Despite the hopes of many industry analysts, the Steam Machine project, which promised all the benefits of PC gaming with no headaches, led to a paltry set of middling gaming PCs. Valve mothballed the strategy in 2018. Of course, that’s not the end of the story. Far from it.

Acer announced a metric ton of new PC models, including new-generation handheld gaming PCs, the Nitro Blaze 8 and 11.

The Steam Deck has been the template for handheld gaming PCs for almost three years now, with its competitors all following the same form factor to a greater or lesser degree. Acer has already designed something like that — the Nitro Blaze 7 — but,