Not only is Valve's Steam Deck one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market, featuring some of the best Steam Deck games, but it's also known for being incredibly easy to mod. And now, it looks like Valve is making it even easier with official third-party mod support.
According to a Twitter post from Brad Lynch, the XR project manager at EOZVR, “Valve is beginning to add official support for the Steam Deck LCD 1920x1200p ‘DeckHD’ mod directly into the Gamescope composer.” This means Steam Deck owners won’t have to hunt down replacement bios to run the third-party display option properly.
For now, though, the code appears to be referencing the DeckHD mod, meaning there's no universal compatibility yet. But that could definitely change, given that even supporting this level of third-party mod is a big step.
This mod holder could change everything
The Steam Deck is already a monster of a gaming PC handheld, still considered the gold standard in an ever-expanding market that boasts some truly excellent competition in the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally X, and Ayaneo’s line of handheld consoles. The fact that Valve has opened the floodgates with DeckHD mod support is an incredible sign of things to come.
If this support proves popular with a sizable portion of its audience, it could mean even more support for hardware mods for other specs in the future. We could also see official support for software mods, which would be a dream come true.
The Steam Deck is known for being an amazing emulation machine due to its excellent operating system, and while I doubt there will be official emulation support in the future, there is support for better customizing the operating system itself, as well as simplifying the installation of programs, browsers, and other tools. Expanded support for Nvidia's GeForce Now It already shows how beneficial such support would be, and that for a service.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Steam Deck, but judging by this news, it's sure to be a bright future. If you need more proof, check out our Steam Deck vs Lenovo Legion Go comparison, which highlights some of the best qualities of both systems.
