We’re quickly approaching the discharge window for Valve’s Stream Deck. The primary orders for the handheld PC gaming machine are thanks to beginning shipping calls in December, but albeit we’re still a couple of months out, the Steam Deck isn’t some unknown quantity. Indeed, Valve has been relatively open about the Steam Deck and its capabilities thus far, even offering hands-on time with the device to a get few. Now it’s answering even more questions during a revamped FAQ it’s published for the Steam Deck.
Some of the questions included within the FAQ cover things we already knew, but the overwhelming majority of them are new. Therein FAQ, we’re told that users will be ready to have multiple Steam accounts on one Steam Deck, which is sensible considering the way Valve has described the handheld within the past. Valve also confirms therein FAQ that the UI on the Steam Deck will eventually replace the large Picture UI, though that change happens in phases.
One interesting tidbit of data revealed during this FAQ is the indisputable fact that the Steam Deck is often used as a controller. “Yes, you’ll connect your Steam Deck to a PC via Remote Play and use it as a controller,” Valve writes. Valve also notes that while the Steam Deck can technically be connected to a PC-based VR headset, we probably shouldn’t plan on doing that because the handheld isn’t optimized for VR. you’ll also boot games directly from an SD card, so no worries about wanting to have your games on internal storage before you play them.
Sadly, those of you hoping that connecting the Steam Deck to its dock would improve performance had those hopes shot down during this FAQ, with Valve saying that connecting to the dock is “more like plugging a USB-C dock into a PC.” Valve’s FAQ also confirms that Steam Deck doesn’t support external graphics cards, which while all models accompany an optically bonded IPS LCD glass screen, only the 512GB model comes with anti-glare etching.
You can read through the complete FAQ over on the Steam Deck website, and if you’re planning on picking one up later this year (or next year, given Valve’s availability estimates), you ought to probably do exactly that. the primary Steam Deck pre-orders should start shipping out later this year, with Valve saying that availability for brand spanking new orders is now “after Q2 2022.”
