Valve announced when it will allow installing SteamOS on third-party consoles

This year, the SteamOS software platform will expand beyond Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming consoles. At CES 2025, it was announced that Lenovo will release the Legion Go S portable console powered by SteamOS in May, but that’s not all. It will be possible to install SteamOS on third-party devices even earlier.

Image source: Lenovo

Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the lead designers on Steam Deck and SteamOS, spoke about the company’s plans to release a beta version of the OS “sometime after March.” However, he did not specify which portable devices will be able to start working on SteamOS, but in this regard there is an obvious candidate. The fact is that back in August last year, Valve confirmed its intention to add support for controls for the Asus ROG Ally console to the OS.

While users are free to download and install SteamOS images on their consoles, companies are not allowed to sell devices running the OS or modify it without entering into a partnership with Valve. One of the reasons for this approach is Valve’s desire to make SteamOS a unified platform rather than a fragmented one. A company spokesperson confirmed that the Legion Go S will run the same SteamOS image as the Steam Deck itself.

«In general, we just want to make sure that we have a good way to work together on things like firmware updates, and that you can get to things like the boot manager, BIOS, and things like that in a semi-standardized way,” Griffeis said. , talking about what Valve wants to see in a potential partner that has permission to ship SteamOS devices.

According to reports, Valve is currently only collaborating with Lenovo on SteamOS development, but this may change in the future. The company also does not guarantee that any Windows portable console will work perfectly with SteamOS.