When you think of the term “Valve” in relation to computers, you probably picture the Steam digital shop, which begins 2025 with a peak concurrent player count of 38.8 million, up around five million from about the same time last year.
But I’m not only talking about the hugely successful video game franchises that Valve is in charge of, like Half-Life, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Portal, DotA, and Left 4 Dead.
The Steam Link, which resembles the Nvidia Shield, the Steam Machine, which resembles a console, the Valve Index VR headset, and the Steam Deck, which introduced handheld gaming PCs to the general public, are just a few examples of the impressive (and sometimes disregarded) hardware that the Bellevue, Washington-based Valve is responsible for.
Leaks indicate that the Linux-based SteamOS is powering third-party hardware for the first time, and there have been ongoing rumors of Valve’s reentry into the VR headset market with “Deckard,” a new headset that allegedly runs SteamOS for a stand-alone SteamVR experience.
It’s the software that has powered this selection of hardware that I anticipate coming into full force this year.
If Valve does it well, SteamOS has the potential to transform the Steam Deck from a single product into a hardware category and pave the way for further adoption of its operating system by VR headset manufacturers.
Decked out: By 2025, SteamOS will compete with third-party devices.
Beyond the “multiple millions” of units it has shipped to date, the Steam Deck’s success is clear. A thriving handheld gaming PC market has resulted from some of the top handheld gaming devices following in its wake.
Following the release of Valve’s Steam Deck, devices such as the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and later the MSI Claw have all provided Windows-based handheld gaming experiences. The ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 AI+ have had widespread updates.
However, Valve hardware engineer Lawrence Yang has stated that the business would not be releasing new Steam Decks at a “yearly cadence,” so it may be some time before we receive an official Steam Deck update. In fact, Valve is waiting for a “generational leap in compute” before releasing a Steam Deck.
That being said, it looks like we’ll get a new Steam Deck in 2025, but it won’t be from Valve.
Starting on January 7, we might see the Lenovo Legion Go S, a redesigned Legion Go that abandons Windows 11 support in favor of SteamOS, at this year’s CES 2025.
The speculated handheld will be a sort of spiritual successor to the Steam Deck, with better technology and graphics capabilities, even if it won’t be an official one.
As Valve updated its brand standards to incorporate new “Powered by SteamOS” emblems, it may be the first of many handhelds that resemble the Steam Deck. This suggests that the Steam Deck may transition from a product to a hardware category in 2025 and beyond.
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Is a portable PCVR possible? SteamOS may be used for stand-alone gaming using Valve’s “Deckard” VR headset.
VR has become popular, whether you like it or not. That is my current perspective, at least, as we approach 2025 and anticipate the release of virtual and mixed reality devices from a number of significant manufacturers, including Asus, Lenovo, and Samsung’s Project Moohan.
And as Google’s new Android XR platform prepares to compete with Meta’s Horizon OS to power this next generation of gear, Valve may be prepping SteamOS to serve as a competitive alternative by releasing a stand-alone SteamVR experience in a new VR headset called “Deckard.”
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Valve may be attempting to improve the PCVR experience by doing away with the requirement for a PC for computation and allowing PCVR games to run directly on the device, akin to the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S, according to long-standing rumors surrounding the Gearard headset.
Not only may we get one of the greatest VR headsets in 2025 if it works, but Valve might also reposition SteamOS as a viable alternative for third-party manufacturers to use and invite a number of Deckard-like solutions to help VR gaming become even more popular in the years to come.
