Steam Deck

Valve's Steam Machine series of gaming computers using Linux-based SteamOS was introduced in 2015, which worked their way into the conception of the Steam Deck. Valve quietly pulled back on it by April 2018, but stated they remained committed to providing some type of open-hardware platform. Steam Deck designer Scott Dalton said "there was always kind of this classic chicken and egg problem with the Steam Machine", as it required the adoption of Linux by both players and game developers to reach a critical interest in the machines to draw manufacturers in making them. The lack of Linux game availability during the lifetime of Steam Machines led Valve to invest development into Proton, a Linux compatibility layer to allow Windows–based games to be run on Linux without modification.

Some of the early prototypes of Valve's Steam Controller, also released in 2015, included a small LCD screen within the middle of the controller which could be programmed as a second screen alongside the game that the user was playing. One idea from this prototype was to include the Steam Link, a device capable of streaming game content from a computer running Steam to a different monitor, here routing that output to the small LCD on the controller. This was later considered by Valve a very early concept behind the Steam Deck. Furthermore, their experience with trying to convince other manufacturers to produce Steam Machines led Valve to realize that it was better to develop all their hardware internally.

The initial reaction to the announcement of the Steam Deck was positive. Epic Games' Tim Sweeney and Xbox Game Studios' Phil Spencer complimented Valve on the Steam Deck, with Sweeney calling it an "amazing move by Valve!" Spencer congratulated Valve "on getting so many of us excited to be able to take our games with us wherever we decide to play".

Many outlets compared the unit to that of the Nintendo Switch, generally recognized as the first true hybrid video game console. Valve stated that they did not really consider the Switch in designing the Deck, as they "tried to make all the decisions really in Steam Deck that targeted that audience and that served the customers that were already having a good time interacting with the games that are on that platform, on our platform", and that by happenstance, came out with a device that was similar in function to the Switch. The Verge stated that the Steam Deck was generally a more powerful machine compared to the Switch but that power came with a tradeoff in battery life which was greater with the Switch. Furthermore, The Verge recognized that the specifications of the Deck were more comparable to the power of the consoles of the eighth generation like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, though using more recent compute/micro- and graphics architectures than that which powered those older systems.

The Steam Deck is credited with triggering a wave of similar handheld gaming computers. This includes the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, which both launched in 2023, and the MSI Claw A1M which launched in 2024. The ROG Xbox Ally, a collaboration between Asus and Microsoft based on Windows with support for Xbox Game Pass and storefronts like Steam, was announced in June 2025, drawing similar comparisons to the Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck has also influenced game development for personal computers. As to assure their games are marked as Steam Deck Verified, developers have optimized their game to work at the CPU and GPU processing power that the Deck provides as to support 60 fps at 1080p with support for frame generation, rather than aiming for higher resolutions and framerates, and generally allowing the game to work across a wider range of personal computers.