As Valve prepares the launch of its new Steam Machinethe company took advantage of the GDC 2026 to lift the veil on a central element of its ecosystem: the program Steam Machine Verified.
This certification system should allow players to know immediately whether a game will work correctly on this new platform. Inspired by the program already used for the Steam Deckthis label aims to simplify the compatibility of PC games on a machine designed for use close to consoles.
A program inspired by the Steam Deck
Valve wants to replicate the success of the verification system already present on the Steam Deck. With this program, players can see at a glance whether a game is perfectly compatible with their device. In the case of the Steam Machine, the operation will be very similar. A game that obtains certification Steam Machine Verified must meet several specific technical criteria.
One of the most important is minimum performance. To get the official badge, a game must be able to run in 1080p at 30 frames per second. This requirement is intended to ensure a stable and playable experience across all Steam Machines.
Steam Deck games will be automatically compatible
Valve also announced good news for players and developers. Games already certified for Steam Deck will automatically be considered compatible with the Steam Machine. This decision greatly simplifies the transition between the two platforms. As a reminder, games verified on Steam Deck must:
- work correctly with a controller
- be fully playable without a keyboard or mouse
- offer an interface adapted to a console type screen
These requirements also correspond to the primary use of the Steam Machine. Thus, thousands of games could obtain certification without major modifications.
Valve wants to improve multiplayer compatibility
During the conference, Valve also mentioned another important project: system compatibility anti-cheat with SteamOS. Some competitive games still experience difficulty on Linux systems due to their anti-cheat protections. Valve is therefore working to make it easier for developers to integrate their solutions directly into SteamOS. The goal is clear: to enable more popular multiplayer games to run on:
- Steam Machine
- Steam Deck
- any device using SteamOS
However, the company acknowledges that some technical challenges remain. Kernel-level anti-cheat protections and security systems secure boot can still cause problems.
Why Valve chose 1080p at 30 FPS
During the first presentation of the Steam Machine, Valve mentioned the possibility of playing in 4K at 60 frames per secondnotably thanks to upscaling technology FSR.
The announcement of a minimum of 1080p at 30 FPS may therefore seem to be behind the initial promises. But in reality, this choice is logical. When FSR technology is used in performance mode on a 4K display, the game is often rendered internally in 1080p before being scaled.
In other words, achieving this level of performance already guarantees a good basis for taking advantage of higher resolutions. According to initial information, the Steam Machine should use a GPU close to a Radeon RX 7600Mwhich makes this performance goal more realistic. Under these conditions, the majority of PC games should be able to obtain certification without major difficulty.