About a fortnight ago, Valve s CEO, Gabe Newell, took part in a Q&A in a high school in New Zealand. One of the answers that caught the attention of the games media concerned Valve and consoles. The particular query was about whether Steam would remain strictly a PC platform or whether it would be putting any games on consoles . A fair enough question from the school student, but surprisingly it caused Newell to pause for thought, and after umming and erring, he obviously picked his words very carefully to provide an answer. The answer was quite short but left one wanting something more substantial – You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year, teased Newell.
Image: Valve Software
Ars Technica reports Valve is developing a Nintendo Switch-like portable PC and, if the world’s volatile semiconductor supply chain cooperates, could launch it by year’s end.
The report follows the discovery on Tuesday of a change to the Steam client’s code that mentioned a new device called “SteamPal.” Pavel Djundiuk, the operator of SteamDB, first spotted the change earlier this morning, noting it was tied to a prototype controller code-named “Neptune.”
Valve s Neptune controller shows up in latest Steam client beta again.
It s named SteamPal (NeptuneName) and it has a SteamPal Games (GameList View NeptuneGames) Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) May 25, 2021
Over the last couple of years, Valve has been working on Steam Cloud Gaming, allowing users to connect their Steam libraries to services like GeForce Now. Valve’s cloud ambitions may not end there though, as evidence is pointing to a new handheld streaming device currently known as ‘SteamPal’.
SteamDB creator, Pavel Djundik, brought attention to this today. After some datamining, code strings were found referring to “SteamPal”, “SteamPal Games” and “Neptune”, which is the codename for a controller Valve is also working on. There were also references to a “NeptuneGamesCollection” and a separate string for “Device Optimized Games”.
What this appears to be alluding to is a handheld streaming device with its own dedicated controller, which would be used for streaming Steam games. Not all games on Steam support gamepads/controllers, so that is where the ‘device optimised’ list comes into play.
Report: Valve is secretly building a Switch-esque portable gaming PC msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Steam Link(Free) for iOS and Android has been updated regularly since it launched with new features like improved mouse and keyboard support, better controller functionality, and more. The last few updates on iOS and iPadOS brought in support for full keyboard and mouse gameplay, rumble on iOS 14 for Xbox One and the PS4 controllers, and more. Ever since iOS 14.5 added support for the PS5 DualSense and Xbox Series X|S Wireless Controller, I’ve been waiting to see how soon support for the new controllers is added into the remote play and streaming apps. Sony recently updated the