Logitech and Tencent are teaming up to create a Steam Deck rival, and it’ll use cloud services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The device will seemingly help gamers “play AAA games when they are away from their console or PC,” something handheld gaming PC’s can arguably already achieve without connecting to a cloud-based service.
Unveiled by Logitech, the Tencent Games handheld aims to “advance handheld cloud gaming” and support multiple services, like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Unlike the Steam Deck, the portable won’t feature a powerful AMD APU or hardware that can directly run games, but it’ll still aim to provide an on-the-go gaming PC experience.
In a statement about the Tencent partnership, Logitech G general manager Ujesh Desai says “the idea of being able to stream and play AAA games almost anywhere is super exciting, and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on.” In addition, Tencent’s general manager, Daniel Wu, states that the device will “push the frontiers of gaming devices,” which is perhaps general a reference to the limitations of at-home hardware.
Again, the new Logitech Tencent Cloud handheld is a different beast compared to the Steam Deck, but they’ll both be fighting for the same slice of the portable PC market pie. If you’ve not got access to a stable internet connection, or you’re just not convinced by Cloud-based shenanigans, you’ll likely opt for a traditional handheld.
That said, if Logitech’s dream machine can provide a desktop experience via the cloud, it might make a difference within the handheld gaming PC space. In theory, a seamless streaming service could negate the need for expensive graphics cards and gaming CPUs altogether, but reliance on internet connectivity makes that a pipe dream for many.
Logitech hasn’t included a glimpse of what the cloud device actually looks like, so we’ll need to wait a little longer to see how similar it is to Valve’s hardware-based handheld. It’s easy to assume it’ll be smaller than most portable gaming PC options, especially since it’ll have a lot less going on under the hood. Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see how it compares to the future Steam Deck 2, both in terms of size and gaming capabilities.