4 ways the Steam Deck changed PC gaming forever

When Valve launched the Steam Machines in 2015, it was hardly to any kind of acclaim. It was an interesting idea: creating a Linux-based PC to provide a console-like gaming experience. SteamOS was in its infancy here, and while the Steam Machines flopped, Valve wasn’t done with trying to bring their own platform to market.

The Steam Deck is Valve’s second stab at creating their own platform, but instead of targeting the home console market directly, they trailblazed an entirely new one: handheld PC gaming. They sold it at what Gabe Newell himself called a “painful” price, and gamers immediately saw it for what it was: revolutionary. Here are 4 ways the Steam Deck changed PC gaming forever.

4

Steam Deck made the future of Linux viable for gaming

A rising tide lifts all ships

Not that it was impossible before, the Steam Deck and the development of Proton have made gaming on Linux a much more realistic endeavor for the average user. Valve was one of the only large game developers to bake in native Linux support into their games, and with the popularity of the Deck, they’ve given other developers a reason to further work on compatibility. Windows-based games can work like a charm thanks to Proton, which is a compatibility layer. Now we’re still a ways away from being able to load up any given distro and begin gaming right away, but we’re much closer than we were before. Proton aside, the database of games that run well on a Linux-based system continues to grow every year, and while it’s still a ways off, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the norm rather than an exception.

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3

Steam Deck spawned many options for handheld gaming

There’s no shortage of ways to game on the go

It’s by no means the first modern gaming handheld, but the Steam Deck brought handheld PC gaming to the mainstream and did it with a bang. Overnight, it seemed, competitors were racing to grab whatever bits and pieces of market share were remaining after the Deck was released. The impressive hardware, competitive pricing, and continued iteration of the Deck make it not just a viable option for gaming natively on-device, but also as an emulation and cloud device. The Deck is the perfect emulation box because of its Linux foundation, and cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming work well in the handheld format.

2

Docking handhelds are powerful enough for day-to-day PC use

Performance is incredible for the form factor

I remember the days of owning a gaming laptop, and instead of having a dedicated GPU inside the system, you could purchase a GPU enclosure that you could use to give your gaming experience a boost. People have, and still do, use this kind of setup, but the Steam Deck made docked a great experience, not just a good idea on paper.

The “unlocked” nature of the Deck allows hobbyists to use it for whichever use cases they please, and the whole gaming community benefits as a result of that. The more tinkering and development that happens, the more innovation occurs. Docked gaming might not ever be able to go blow for blow with a dedicated tower, but the performance is impressive enough for day-to-day use.

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1

The Steam Deck forced developers to consider the handheld market

Controls, performance, and size all suddenly mattered more

If you build it, they will come, and boy did they. Steam Deck unlocked a huge market, and as a result, game developers were forced to consider the Deck when developing their own games. It may not have made sense before to take the extra time and effort to bake in support to even be able to launch the game on a Linux-based system, let alone optimize it for low-power hardware. Now, though, every game that feels like it should work on the Deck, does. There are notable exceptions, but they feel few and far between as more time goes on.

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Valve continues to innovate

Further iterations of the Deck with better hardware continue to push the envelope for the handheld market, and with it, the rest of the industry continues to play catch-up. There are other viable options out there, but Valve set the bar incredibly high, both with releases and the decisions they continue to make surrounding the Deck.