desk mount, along with being a connectivity station. 

The Steam Deck dock will set you back $89.99 and also takes one to two weeks to arrive.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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10 best Steam Deck verified games

Got a Steam Deck, or looking to buy one in the future? These are the best games you can play that are verified for Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck is changing the way people play games portably. Or at least the way people play games from the comfort of their toilet seat. Yes, we’ve had the Nintendo Switch for years now, but that console is starting to show signs of age, and people are looking for the next big thing. Thus, the Steam Deck. 

Right now there are over 2,000 games that have been given the “Great on Deck” badge, and that’s a long list of games to work through. Of course, many of these have been ported onto other systems, including mobile devices, so we’ve tried to narrow this list down to games you can’t easily play portably anywhere else or will play better here than on other handheld devices. 

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Remember, the Steam Deck is essentially a Windows PC, so pretty much any game has the potential to run as long as you make enough tweaks to the settings. If making those tweaks doesn’t sound fun to you, then consider sticking to the games in this list.

Destiny 2 Steam Deck players face bans, says Bungie

It’s bad news for fans of newly released portable games systems and MMO shooters.

It’s bad news for fans of newly released portable games systems and MMO shooters – Destiny 2 doesn’t work on Steam Deck. 

Developer Bungie released a statement making clear that the game is not supported on Valve’s new handheld gaming PC, which released on Feb. 25. 

Players who do launch the game through the Steam Deck’s native Steam OS will be abruptly returned to their games library shortly afterward. The same goes for any system using Valve’s Proton compatibility layer for Linux.

Anyone trying to bypass this compatibility check will be “met with a ban”, says Bungie. 

The develop itself doesn’t go into more detail about why this is, but if you’ll join us in speculation corner over here, some players think it’s about Destiny 2’s anti-cheat software.

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The game requires Windows-based systems to run on PC. Windows is a closed OS, and has a crypto layer that checks the system’s booted in a non-user modified, Secure Mode state. The same isn’t true of SteamOS, which uses Linux’s Proton layer to achieve compatibility with Steam games. 

So the prevailing theory is that Bungie is protecting Destiny 2’s security ecosystem by sticking with Windows-only support and keeping out the auto-aimers. 

It’s the first major compatibility issue we’ve seen with Steam Deck since release, but it does have wider implications for multiplayer titles where anti-cheat is a big priority. 

Written by Phil Iwaniuk on behalf of GLHF.

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Watch Gabe Newell deliver Steam Decks to unsuspecting fans

The president of Valve Software caught several diehard fans off-guard.

Those reports of Valve Software president Gabe Newell hand-delivering Steam Decks are true, and there’s even video proof!

Yes, it seems when Newell isn’t busy saying MMORPGs are better than the Metaverse or explaining that 50 percent of Bitcoin transactions on Steam were fraudulent, he’s off delivering parcels in Seattle. Well, just this once, anyway.

On Tuesday, Valve shared a Steam Deck promotional video where Newell delivers the device to early adopters. Most of them recognize him pretty quick, then subsequently freeze up. No big deal, though. We’ve all been star-struck at some point or another! 

Watch for Newell’s delivery service in action for yourself below.

The best part is when Newell hits it off with another Final Fantasy 14 fan, stating he’s leveling a White Mage. The poor man probably has no idea that job isn’t considered the best healer anymore.

Newell says in the video that delivering telegrams for Western Union was one of his first job ever, so this took him back some. Sadly, his services don’t appear to go beyond the Seattle area. 

Don’t miss Talking Tech — USA Today’s podcast bringing you the latest tech news, trends, reviews and insider interviews.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valve’s Gabe Newell is allegedly hand-delivering Steam Decks in Seattle

The president of Valve Software is apparently making deliveries to early adopters.

It’s not every day that billionaires personally deliver their company’s latest product by hand, but Valve president Gabe Newell is supposedly doing so with the Steam Deck.

Several folks on Reddit claim they’ve seen (or met) Newell while he’s delivering Steam Decks to early adopters in the Seattle area. User Bitfiddler0 claims Newell came to their front door complete with an entire camera crew. Outlandish as this all might sound, Valve is based in Seattle, so it’s not that hard to believe. Plus, photos rarely lie, and from what we can tell, that’s absolutely Newell in the pictures below. The beard gives it away!

Another Redditor named SeattleRainPidgeons shared a rather sweet (if true) encounter with Newell during the many Steam Deck deliveries. 

“Saw a camera crew going up to my neighbor’s house while I was loading stuff into my truck. My roommate recognized the guy being followed as Gabe Newell,” SeattleRainPidgeons said on Reddit. “After delivering my neighbor’s Deck, we yelled, ‘Hi Gabe!’. At which point he asked how many were living in the house, then he went back to his van and grabbed us each a Deck.”

Anyone particularly fond of PC gaming is likely wildly jealous of these encounters with Newell, much like I am of Steam Deck owners who can now play Elden Ring on the toilet.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Fortnite isn’t coming to the Steam Deck, according to Epic Games CEO

Not at launch, for sure.

The Steam Deck will  release pretty soon, but it’s probably not getting Fortnite. Not in the way of official support, that is. 

Fortnite  might not be  available on Steam, but since the Steam Deck is an open platform, developers are free to support it however they wish. On Sunday, one Fortnite  fan asked  Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney if the battle royale phenomenon would come to Valve’s device. In short: it’s not looking good.

“Fortnite no, but there’s a big effort underway to maximize Easy Anti-Cheat compatibility with Steam Deck,” Sweeny said  on Twitter. He goes on to state that the open nature of the Steam Deck would make combating cheating in Fortnite  very difficult due to its popularity.

Sweeny’s comments aren’t all that surprising, considering  The Epic Games Store  and Steam are rival platforms. However, he explains that the Steam Deck using Linux is the primary issue. Since the open-source nature of that operating system makes it a hacker’s paradise. The last thing Epic probably wants Fortnite garnering cheaters on Call of Duty: Warzone’s  scale. 

So yeah, there’ll probably be no official Fortnite port on the Steam Deck anytime soon. It’s a shame because who wouldn’t want to floss while holding that big handheld. At least you can  play Half-Life 2  on it.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valve updates Half-Life 2 with a slick new UI

Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman.

For the first time in many years, Half-Life 2  is getting a substantial update,

On Tuesday, well-known Source Engine aficionado  Gabe Follower  discovered a peculiar interface change to Half-Life 2, which almost certainly exists to make the  classic first-person shooter  easier to manage on the Steam Deck. It’s not every day that an 18-year-old game gets updates, after all.

Here is how you enable Half-Life 2’s  UI update on a desktop PC.

  1. Install Half-Life 2  (duh)
  2. Right-click Half-Life 2’s  icon on Steam and select “properties” 
  3. Go to the betas tab
  4. Select “beta updates” from the dropdown menu
  5. In the general tab, enter “-gamepadui” into the launch options field

Bang, you’re done! Half-life 2  should now open with a brand new UI which you can look at in action below.

Bang, you’re done! Half-life 2  should now open with a brand new UI which you can look at in action below.

Valve reportedly isn’t working on  another mainline Half-Life  game, so this update is all we will get for now. Still, it looks pretty intuitive and very console-like. 

Everyone assumes this sneaky update exists to make Half-Life 2  easier to play on the Steam Deck, which makes sense considering the device is  coming out very soon. It’s chuckle-worthy that Valve is tweaking such an old game in preparation for new hardware, especially since the company said there’ll be  no Steam Deck exclusives.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The Steam Deck launches on February 25

Valve’s handheld gaming PC is nearly here.

After an unfortunate delay late last year, we finally have a release date for the Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck launches on Feb. 25, 2022. In classic Valve fashion, there was no build-up or hints for this Wednesday announcement. Though when you own something as monstrously huge as Steam, there’s no marching to the beat of everyone else’s drum. 

Valve says it’ll reach out to everyone that made a Steam Deck reservation on Feb. 25, at which point they’ll give customers three days (72 hours) to complete the order. Failing to do so will result in Valve passing the offer onto the next person in the queue. So act fast if you want one!

[developing story]

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valve says the Steam Deck is still ‘on track’ for February 2022 release

Everything is On Deck, one might say.

Anyone worried that the Steam Deck might not make its release window of early next year can (hopefully) rest easy.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Valve designer Greg Coomer said that  another delay is unlikely  on Thursday, and the highly-anticipated portable gaming PC is likely still coming out in Feb. 2022. 

“We do feel like we’re on track for that,” Coomer said via PC Gamer. “We’re still bummed that we had to move from end of this year to beginning of next. But yeah, all the signs are pointing to us being able to ship in February.”

The Steak Deck is only one of several pieces of gaming hardware hit by the global semiconductor shortages. Nintendo had to slow the production of Switch consoles  for the same reason, as  did Sony with the PS5.

“It’s a real product launch, so many thousands of people right away are going to receive Decks as soon as we’re able to ship them,” Coomer said  via PC Gamer. “But even talking about thousands would be quite low compared to the volumes we’re shooting for in the first few months.”

Valve also recently stated that the Steam Deck  wouldn’t be getting any exclusive games, despite it being the company’s platform. Probably a good call not to alienate  millions upon millions of Steam users.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Here’s a look at the Steam Deck’s packaging

What’s in the box?

Valve revealed what the Steam Deck’s final packaging will look like for its launch.

While the highly-anticipated handheld gaming PC  isn’t due out until early next year, Valve chose to whet everyone’s appetite by showing off what sort of package the device will come in. It’s quite something, are you ready?

The Steam Deck is coming in a brown cardboard box.

Yes, it seems Valve is going the less-is-more route by sticking a few random logos on the box and calling it a day. There’s a cool Portal weighted companion cube reference on it, at least. Here’s to hoping  this box won’t set you on fire. 

Take a look at this dazzling box for yourself below. Try not to get too excited while doing so! At least the carrying case looks pretty handy, I suppose.

Despite the unfortunate Steam Deck delay due to supply chain issues, things have been going pretty well for Valve. Steam saw more than 27 million concurrent  users over Black Friday weekend, while  Half-life 3  is nowhere in sight! Wait, that last one isn’t good at all.

Don’t miss Talking Tech — USA Today’s podcast bringing you the latest tech news, trends, reviews and insider interviews.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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