With new handheld devices running SteamOS shipping soon, Valve has announced a compatibility rating system that extends the Steam Deck Verified process. This new SteamOS Compatibility system will cover any device running SteamOS that’s not a Steam Deck. Currently that will only be the Lenovo Legion Go S (seen above), but there are surely more on the way from other manufacturers. The ratings are based on a subset of the Steam Deck Compatibility testing results, so users can see at a glance whether a game and all its middleware are supported on SteamOS. This includes game and launcher functionalities, as well as anti-cheat support.
A title will be marked as SteamOS Compatible if the game and all its middleware are supported on SteamOS. If it isn’t, it’ll be marked as SteamOS Unsupported. Unfortunately, this rating system won’t include testing results for performance and input. This is mainly because these devices are third-party, with a range of hardware specs, which makes it difficult for Valve to test how titles run on various configurations. However, Valve expects over 18,000 Steam titles to be marked SteamOS Compatible at launch.
Since the SteamOS Compatibility is an extension of the Steam Deck Compatibility rating, developers won’t have to take any additional action. An automated process will use the data from the Steam Deck Compatibility rating to give a SteamOS Compatibility rating. If a title hasn’t been tested for Steam Deck Compatibility, the same queue system will apply. New titles will receive both Steam Deck and SteamOS ratings at the same time.
