It's Rumored that Valve is Working on a Switch-Like Steam Console

While the PS5 and the Xbox Series X may be powerful and in-demand, the undisputed winner this console generation remains the Nintendo Switch: improved graphics and haptic feedback is nice, but any player serious about that can just get a good gaming PC and enjoy nearly every game they would have played on a console anyway. The Switch, however, is cheaper, runs Nintnedo games (which remain top of their class, by and large), and it’s portability and utility make it absolutely adored by both hardcore and casual fans.

So it’s little surprise to hear a report that Valve is looking to tap into that market with its own Switch competitor.

This comes to us from a leak by ARS Technica, who spoke to several Valve insiders who claimed that Valve is working on something called a “SteamPal” (not the final name), which would combine the convenience of the Switch with the robust library of a gaming PC.

At present, we don’t know a whole lot about this system: we know it would come with a controller, rather than a fully-functional keyboard, although you can probably plug a keyboard into it, not unlike the Xbox Series X/S. We know it’s going to run on Linux, but that’s not really much of a surprise, since Gabe Newell is one of the biggest evangelists for that particular operating system. And we know that it’s probably going to be announced — or even released — before the end of the year.

Everything beyond that is a big mystery.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Alienware announced a similar concept back in 2020, although it never manifested into a commercial product. This, however, would be sold to the public, although it doesn’t seem terribly unlikely that Nintendo’s lawyers might have a thing or two to say about that.

Either way, for now, take this all with as much salt as you’d fancy.