Valve Has Been Secretly Working for Years to Make PC and Steam Games Compatible with Mobile Devices

Valve has been making headlines recently with the announcement of several new hardware devices that will expand ways to play on Steam. One of these devices is a new machine designed to be a natural evolution of the PC.

However, this might not be the only major step the American company is taking. In fact, Valve has been working on something that could be even more revolutionary — bringing PC games to mobile devices. This could dramatically expand Steam’s market potential.

A Long-Term Compatibility Effort

In an interview with The Verge, Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the architects behind SteamOS and the Steam Deck, revealed that Valve has been developing open-source technologies that allow Windows games to run on Arm architecture used by mobile devices. This approach would remove the need for developers to create special ports, saving time and making the platform more accessible.

Griffais explained that Valve began hiring experienced developers in 2016 to make this possible. The company also supported the FEX emulator, which enables x86-based games to run on Arm architecture.

“In 2016, 2017, there was always an idea we would end up wanting to do that, and that’s when the Fex compatibility layer was started, because we knew there was close to a decade of work needed before it would be robust enough people could rely on it for their libraries. There’s a lot of work that went into that,” he said.

Playing PC Games on Mobile

The goal is to let players access their Steam libraries on mobile devices with the same experience as on PC, without worrying about hardware differences. Valve’s engineers are excited about giving players more options to enjoy their favorite games anywhere. They also confirmed that the Arm version of SteamOS shares the same Linux-based architecture as its desktop counterpart.

When asked if Valve is developing its own mobile devices running SteamOS, Griffais said they have explored ways to expand the Steam Link app but are currently focusing on improving the experience on PC, Steam Deck, and the new Steam Machine. However, he did not rule out future possibilities.

The Steam Machine is expected to launch in early 2026. In the meantime, Valve continues improving the Steam platform by adding new compatibility updates.