Valve introduced the Steam Deck to the world in 2022 And it was an instant hit with countless Steam users, who jumped at the chance to take their games virtually anywhere. As we close out 2023, the Steam Deck remains one of the best portable gaming hardware devices you can buy, both in terms of hardware and software. There’s also a bit of an arms race underway in the PC gaming space that’s exciting to watch and one in which Valve doesn’t seem at all interested in falling behind with the launch of the Steam Deck OLED.
While other PC manufacturers have offered Windows-based alternatives with the ROG Ally and Legion Go, the deck has focused on providing a gaming experience with a customizable operating system and a dedicated user interface that makes launching and playing games a breeze – However, that is not the case. The content is said to be a Windows computer wrapped in a gamepad-like shell. Valve has continued to improve the software experience to deliver direct and reliable performance on modern titles, opening the door to decades of gaming via the near-endless Steam library.
With thousands of playable titles, Steam Deck thrived in 2023
According to ProtonDBThe Steam Deck now has over 13,000 playable and verified games. The verified status usually ensures that a game runs as painlessly as possible: download the game, start it, have fun. Meanwhile, the “Playable” status indicates that a game may have some inconveniences (e.g. a stubborn launch window, text that is slightly too small, or lack of support for dedicated gamepad buttons).
2023 increased the standards for Steam Deck Verified status
Remnant II: From Ashes was marked Verified when released in July 2023 for Steam Deck a hit with Steam usersthe community was I quickly point out that performance is poor on the handheld meant a worrying sign of trustworthiness with its Verified status. Luckily, Valve quickly fixed this a month later and marked it as “Unsupported.”
While Verified status usually means you’re going to have a lot of fun with a game on the deck, the community has made it even easier to get into the smallest details about what kind of performance you want from a particular title can from ProtonDB, a database of user experiences running games on Steam Deck and other Linux-based hardware. Here you can read about people’s experiences with a particular title and even get some tips on the best settings to optimize it. This is a great way to improve the experience not only for verified and playable titles, but also for games that are not technically supported.
Take Bethesda’s Starfield, For example. Although it’s listed as unsupported on the game’s storefront, many Steam Deck users have shared their experiences about what it takes to get the galactic-scale RPG running at least somewhat well.
You have to set your expectations accordingly and accept more than a few graphical compromises, but Starfield‘s ProtonDB page points out that many people are able to have a viable experience while fooling around in star systems. Your best experience with Starfieldof course, will be on a real gaming PC, but the fact that so many people play it on deck is a testament to both the resilience of the deck and the community’s openness and willingness to share personal experiences.
2012s Sleeping dogs is yet another example. Although it’s not officially supported on Steam Deck, many report that they were able to get it to work anyway, with it achieving “Silver” status on ProtonDB because it runs “with minor issues, but in general.” [being] playable.” Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is another example of an unsupported title that generally runs well with some tweaks.
And of course, if you only want to play big and current AAA titles, the Steam Deck is happy to offer excellent performance for big hits like Armored Core VI and won the “Game of the Year” award Baldur’s Gate 3as well as Resident Evil IV, Cyberpunk 2077, and more.
Steam Deck was updated in 2023, but it didn’t leave early adopters out in the cold
Perhaps the most exciting surprise for the Steam Deck this year was updating the OLED hardware. The deck generally had two weaknesses: battery life and the LCD screen.
Read more: Steam Deck OLED is a premium dose of personality
That changed with the introduction of the OLED model, which not only significantly improves the look of games on the device (and includes some stylish improvements to the form factor itself), but also brings a nice improvement in battery life.
If you’re still holding on to your old LCD models, you shouldn’t despair. As Ars Technica reported back in NovemberAdditional features like color temperature and vibrancy settings allow users to squeeze more eye-catching pixels out of the older screen.
It’s been two years since the acclaimed release of the Steam Deck. There are now thousands of playable games and possibly Millions of happy Steam Deck users Later, it clearly established itself as the hardware hit that Valve had been building towards since the introduction of the Steam Machines in the 2010s. In 2024 it will be interesting to see how the hardware keeps up increasingly demanding gamesbut as a staple of modern PC gaming, it’s hard to believe it will soon be forgotten.
