The announcement that Valve is venturing once again into the realm of game consoles is significant—an industry event that naturally commands attention. Yet, despite the excitement surrounding it, there is a growing sense that the Steam Machine, Valve’s earlier foray into hardware, could ultimately fade into obscurity as little more than a curious footnote in gaming history. The real intrigue lies in envisioning a broader and far more transformative possibility: what if Valve were capable of extending the PC gaming universe far beyond its own living room consoles and into the ubiquitous landscape of mobile devices powered by Arm chipsets—the processors that reside within billions of smartphones and portable computers across the globe? Imagine a scenario where players are no longer constrained by the lengthy process of waiting for developers to painstakingly port PC titles to mobile, Mac, or other Arm-based platforms. Instead, the very same games built for Windows PCs could operate seamlessly on those everyday devices, as if architectural boundaries between systems had finally been erased.
For many observers, the “Steam Frame” might appear to be just another virtual reality headset—a niche gadget that only a small segment of passionate fans would ever be eager to wear. And indeed, that assumption is common, but it misses the deeper significance of what Valve is truly attempting. The Steam Frame is not just a display device; it is better understood as a kind of digital Trojan horse, cleverly embedding within its sleek design the technologies that could redefine how and where PC games are played. This unassuming hardware could, in theory, enable players to enjoy full-scale Steam titles on future Samsung Galaxy phones, upcoming Google Pixel devices, or even Arm-powered gaming laptops and handhelds that have yet to reach the market.
I can attest personally to the functionality of this underlying technology because I have been using it myself on my own Samsung Galaxy device. Consider, for instance, the acclaimed title *Hollow Knight: Silksong*, among the most celebrated games of its release year, for which no official Android edition currently exists. That limitation, however, no longer poses an obstacle. Through a collection of sophisticated open-source tools—including Proton, a Windows-to-Linux compatibility layer, and Fex, a dynamic emulator capable of translating x86 code to Arm—games originally engineered for traditional Windows PCs can now run on Linux-based smartphones built upon Arm architecture. Proton was already the foundation that enabled the Steam Deck to bridge Windows and Linux environments, but the inclusion of Fex now adds the crucial ability to traverse the divide between x86 and Arm instruction sets as well.
This very software “stack”—a carefully orchestrated sequence of open-source technologies—also powers the Steam Frame’s capacity to execute Windows games. While it was publicly reported that Valve relies on the open-source Fex emulator to achieve this feat, far fewer people realized that Valve itself is actually the driving force behind Fex’s continued development. In an interview with *The Verge*, Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the principal engineers responsible for SteamOS and the Steam Deck, confirmed that Valve has been quietly funding nearly every core open-source project enabling Windows games to run on Arm chips. Because these tools are open-source, Valve is in effect cultivating a future computing ecosystem in which Arm-based phones, tablets, laptops, and even desktops can execute PC games freely, obviating the need for developers to waste time on costly porting efforts.
This philosophy echoes Valve’s earlier triumph with the Steam Deck handheld, which demonstrated that years of dedication to Linux could successfully make portable Windows gaming a reality. Just as it financed independent open-source programmers to help refine that device’s software foundation, Valve has been nurturing the expansion of gaming on Arm technology in much the same way. Griffais revealed that as far back as 2016 and 2017, Valve began reaching out to specialized developers within the open-source community, providing both financial support and technical guidance to bring Windows compatibility to Arm processors. Ryan Houdek, the lead developer of Fex, recounted his early conversations with Griffais during industry conferences around that same period, which led to Fex’s first working prototype in 2018. Houdek even confirmed that Valve’s financial backing allows him to dedicate himself to Fex as a full-time occupation—a partnership that he publicly credits with giving the project its initial momentum.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, when I recently showcased *Silksong* running on my Samsung Galaxy S25 through the GameHub app, I was actually witnessing this revolution in action. The game was functioning through Proton, Fex, and a suite of related open-source frameworks—virtually all of which have been either spearheaded or supported by Valve. Even if the company never chooses to produce a dedicated “Steam Phone,” it no longer matters; the tools are open for any developer or manufacturer to utilize, enabling others to forge that path independently.
So the essential questions become: why Arm, how does this complex ecosystem truly operate, and could Valve eventually build that long-speculated Steam Phone? According to Griffais, the company had already conceived of this direction as early as 2016. The creation of the Fex compatibility layer began precisely because the engineers foresaw that nearly a decade of development effort would be required before the system could achieve the robustness necessary for widespread reliability. Their vision was straightforward yet profound—to craft an environment in which users could expect the same gaming experience on Arm hardware as on a traditional PC, with identical game libraries and without worrying about processor architecture. This would remove unnecessary technical barriers for players while providing developers with a common platform for emerging devices.
Griffais pointed out that Arm-based chipsets increasingly dominate segments of the hardware market due to their efficiency across multiple performance and power-consumption tiers. Particularly in the domain of low-power computing—anything below the capabilities of the Steam Deck—Arm solutions often outperform their x86 counterparts. Valve’s objective, therefore, is to extend the reach of PC gaming to embrace all viable hardware options instead of being confined to a narrow technical subset.
When asked whether this expansion might include entirely new classes of Arm-based SteamOS devices, Griffais expressed enthusiasm for the idea, noting that the same innovations enabling handhelds could equally support ultra-portable devices, lightweight gaming laptops, or potentially even desktop systems. He pointed out that modern desktop architectures, like the modular Framework systems or Apple’s high-performance integrated Arm chips, demonstrate that such designs already function effectively at scale, making it entirely plausible for similar configurations to appear in the PC gaming world.
As for attracting hardware partners, Valve maintains a pragmatic approach. The company’s focus remains on shipping its current generation of hardware first, with the belief that demonstrated success will naturally invite collaboration. Valve intends to continue refining SteamOS to support a wide range of Arm-based hardware, streamlining integration so that developer efforts become progressively easier and compatibility improves. This, in turn, could inspire both original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Valve itself to approach one another for future partnerships across handheld, living-room, and potentially desktop markets.
Clarifying the software’s structure, Griffais emphasized that SteamOS on Arm is not a separate system but the very same operating environment as its x86 counterpart—built upon Arch Linux, featuring the identical update mechanisms, and leveraging the same core technologies. Different hardware formats might require tweaks, such as enabling or disabling select software components, but the operating foundation remains unified. Likewise, Proton on Arm will be capable of operating seamlessly with Fex embedded within its architecture, translating x86 instructions dynamically into Arm code.
He elaborated further on the process: when a user plays a Windows game on a Steam Deck, Proton acts as a compatibility distribution based on Wine, orchestrating every step needed to execute Windows applications on Linux. The game’s binary code—written for the x86 architecture—is handled by Proton, which prepares the memory layout and transfers API calls for libraries like DirectX or DirectSound, substituting them with Linux-compatible equivalents. The same logic persists when the hardware changes to Arm, but with Fex introducing an additional layer of translation. Fex decodes the x86 portions of the code and translates them just-in-time into instructions the Arm CPU can execute, handing off API interactions to native, high-performance Arm code whenever possible to minimize performance overhead.
Compared to Microsoft’s Prism technology for Windows-on-Arm, Griffais noted that Fex is distinctly optimized for gaming, engineered with an uncompromising focus on both performance and accuracy—essential qualities for complex titles that frequently push CPU boundaries or employ anti-tamper techniques. Every element of this emulation layer has been designed to ensure that games behave with fidelity indistinguishable from running natively.
Valve’s financial and developmental support for Proton, Wine, and Fex traces back to the inception of each project. The company deliberately identified Arm compatibility as an urgent frontier for gaming and invested early to preempt the usual “bootstrapping problem” of sparse content at platform launch. Valve’s long-held philosophy is that developers’ creative energy should flow toward improving the games themselves—not toward repetitive, low-value porting tasks. By underpinning technologies like Proton and Fex, Valve aims to free developers from redundant labor, maintaining vast cross-platform libraries with minimal additional work.
Interestingly, the Steam Frame is also capable of running selected Android applications, though it does not operate a fully-fledged Android OS. Instead, Valve employs another compatibility layer akin to Proton, limited to the essential components required for gaming. Because most Android software already targets Arm architectures, emulation is unnecessary; the layer’s purpose is simply to provide the appropriate runtime libraries so that the software initializes correctly.
As for whether we will see official SteamOS-powered phones or a deliberate expansion into non-gaming applications, Valve appears cautious. The company has already explored mobile experiences through its Steam Link app, yet its immediate priorities remain focused on creating robust ecosystems for gaming within the living-room, handheld, and desktop environments—each of which still demands substantial development effort. Griffais declined to predict whether Arm will dominate handheld gaming entirely, but he acknowledged its strengths in sub-Steam Deck performance classes while noting that Valve’s role is not to dictate direction but to ensure that every promising option is fully supported.
In sum, Valve’s quiet but ambitious work in developing compatibility layers and supporting open-source innovation may redefine the future of interactive entertainment. By bridging long-standing divides between architectures, the company is cultivating a gaming landscape in which advanced PC experiences can thrive on virtually any device—from powerful desktop rigs to the pocket-sized smartphones we carry every day.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/report/820656/valve-interview-arm-gaming-steamos-pierre-loup-griffais
