Deck

Deck Nine, the developer behind Life is Strange: True Colors, has announced it has laid off 20% of its staff amid «worsening marketing conditions.» The Life is Strange: True Colors developer isn't alone, with many other studios making huge cutbacks at this moment in time.

Deck Nine, currently responsible for heading up the Life is Strange series having handled spin-off True Colours and remasters of the first two games, have been accused of fostering a toxic workplace home to sexism, mismanagement, crunch and abusive treatment of staff left to linger by the studio’s higher-ups.

A new investigation into developer Deck Nine — best known as the current steward of Life is Strange, a series celebrated for its diversity and inclusivity — has painted a picture of a studio where toxicity, hate speech, harassment, crunch, bullying, and abusive leadership has been able to fester as a result inaction from senior management.

As if the gaming industry wasn’t going through enough already, one of the studios behind the beloved Life Is Strange series, Deck Nine Games, issued today’s latest round of layoffs. The studio’s announcement was issued on the heels of others today, like PlayStation, and yesterday with developer Supermassive.

Deck Nine Games, the studio behind Life is Strange: True Colours and last year's The Expanse: A Telltale Series, has announced it's laying off approximately 20 percent of its total workforce, blaming «the game industry's worsening market conditions».

The Steam Deck is a very emulator-friendly system, and with a few tips and tricks, you can learn how to run emulators on the Steam Deck in just a few minutes. When Valve designed the Steam Deck, it knew that players would be interested in emulation to recreate their favorite gaming systems of years gone by to enjoy some timeless classics. That’s why the Steam Deck allows you to pick and run an emulator right out of the box.

When the end of the world comes (and it will), I like to imagine that in the midst of all the rubble and chaos, people will still be playing Skyrim. There doesn’t seem to be any way that people won’t tinker with the game and in this instance, we get to see dead technology being revived in order to play TES5.

Much like a run-of-the-mill gaming PC, Valve’s Steam Deck handheld is a highly customizable piece of kit, allowing users with the technical know-how to tweak its settings, hardware, and software, including creating unique custom intro startup videos. Billed as a platform for avid PC gamers to carry their Steam libraries with them wherever they go, the Steam Deck is a marked change from other closed console platforms.

The MSI Claw release date has finally been revealed, as a new UK pre-order page says it’ll arrive on March 20. While we’re still waiting for reservation pages to pop up for the US and other countries, now’s your chance to order the Steam Deck rival if you happen to be living in the United Kingdom.

No matter how good a console might be, your experience with it can always be enhanced via accessories. Even if that console is the 130 million-unit-selling Nintendo Switch. CRKD released one of the best Switch accessories to date last year, the Nitro Deck. Available in an array of colors and a handheld accessory that doubles as a pro controller. That accessory has now been improved upon via the Nitro Deck+, and you can pre-order the latest offering from CRKD right now.

If you head over to eBay and use the promo code LEAP20 you can currently bag yourself a Steam Deck (256GB model) for £314.95 from verified seller The Game Collection Outlet (we've recommended them many times). This is a significant saving compared to the current RRP of £349 -- with the notable improvement that the model is actually in stock from TGC versus being unavailable directly from Steam.

Gaming peripheral manufacturer CRKD has announced the Nitro Deck+, an upgraded version of the already excellent Nitro Deck, that introduces a range of new features and some ergonomic improvements.

A gamer managed to turn their Steam Deck into a dual-screen system that borrows ideas from the Nintendo DS. Players enjoy having the ability to take their video games on the go with them, which has led to the creation of a number of different handheld consoles, including the highly successful Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck.

Until the sterling evaluations of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth dropped earlier today, the best-reviewed game of 2024 was Balatro - a deck-building poker roguelike that seemed to take over Steam Next Fest.

Aspyr Media has announced Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection.

We may not be getting a Fallout: New Vegas 2 any time soon, but Obsidian fans still have reason to rejoice! Magic: The Gathering's next video game crossover will be a set of four Fallout-themed preconstructed decks for its most popular format, Commander – and today we've got the full reveal of the "Hail, Caesar" deck.

With a dog by your side and an empty soda bottle in hand, prepare to survive Magic: The Gathering’sforay into Fallout’s alt-history radioactive wasteland with help from brand-new armor, auras, and other junk.

A new WoW book has appeared on Amazon. World of Warcraft: The Official Tarot Deck and Guidebook is set to release on November 5th and is now available for pre-order.

Did you buy a used or refurbished Steam Deck and want to check its battery health? Perhaps you've had your Deck for a while and want to see how the battery is holding up. Let's take a look at how to check your Deck’s battery health, and a couple more battery-related tips to keep things in good condition.

If you want your Realm-traveling survival game for your own travels, you’re a little lucky. In a post about pre-launch updates for Nightingale, the “gaslamp fantasy” survival game releasing its Early Access on February 20th, the developers at Inflexion Games answered a common question for many Steam users: Will this play on the Steam Deck? The answer is yes and no. 

Want to make starting your Steam Deck a little more exciting? The Steam Deck has supported custom boot animations for a while now – that means that your startup screen can show a brief customized video as you log into the platform. There are many possibilities for these intros, from custom videos that Steam releases as promotions to animations from talented online designers covering a broad number of subjects.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering the powerful and high capacity Anker PowerCore 737 24,000mAh USB Power Bank for only $90, a massive 40% price drop from its original $150 MSRP. This power bank dropped to $110 on Black Friday, but it's even less expensive right now. This is close to the highest capacity power bank you're allowed to bring on airplane carry-on, and it also boasts an absolutely massive 140W of USB power delivery. It's one of the best Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally chargers.

It seems as though, since releasing at the tail end of last week, Helldivers 2 has become the new flavor of the month (Palworld, who?). Evidently, Arrowhead Studios’ new third-person shooter must be doing something right, judging by where it is on the Steam charts.

Disney Lorcanaseems to have made it through a painful teething period. Now that cards are finally flowing into players’ hands in quantities large enough to turn away speculators, the fun can really begin. The next set, Into the Inklands, drops on Feb. 23 at local retailers, and Polygon had an early look at its two new starter decks. If you can only pick up one of these $16.99 decks, the choice is clear: Drop a lucky dime on Scrooge McDuck and friends.

Despite the release of the series of expansions, ’s best deck continues to be one composed primarily of old cards from previous expansion packs. Since early 2023, the trading card game initiated a new series to reflect the current moment in the Generation 9 games. The new expansions of the series added creatures from Paldea and brought back older gameplay mechanics, such as Pokémon ex. The cards, for instance, highlight creatures from the Gen 9 region, as well as Shiny versions of several monsters, including Charizard and Palafin.

, Disney's popular trading card game (TCG) that places players in the role of Illumineers with the power of magical inks, has several starter decks available to help people start their gaming career on the right foot. The game's debut set,, released three of the premade starter decks in the summer of 2023. With the launch of the second set,, two more were made available. An upcoming third set, is scheduled for a March 8, 2024, release, and will include an additional two starter decks.

Today, Amazon is offering the powerful and high capacity Anker Prime 20,000mAh USB Power Bank for only $89.98, a hefty 31% price drop from its original $130 MSRP. This is the successor to the Anker 737 that we deemed the best Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally charger. It boasts an absolutely massive 200W of USB power delivery to charge all of your mobile devices simultaneously.

CRKD has announced the Neo S wireless controller, a new collectible gamepad that sports nine unique designs, including three by artist POPeART.

The genre-defining card game Dominion is now available as an Android, iOS, and PC app. Released physically in 2008, it’s the first modern deck-building game, distinct from collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering. Players can now experience this massively influential game for free on their PC and mobile devices.   

The Deck of Many Thingsis unlike anything that has come before in the history of Dungeons & Dragons — an elaborate boxed set with multiple components, all focused on bringing a beloved magical item to life. It’s a singular project thrust into a yawning portal in the seminal role-playing game’s release calendar; the next take on 5th edition isn’t due out until later this year. But it’s the wrong product delivered at the wrong time, cast off into hostile waters already churned by corporate controversy that looms over the entire franchise.

A new update for Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 will finally make Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and the bonus content compatible with Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck is packed with excellent features, has solid performance, and has decent battery life. But as our review noted, it does still need some work. Fortunately, Valve has been regularly posting important software updates to fix issues and add new features that gamers have wanted, and it’s slowly becoming a more stable, versatile device for it.

Following up on updating its older titles with DRM, Capcom has now released an update for Monster Hunter Rise, bringing the same DRM—Enigma Protector—to the latest game in the franchise. Just like last time, the update has been quite controversial, however, with players having reported that the addition of the new DRM had broken the game’s Steam Deck compatibility.

Palworld is now available in Early Access on Steam and in Game Preview mode on Xbox. The “Pokémon-with-guns” game is also playable on Valve’s Steam Deck, where I’ve been playing since Palworld launched.

Windows 11 and Windows 10 work on the Steam Deck with official Vale drivers, too. It's not as simple as hitting a download button, though. In this guide, we're going to show you how to install Windows on the Steam Deck, both to the internal solid-state drive (SSD) and from a microSD card.

Capcom’s latest update for Monster Hunter Rise on Steam has broken some compatibility with Steam Deck, with users reporting that they’re no longer to load the game on Valve’s handheld PC gaming platform.

A new update to Monster Hunter Rise on Steam which adds Enigma DRM has caused the game to no longer run on Steam Deck.

The latest Steam Deck beta client update is out, and it’s made a pretty neat addition to the quick-access performance menu. A tap of the Y button now brings up a brief explainer for whichever individual setting is currently highlighted, a handy lil’ reference for anyone who wants to customise how their Deck (or Steam Deck OLED) runs without knowing exactly how things like TDP limits and half-rate shading affect performance. Clearly it’s also a brutal attack on the livelihoods of honest hardware editors who write guides to this sort of thing, but whatever, Valve.

Capcom has added new DRM software to Monster Hunter Rise, completely breaking it on Steam Deck. Now, despite being Steam Deck verified, the game won't even launch on the platform.

The Steam Deck OLED is a substantial upgrade over the original model, but if you already own another handheld, is the Steam Deck OLED worth replacing your current device with? And when choosing between the Steam Deck OLED and LCD, does the former justify the price difference? Let's find out.

There’s some wild rumors out this early that claim to know the specs of the Steam Deck 2.

Following a cryptic tease during CES 2024, Ayaneo has revealed its Next Lite gaming handheld and it's a confusing product, to say the least. It's designed to compete with Steam Deck, but it doesn't run Valve's official SteamOS — rather, it uses a forked version called HoloISO. It will be priced at a decent $299 and while the controls and screen look good, it packs a less-than-potent processor.

A week ago, I told you about how MIS was the next tech firm to be gunning for Steam Deck’s title in the portable PC market, with a device called The Claw. Well, it seems the company is thinking long, long term, with some newer versions of this yet-to-be-released system on the horizon.

The Like a Dragon franchise (formerly known as Yakuza) has gained immense popularity on Steam in recent, to the point where it may very well be one of its biggest platforms in terms of its audience at this point. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is set to launch in a matter of days as well, and for those who are hoping to play it on the Steam Deck, there’s good news.

When it comes to the gaming handheld market, there are quite a few options out there. However, it wasn’t until the Valve Steam Deck launched that more competitors jumped in on the race. There’s a push to sell gaming handhelds that can perform well and deliver an option to enjoy your PC gaming on the go. However, these devices can be pretty pricey. Still, that hasn’t stopped competitors from bringing their own PC gaming handheld into the marketplace. One of the big competitors that has offered some expensive handhelds in the past is Ayaneo.

Ayaneo, the company known for making a slew of handheld gaming PCs, has announced its latest product: the Next Lite, another portable gaming PC that is the first non-Steam Deck handheld to run Valve's Linux-based operating system SteamOS.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Humble Bundle's dropped another great TTRPG deal—this time for Lovecraft lovers with its Call of Cthulhu book bundle. At the time of writing, the bundle has raised over $22,000 for the World Wildlife Fund. It's also a pretty damn good deal from a buyer's standpoint, too.

Literally a few days ago, there were heavy rumors and leaks suggesting MSI was about to unveil its own Steam Deck rival. Low and behold, it turned out to be true. Say hello to “The Claw,” a gaming device from the laptop manufacturer that’s gunning for a slice of the handheld PC pie.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

It's mad to think that we're already two weeks on from Christmas, isn't it? The decorations have now come down (take them down you lazy so-and-so), and normalcy once again reigns supreme. Luckily for us, and you, though, normalcy in January means deals, and tonnes of them.

Valve's Steam Deck is back at the top of the Steam charts.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.

MSI are the latest gaming gear makers to unveil a Steam Deck-alike, announcing the Claw as part of their CES 2024 showcase. The Claw – great name, by the way – actually looks and sounds closer to the Asus ROG Ally than Valve’s handheld, being a Windows 11-based device without any flashy hardware tricks like the Lenovo Legion Go’s detachable controllers. All the same, it’s aiming to stand out among these portable PCs through two means: its engorged 53Whr battery, and the industry-first use of a 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra chip as its APU.

With the release of the Steam Deck OLED last year, Valve keeps its place as the head honcho of modern handheld PC technology. However, the market is starting to become crowded with alternatives, and one more tech firm is throwing its hat into the ring.

Publisher Game Source Entertainment updated plans on a handful of titles, including deck-building roguelite Lost in Fantaland (via Gematsu). The isometric strategy game is currently in Early Access on PC, and it’s coming to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch this June. 

We’re certainly seeing more companies try to take a slice of the mobile handheld gaming market as of late. When Valve found success with its own portable PC gaming handheld, it wasn’t long before competitors entered the market. We’ve got a few options available right now to pick through. But it was yesterday that MSI teased that they would throw their name into the mix. However, today, it looks like their portable gaming handheld was leaked online.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

With the Consumer Electronics Show 2024 right around the corner, MSI has started teasing its own take on a handheld gaming PC in the vein of Valve’s Steam Deck. The company released a teaser video on Instagram that gives us a brief glimpse at what could be the next major handheld gaming PC to hit the market.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Owning a Switch is great. Even accounting for people who have more than one, I think it's safe to assume more than 100 million of us have one. However, just because Nintendo's latest creation is now the third best-selling console of all time doesn't mean it's perfect as it is, at least not very everyone. Accessories can improve your experience with your Switch, and the Nitro Deck - a Switch accessory I use on an almost daily basis - is one of the best, and it's getting three new designs this year.

Valve has released their annual Best of Steam 2023, a showcase of what was played most and made the most money broken down into roughly grouped tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. In a year of absolutely great games, some of these chart-toppers aren't surprises, but dang I'd never have guessed that Half-Life, the 1998 classic, would make the top tier of the most-played Steam Deck games by daily active players.

Valve’s portable PC platform has enjoyed another good year, with a new OLED model and cheaper entry point contributing to a steady increase in popularity.

Valve offered a peek behind the curtain of Steam’s biggest games of 2023 on Wednesday, revealing which titles dominated the sales charts on PC gaming’s biggest digital platform. Valve also divulged which games Steam users — and Steam Deck owners — played the most this year, with Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and Sons of the Forest appearing in multiple top-12 lists.

When the biggest library in PC gaming went mobile with Valve’s Steam Deck, there are few rivals that can even compete. Released in February 2022, the all-black handheld gaming computer looks like a bigger Nintendo Switch with access to far more games. It uses the Linux distribution SteamOS that directly integrates the Steam storefront. For anyone who already has a number of games in their Steam library, it’s a straightforward and effective way to play them on the go with few frills. But there’s a whole lot more you can do with the Steam Deck if you know some of its tricks, because technically it’s a mobile computer with a Linux operating system with a lot of flexibility.

The Bloodborne community is a creative bunch. It's been nearly a decade since the game was released, so they've been left to their own devices which means they've come up with all sorts of unique ways to expand FromSoft's creation. Cue OldTomRaider, who got an early Christmas present this year in the form of custom-made MTG cards imagining a world where Wizards of the Coast teamed up with PlayStation to bring Micolash into the world of Magic.

It's that time of year again — the 2023 Steam Awards have kicked off their voting! Started in 2016, the Steam Awards have been an annual event in which the players themselves vote on the best game in a number of different categories such as: the «Better with Friends» Award, the «Choices Matter» Award, the «Best Game You Suck At» Award, and the «Labor of Love» Award. Each year the categories change slightly, with this year's addition being the Best Game on Steam Deck Award, which includes Diablo 4 in the list of player voted nominees! Developers of the games chosen to receive an award in their respective categories will receive a Steam Awards trophy, but any players who vote will also receive a gift as well. Those who vote in each of the 11 categories on Steam will unlock special stickers from each category voted on to use on the platform! In order to cast your vote, you must be a registered Steam user.

By Steven Petite and Jon Bitner on

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will feature a card-based deck-building minigame.

It's nearly the holidays, which means some of you might be looking for something to play on your Steam Deck while you're away visiting family. The choice just got a little harder: beautiful early access tactics game Songs Of Conquest and clever fantasy citybuilder Against The Storm are both now Steam Deck verified.

Valve works extraordinarily hard to remove bugs from the Steam Deck experience with frequent updates. But a company called Deckbuttons is keen to add them, sort of. One of the resin-based directional pads that it makes contains actual bugs, which fulfills the desires of a certain… someone out there, right?

If you're plugged into the world of gaming, you will have heard of the Steam Deck by now, even if you didn't know there was also an amped-up OLED version available to buy.

The tabletop card game, , has been incredibly difficult to come by since its release, but has finally started to be more commonly found in both local game stores and larger mass retail locations. This means many more players will have a chance to experience the fun card game for themselves, and the conveniently packaged starter decks that are available for purchase can make this easier, especially compared to other prepackaged options like the extensive Illumineer's Trove. With five varying starter decks available to choose from, it may still be hard to know which one is the best.

Ever since the first Steam Deck came out, I’ve been a fan. I bought the Deck in the first wave of units, getting mine a few weeks after it initially launched in 2022, and it has certainly been put through its paces with me. I’ve traveled the world with my Steam library following me wherever I went, from Iceland, Canada and more. I’ve loved this device, even with its limitations.

Remember when people were licking the game cartridges from their Nintendo Switches back in 2017? The actual company had to make a post on their support page telling people to not do that. Doing so wasn’t harmful, but it still shouldn’t be done. Now it seems that we’re in a time where people are huffing those fumes coming from Valve’s Steam Deck.

When Valve introduced the Steam Deck, the company was adamant that its handheld gaming device was, at its core, a PC, with all the customizability and user freedom that entailed. «You shouldn't do any of this,» Valve said in a teardown video, before proceeding to show everyone how to take apart the Steam Deck. So when Valve now tells Steam Deck owners they shouldn't be sticking their noses next to the handheld's exhaust vents and taking a big, deep breath, I have to wonder if, y'know, they really mean it.

Valve has asked Steam Deck owners to stop sniffing the fumes which come out of the handheld's vents.