Valve Brings Game Recording to Steam & the Steam Deck

Native game recording and playback have made it to Steam and the Steam Deck in a Valve Beta. The new feature comes in two flavors, allowing users to enable always-on (in-game) background recordings that fill a specified duration and data limit, or directly toggleable on-demand recordings for manual start and stop.

By default, background recordings will save the last 120 minutes of gameplay footage in high quality, equaling 10.8 GB of disk. The earliest footage will be rewritten when that length is exceeded, or users can specify a different length. Unfortunately, it appears that game recordings must be saved on the primary disk and can’t be saved to removable media like a microSD card but Valve says there’s more coming to the feature.

With game recording enabled, a quick replay feature will be available in the Steam overlay to quickly review gameplay, and lightweight editing tools are included to make it easy to cut and share footage in Steam and on the Steam Deck.

Game recording also features timeline markers: a unique feature that allows players to quickly drop a marker on their recording with Steam + Y to review later. Some markers will be automatic, like when a player earns an achievement or takes a screenshot, but there are even more options for “timeline-enhanced games” that show different timeline textures to indicate whether you’re in a menu, lobby, or actually playing, or highlight important in-game events like kills and deaths. With those markers, players can use the “highlight viewer” to quickly jump between the most important footage.

If you’re keen on trying out Steam’s game recording feature for yourself, you first need to be in the Steam Deck beta channel, then navigate to “game recording” from the main settings screen and select either “background” or “on demand” recording. Be sure to join the game recording beta Steam group to provide feedback, bugfixes, and generally share your experience with the community.

Hori Announces New Steam Controller

Hori, a Japanese gaming peripheral company, has announced a new wireless controller specifically for Steam games. It’s called the “Wireless Horipad for Steam”, but is being referred to as the new Steam Controller by most of the community.

The original Steam Controller was a distinct product from Valve that was released alongside the Steam Machine and Steam Link back in 2015 and discontinued in 2019. It used two haptic pads in place of the D-pad and right joystick, keeping one joystick on the left side.

It was a divisive piece of kit. Some people loved it for the unique interface and the control Steam Input allowed, others said the haptic pads just weren’t the same. I still have a Steam Controller, myself, and while I’ve never managed to get the hang of its all-or-nothing take on haptic pads, it’s a fascinating product that I try to love once in a while.

The Horipad doesn’t seem to be taking inspiration from the Steam Controller, given the lack of haptic pads that made their way on the Steam Deck. It does have a gyro mode, making it a tempting controller for the modern feature. But, it’s also limited to Bluetooth connectivity instead of a typically more reliable dongle.

Despite the announcement’s excited reception, Hori won’t be releasing the Horipad outside of Japan. This was confirmed by The Outerhaven (via Steam Deck HQ), but the licensing agreement with Valve is still promising. Hopefully, we see more quality Steam and PC-specific controllers in the future.

In Other News…

Linux Now 2% of Steam Users, Steam Deck 10% of Steam Input Users

Over 2% of Steam users are now running Linux, Steam Deck HQ noted on the May Steam Hardware and Software Survey Valve releases every month. The open-source OS was burgeoning on a 2% share when it overtook MacOS on Steam last summer and has finally tipped, it seems.

We have a pretty good idea the Steam Deck is to thank, too. Not just because Arch Linux, the distro the SteamOS is based on, has the highest share of users, but also because Steam Deck HQ also noticed Steam Deck users make up a whipping 10% of players using Steam Input — Steam’s controller customization tool.

Controllers don’t need to use Steam Input, and only 42% percent of players using a controller do, but it’s still satisfying to see hard numbers alluding to the steady adoption of handheld PCs.

Steam Deck Top Played is Now a Permanent List

Previously a monthly roundup of the most popular games on Steam Deck, Valve has made the “Steam Deck Top Played” list a permanent fixture. Now you can check the 100 most played games on Deck at any given time.

Will it stop all the posts asking for game recommendations over on Reddit? Definitely not. But it’s still a great resource.

NonSteamLaunchers Now Compatible with Emudeck and SteamRomManager

NonSteamLaunchers, a script that helps Steam Deck users install third-party game launchers, has updated to version 3.9.0 (via GamingOnLinux) and fixed compatibility issues with two other popular Steam Deck applications Emudeck and SteamRomManager

The fix comes with a note from NonSteamLauncher’s maintainers:

What Are We Playing?

Dishonored

At least one foundationally important thing in my life came out of Dishonored: I named my dog Corvo, after its protagonist.

I’ve always loved stealth games, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory cemented them as a genre in my mind, and Dishonored scratched that itch like no other back in 2012.

It also felt perfect for the Steam Deck, so I’m running through a few of the campaign achievements I never bothered with and making different decisions than I can remember from previous times around. I’d forgotten how creative some of the ways Corvo deals with his targets can be, like giving the High Overseer the Heretic’s Brand. Satisfying.