When Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2022, the little PC handheld was released into an uncontested market. Its good, but not great, performance was easily overlooked because of its novelty, but saw fierce competition when the likes of Asus launched its first ROG Ally X and further cemented its performance advantage with the recent Xbox ROG Ally X last year. Yet despite that, the old Steam Deck is still selling out because it offers what most other handhelds don’t: SteamOS. It’s an advantage that has kept the Steam Deck in the conversation while more powerful alternatives are released around it–an advantage Valve’s new Steam Machine won’t share when it launches later this month.
SteamOS has been such an advantage for the Steam Deck because of how seamless it makes the handheld PC experience. No matter how hard it has tried, Microsoft has yet to crack the code on shaping Windows into a controller-friendly operating system. It’s closer than it has ever been with its recent release of Xbox Mode for both handhelds and desktops, but there’s still enough friction there to necessitate keeping a mouse and keyboard close when things go awry. That isn’t the case with SteamOS, which presents your Steam library and any connected apps in a slick, easy-to-use, console-like interface that just works in all the ways you want it to.
Having SteamOS as an exclusive operating system on the Steam Deck for so long contributed greatly to the sustained success of the Steam Deck, offering a straightforward, games-first, PC-second environment to enjoy your Steam library with as little fuss as possible. Valve eventually opened it up to other devices, but somehow also thread the needle of keeping the Steam Deck relevant by being selective with which ones it supported. There was nothing stopping you from overwriting Windows with SteamOS on unsupported handhelds, but not needing to was already most of the battle won. The majority of people buying PC handhelds likely just want to turn on the device and get to games as fast as possible, and the Steam Deck is still miles ahead in that regard.
With the Steam Machine launching with SteamOS, that advantage would logically make its way over to the living room PC. But even if you do manage to get a Steam Machine before the end of the year, its biggest draw–providing a seamless living room PC gaming experience–can be replicated today.
