Valve Is Paying People To Test Out The Steam Deck And 50,000 Games
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Featured Image Credit: Steam
As we know, Steam is currently working on the Steam Deck - a portable handheld PC. Nintendo has dominated the handheld scene for a while now, but Steam's upcoming rival has the advantage of a library of 50,000 games on the platform - though some of them may not be all that suitable for handheld situations. And that's where Steam's new employees come in - testing the contraption to see which games will work and which will not.
As reported by Rock Paper Shotgun (via PCGamesN), Valve is hiring people to test every one of the 50,000 games in its library to see if they translate well to the Steam Deck. Valve is having to go game-by-game to make sure it can verify and recommend the right titles on the handheld, and that means a lot of people are testing these games out one by one.
Here's how the Steam Deck's verified system will look...
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In an interview with RPS, Steam Deck designers Greg Coomer and Lawrence Yang answered some questions about the verification process games are having to undertake to earn a nice big green tick next to the game's name. The developers say: "We've hired an additional group of testers specifically for Steam Deck compatibility, and will continue to hire additional staff to support this group. It will take time to review the Steam catalog (in addition to the new titles that are being launched all the time), and we see some version of this process being in place for the foreseeable future."
However, this doesn't mean unverified content will be banned from the Steam Deck. They continue: "We want customers to be informed, but fundamentally the Deck is a gaming PC, and Valve doesn't want to be in the position of telling customers they're not allowed to do things on their own device. So yes, they will be able to purchase, install, and launch games that are categorized in the compatibility review as "Unknown", and we will make sure they're aware of the game's status before doing so.
But in reality, there are just some games that are going to be inaccessible on the Steam Deck. Coomer and Yang use Half-Life: Alyx as their own example, and as a VR game, it makes far more sense for the game to be on a desktop PC rather than trying to make it work on a Steam Deck. Additionally, games that may focus on typing, for example, aren't going to be a good fit. But when the Steam Deck is out, although it'll be able to advise what you do and do not play, it'll be down to you to make the final decision on what you want to do with it.
Topics: Valve
