These days, gamers have a lot of potential options available when purchasing a new game system. From the next-gen consoles of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 to the new Switch OLED, video game companies continue to offer new products for their customers to buy. In this competitive market, these companies often seem to be rivals. However, this isn't always the case. Recently, the head of Xbox Phil Spencer shared some kind words for Valve's new gaming machine known as the Steam Deck.
In a post on Twitter, Phil Spencer revealed that he had visited the developers at Valve and had received a Steam Deck to try for himself. After playing games on the device for a week, the head of Xbox had only good things to say about the portable PC. He praised the Steam Deck's screen size and the feel of the controls. Apparently, games such as Halo and Age of Empires run well on the system as Spencer tested them on the device. Another interesting comment from Spencer was that it seems that Xbox's cloud-based gaming service known as xCloud runs on the machine, as well.
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Valve's new gaming machine is projected to release at the end of this year. While the Steam Deck might look like a Nintendo Switch, the system is more comparable to a portable PC. Boasting hardware considerably faster than that found on the Switch such as a quad-core Zen 2 CPU and a GPU containing 8 RDNA 2 compute units, Valve claims the device can run the most popular games on the market. In addition, the device contains various upgradable storage options that include SSDs for fast load times in games.
Phil Spencer's praise for the Steam Deck isn't the first time he has applauded the quality of his competitors' products. An avid video game enthusiast, Spencer owns other consoles such as the Switch. Furthermore, despite Xbox being considered one of Sony's chief rivals, he has played the PS5, as well. He even went as far as to acknowledge the impressive innovations of Sony's newest controller the DualSense, saying that future Xbox controllers might look at their rival's design for inspiration.
While demand has been high for the Steam Deck, the amount of supply available to meet that demand remains uncertain. If the availability of next-gen consoles and high-end GPUs for gaming are anything to go by, it seems possible that scarcity could be an issue for the upcoming device as well. It will be interesting to see how things develop as Valve approaches the release of the system later this year.
The Steam Deck is due out this December.
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