Valve slowly expands SteamOS support on non-Valve hardware

Valve's SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta adds initial gamepad support for MSI's Claw 8 EX AI+, Ayaneo's Pocket S2, and Konkr Fit, with improved support for older MSI Claw and OneXPlayer devices. The update also improves the Linux driver for the new Steam Controller, enabling native controller applications without Steam running. The Lenovo Legion Go S remains the only non-Valve device with full 'powered by SteamOS' branding.

SteamOS is continuing its slow march to fuller support on a wider variety of non-Valve hardware. This weekend’s release of the SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200?emclan=103582791470414830&emgid=667247155276153538 includes “initial gamepad support” for a few recent gaming handhelds and improved support for a few others. Those newly supported handhelds include MSI’s Claw 8 EX AI+, the extremely expensive https://www.bestbuy.com/product/claw-8-ex-ai-cg3em-8-120hz-fhd-1200p-gaming-handheld-intel-arc-g3-extreme-intel-arc-32gb-1tbssd-console/J3P7TXTKW3 , extremely powerful handheld built around Intel’s Arc G3 processor that launched this summer. While SteamOS has long included beta support https://web.archive.org/web/20250731175244/https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227 for “other AMD powered handhelds,” Valve has only recently https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/major-steamos-update-adds-support-for-steam-machine-even-more-third-party-hardware/ been working on offering compatibility https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEwokaAUFAk with Intel-based handhelds like the MSI Claw line. This weekend’s update suggests the company hasn’t abandoned those efforts and that Intel chips aren’t being left out of the SteamOS conversation. SteamOS 3.8.25 also newly supports the controllers built into Ayaneo’s Android-focused Pocket S2 https://www.ayaneo.com/product/AYANEO-Pocket-S2 and the more recently released Windows-based Konkr Fit https://shop.ayaneo.com/products/konkr-fit . Valve also says the new OS offers “improved support” for older MSI Claw devices and the OneXPlayer line https://onexplayerstore.com/ of portable gaming PCs. This weekend’s update follows June’s SteamOS 3.8 update https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/697641379212298072 , which stressed “improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms.” That update specifically called out improved controller support on handhelds from the likes of GPD Win, Anbernic, and OrangePi, as well as improvements for various Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw, and OneXPlayer devices. So far, the Lenovo Legion Go S https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/games-run-faster-on-steamos-than-windows-11-ars-testing-finds/ remains the only non-Valve device to sport the full “powered by SteamOS” branding, indicating full compatibility with Valve’s take on Linux. But these kinds of updates suggest the company is still interested in getting its bespoke OS working well on plenty of other devices. Elsewhere in the new SteamOS update, Valve has updated the Linux driver powering the new Steam Controller https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/04/steam-controller-the-ars-technica-review/ , allowing it to work with “native controller applications” even when Steam is not running. That should be welcome news to SteamOS players who like to launch into Desktop mode to run emulators or other Linux-native non-Steam games.