Valve Explains Why It Wanted to Bring the Steam Deck to Japan

gamerant.com:

Valve recently discussed some of the reasons why it released the Steam Deck in Japan, with a representative referring to the country as the birthplace of handheld gaming. With so many games compatible with Steam Deck and the ability to customize the system, gamers all over the world have been reserving theirs in the hopes of getting one before the end of the year. Despite the company's past hardware endeavors proving to be less fruitful, it seems as though the Half-Life and Portal developer hit upon a winning formula.

In fact, things have not only been going smoothly, but have been speeding along at a fascinating rate, with Steam Deck Q4 reservation emails being sent out recently. Valve increased production on the device not long ago, and the result is that those who are in the queue should hopefully be in line to purchase theirs in time for Christmas. In light of this success, Valve has spoken about the rationale behind releasing the Deck to one particular country.

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In an interview with Automaton Media, a Japanese gaming website, Valve's marketing rep Erik Peterson spoke about releasing the Steam Deck in Japan. While some may think it would be an obvious market for a handheld console, it seems as though home consoles are the dominant system in the country and PC gaming is less popular. However, Peterson said the Japanese PC market is quite sizeable and growing all the time, so that was one reason for releasing it in the country.

The other reason, Peterson goes on to say, is due to Japan being the «hometown of portable gaming consoles.» Older gamers will remember the days of Nintendo's iconic Game Boy handheld being a phenomenal force in the industry, pretty