The team behind the popular Unity game engine has announced “official Steam support” coming soon. What they mean by this is targeted support for Valve’s hardware – notably the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machine mini PC. It’s also worth mentioning that the Steam Frame VR headset, since all three run on the same Linux-based operating system, SteamOS.

Unity announced the initiative for better Steam hardware support during its GDC 2026 Product Update. Many developers continue to rely on Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, which allows Windows games to run on Linux, but Unity says “we can do better” by providing a native solution. Unity is also looking to make “targeted enhancements” to its Linux runtime for better native performance, while making publishing to Steam “easier than ever before”.

Official Steam support on Unity is “coming soon”

“We’re bringing official Steam support into Unity. Now, I know you’ll say ‘But I already ship games to Steam’ – and that’s true. Thousands of developers have had success on Steam with Unity.

The thing is, prior to Platform Toolkit, we’ve never actually officially supported Steam in the past. It’s always been up to developers to integrate Steamworks themselves and publish and support their titles on that platform historically. And on Steam Deck, many of you have been finding success with Proton, but I think we can do better with a native solution.”

James Stone, Technical Director of Product Management at Unity Technologies, source: GDC Unity Product Update

“As great as Proton is, it’s simply something we don’t have any degree of control over or ability to support,” Stone continues, so providing a more native solution that doesn’t rely on a compatibility layer means Unity can push native support. The technical director also comments that “we’ve actually made some native improvements to the Linux player that targets the Steam Deck hardware” – and this is already available.

We mentioned the Steam Frame before, since it runs on SteamOS, though it should be noted that the VR headset will not be running on x86 hardware when used as a standalone device. Instead, it uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip on ARM64 architecture, which Valve says will use Proton & FEX to bring Windows-based x86 games to ARM64, while also offering support for Android VR games through its newer Lepton compatibility layer. Since Unity doesn’t specifically mention the Steam Frame, it’s safe to assume that its focus remains reserved for the two x86 devices (the Deck and Machine).

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.