Valve has typically focused on video games, but the company has expressed interest in consoles in the past. This came in the form of Steam Machines which were essentially computers but had a greater emphasis on gaming. We haven’t really heard much on that front since, but a report from ArsTechnica has revealed Valve’s renewed interest.
According to the report, the company is apparently said to be working on a Nintendo Switch-like portable gaming PC. The publication’s sources have told them that Valve has been working on this device for some time now, and there is evidence to support this as recently, the latest version of Steam comes with code in it that points towards new hardware.
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)
— xPaw (@thexpaw) May 25, 2021
This was discovered by Pavel Djundik who spotted references to something called “SteamPal”. We can only assume that won’t be the actual name of the device, but according to the report, it will be a portable all-in-one PC with game controls and a touchscreen display, which if you think about it sounds a lot like the Nintendo Switch.
Valve’s co-founder Gabe Newell had actually hinted at the company’s plans earlier this month, where he teased that the company would have something new to announce later this year. It has been a while since we’ve seen new hardware from Valve, so it actually sounds rather exciting.
Filed in . Read more about Nintendo, Nintendo Switch and Valve. Source: arstechnica