The upcoming launch of the Legion Go S running on SteamOS is pushing Valve to make some major changes to its Steam store. Future users of Lenovo's console need to be able to ensure game compatibility with their device! What's really happening behind the scenes is making a version of SteamOS compatible with portable consoles other than the Steam Deck.
A SteamOS label to ensure game compatibility
Lenovo is expected to release the Legion Go S running SteamOS later this month, around May 25th. This will be a major first, as until now the only portable console running SteamOS is the Steam Deck. The console built by Valve was intended to demonstrate the excellent capabilities of the Linux operating system for running PC games. It's done, brilliantly.
Valve now wants to spread the wings of SteamOS beyond its own devices. Earlier this year, the company and Lenovo unveiled the Legion Go S; Valve then confirmed that SteamOS will be able to be installed on other portable consoles, such as Asus's ROG Ally. Now it's time to ensure that players with these devices can buy games on Steam, and incidentally play them.
When they visit the store, they will be greeted by a new label indicating a game's compatibility with SteamOS. Valve explains that there are more than 18,000 in the catalog, the same ones that are compatible with the Steam Deck, which is very logical - moreover, the developers don't have to do anything special since "the results are generated automatically from the results of the Steam Deck verification", specifies the company.
The SteamOS compatibility results will therefore be the same as for the Steam Deck... and even better in the case where the portable console is more powerful. This is likely to happen quite often: Valve's device was released in early 2022 and while it remains powerful enough to support recent games, its capabilities are starting to show their limits with the most demanding titles.
This new feature paves the way for the launch of the version of SteamOS that can be installed on any portable console. A beta of SteamOS for other consoles is planned, but Valve does not guarantee perfect compatibility without an official partnership. It has in fact already been possible, for a long time, to embark on this operation. But Valve still does not provide an ISO of SteamOS 3, in other words the Steam Deck version. When this happens, SteamOS will position itself more as a direct competitor to Windows, which currently powers the majority of portable consoles.
Source: Steam
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