The Nintendo Switch has inspired many a portable gaming PC. And it looks like its influence has spread to Valve as well. New reports indicate that the company is making its own portable gaming PC that’s reminiscent of the handheld console hybrid.
Ars Technica reports that this Valve portable gaming PC is designed to run games on the Steam PC platform via Linux. It has been in development for some time too. And if the supply chain allows, the company intends to release the device by this year. Which is quite impressive considering that it is still in its prototype stage.
Valve's "Neptune" controller shows up in latest Steam client beta again.
It's named "SteamPal" (NeptuneName) and it has a "SteamPal Games" (GameList_View_NeptuneGames)
— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) May 25, 2021
The report indicates that this Valve portable gaming PC is quite like the Nintendo Switch. It has a touchscreen, and the ability to be docked to have its display projected to a larger screen via USB-C. The only exception seems to be the Joy-Con-style detachable controllers that the Nintendo handheld console hybrid has.
The existence of this Valve portable gaming PC was first discovered via code in Steam itself. Pavel Djundik, the person behind SteamDB, found code referring to one SteamPal. This was previously referred to as Neptune, which showed up as part of a “Neptune Optimised Games” string.
(Source: Ars Technica)
