We are used to Valve being a software publisher but now the company has published a book as a way to introduce itself, the Steam platform and the Steam Deck to various regions.

Available at these links in English, Japanese, Korean and Traditional Chinese, this is more of a booklet measuring in at 52 pages long and available for free as PDFs.

The book covers, according to the announcement:

• “Background on Valve and our philosophy around creating products and hardware to make our customers happy
• An overview of Steam, how it came to be, and where it is now
• The story of Steam Deck, how we designed it, and why we built it the way we did
• Information about our collaboration with Komodo to launch in these new regions
• Tons of pretty pictures of Steam Deck, prototypes, games, and more.”

We’ve looked through the booklet and it’s mostly a coffee table affair with lots of big pictures and splash pages. The actual text takes up much less space than the images which includes screenshots from various games like Elden Ring, Devil May Cry 5, Deathloop and more.

Our favourite parts of the book focus on the behind the scenes content around the creation of the Steam Deck, such as page 23 (pictured above) which shows various prototypes of the handheld PC. For those similarly interested in these prototypes see more of them on page 33, the section on ergonomics.

“The rounded grips make it comfortable to hold for long gaming sessions. The team tested the grip ergonomics and control placement with many different hand sizes, keeping in mind the lessons we’ve learned from the Steam Controller and Index Controller,” the section reads.

The ergonomics page also discusses how the Steam Deck is made to be fixed and modified by users, mentioning that someone attached a heatsink intended for a full size PC to the handheld.

This is almost certainly the video made by LinusTechTips, embedded below.

Finally, while this is a digital product you can read right now, a “special physical version” will be available in person at the Tokyo Game Show from the Steam Deck Booth.