New versions of the Steam Deck coming from Valve in the future

Valve has confirmed in a new booklet targeted towards introducing the company and Steam Deck to Asian markets that the device is the first of many handheld PCs it has planned.

The booklet – which focuses on the handheld, and the history and culture of Valve itself – was released last week (August 25), as the handheld is preparing to launch in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Towards the end of the booklet a few pages look towards the future of the Steam Deck, with Valve confirming that the handheld is the start of an entire “category” of handheld gaming PCs (via GamingOnLinux).

“Steam Deck represents the first in a new category of Steam handheld gaming PCs,” reads the booklet. “In the future, Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market. Like the original, and like all PCs, these future products will continue to provide access to the same Steam game catalog that gamers already know and love.”

Future versions of the handheld, and the current release, will also continue to evolve and change according to Valve. The work that’s been put into the handheld’s user interface will also soon be available in Big Picture mode.

Valve also called the Steam Deck a “multi-generational product line” that it will support well into the future.

“We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been.”

The Steam Deck is such a versatile piece of kit in fact that people have already figured out how to emulate 3DS titles onto it. The handheld itself acts as the bottom screen, whilst the TV mimics the top one.

In other news, Xbox head Phil Spencer has outlined how mobile gaming was a key incentive behind the pending Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard.