Valve’s upcoming Steam Deck has been the talk of the town for a while now and has been turning many heads with its potential to provide PC-quality gaming in a handheld format. While having access to the massive Steam Games library in your hands is impressive enough, we now have some information suggesting that it could support one of the major names in game streaming: xCloud.
When Valve announced its newest handheld, the device was swamped with pre-orders as soon as the gates opened. While most people will have to wait for the official release before using it, a few major industry names were invited by Valve for a hands-on with the device. One of these names is Phil Spencer, Vice President of Microsoft’s gaming division.
Spencer even took to Twitter to briefly describe his time with the Steam Deck, which he has had for about a week now. He mentioned that Halo and Age of Empires play well on the device but, and this was a big surprise, he also said that “xCloud works well” on the handheld.
This is the latest info regarding an outside service functioning or being compatible on the Steam Deck. Considering it’s pretty much a Linux-based minicomputer, it should theoretically be able to install and run anything that can be used on a Linux-OS PC. It has previously been revealed that the Steam Deck should also be compatible with other storefronts, like Epic Games Store and Origin, along with working with standalone peripherals like the Oculus Quest VR headset.
Some gamers still have reservations with the Steam Deck, given Valve’s history with other discontinued or failed hardware, such as the Steam Link or Steam Machines, but this hasn’t dented the hype. All three versions of the Steam Deck, for now, have a pre-order ship window of “After Q2 2022,” which means anyone pre-ordering right now will likely have to wait over a year before getting their device.
Having xCloud on the Steam Deck is excellent news for gamers, Steam, and Microsoft. Those who are subscribed to the service will be able to seamlessly enjoy their titles on the PC, consoles, and Steam Deck through this integration. This should also prompt more people to join Xbox Game Pass. But, only time will tell if this all comes to pass, as it is all predicated on how well the Steam Deck performs in the real world.
About Valve Software
Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington. Valve is best known for the software distribution platform Steam, along with gaming franchises such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.
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