After recent patch notes drummed up interest, Valve has confirmed its Linux-powered SteamOS will support upcoming, non-Steam Deck handhelds.
Designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge third-party devices can eventually run its operating system, beginning with ASUS’ ROG Ally. Yang told the outlet support was in the cards back in late 2022, as a potential herald for the Steam Controller or Machine’s return.
However, he stressed this feature “isn’t ready to run out of the box yet.” Valve is making “steady progress,” and it sounds like it wants to have support for multiple handhelds prepared before pushing it out.
“The note about ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS,” he explained. “The team is continuing to work on adding support for additional handhelds.”
When Yang spoke with The Verge in 2022, he said a separate release of SteamOS 3 (the Deck’s operating system at the time) was planned. That effort has also made progress, and he’s now said Valve will make Windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED available for use.
That feature will let users switch between that and the Windows OS, which could expand the Deck’s capabilities to run more PC games.
Dual booting is still a priority, Yang assured, but he also admitted there’s “no timing” on support for that quite yet. “We haven’t been able to get to it just yet.”