The Steam Deck might have some surprising new functionality, if this rumor turns out to be true.
AS reported by WCCFTech, a developer named Bradley Lynch found data that suggests Valve has been working to get Android running on Steam, particularly the Steam Deck.
Just to set the record straight, Bradley does not leak information about video games, or work as a games press editor, for a living. From some quick research we confirmed that he works for a company named EOZ that makes XR/VR accessories, and he also has a YouTube channel.
Bradley found this data in relation to his work. It is likely not illegal or disallowed for him to share this information, since it came up in the Steam changelist update. In other words, it’s all public information, but it takes dataminers like Bradley to know how to find it.
Bradley found evidence that Valve has been working to get Waydroid running on Steam for a few months now. Waydroid is an emulator that allows Android apps to run on Linux and GNU. Steam Deck’s SteamOS is based on Linux instead of Windows. To add to that, Waydroid does not run on Nvidia, but can run on Intel and AMD chips, and the Steam Deck uses AMD’s Ryzen chips.
So this looks like a calculated play to get Android games on the Steam Deck. If Valve pulls this off, using Waydroid or any other methods, they could sell Android games directly on the Steam Deck, opening up the floodgates to new developers.
The timing of this is also interesting, as one wonders if Valve did this with knowledge of what the competition was doing. Microsoft announced last March that they would end support for Android apps on Windows 11. In the past few weeks, Microsoft then revealed and launched a new generation of ARM Windows 11 laptops and tablets, running on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite CPUs. And of course, we know Microsoft wants to launch third party mobile stores on Apple and Android.
If you’re a Steam Deck user, you may think that this little bit of news likely won’t affect you, but the repercussions could be industry changing. The Steam Deck becoming a mobile platform will not just bring in more games, and potentially more power efficient versions of some games, such as Dead Cells. It could also potentially raise revenue for Steam through the roof, and even make SteamOS a viable competitor to Apple and Android.
But all this talk may be premature, as we haven’t actually seen this in action. We’ll have to wait and see if this eventually does turn into something Valve will announce in the future.
