Have you ever clicked on a Steam Deck Verified game, attempted to boot it up, and realised it probably shouldn’t have been verified? Well, Steam’s new system should help developers give a more accurate understanding of how their games run on the Steam Deck.
As of October 1 (via TechPowerUp), Valve has given developers access to frame rate data as reported by Steam Deck users. A developer can see the frame rate that users are playing at as a percentage of sessions, meaning they can see if it runs well (at the Steam Deck’s usual 60/90 fps cap) or not (users are generally lowering the fps limit).
That does mean it’s only data willingly shared, and there are some caveats. The LCD Steam Deck has a max refresh rate of 60, while the OLED model goes up to 90. As games are often capped for fps to save resources, that will shape the stats somewhat. In addition, it can’t guarantee how Steam Deck owners use their devices.
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That being said, giving access to a high enough volume of data means that the fps averages should balance out in a bell curve, assuming enough players opt in. Valve claims “a majority of Steam Deck players have opted in”.
The major benefit of this update is that developers can see how their games run on a mass of Steam Decks, and therefore adjust graphical options. This could be particularly valuable in games like Cyberpunk 2077 that have a dedicated Steam Deck mode. If developers notice those on handhelds aren’t getting 60 fps or can’t hit a smooth 30 average fps, they might tweak the settings a tad.
Valve has even explained that Steam Deck data is just a “starting point for iteration as we learn what sorts of data and presentation are useful.”
That means, if successful, other devices could get the same data grouping. If enough Legion Go S users submit their data, or sales of the Steam Machine are high enough, it could get valuable data to developers.
This is, however, assuming that developers will tweak games for these devices. It only works for verified games, so it can’t be used as part of the verification process as of right now.
Still, if mass reports of poor performance on Steam Deck start coming in for verified games, this means devs can really dig into the numbers to see what the average player is experiencing. Devs can then see in real time where updates positively or negatively impact performance. More data is always a good thing in my book.
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