Valve have confirmed that it is updating the Half-Life series alongside Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to play better on the Steam Deck, with a focus on controls.
Valve’s powerful, portable PC is set to launch next year but the company behind it is already hard at work updating their games to run better on the handheld platform.
Designer Lawrence Yang confirmed in an interview with PC Gamer that Portal games already run nicely on the Steam Deck but Left 4 Dead 2 will need some work. “I think we do want to look at all of the Valve catalog to make sure things are good on Deck,” he confirmed.
Elsewhere designer Greg Coomer said that the Dota team “is doing something pretty innovative, at least within the context of Dota.”
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“Just this past week, they shipped a new mode that allows players to play the game well using thumbsticks,” he elaborated as Yang explained: “They call it experimental controller support because they’re still looking for feedback, but you can play a real game of Dota with the gamepad now.”
Coomer then added that the Half-Life series would also be updated.”Even if the core experience in Half-Life games is pretty polished with a controller, a lot of things around the experience tend to either get left out or not be brought to the same level of polish over time.”
Steam Deck’s unexpectedly successful pre-order period has led Valve to rethink some of its software-related strategies going forward, with the company apparently focused on the launch of the console instead of developing new games.
It follows the news that Steam Deck won’t have any exclusive titles at launch, while Valve is “optimistic” it’ll make their February release window. It has also gone on record to say that the Steam Deck isn’t being released to compete with the Nintendo Switch, despite their similar appearances.
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