Following the controlled launch of their new handheld gaming computer the Steam Deck, Valve have been talking to any and everyone about the device.

It is a fascinating development in gaming technology but during their various interviews they've also touched on other topics of interest.

Game Development

Valve's Greg Coomer dropped a juicy one during an interview with Axios.

There are multiple games in development right now at Valve, and I think they're pretty exciting ones.

He provided no further details but in their absence we're going to speculate.

Wildly.

It's the only respectable way to do it.

A few months ago on a very slow news day, multiple gaming sites ran articles on a tweet which pointed to an online archive of concept art for a space pirate game called Stars of Blood.

We spent some time looking through all of the images and were impressed by the unique art style and designs.

Also saddened.

Because cancelled.

But it was cancelled in 2012 and over the past decade sci-fi has become much more popular and mainstream.

Maybe Valve measured excitement for roleplaying game heavyweight Bethesda's Starfield (scheduled to launch this November) and decided that their title was worth a second look.

We can hope.

Cryptocurrencies and Non Fungible Tokens

You might recall that late last year Valve banned cryptos and NFTs from Steam.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Valve president Gabe Newell shed a bit of light on that decision.

The problem is that a lot of the actors who are in that space are not people you want interacting with your customers. We had problems when we started accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option. 50% of those transactions were fraudulent, which is a mind-boggling number. These were customers we didn't want to have.

That is a lot of fraud.

Bitcoin's wild fluctuations were also problematic. A game's effective cost could increase drastically overnight.

Bottom line - he's not fundamentally anti cryptos and NFTs but in their current state there's too much capacity for Steam customers to be ripped off and they don't want that.

Destiny 2 and Fortnite

When the Steam Deck launched, Destiny 2 developer Bungie updated their Steam Guide to prohibit playing their game on it.

Destiny 2 is not supported for play on the Steam Deck or on any system utilizing Steam Play's Proton unless Windows is installed and running.  Players who attempt to launch Destiny 2 on the Steam Deck through SteamOS or Proton will be unable to enter the game and will be returned to their game library after a short time.

Players who are not accessing Destiny 2 through Windows and attempt to bypass the SteamOS/Proton incompatibility will be met with a game ban.

Minus Windows - for which compatability is coming but not there yet - there's apparently potential for players to cheat and that's a problem for online games.

Especially ones with competitive elements.

On the other hand, recently released Elden Ring (pictured above) which works on the Deck includes competitve multiplayer and seemingly their anti-cheat measures function.

According to The Verge Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat is compatible with Linux and Proton, which are what the Deck runs on, so this shouldn't be an issue.

Maybe the issue is something else?

The Steam Deck might be serious competition for consoles and Playstation owners Sony recently announced plans to buy Bungie.

Speaking of competition, Epic Games who are going all out trying to topple Steam's monopoly as a digital gaming storefront, made their fortune with online game Fortnite.

Which they won't update to work on the Steam Deck.

Like Bungie they cite cheating concerns.

[ Main Image: Steam Deck trailer. Credit: Valve via YouTube. ]

References

Bailey, Dustin (February 25, 2022). Elden Ring (and most of the Souls series) is Steam Deck Verified. PCGamesN.

Byford, Sam (February 8, 2022). Epic won’t update Fortnite to run on the Steam Deck. The Verge.

Fenlon, Wes (February 26, 2022). '50% of transactions were fraudulent' when Steam accepted Bitcoin for payments, says Gabe Newell. PC Gamer.

MacGregor, Jodie (November 1, 2022). See the art from Valve's canceled space pirate game that's going round the internet. PC Gamer.

Totilo, Stephen (March 2, 2022). Interview: Valve on the making of Steam Deck. Axios.

Valve Archive. Stars of Blood. (viewed March 6, 2022)

Wikipedia. List of Valve Games. (viewed March 6, 2022)