Valve Shares New Steam Deck Details

Back in July, I rounded up all the officially confirmed knowledge I could find about Valve’s upcoming Steam Deck into an article. Even at that point, I had a sneaking suspicion that my work would soon be rendered obsolete because Valve would reveal new details about the device at some point, even if I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when they would do so. Well, it seems that I was proven correct, as there have been several announcements from Valve regarding the Steam Deck since my original article’s publication.

So, my goal for today is to build upon the foundation that my initial article set in place by going over everything new that we know about the Steam Deck. If you find yourself unfamiliar with anything I discuss beyond this point, I humbly suggest that you read over my original piece on this topic, which I’ve linked above. That should theoretically bring you up to speed. Now then, let’s get down to business, shall we?

The first point I wish to discuss today hearkens back to my original article because, in that piece, I reported that PC Gamer had confirmed that the Steam Deck’s internal storage is socketed in place rather than soldered directly to the device’s motherboard. The two more expensive models of the device feature an M.2 2230 solid-state drive as their primary storage mechanisms, which Valve is quick to assert are “not intended for end-user replacement.”

However, I suspect that many of our readers may already know exactly what I’m about to bring up. Valve recently posted a video to their YouTube channel in which they took a “do as we say, not as we do” approach to opening the Steam Deck and replacing and/or upgrading parts contained therein. In the context of that video, they demonstrated how to open the device, then went on to show how to access and replace both one of its thumbsticks and the internal storage solution.

Essentially, what I’m trying to say is that if this video is anything to go by, you can replace the Steam Deck’s SSD and possibly the least-expensive model’s eMMC storage as well, but I’m not presently sure about that. It’s just that Valve claims that they desperately don’t want you to do that, and they’ve taken rather drastic measures to get that point across. However, if you listen exceptionally carefully to some of the things said in the voice-over within that teardown video, you may make some exciting discoveries.

The quite prominent tech-focused YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips made an entire video in which two of their presenters listened exceedingly carefully to that same voice-over. I must say, their commentary on Valve’s video gave me both a sense of hope and some potential ideas for when I eventually get my hands on a Steam Deck. If you’d like to watch that Linus Tech Tips video for yourself so that you can try and pinpoint precisely what I’m talking about, you can watch it below.

The second point I wish to present for your consideration is that, as reported by PC Gamer just a few hours ago at the time of writing, Valve is apparently working around the clock to verify Steam’s entire catalog. Ultimately, they are trying to ensure that as many available titles will run on the Steam Deck at launch with as little necessary end-user configuration as humanly possible. To that end, Valve has unveiled a system they’re calling “Deck Verified.”

They’ve also made a video on that topic, which I’ve linked below if you’re curious. Within that video, Valve explains that “we’ve created a way to see, at a glance, how a game plays on this new device.” That is to say, Deck Verified features a four-category system with straightforward classifications. As stated in the report from PC Gamer, any game that falls into the “Verified” category essentially means it’ll work on a Steam Deck right out of the box without requiring you to configure anything to make it so.

On a related note, the “Playable” category signifies that you may have to tweak a few things to get a game to perform properly, but it should run relatively well once you’ve done that. The third category, “Unsupported,” should give you an abundantly clear idea as to which games either won’t work at all or won’t provide a sufficiently enjoyable experience on a Steam Deck. Lastly, the “Unknown” category just means Valve hasn’t yet gotten around to testing and verifying any games that fall under this banner.

PC Gamer goes on to explain that accessing a game’s Steam Store page will provide you with further details as to, for example, why a game is only considered “Playable” rather than fully “Verified.” That is to say, the Steam Store should theoretically tell you what you’ll have to tweak or configure to get any given “Playable” game to run properly. On that same token, if a game falls into the “Unsupported” category, its Steam Store page will tell you why that’s the case.

The Steam Deck version of the Steam Store will prioritize showing you games that are fully verified to run well on this device in its new “Great on Deck” section, though you can still access the entirety of the store from your Steam Deck if you’re so inclined. For now though, unless I’ve missed something, I think those are all the juicier details Valve has shared about the Steam Deck up to this point. I’ll probably see you again in a few months when more information is inevitably revealed and Steam Decks begin to ship out to their purchasers!