SteamOS is coming to ROG Ally

While Valve's main focus remains through SteamDeck and its console variants on improving the capabilities of SteamOS, the company also recently confirmed that adding support for rival hardware remains is underway to build a large SteamOS ecosystem, while giving users more choices.

ROG Ally is the name mentioned in the recent beta update for SteamOS. Besides a large number of bug fixes, the 3.6.9 update introduced "support for additional ROG Ally keys" in the input section. The sudden appearance of ROG Ally is certainly something that will attract interest in the near future. Asus' handheld gaming device now runs Windows 11 out of the box.

In an interview with The Verge, Valve designer Lawrence Yang confirmed that this is not a random addition, and that official SteamOS support is coming to third-party handhelds. .

The official release date of SteamOS on ROG Ally in particular and other handheld gaming devices in general has not yet been revealed. However, with support, anyone looking for a Steam Deck-like experience on the ROG Ally, the new X variant, the Lenovo Legion Go, or another similar handheld will be able to enjoy it. Hopefully users won't have to worry about operating system compatibility or controller-related issues.

As for the long-promised dual-boot capability on Steam Deck for those who want to easily switch between SteamOS and Windows, this feature is forecast to be very 'far off':

For Windows, we are preparing to provide the remaining Windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED (you can see we are preparing firmware for the Bluetooth driver). There's no update on dual boot support timing—this remains a top priority, but we can't do it yet.

Kareem Winters

Update 15 August 2024