Valve has opened up Steam for Android games
By ForGeeks
Valve has announced new Steam devices, including the Steam Frame headset. It was previously reported that users will be able to install Android apps on it, and now it’s been revealed that Valve is officially opening up the Steam platform to Android gaming.
And now it’s been announced that Valve is officially opening up the Steam platform to Android games.
In an interview with The Verge, the company confirmed that Steam now supports Android games, and the Steam Frame headset works with the same APK files that developers use to release games on mobile devices and Meta* Quest virtual reality headsets.
Steam’s new Steam Frame headset will support Android games, and will work with the same APK files that developers use to release games on mobile devices and Meta* Quest virtual reality headsets.
Since Meta* Quest headsets run on a modified version of Android, Valve’s move seems strategically sound: it will allow developers to easily port their projects to Steam without having to create a separate Steam Frame version of the game.
«From a user perspective, we want them to not have to think about it at all. They just see their games on Steam, download them and click «play»» —explained Valve spokesman Jeremy Celan.
They’ll be able to play their games on Steam, download them and click «play»» —Valve spokesman Jeremy Celan explained.
He also noted that such games will run at high performance because they run natively — the Steam Frame architecture is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip with Arm processor. However, Valve plans to utilize Proton’s compatibility layer to improve the overall experience of the games.
He also noted that Steam Frame’s architecture is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with Arm processor.
Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffe added that the arrival of Steam Frame paves the way for SteamOS to run on a wider range of devices with Arm architecture. He hinted that this could include laptops, but noted that Arm has «huge potential» for future handheld consoles as well.
The statements echo what the company said at CES in January in an interview with Android Authority. At the time, Valve noted that it was «definitely interested» in building Arm-based SteamOS devices, such as handheld consoles, but didn’t yet have the technological capability to do so. Judging by Steam Frame’s architecture, that barrier has finally been overcome.
* Owned by Meta, it is recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation and its activities are banned.
