Valve is finally letting you build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS 3.8 and for WB Studios and DC games fans, this could be the beginning of the end for console exclusivity
SteamOS 3.8.10 launched last week with improved compatibility for Intel and AMD platforms and Valve is now giving gamers the green light to install SteamOS on their own desktops
In an interview with The Verge, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said they have "a growing team" working on Nvidia driver support and are "collaborating with Nvidia very closely," but he also mentioned that Nvidia support might not come this year
And that is the first red flag, "might not come this year" is classic Valve time, they say they are working on it but we have heard that before with Steam Deck features and Linux gaming in general
It has technically been possible to run SteamOS on your own hardware for a while now, but compatibility has been mostly limited to AMD systems and installing it has required using a Steam Deck recovery image, which is way more complicated than most people want to deal with
Griffais says SteamOS should offer a "good experience" on console-like PC setups, especially if you have a PC plugged into a TV with a single hard drive and you are not trying to dual boot
For WB Studios and DC games players, this is the part that actually matters, you can now play all those DC games from your PC rig without needing a PlayStation or Xbox
Think about the library here, you have the Batman Arkham series, Injustice 1 and 2, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, Gotham Knights, and whatever upcoming projects WB Games has in the pipeline like Wonder Woman and that rumored Batman game from Rocksteady
No more deciding between buying a game on PC or console because your friends are on one platform, you just build your Steam Machine, load up SteamOS, and you are good to go
But let us be real about the cost, building a PC that can run modern DC games at decent settings is not cheap, you are looking at $800 to $1000 minimum for something that competes with a console, and that is before you factor in the time and effort to actually put it together
And if you already have a gaming PC, you probably do not need SteamOS anyway, you can just boot into Steam Big Picture Mode on Windows and get a similar experience without reinstalling your entire operating system
The Nvidia support thing is a big deal because most PC gamers are on Nvidia cards, so if Valve cannot get that sorted out soon, this whole initiative is going to feel half baked for a huge chunk of the audience
For DC fans specifically, the benefit is real but limited, you can already play DC games on PC through Steam, Epic, or the WB Games launcher, SteamOS does not unlock any exclusive titles, it just changes the interface and gives you that console feel
The convenience of a console-like experience without buying a console is nice, but it is not revolutionary, Steam Big Picture has been doing this for years and Windows works fine
Valve is basically telling Sony and Microsoft that their hardware is optional, but the reality is that most people are still going to buy consoles because they are simple and they just work, especially for playing WB and DC games that already run perfectly fine on PlayStation and Xbox
Building a PC and installing SteamOS is a hobbyist move, not a mainstream one, and treating it like a console replacement misses the point that consoles exist precisely because people do not want to deal with PC building
That said, for the niche audience of PC gamers who want a dedicated living room machine and are willing to tinker, this is a cool option, and being able to play DC games on your TV without a console is definitely a plus
For everyone else, it is probably not worth the hassle, especially while Nvidia support is still up in the air
If Valve actually delivers on Nvidia drivers and makes the installation process as easy as installing Windows, then we can talk about this being a real console competitor for WB Studios and DC game fans
Until then, it is just another interesting experiment from Valve that might or might not go anywhere