Would the company improve the product in ways that really mattered, or appeal to gamers' unquenchable thirst for hi-res graphics by offering a ridiculously overpowered version of the handheld? As it turns out, cooler heads prevailed. That's why when I got the call to visit Valve's headquarters to see a new Deck, I was a little concerned. And, with continuing software support and 300-some-odd patches, the Steam Deck has only gotten better with age. But the balance between the elements and the value it gave gamers was impressive. It didn't have the best graphics or brawniest processing, and it certainly wasn't the smallest gaming handheld. Valve smartly took a pragmatic approach to designing most aspects of the Deck. To build the Deck, the company’s engineers shoehorned laptop-grade PC components inside a handheld device with a 7-inch screen and, impressively, ran Windows-compatible games with a Microsoft-free, user-friendly operating system. After spending years tinkering with controllers, widgets that let you play PC games on your TV, and even virtual reality headsets, the Steam Deck was its first bona fide hit. Almost two years ago, game maker Valve shipped a noteworthy piece of hardware.
