Valve has repeatedly promised to support SteamOS devices from third-party manufacturers. But he never defined the terms. Now we have further proof that such support is on the way: “Developed for SteamOS”.

SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system designed for gaming. It was developed by Valve for their Steam Deck handheld console, and so far is the only device that uses it. But Valve has said for years that it plans to work with other manufacturers to incorporate the system into other devices.

An update to the Steam and SteamOS guidelines suggests that some of the first third-party SteamOS devices could be arriving very soon. And Valve recently updated the Steam branding requirements. This happened for the first time since December 2017. which already indicates that it is a relevant novelty.

One of the most important changes is the new section called “Developed for SteamOS”which establishes brand guidelines for the new logo that include colors and minimum dimensions for print or digital versions of the logo. More interesting is the description, which literally says:

The Powered by SteamOS logo indicates that the hardware device will run SteamOS and boot into SteamOS when you turn on the device.

Valve says hardware partners “supplies Steam image hardware in a form provided or developed in close cooperation with Valve”. White and bottled…

Third-party SteamOS devices: only a matter of time

These brand usage patterns indicate that the arrival of SteamOS devices from third-party manufacturers can be immediate and that devices using this logo will run software officially developed by or with Valve, implying compatibility guarantees.

Although SteamOS is (for the most part) an open source development, and therefore there are unofficial ports such as HoloISO, ChimeraOS or Bazzite, official Valve support would be a huge leap because the system also uses some closed source components that are not available to developers.

Will we see portable Steam Deck consoles from other manufacturers soon? More importantly, while there is no shortage of ways to play around with Linux, Could SteamOS be extended to PC and compete with Windows monopoly in games?