Valve make steps to improve Steam Deck Verification, giving developers more performance data

Valve revealed an update for game developers on Steam, giving some access to more data on how their games perform on the Linux-powered (SteamOS) Steam Deck.

As part of an update back in February, Valve added the option into Steam for you to send over anonymous performance data for how games run on your system. Along with being able to attach your PC specifications to user reviews. Now, they're using this data from Steam Decks specifically to give developers some helpful information.

This update was announced in a Steamworks blog post, with Valve mentioning two new parts: average framerate data and user survey results.

For the average framerate data they'll give developers a chart of "the trailing 30 days daily running average based on users that opted to allow their framerate data to be gathered and have had playtime for the game". And that will be expanded to add "variance data for each date so you'll be able to see if framerate is steady or fluctuates a great deal for your players".

For the user survey results, this is where you see an option after playing a game on Steam Deck to report if you agree with the game's rating. If a player disagrees, they can send more info as to why. So if a game is Verified, and Valve asks you if you think it's correct and you say no - developers will end up seeing why.

Currently though, this system is only available for games that are Steam Deck Verified, but Valve will be rolling it out to those rated Steam Deck Playable in future too.

As for why Valve are doing this, it's part of their attempt to build more trust in their verification system. As they said: "We're providing this data because while customers overwhelmingly agree with the Verified rating for titles (>95%), it can be valuable for developers to better understand the experiences of customers who disagree, especially in the context of a specific title or update".

Great to see Valve make some more improvements here. There are a few times were "Verified" titles just don't perform well enough, and that does need to be made clear to developers. And, ideally, Valve need to be just a little more strict on that 30FPS performance floor.

This will be incredibly useful once the Steam Machine and Steam Frame come out, although we haven't had an official update on that since early March where they reconfirmed it will be this year.