With another year behind us, Valve has shared its Steam Annual Summary for 2023 which naturally includes a section on all the Steam Deck goings on. In addition to celebrating its own successes, the company has also taken the opportunity to give the likes of the ROG Ally and other handheld rivals their flowers.
While the Steam Deck OLED remains the best handheld gaming PC on the market right now, Valve is right to recognise the efforts of its rivals. However, it’s also true to say that the company is well-positioned to do so, given how unstoppable the Steam Deck appears to be despite the cavalcade of competitors that continue to emerge.
In the Steam Deck section of its blog post, Valve takes a moment to celebrate the launch of the Steam Deck OLED but then takes a wider look at the handheld space. “We’re not the only ones who introduced amazing hardware last year,” the company says, before proceeding to praise the likes of the ROG Ally and more.
From Valve’s perspective, competition can only be a good thing for the space. More specifically, the company states, “all these choices provide users with a bunch of options and price points for portable PC gaming, and reward the investments game devs are making to support better gamepad input and smaller screen sizes.”
It truly is marvellous to see how much of an impact the Steam Deck has had in just under two years. The device has not only served as a powerful catalyst to the handheld market, but it also continues to shift how many (myself included) approach PC gaming and games themselves.
Without it, I likely would never have played some newfound favorites which now rank among the best Steam Deck games and PC games period for me. There are countless examples of stories like mine, some just as mundane and others altogether more extraordinary.
Like Valve, I too “hope to see even more of these handheld PCs in 2024.” While I don’t believe we’ll see the Steam Deck 2 emerge until next year at the earliest, my excitement for it certainly does make it difficult to be patient. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of steam left in my Steam Deck.
Check out our best Steam Deck accessories guide to level up your setup, be it with docks, skins, and other knickknacks. If you’re after a handheld with a bit more power, though, give our Lenovo Legion Go review a read.