Valve's Steam Deck is a portable gaming PC through and through. It might be marketed as a way to play Steam games on the go, but at its very core, it's still a desktop. This means that you can use it as you would a regular old gaming computer, and this includes running emulators through them.

Valve admitted this in a new YouTube video, which it promptly deleted.

Most probably wouldn't have noticed Valve supporting emulation in its latest three-minute YouTube clip, but Nibel, a well-known industry insider, managed to capture the specific portion of the footage. Naturally, the tweet blew up quickly online and it appears that Valve nor Nintendo has taken any measure to take it down.

Valve's new official video for the Steam Deck has a very interesting game icon in ithttps://t.co/KvI6b2nVa1 pic.twitter.com/uPsw3hOpog

Valve has since replaced the video with a new one that swaps the Yuzu thumbnail with that of Portal 2. However, now that the cat is out of the bag, we're curious to see the fallout.

Technically, emulation isn't illegal. Otherwise, emulators like Yuzu shouldn't exist out in the open. This software, in particular, lets you play Switch games on other devices. Before the Steam Deck and other portable gaming PCs, you had to have a traditional desktop to use Yuzu. Now that this is no longer the case, the taboo subject of video game emulation will be the main topic in gaming circles again for the foreseeable future.

The issue that most gaming companies like Nintendo have with emulation is how closely it is associated with pirating.

The legal way to go about emulation is to buy the game, dump it on a PC, and use emulators to run it. This lets you enjoy higher resolutions and framerates than you could on the native device. It's a great way to enjoy games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of the best games in the series, on 4K resolution and 120fps. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't see emulation in the same light as everyone else.

It'll be interesting to see what will come of this after Valve effectively marketed the Switch as an emulator-friendly device.

In other news, companies are cashing in on the popularity of the Steam Deck. The Logitech G Cloud is an example of other incoming portable gaming PCs. Also, Valve has confirmed that more Steam Decks are in the pipeline.