Not just the Deck. Having these games work there also means I have an easier time transitioning my desktop to Linux.
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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Steam Hardware
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Valve is probably responsible for me moving to Linux fully because of proton and how steam works on Linux. While I would be bitching nonstop about Microsoft, I don't know if getting off windows would be worth it to me if it was a hassle to play games.
Microsoft has driven me away from Windows at least a half dozen times over the last 20 years.
Each time the siren call of some game or another will pull me back.
I'd played with Linux native games as well, but most of the greats were Windows only.
And yeah, then Proton.
Now I'm trying to save up the small fortune needed for a computer upgrade, and I'm not even planning to pirate Windows.
I'm in the same boat. Been using Linux on a laptop for decades. But have always used Windows for gaming on my gaming desktop. I'm due for a rebuild and had a Linux build planned out that I was going to buy parts for during the holidays when they were expected to be on sale... Then RAM shot through the roof. A few months back the retail price of the parts (minus accessories and a case) was at a little above $1700 now it's almost at $2100 due to the RAM pricing.
It is harsh. I'm hoping for the AI bubble to crash. For a lot of reasons, but partially so that I can buy parts at reasonable prices.
Working harder on your game makes it better! Wow!
But seriously, it's great that Valve is leading the way pushing demand for this.
It's not really about working harder. Before, it just wasn't a justifiable expense investing time into ensuring proton support or even linux support because a sub 1% OS just isn't "worth" supporting from a financial standpoint. That changed with the steamdeck and because the steamdeck is actually just a small PC with built-in controller, things that profit the deck also profit the linux ecosystem.
Honestly the steam deck was a genius move from valve.
Devs targeting Steam Deck Verified sets a bar for performance that ends up including other PCs with integrated graphics or those with older graphics cards (up to ~10 years)
By extended the usable life of older gaming hardware, It’s even a win from an environmental point of view.
I'm willing to bet that without the Deck, most AAA games would have already jumped to requiring roughly PS5-level PC hardware now that last gen consoles are effectively dead.
UE5 on the Deck might not be pretty, but making it run at all on it lowers the minimum requirements of a game tremendously.
because the steamdeck is actually just a small PC
That is very contrary to what's the point of the article. Supporting the Steam deck also means supporting the controller and the small screen format. Things that can benefit users of Windows based handhelds too.
And people who use controllers in general. And people with small screens. And people with poor vision. And ...
exactly
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Chiming in to say that witchfire is a great game and I think a rather unique singleplayer extraction shooter with bloodborne style dodging and you should play it (on the steam deck)
It's a super impressive game, and also very punishing. There are so many times where I get hit with crazy difficulty spikes and lose a ton of loot I spent several hours collecting. I had a particularly bad loss deep in the castle level that made me drop the game until 1.0.
I'll be back
I dont normally go for this genre but they nailed the atmosphere and all out weirdness. The mystery keeps me coming back. It never beats you over the head with details or rams how you’re supposed to feel down your throat. Very clever design.
It sets a baseline performance target that is really low. It's an integrated GPU laptop that's not close to high end integrated GPUs anymore. Makes your potential audience pretty much the whole of the steam userbase rather than the like RTX 3060+ userbase
Thats really good all around. I'm always surprised by how much my laptop can do, but I dont even look at the latest AAA super-shiny games because I don't want the disappointment when it doesnt work well or at all.
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I bought a steamdeck new with free shipping and taxes for $320 USD on black friday. I mean at a price like that I doubt there making much of a profit but I still say I support Valve & the open source community.
Textbook example of accessibility benefitting everyone and not just the ones who need it.
As mentioned in the article, supporting the Steam Deck greatly helps with UI/UX, but also potentially with optimization. Especially in 2025, with all bigger releases requiring workstation CPUs, 64GB of RAM and GPUs from fhe future, this is very much needed.
One good thing (and likely the only good thing) about the current RAM shortage is that people are probably not going to be buying games that "require" 64GB of RAM anymore, forcing those devs to optimize
Well, that's the last excuse I needed. Time to finally buy Witchfire.
I don't think it makes it better for everybody, but I agree every developer should support the Steam Deck.
I've not read the article, so I don't know if they specify it, but I think it comes to performance too, not just proton-usability. Since you target a "console" rather than whatever you are using to test on, that's a win for other devices too. I'm just guessing here
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that game is brutal
And glorious. Been playing for a few months. Wild stuff.
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