Official Valve: Steam Hardware Launch timing (Q1/Q2 of 2026) and other FAQs
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this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Steam Hardware
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A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
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But they answered the question. Valve can only guarantee that games are compatible with Steam Overlay compatible games. They don't want to commit to a "yes" or "no" for stuff outside Steam, and then be liable for that answer if it does not work as advertised and then get sued to the ground. So you cannot blame them.
I don't know on Windows, but on Linux you most likely can use the controller to play on any game. It's just not supported and guaranteed by Valve.
Windows is pretty much the same as Linux, it exposes the raw events from the device and it's up to the app to handle them. Pretty sure the overlay handles that by sitting between the OS and the game and e.g. translating everything to Xbox style controls if the game needs it (And getting out of the way if it doesn't)
Outside of that, well Valve added support for the controller to SDL, so anything using it will be fully supported. But then the game needs to actually be using a new enough version of SDL, otherwise it'll just see a generic controller device, and that can be hit or miss.
Not entirely the same, if the drivers are builtin into the Linux Kernel. I don't know if the Steam Controller drivers will be Open Source, so maybe its the same.
It definitely looks like it's going to be a standard USB HID type device, if their SDL support is anything to go by.