Valve has some interesting plans for SteamOS, but they don’t necessarily involve competing with Windows.
Pierre-Loup Griffais, who works on the Steam Deck for Valve, discussed this in a new interview with PC gamer. As we know, Valve has officially announced their first SteamOS gaming handheld made by an OEM partner, the Lenovo Legion Go S.
Griffais explained that Valve wants to eventually bring SteamOS to other devices and form factors, such as traditional PCs and laptops. But Griffais also immediately killed the idea that they were coming in to fight for market share against Windows.
Griffais said this:
“I don’t think the goal is to have a certain market share, or to push users away from Windows. If a user has a good experience on Windows, there’s no problem. I think it’s interesting to develop a system that has different goals and priorities, and if it becomes a good alternative for a typical desktop user, that’s great. It gives them choice. But it’s not a goal in itself to convert users who already have a good experience.”
As Valve founder Gabe Newell said in the past, they worked on Steam Machines and tried again with the Steam Deck to lessen their dependency on Windows. While Steam Decks cannot enable you to play all the games on your Steam library, it exists as a functional alternative that many Valve customers have decided to take advantage of.
And yes, Griffais was also asked about Valve bringing back Steam Machines. Here’s what he said:
“Right now, we’re focused on handhelds. But as our work expands our ability to work on other platforms and have a good experience in different form factors…
We’ve already done a lot to make these consoles connectable to screens, connectable to a controller… We’re not there yet to give priority to a Steam Machine. But in collaboration or internally, it’s an open door to the future.”
While we’re sure many Steam users would love the narrative of Steam Machines launching that successful comeback, Valve is prudent not to jump on such an idea without knowing for sure that it’ll actually work out this time.
If anything, the Legion Go S points to a more practical path for Valve to achieve their goal. They could work with Lenovo and other OEMs so that, if you buy a prebuilt computer, they can offer SteamOS instead of Windows, particularly if you were only going to use it for gaming anyway.
And that computer doesn’t necessarily have to be a desktop PC, as it could be a mini PC, a laptop, an x64 tablet, a convertible, all-in-one, drawing tablet, etc. We know gamers would love to have SteamOS running out of the box on an ROG Flow Z13. But these are all just ideas for now, that Valve is going to have to work on to make them a reality someday.
