Valve Says Steam Deck Exclusive Games Don’t Make Sense

The Steam Deck may count as a handheld gaming machine, but don’t expect it to have any exclusive games.

As IGN reports, Valve has confirmed there are no plans to publish games exclusively for the Steam Deck platform, in fact, it thinks the idea makes no sense. In the official Steam Deck FAQ, the question “Would Valve be interested in having any Steam Deck exclusive titles?” is answered succinctly with, “No, that doesn’t make much sense to us. It’s a PC and it should just play games like a PC.”

It’s an answer many PC gamers will read with relief, especially considering the recent news that Valve is working on a Half-Life game to show what the Steam Deck can do. Whatever that game ends up being, this FAQ question has confirmed it will also be playable on any PC capable of running Steam.

Earlier this month, Valve delayed the Steam Deck launch by two months due to component shortages. Pending any further delay, pre-orders should now start shipping out in February. Anyone attempting to pre-order the handheld now won’t get one until “after Q2 2022” according to the Steam Store.