SteamOS Home Console

Leaks are starting to come out about the Steam Deck 2, but there are also theories about a potential home console running SteamOS. As much as this was tried in a similar way in 2015 with the Steam Machines, I think now is a perfect time to give it another shot with the widespread adoption of SteamOS and the compatibility that Proton offers.

I love my Steam Deck. I maintain that it is probably the best gaming-related purchase that I've ever made. It is the most powerful gaming hardware that I own, and I have played SO many games since I bought it. It's just an incredible device and an EASY recommend for anyone who wants to get into PC gaming.

I bought the Steam Deck KNOWING that it was slightly outdated. When I bought my 512 GB Steam Deck LCD, it was already three years old. That's ancient in computing hardware. A lot of people recommended getting another PC handheld, either a Windows machine or another SteamOS device, with better specs and newer hardware. That was an option, sure, but I was much more comfortable with the performance and price point of the LCD Steam Deck. Plus, first party hardware often provides a better experience. I wanted the Steam Deck.

Where a lot of people were fiending for an incremental bump to the Steam Deck, Jay Shaw was quoted in suggesting that the Steam Deck 2 wouldn't happen until "technology to advance to a point where the hardware could see a substantial leap forward." For me, that's reasonable. It's the way consoles are typically done, and the Steam Deck is undeniably a more console-like experience. You buy one and play it for a few years until a significantly improved successor is available.

I am absolutely interested in a Steam Deck 2, but it wouldn't be a first day pre-order for me. The original Steam Deck plays everything I throw at it, and I still have plenty of backlog to work through. When Valve eventually releases a limited edition Steam Deck 2, that would be what convinces me to bite. Hopefully a new Smoke Gray, but I'd take a limited edition White, something outside of the ordinary. But this isn't a post about the Steam Deck 2...

When I read the suggestion that Valve would make a new home console running SteamOS, I was immediately interested. The leaks already had my curiosity, but now they had my attention. I bought the Steam Deck for myself, but my kids had quickly taken a liking to it. My youngest would play Bloodstained in the truck (SO much better than the Nintendo Switch version), and my oldest had to give Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart a shot after he watched me play it. It was quickly becoming a family device, despite my best efforts.

A SteamOS home console would scratch that itch, while freeing up my Steam Deck to truly be my personal device again. I made Steam accounts for the kids and added them to a family library. This allowed us to share games without having to buy multiple copies. Unfortunately, the Steam Deck was still the only hardware capable of playing most of my games, outside a few indie titles with retro artwork (thank you Stardew Valley).

I never owned a Steam Machine, but this modern successor would be great for me now. I didn't have many Steam games back in 2015, and I didn't even have accounts for GOG and Epic. Now I have over 400 games across all those platforms. Being able to access all of those games from a single device AND seamlessly transition between handheld and home console with cloud saves? That sounds amazing.

Technically, one could already build their own custom Steam Machine. SteamOS is open source and would run on effectively any modern hardware. I could do the same, but I don't trust my ability to buy the right parts at a reasonable price and assemble it all into a working unit. I'll just wait for Steam to build it for me, thank you very much.

So if this new SteamOS home console does become a reality, what would I want in it? Why should it exist when the Steam Deck already satisfies the handheld space AND you can dock it? I think the critical component is the idea of multiple distinct users playing on the same device. And I don't mean (just) multiplayer, I mean a shared device where each user has their own profile and game saves.

Steam *sorta* does this already, but poorly. On my laptop, I have two accounts signed into Steam: my account and my youngest. To swap between users, you have to close out of Steam and restart, then select the other account. It's functional, but it feels really clunky when compared to, say, my PS4. That's with Steam installed on Windows, but I've heard having multiple accounts on a single Steam Deck is even worse. From what I've read, the space for game saves is shared between accounts, so you can accidentally overwrite one user's cloud saves with another. That's a risk I'm not willing to take.

Some might suggest that I should just buy my kids their own Steam Decks. This is an option, sure, but I don't think that's the ideal solution for two reasons. One, local multiplayer on a Steam Deck is clunky, especially when I have to use a dock or dongle and the input channels are often difficult to properly line up. Two, we have enough different devices that I don't want to add even more to the list of devices that are collecting dust while they aren't getting played. If we have a single SteamOS home console plugged into the living room TV, that becomes the multiplayer device or the option for whoever is playing on the TV at the moment. The Steam Deck or other portable devices are for whoever isn't using the TV.

Beyond satisfying that traditional home console experience, I think it would also incentivize Valve to make a new first party controller. The controls on the Steam Deck are great, but there isn't an equivalent standalone controller. I use my 8bitdo Ultimate quite a bit, but that moreso just tries to be the best version of standard gamepads today. If Valve made a new Steam controller, I feel like they could push the envelope a bit with innovative technology, while ensuring that the gamepad is still remarkably pleasant to use.

One big caveat is the "Verified" system that Steam currently uses. I do think that third party devices running SteamOS has started to call that system into question, but a new first party device would force Valve to really investigate how games are determined to be playable. Sure, ProtonDB is a thing, but it's a third party system that Valve isn't directly responsible for. Plus, you need to use a third party software like Decky (which I refuse to do) if you want those ratings visible within the SteamOS UI. Valve can't continue to depend on third parties to satisfy what is arguably their own responsibility.

I'm still keeping an eye out for whatever hardware Valve releases next, and I'm sure I will eventually buy it. A Steam Deck 2 would require a special edition, but a SteamOS home console would be an immediate purchase for me. Here's hoping we get a capable but affordable new hardware option in the near future.