Surprise! Valve is releasing a new game set in the Portal universe

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No, it's not Portal 3. Aperture Desk Job is a short game to teach you how the new Steam Deck works, out March 1.

Aperture Desk Job
(Image credit: Valve)

What the heck? Valve is releasing a new game. No, it's not Portal 3, but it is set in the same universe.

Aperture Desk Job is a free "short" game designed for the Steam Deck that teaches you how to use the new device. Releasing March 1, it looks like even if you don't have a Steam Deck you'll still be able to try the game out on your desktop if you have a controller. (Mouse and keyboard is not supported.)

"Aperture Desk Job reimagines the been-there-done-that genre of walking simulators and puts them in the lightning-spanked, endorphin-gorged world of sitting still behind things," says the game's Steam page.

"You play as an entry-level nobody on their first day at work — your heart full of hope and your legs full of dreams, eager to climb that corporate ladder. But life’s got other plans, and they all involve chairs."

Check out the trailer below, which is also pretty darn short. And unfortunately, there's no sign of GLaDOS, but surely she's in the somewhere, right?

Note: This story has been revised to reflect a March 1 release—when the game first appeared on Steam it had a 'Play Game' button that no longer appears.

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Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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