Now that Steam Deck has made good on the failed promise of Steam Machines, it looks like Valve is paving the way for third-party devices "powered by SteamOS"
Dec. 4, 2024The Steam Machine dream may yet live
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The dream of the Steam Machine might not be dead after all. Now that theSteam Deckis a bonafide hit, it looks likeValveis paving the way for devices from third-party hardware manufacturers to make their own SteamOS devices. Valve has quietly just pushed some new brand and logo guidelines for SteamOS devices.
Valve’s publicpartner websitehas just been updated (as noted throughSteamDBand shared byGamingOnLinux), linking to a newbrand guidelines documenttelling the companies Valve works with how they’re allowed to use Steam logos on their products.
The most notable thing in the new document is a badge indicating devices that are “powered by SteamOS.” “The Powered by SteamOS logo indicates that a hardware device will run the SteamOS and boot into SteamOS upon powering on the device,” Valve explains.
This would be Valve’s second attempt at getting SteamOS spread across a bunch of third-party devices, as we’re coming up on the 10-year anniversary of the launch of Steam Machines. Those devices failed to offer a compelling reason to ditch the traditional PC, though, and support dried up within a couple of years. But now that Steam Deck has proven just how good a SteamOS-powered machine could be, it might just be time for the Steam Machine idea to live again.
When the Steam Deck was still just an idea, Valve says some staff were like, “I just want that for me” and “the point wasn’t even to make a product out of it.”
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