Steam just rolled out a major change to its "Deck Verified" program that might leave some gamers confused, but it's not as complicated as it seems.
When browsing the Steam store now, you might see some games marked "Deck Verified" and "SteamOS compatible." They're related but not exactly the same. This change was part of a recent update to include compatibility for SteamOS-powered gaming handhelds that aren't made by Valve. It could also help PC gamers running Linux.
Here's what "SteamOS compatible" means and how to see which games in your Steam library are compatible with the Steam Deck, SteamOS, and Linux in general.
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"Deck Verified" vs "SteamOS compatible": Steam compatibility tags explained
Over the past few days, you may have noticed a new "SteamOS" compatibility tag on the Steam store. That's the result of an update to Steam's "Deck Verified" program that Valve announced on Monday.
Valve now displays SteamOS compatibility alongside games' "Deck Verified" status. The change is due to the launch of the new SteamOS version of the Lenovo Legion Go S, and future hardware powered by SteamOS that isn't made by Valve.
SteamOS is the Linux-based operating system Valve developed for the Steam Deck, now allowing other hardware brands to use on their gaming handhelds and PCs. Since these devices aren't made by Valve, the "Deck Verified" status doesn't technically apply since they use hardware different from the Steam Deck.
So, now games will also display SteamOS compatibility to indicate whether or not they're playable on SteamOS-powered devices that aren't the Steam Deck.
That might sound a little confusing, but most Deck Verified games will also be SteamOS compatible. According to Valve's announcement blog post, it's expecting some 18,000 games to be SteamOS compatible "out of the gate."
This isn't just a welcome update for handheld gaming PC users. It's also a helpful feature for Linux gamers. While SteamOS is just one of many Linux distributions, SteamOS compatibility can be a good indicator of general Linux compatibility.
SteamOS and the Steam Deck have already done a lot to improve the Linux gaming experience, so it's nice to see Valve taking yet another step to promote compatibility.
If you want to see which games in your Steam library are compatible with Linux and the Steam Deck at a glance, ProtonDB is another great resource for checking performance, compatibility, and bug reports.
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