Valve's Steam Deck will be compatible with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft's Phil Spencer confirmed that the company is testing how its streaming service will work with the device after touching the portable gaming console last week.

If you didn't know, the Steam Deck is a portable gaming console that Valve is currently planning to release in December. Owners will be able to access Steam's entire game library on the go, and the machine was recently tested by several journalists and influential figures.

Phil Spencer, Microsoft's senior vice president of gaming, was one of the few to experience the device, tweeting that it was "truly amazing. While it is good to know that the device itself is fun to use, the most interesting part of Spencer's post was his confirmation that "xCloud works well." Spencer also confirmed that he played both Halo and Age of Empires using the Steam Deck. Presumably, he played these through the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

Xbox Cloud Gaming (formerly known as xCloud) is Microsoft's video game streaming service. Users can stream high-quality games directly to a variety of compatible devices, including cell phones; it appears that Steam Deck will be added to that list, but it is currently unclear if this service will be available in native apps at launch.

Steam Deck has already been confirmed as not limiting users to just playing games through Steam; they can also play games using VR headsets via the Oculus Quest 2 or other headsets, or through alternative game marketplaces like the Epic Games Store Support for Xbox Cloud Gaming will add even more diversity.

Additionally, the ability to stream games may be important for Steam Deck, as there have been concerns about its performance; Valve has set a minimum benchmark of 30 fps for games played on Steam Deck, but some downscaling a game for portable devices may require some coding wizardry, as the Nintendo Switch port demonstrates.

While there will be plenty of games with impressive graphics that run surprisingly well on Steam Deck, there will also be games that struggle on the weaker hardware of handheld devices. This is where Xbox Cloud Gaming could be of great help. With this service, games are not played natively from the device, but are simply streamed to the device, allowing mobile devices to run the big Xbox Game Pass titles as well.

Hopefully, the availability of Xbox Cloud Gaming on Steam Deck will be officially confirmed following Spencer's tweet. Nevertheless, those hoping to get their hands on the Steam Deck soon may face disappointment, as the device has already sold out in the first wave of pre-orders.