Not only is Valve’s Steam Deck one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market, with some of the best Steam Deck games to boot, but it’s also known for being incredibly easy to mod. And now it looks like Valve is making it even easier with some official third-party mod support.
According to a Twitter post from Brad LynchAccording to the XR Project Manager at EOZVR, “Valve is beginning to add official support for the Steam Deck LCD’s 1920x1200p ‘DeckHD’ mod directly into the Gamescope compositor.” This means Steam Deck owners won’t need to purchase a replacement BIOS to get the third-party display option working properly.
However, at the moment the code appears to be referencing the DeckHD mod, meaning universal support isn’t there yet. But that could certainly change, as even supporting this level of third-party mod is a huge step.
This mod support could change everything
The Steam Deck is already a monster of a portable PC gaming machine, still regarded as the gold standard in an ever-expanding market that features some truly excellent competitors like the Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally X, and the handhelds from Ayaneo. Valve opening the floodgates with DeckHD mod support is an incredible sign of things to come.
If this support proves popular with a large enough portion of the audience, it could mean even more hardware modding support for other specs in the future. We could also see official software mod support, which would be a dream come true.
The Steam Deck has a reputation as a great emulation machine due to its excellent OS and, while I’m a bit skeptical that official emulation support is in the future, support for better customization of the OS itself, and making it easier to install programs, browsers, and other tools. The recent extended support for Nvidia’s GeForce Now already proves how useful that support would be, and that’s for one service.
It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for the Steam Deck, but judging from this news, it’s certainly going to be a bright one. If you needed more proof, check out our Steam Deck vs Lenovo Legion Go comparison, which highlights some of the best qualities of both systems.