SteamPal – Valve’s New Take on Handheld PCs in 2021?
“Will Steam be porting any games on consoles, or will it just stay on PC?” Gabe Newell was asked this question a few weeks ago by a student at a college in New Zealand.
“You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year… and it won’t be the answer you expect,” Newell responded. “You’ll say, ‘Ah-ha! Now I get what he was talking about.'”
Naturally, the Internet seemed to explode with YouTubers and the like theorizing what Gabe’s vague reply might mean. Gardiner Bryant suggested that Valve could be working on a game console. Other websites had a similar thought.
Well, that theory could very well be true — albeit in a portable form factor. Ars Technica reported about this earlier. Pavel Djundik, SteamDB operator, tweeted of Valve’s “Neptune” controller showing up in the latest beta Steam client. “SteamPal” became the new name for this controller/handheld.
Apparently, SteamPal (name may not be final) will come in a Nintendo Switch-style format — a touchscreen, USB-C connectivity, and buttons on both sides, with triggers, analog sticks, and perhaps a touchpad that looks similar to the touchpad found on the Steam controller. There’s talks about it being dockable to also connect to a larger screen.
