Valve Reveals Its the Architect Behind a Push To Bring Windows Games To Arm (theverge.com)
(Wednesday December 03, 2025 @10:03PM (BeauHD)
from the behind-the-scenes dept.)
- Reference: 0180278699
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/12/03/2357235/valve-reveals-its-the-architect-behind-a-push-to-bring-windows-games-to-arm
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/report/820656/valve-interview-arm-gaming-steamos-pierre-loup-griffais
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge's Sean Hollister
> If you wrote off the [1]Steam Frame as yet another VR headset few will want to wear, I guarantee you're not alone. But the Steam Frame isn't just a headset; it's a Trojan horse that contains the tech gamers need to play Steam games on the next Samsung Galaxy, the next Google Pixel, perhaps Arm gaming notebooks to come. I know, because I'm already using that tech on my Samsung Galaxy. There is no official Android version of Hollow Knight: Silksong, one of the best games of 2025, but that doesn't have to stop you anymore. Thanks to a stack of open-source technologies, including a compatibility layer called Proton and an emulator called Fex, games that were developed for x86-based Windows PCs can now run on Linux-based phones with the Arm processor architecture. With Proton, the Steam Deck could already do the Windows-to-Linux part; now, Fex is bridging x86 and Arm, too.
>
> This stack is what powers the Steam Frame's own ability to play Windows games, of course, and it was widely reported that Valve is using the open-source Fex emulator to make it happen. What wasn't widely reported: [2]Valve is behind Fex itself . In an interview, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the architects behind SteamOS and the Steam Deck, tells The Verge that Valve has been quietly funding almost all the open-source technologies required to play Windows games on Arm. And because they're open-source, Valve is effectively shepherding a future where Arm phones, laptops, and desktops could freely do the same. He says the company believes game developers shouldn't be wasting time porting games if there's a better way.
>
> Remember when the Steam Deck handheld showed that a decade of investment in Linux could make Windows gaming portable? Valve paid open-source developers to follow their passions to help achieve that result. Valve has been guiding the effort to bring games to Arm in much the same way: In 2016 and 2017, Griffais tells me, the company began recruiting and funding open-source developers to bring Windows games to Arm chips. Fex lead developer Ryan Houdek tells The Verge he chatted with Griffais himself at conferences those years and whipped up the first prototype in 2018. He tells me Valve pays enough that Fex is his full-time job. "I want to thank the people from Valve for being here from the start and allowing me to kickstart this project," he recently [3]wrote .
[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/224252/valve-rejoins-the-vr-hardware-wars-with-standalone-steam-frame
[2] https://www.theverge.com/report/820656/valve-interview-arm-gaming-steamos-pierre-loup-griffais
[3] https://fex-emu.com/FEXiversary/
> If you wrote off the [1]Steam Frame as yet another VR headset few will want to wear, I guarantee you're not alone. But the Steam Frame isn't just a headset; it's a Trojan horse that contains the tech gamers need to play Steam games on the next Samsung Galaxy, the next Google Pixel, perhaps Arm gaming notebooks to come. I know, because I'm already using that tech on my Samsung Galaxy. There is no official Android version of Hollow Knight: Silksong, one of the best games of 2025, but that doesn't have to stop you anymore. Thanks to a stack of open-source technologies, including a compatibility layer called Proton and an emulator called Fex, games that were developed for x86-based Windows PCs can now run on Linux-based phones with the Arm processor architecture. With Proton, the Steam Deck could already do the Windows-to-Linux part; now, Fex is bridging x86 and Arm, too.
>
> This stack is what powers the Steam Frame's own ability to play Windows games, of course, and it was widely reported that Valve is using the open-source Fex emulator to make it happen. What wasn't widely reported: [2]Valve is behind Fex itself . In an interview, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the architects behind SteamOS and the Steam Deck, tells The Verge that Valve has been quietly funding almost all the open-source technologies required to play Windows games on Arm. And because they're open-source, Valve is effectively shepherding a future where Arm phones, laptops, and desktops could freely do the same. He says the company believes game developers shouldn't be wasting time porting games if there's a better way.
>
> Remember when the Steam Deck handheld showed that a decade of investment in Linux could make Windows gaming portable? Valve paid open-source developers to follow their passions to help achieve that result. Valve has been guiding the effort to bring games to Arm in much the same way: In 2016 and 2017, Griffais tells me, the company began recruiting and funding open-source developers to bring Windows games to Arm chips. Fex lead developer Ryan Houdek tells The Verge he chatted with Griffais himself at conferences those years and whipped up the first prototype in 2018. He tells me Valve pays enough that Fex is his full-time job. "I want to thank the people from Valve for being here from the start and allowing me to kickstart this project," he recently [3]wrote .
[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/224252/valve-rejoins-the-vr-hardware-wars-with-standalone-steam-frame
[2] https://www.theverge.com/report/820656/valve-interview-arm-gaming-steamos-pierre-loup-griffais
[3] https://fex-emu.com/FEXiversary/
âoeItâ(TM)sâ not âoeItsâ? (Score:1)
by vagaries of naptime ( 4831051 )
Sorry to be pedantic but seeing this is like nails on a chalkboard to me
âoeItâ(TM)sâ is a contraction of âoeIt isâ. âoeItsâ is the possessive form of âoeitâ
I think this headline means to indicate that âoeValve Reveals [that it is] the Architect Behind a Push to Bring Windows Games to Armâ
Re: "It's" not "Its" (Score:1)
by vagaries of naptime ( 4831051 )
Sigh. Forgot to disable "smart punctuation"
Sorry about that.
Say no to emulation, bridges, etc. (Score:1)
Make it Native. Always. I don't want translation lag eating up precious CPU cycles.
Re: (Score:2)
That worked so well for Loki (do you remember them?). What Valve is doing is bringing Windows APIs to Linux, and this strategy is succeeding where native-or-go-home has failed. Your argument sounds like the OS/2 failure fallacy.
Re: (Score:2)
> Make it Native. Always. I don't want translation lag eating up precious CPU cycles.
If you are running server workloads at scale, I'd agree. I don't consider the CPU cycles on my phone that precious though. If a game (or anything else) runs on it that would not otherwise run who am I to complain?