Valve has started publishing Steam Machine compatibility ratings on Steam, giving buyers of its new living-room SteamOS box a second label next to the existing Steam Deck status. The useful bit is supposed to be obvious: tell people whether a game that struggles on the handheld has a fair shot on stronger hardware.
So far, that is exactly where the system is thinnest. Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland reported that many games Valve already says can run on SteamOS, but not well enough on Steam Deck, are showing an “Unknown” status for Steam Machine compatibility. For those games, Valve’s store page language says the company is “still learning about” compatibility and has no further Steam Machine information.
Valve announced about a month ago that it would extend its Steam Deck Verified program to Steam Machine. The new ratings began appearing on Steam store pages under a “Learn More” link beside Steam Deck Compatibility, according to Ars Technica.
Where Valve’s labels are clear, and where they are not
The easy cases appear covered. Ars Technica found that games already Verified for Steam Deck also appear Verified for Steam Machine. Games that Valve has already marked as incompatible with SteamOS remain nonstarters on the SteamOS-powered Steam Machine.
The problem sits in the middle: games that launch under SteamOS but fail Valve’s Steam Deck performance bar. Valve’s Steam Deck documentation requires a game to run at 1200×800 and 30 frames per second at default settings. For Steam Machine, Ars Technica reported that the target becomes 1080p at 30 frames per second.
On Steam Deck, these titles can be marked Unsupported because their graphics settings cannot be made to run well on the handheld, or because they need manual graphics changes to perform acceptably. Those are exactly the cases where a Steam Machine-specific judgment would help, since the living-room device has more capable hardware than the aging portable Deck.
Ars Technica said every SteamOS-compatible game it found in that graphics-limited Steam Deck category currently showed Unknown for Steam Machine. That means buyers are still left guessing about titles that may be technically compatible with SteamOS but untested, or at least unlabeled, for Valve’s newer hardware.
Some Deck warnings do translate differently
The update is not empty. Ars Technica reported that some games downgraded to Playable on Steam Deck because of small text can become Verified on Steam Machine, where the assumption is a larger TV screen. Examples cited include 007: First Light and Lies of P.
Other warnings carry over. Games that need an on-screen keyboard on Steam Deck may still get a similar caution for Steam Machine, according to Ars Technica, which means a couch keyboard may remain part of the setup for some players.
Ars Technica listed nearly two dozen SteamOS-compatible games that remain Unknown for Steam Machine while being Unsupported on Steam Deck for graphics-related reasons:
- Abiotic Factor
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Black Myth Wukong
- Dead Space (2023)
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- Elden Ring Nightreign
- Enshrouded
- Final Fantasy XVI
- Forspoken
- Hell is Us
- Horizon: Forbidden West
- Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
- Metro Exodus
- Ninja Gaiden 2: Black
- Nioh 3
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Returnal
- Rise of the Ronin
- Stalker 2
- Starfield
- The Quarry
- Until Dawn
Valve did not immediately respond to Ars Technica’s request for comment. Until Valve fills in the missing ratings, the Steam Machine label is most helpful for games whose answer was already predictable, and least helpful for the ones buyers most need checked.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
