Valve’s new SteamOS compatibility ratings go beyond the Steam Deck

Valve’s Steam Deck “Verified” program is pretty great, but extremely specific to… well, the Steam Deck. But now that SteamOS is expanding into other non-Steam Deck devices, we’re going to need something a little more general to tell if a Steam game will work on a particular device. Enter the SteamOS Compatibility system, a rating that will be similar but separate to the Steam Deck Verified status.

According to Valve’s announcement post, a game needs to pass a pretty low bar to be marked as “SteamOS Compatible” on the store. Basically, it needs to boot up on SteamOS (either by offering a Linux version of the game or just running in the Proton compatibility layer) and not have any middleware that breaks in the Linux-based OS. “Middleware” means any of the extra software that a game relies upon to boot up, run, and get you your primary experience—some elements like the anti-cheat in popular multiplayer games might be a stumbling block here.

In short, if you can get the game working without any massive or insurmountable hurdles, it’s SteamOS Compatible. Valve might mark the game with a couple of warning flags, like requiring an active internet connection for first-time setup or needing a mouse/touchscreen for the game’s separate launcher program. (By the way, if you sell a game on Steam and it needs a separate launcher, everyone hates you.) But those things won’t preclude a game from the SteamOS Compatible badge.

At the time of writing, only the Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS (yep, that’s its full and terrible name) is officially part of the program, and it doesn’t launch until later this month. But there are reportedly more SteamOS-powered handhelds on the way, and I get the feeling that this compatibility badge will be helpful for others as well, like those rolling their own SteamOS hardware with projects like Bazzite.