Valve Introduces Steam Dec Handheld Game Console With Windows Games Support

Valve has unveiled the Steam Deck handheld game console. This is the second attempt by the company to enter the gaming console market. In 2014-2015, manufacturers, together with Valve, released Steam Machines, which did not find success due to the use of the Linux distribution of SteamOS as an operating system, as a result of which most games developed for Windows were not available.

The Steam Deck runs on SteamOS 3.0, but has the ability to run Windows games using Proton, a fork of Wine. The distro is now based on Arch Linux and uses KDE Plasma as a shell. Previous versions were based on Debian and had a GNOME interface. Installation of other operating systems is supported.

“The Steam Deck runs your games on a non-desktop operating system. This is a new version of SteamOS that’s designed with the Steam Deck in mind, optimized for handheld gaming devices, and includes a Proton compatibility layer that lets your games, most likely, no porting required, ”says the Steam Deck website.

The device has an AMD processor based on Zen 2 architecture with a clock speed of 2.4-3.5 GHz, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels.

The console will be available in three versions:

  • With 64GB eMMC and $ 399 case.
  • Includes 256GB SSD, case and “Exclusive Steam Community Profile Pack” for $ 529.
  • With 512GB SSD, Exclusive Carrying Case, “Exclusive Steam Community Profile Kit”, Exclusive Virtual Keyboard Theme, “Premium Chemically Etched Anti-Reflective Glass” for $ 649

Shipping will begin in December 2021 in the US, Canada, EU and UK. Now the console can be added to the wishlist.

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