New Steam Deck Beta Update Released by Valve

Steam Deck manufacturer Valve has recently pushed out a new beta update for its popular handheld PC platform. Since first launching earlier in 2022, Valve has continued to release routine patches for the Steam Deck to improve certain aspects of the device. And while this new update is one that doesn’t bring about a vast number of alterations, it does include some tweaks that many owners should be happy about. 

Available to download right now, the latest update for the Steam Deck includes a couple of notable changes. Perhaps most notably, Valve has now added a feature that allows Steam Deck users to skip the startup animation that is seen when first booting up the platform. While this video was previously unskippable, users can now bypass it by simply pressing the B button. 

Beyond this, Valve has also added the ability to view system information such as serial and model numbers within the settings of the Steam Deck. Lastly, a couple of other fixes for various problems tied to the Steam Deck have also been rectified with this patch. 

If you’d like to find a full list of changes included in this new Steam Deck update, you can find them below. 

General

• Added the ability to view the components that are in your Steam Deck (click the “Model/Serial Numbers” button under Settings => System).
  
• Added the ability to skip startup movie by pressing B
  
• Added support for the Games to Play Together feature
  
• Enabled automatic spelling correction for Store and Library search results
  
• Fixed a case where audio would play quietly even though the volume was set to high
  
• Improved responsiveness to changes in the local network connection
  
• Removed “Connecting to Steam…” delay when starting a game without any local network connection
  

Steam Input

• Added support for user created virtual menu icons by placing them in the ~/.steam/steam/tenfoot/resource/images/library/controller/binding_icons folder
  
• Added support for the HORI Fighting Commander OCTA (Xbox Series X and PS versions)
  
• Added support for the Qanba Drone Arcade Stick
  
• Improved support for third-party PS3/PS4/PS5 controllers
  

Remote Play

• Fixed crash when the performance graph is enabled with some languages