Valve's Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC

Source: Valve

Valve's long-rumoured Switch-like handheld device is now official. But the Steam Deck is more a handheld PC gaming device than a direct competitor to Nintendo's handheld console. 

It runs on an AMD APU with a quad-core Zen 2 CPU with eight threads and eight compute units' worth of AMD RDNA 2 graphics. It has 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and three storage tiers: 64GB eMMC storage (USD 399), 256GB NVMe SSD (USD 529), and 512GB high-speed NVMe SSD (USD 649). You can also expand storage with a microSD card.

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Valve to hold 'Steam Next Fest' in June

Valve has just rebranded the Steam Game Festival into the Steam Next Fest. It will take place from June 16 to June 22. You can expect tons of demos, discounts, and game streams from six-day event. The event will happen almost simultaneously as the all-digital E3 2021, which is happening from June 15 to 17.

Why the name change? Valve's announcement reads: "We've renamed the Steam Game Festival to more directly communicate its focus. Explore and play hundreds of game demos, watch developer livestreams, and chat with the teams about their games in progress, coming soon to Steam."

Source: Games Radar

Steam adds expanded Xbox controller support

A beta update for Steam offers gamers who use Xbox controllers additional features. Those who use the Xbox Elite controllers can use Valve's software to bind the controller's rear paddles in controller configurations, offering more flexibility when using extra inputs on the accessory.

Users can also bind the Series X gamepad's share button in controller configurations and use more than four Xbox controllers on the platform simultaneously. Games that use the Windows.Gaming.Input API also gets support for trigger rumble now.

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Steam will hold another 'Game Festival' to give indie titles exposure

Image: Steam

With conventions and gatherings like GDC and Indie Megabooth getting cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns, a lot of independent developers have lost a way to get their games showcased. Valve is hoping to help these developers out by hosting a spring edition of its Steam Game Festival. It offers indie developers a digital space to turn the spotlight on their games. Steam will feature over 40 games during the event starting March 18, Wednesday, and might last for 48 hours, like the last Game Festival held in December. Steam hasn't released the games and demos that will be available, but these will show up on the Steam store this Wednesday.

Source: Polygon