Valve has announced that its upcoming handheld PC – Steam Deck is nearing the end of development and the company has begun shipping out a limited number of dev kits for testing.

In a post on the Steam Store, Valve has confirmed that its upcoming Steam Deck is "in the final stages of development" and that the studio has started rolling out a dev kit program that will see a number of partner companies receive test build versions of the hardware.

In the post, Valve says that the launch of its dev kits will allow the company the chance to "guide game developers through the process of getting their games on Steam Deck while also continuing to gather their feedback as [it] prepare[s] for the official launch at the end of the year." The company has confirmed that Steam Deck models received by parter companies as part of the dev kit program will be functionally identical to what will ship to fans later this year.