The future of SteamOS: Valve expands its compatibility system beyond the Steam Deck
Valve is expanding its verification system to include all SteamOS-enabled devices.
The world of portable consoles changed about eight years ago. Valve has been one of the strongest competitors in this market. With its Steam Deck, Valve managed to bring the PC Master Race experience to a much more convenient, portable format. Now, the company is taking it a step further with one of the most important aspects: compatibility.
Valve will also implement a categorization system for its operating system
In an official publication, Valve announced that its compatibility verification system, already familiar to Steam Deck users, will also be available on SteamOS. This new system will inform users how well a game works on “any device running SteamOS that’s not a Steam Deck.”
What does this mean? It means that if you have a handheld console with SteamOS other than the Steam Deck, you can quickly check if a game is compatible. The rating system will evaluate “features like game functionality, launcher functionality, and anti-cheat support.” Games that pass the test will receive the Compatible mark, while those that don’t will appear as Unsupported.
Valve clarifies that this rating does not evaluate performance. Performance depends directly on each device’s specific hardware (processor, memory, and graphics card), which varies greatly between a Steam Deck, a Legion Go S, and any other future SteamOS-adopting equipment.
Valve expects more than 18,000 Steam games to receive the compatibility mark. It will be easy to identify visually: in addition to the familiar green “Steam Deck Verified” checkmark, games that pass the SteamOS compatibility test will have a blue checkmark. In the coming weeks, users who already own a Lenovo Legion Go S or an Asus ROG Ally (which has had beta support for SteamOS) will start to see these new ratings.
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