SteamOS 3 is preparing to go beyond the Steam Deck – Asus ROG Ally is mentioned in the latest beta

Information has been found in the latest beta version of the SteamOS operating system for the Steam Deck portable gaming console, hinting at the possible release of the said OS on other portable devices in the future. Valve has long talked about its desire to expand support for its operating system on third-party devices. In the latest software update, the company mentioned a direct competitor to Steam Deck for the first time.

The latest beta version of SteamOS 3.6.9 mainly contains bug fixes encountered in previous versions of the OS, as well as support for additional controllers. However, the description for this update also states that SteamOS has expanded support for third-party devices. In particular, the new software adds support for “additional buttons on the [Asus handheld game console] ROG Ally.”

This mention coincides with Valve’s previous comments about its plans to make SteamOS compatible with a wider range of devices. Late last year, the company told gaming publication PC Gamer that it considered the general release of SteamOS a high priority. It is expected that SteamOS will first appear on other portable devices and PCs that use gamepads, and then will be available for installation on any PC.

Competing to the Steam Deck, the Asus ROG Ally, MSI Claw, Lenovo Legion Go, Ayaneo and GPD Win portable consoles run the Windows operating system, which supports a wider range of software compared to SteamOS. However, Windows was originally designed for use on devices with large screens and keyboards. On portable consoles equipped only with control buttons, it seems too cumbersome. The ability to install SteamOS on multiple portable computers could significantly and positively change not only the user experience, but the entire portable device industry as a whole.

According to Valve UX designer Lawrence Yang, the ongoing work on optimizing the Steam Deck with an OLED screen is distracting from the project (it should be remembered that Valve is not that big of a company). The main problem with wider support for SteamOS, in his opinion, is driver optimization. Many games run well on the Steam Deck because Valve can optimize SteamOS graphics drivers and shaders for a known and immutable hardware configuration. Including devices from other manufacturers into the equation will likely complicate the process.

It should be added that enthusiasts are not sitting idle and have previously released SteamOS clones (for example, Bazzite and HoloISO) that support different hardware configurations. However, the complex installation process of these OSes makes them less convenient. In addition, the same HoloISO does not officially support Nvidia video cards.