On January 13, Valve announced the certification program information for the gaming PC “Steam Machine” it is developing. In an interview with overseas media GameDeveloper, it was revealed that the "verified" requirement of Steam Machine may be lower than that of handheld Steam Deck.
The Steam Machine is a gaming PC that runs the Arch Linux-based SteamOS operating system and is optimized for Steam games. It can also run compatible Windows games with the help of a compatibility layer called Proton. Steam Machine will be launched in two models, equipped with 512GB and 2TB built-in NVMe SSD solid state drives, and is expected to be released in early 2026.
Valve explained the device's certification process in an interview with GameDeveloper. Valve designer Lawrence Yang said that the requirements for Steam Machine to achieve "certified" compatibility are lower than those for the company's Steam Deck. He also mentioned that games that are "certified" on Steam Deck will, roughly speaking, be "certified" on Steam Machine.
Steam Deck will classify game compatibility into four statuses: "certified", "playable", "not supported" and "unknown" based on factors such as controller compatibility, text clarity and performance comfort. Games that achieve "Certified" status not only indicate to users that they are compatible with the device, but also receive recommendations on the store's "Compatible with Deck" page. Game developers believe that earning a "certified" badge is an effective marketing strategy in itself.
The Steam Hardware and Software Survey is also used to evaluate the performance of Steam Machine, which is said to exceed the performance of more than 70% of devices used by Steam users. Whether in terms of performance or ease of use, Steam Machine has greater margins than the handheld Steam Deck, and this will probably be reflected in the certification standards.
This also means that more games will be marked as "certified" on Steam Machine. For developers, "certified" will become a standard and may affect the sales of games after the release of Steam consoles. It's unclear what the specific requirements are, so follow-up news will be worth watching.
