A new report seems to confirm the existence of a new portable game console – one meant for PC games – is coming from Valve, but details have only begun to emerge.
We reported earlier about the rumor and now it’s been corroborated by Ars Technica: Valve is truly making a portable PC gaming console. The console is codenamed “SteamPal” but that name is likely to change to something more… well, cool, before it’s unveiled to the public.
Rumors began to swirl around about the device when a Redditor spotted a change in Steam’s code that referenced the new codename – though, it’s apparently been under a different codename (“Neptune”) for the last two years.
Neither Ars Technica nor the Redditor explained what the console might look like, but did latch onto the idea that it’s going to be a portable console similar to the Nintendo Switch and other portable form-factor PCs that have appeared as prototypes at CES in years past.
As for the control scheme, it will apparently use a version of the Steam Controller’s touchpads, though that could change as it goes through the iteration process. There will also be a way to connect the hybrid PC to your monitor through a USB-C connection – but again, details are pretty thin around that right now.
The juiciest details are still shrouded in Steam… er, fog
At this point, no one can say for sure what type of hardware will be running inside the machine – whether it will have an AMD or Intel processor or how powerful its GPU might be – and at this point, no one can even say for sure what operating system it will run. Chances are good that it will run Valve’s open-source Linux platform, SteamOS, but Ars Technica doesn’t rule out the possibility of it running a full-fledged version of Windows.
As frustratingly obfuscated as this all is, it’s exactly the sort of thing Valve would do. It will iterate on a device for years internally and only debut it when it’s sure that the world is ready for it. Valve did that for the Steam Controller which, by the time journalists saw it, was nearly feature-complete and ready to ship, and the Valve Index that was kept well under wraps.
And yet, it’s hard to remove the idea from our head that it could be vaporware, despite Ars Technica’s strong research and sources.
The good news? We might not have to wonder about it very long – the sources who spoke to Ars’ Sam Machkovech say it could be available by the end of the year.
- Need something new to play? Check out our guide to the best PC games in 2021
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