Pulling Windows down from the throne of PC games, Steam’s ambition is not small-Steam, Windows, Windows 11

When it comes to the computer operating system that is most suitable for playing games, Windows is definitely a part of it. Even the most ardent Apple fanatics, with their eager anticipation for a powerful GPU in a Mac, would never expect a Mac gaming experience to match Windows levels.

Over the years, Windows has been deeply involved in the field of graphics, using game interfaces such as DirectX to firmly control the development direction of computer games. To play games, you need to install Windows, and this has been the undisputed truth for many years.

However, the world is never short of challengers. Over the game building built by Windows, there seems to be an inconspicuous cloud-Steam.

The magic of Steam: Is Linux compatible with Windows games?

If you follow the gaming industry, you should know Steam Deck. This is one of the hottest gaming hardware in recent times. This handheld console launched by the electronic game mall Steam was even discussed on the Internet at a time when it was on a par with the devices of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

The special thing about Steam Deck is that, as a handheld,Its essence is actually a mini PC, it is pre-installed with Linux system, but this Linux system can run a lot of Windows games!

Yes, Steam did not develop games specifically for this handheld, and the games run by Steam Deck are directly original Windows games in the Steam store.

What Steam Deck is compatible with is not only Windows games, but also the smooth running of various 3A masterpieces. The performance is basically the same as that of Windows, and some games even perform better than Windows.

How good is the Linux system compatibility in Steam Deck?

According to Steam’s own official data, 50% of the top 10 games on Steam are relatively compatible (Silver level and above), 88% of the top 100 games are relatively compatible, and 83% of the top 1000 games are relatively compatible! Considering Steam’s huge library of games, this achievement is already impressive.

It can be said that the reason why Steam Deck is so popular is inseparable from its good compatibility with Windows games.

Developers don’t need to modify Windows games to work well with Linux on Steam Deck. What’s the magic? This is Steam’s amazing trick – Proton.

Proton: The Savior of Linux Gaming

As mentioned earlier, Steam Deck is pre-installed with a Linux system. The reason why it can run Windows games is due to the Windows API conversion layer developed by Steam for Linux – Proton.

If you are an experienced Linux user, you must have heard of “Wine”, which is a program that translates Windows APIs into Linux corresponding APIs so that Windows programs can run under Linux.

In recent years, Steam has made magic changes to Wine, integrated DXVK, launched the Proton compatibility layer, and a large number of Windows games can run perfectly on Linux through Proton. This is the secret of Steam Deck compatible Windows games.

The most commendable thing is that Steam did not hide Proton. Other Linux distributions, and even Windows games that are not sold on Steam, can enjoy Proton.

After installing Steam on Linux (Steam has a native Linux version), enable Steam Play in Steam, select Proton, add the corresponding game to Steam, and then call Proton to play. It can be said that thanks to Steam, the Linux gaming environment has undergone tremendous changes.

Proton’s effects are well-known. Until now, Proton is still evolving, and the number of Windows games that can be made compatible with Proton is still increasing. The gameplay of Linux is constantly catching up with Windows.

At present, a large part of the games that are not compatible with Proton are not due to the incompatibility of the game itself, but due to the game’s own launcher or anti-cheat mechanism, which makes some single-player games and many online games unable to use Proton to play.

For this reason, some common online games or online competitive games such as LOL have no good solutions on Linux for the time being. But if you’re just a single player, Linux’s gameplay is beyond your imagination.

Steam’s ambitions: to take down Windows?

Steam is already the most popular video game store on the Windows platform. With a strong game library, Steam has no less right to speak in the industry than any game giant.

The power of Steam stems from the fact that it is a huge game mall, but its weakness may also be that it is only a game mall-for a long time, Steam has not had a popular game platform like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, which makes Steam Always lack a place to stand. Steam currently needs to rely on the Windows platform to reach its players.

This situation is dangerous. The sales platform is built on someone else’s land, which makes Steam’s business model a risk that cannot be ignored. If Windows can no longer allow Steam to gain a foothold, or Windows ushered in decline, then Steam can do little about it. Your own destiny is in the hands of others, which is not a situation that Steam wants to see.

This is not alarmist. In recent years, a major trend in the application ecosystem of the operating system lies in the system’s recycling of application distribution channels. Even if the system’s own store is not the only channel for application distribution, the system application store will be the most powerful distribution channel.

For example, the only app distribution channel for iOS is the App Store, and the strongest app distribution channel for Android is Google Play, and third-party app stores have little competitiveness on these two platforms (except for “Android” in China). Steam is essentially an app store, and the current state of affairs on Windows is moving in that direction.

It is no news that Microsoft is pushing the Microsoft App Store on Windows. In recent years, the Microsoft Store has made the biggest progress, and it may be that many players have changed the way to buy Windows games from Steam to the Microsoft Store/Xbox client-this is not good news for Steam.

Microsoft’s current approach is to attract more players to the Windows Microsoft Store to buy games by selling Xbox Game Pass.

Friends who care about the game industry have noticed that thanks to the support of Microsoft and the PCization of the Xbox hardware platform, a large number of games have launched versions across Xbox and PC.

After players subscribe to XGP, they can play a large number of games included in the XGP library by Microsoft for free. Many games in this library have dual versions of Xbox and PC at the same time. After players subscribe to the rights of XGPU, if they want to play the corresponding games on the PC, the Microsoft Store is the distribution entrance.

The Xbox player base is huge, and XGP’s subscription data has been pretty good. According to data released by Microsoft, the number of XGP subscribers has reached more than 25 million.

Among them, there are many players who have purchased XGPU that supports the rights of Xbox and PC dual platforms. With so many players tending to acquire games through the Microsoft Store on the Windows platform, it is self-evident that Steam will feel pressured.

Steam didn’t have a firm foothold in iOS or Android, and with XPG and the Microsoft Store getting more and more aggressive, there’s no guarantee that Windows won’t be able to accommodate itself one day. Steam is well aware of this, and Steam OS and Proton are the answer.

Although both Steam OS and Proton are open source, it is not uncommon for products to establish a niche through open source projects.

For example, the open source Chromium has created the world’s first browser Chrome; another example is the open source Android, which abruptly devoured most of the mobile market share.

Open source can help commercial projects because open source can make products popular, while additional services outside open source projects are responsible for keeping users – such as Google services for Chrome, Play services for Android.

The most recent example may be Tesla. Tesla has open-sourced a large number of electric car manufacturing patents, enabling electric car manufacturers to quickly invade the gasoline car market, while Tesla’s unique services such as FSD, overcharge, and software entertainment are responsible for improving User loyalty, a large part of the gas car market captured by trams, a considerable part of users flowed to Tesla.

Using open source projects to quickly expand the market, make the cake bigger, and then use good services to distribute the most cakes into your own hands is indeed a tried-and-true strategy.

Steam is also very good at providing additional services. One of the reasons why Steam can attract a large number of players is that its excellent services, such as cloud archives, after-sales, scoring systems, communities, creative workshops, etc., are all talked about by players.

Now, Steam has to use the open source Steam OS and Proton to grab the cake from Windows – at least it can’t let Windows dominate the standard of the cake, and it can’t let its store only open on the Windows site.

Proton’s future is promising. In addition to the popular Steam Deck, Steam OS and Proton can also be installed on any PC. With the help of hot-selling hardware such as open source and Steam Deck, it is foreseeable that the volume of Steam OS and Proton will expand rapidly.

Game developers want to take all the Windows and Linux/Steam OS markets, and more and more games will be compatible with Proton as a development goal. A large number of Windows games, and even the anti-cheat and anti-piracy encryption attached to the game, will more actively add compatibility support for Proton.

As a result, Proton will be largely a de facto compatibility standard for Windows games, and the best way to experience Proton is to install the Steam client on Linux, or use Steam OS directly. As a result, Steam has established a stable platform niche with Proton.

The Steam Deck was the first hot-selling Steam console, but it won’t be the last.

The Steam platform can carry more than Windows games. When Steam OS and even the entire Linux camp are loud enough to compete with Windows in terms of games, will Windows still be the best choice for PC games? The answer is probably not so clear.

Summarize

In general, Steam relies on its own volume and the open source Proton to promote the establishment of new compatibility standards for games, which can drive the Steam ecosystem to penetrate more Windows games and even the entire Linux platform.

Value is a company with open source genes. Can Steam shake the PC gaming throne of Windows with the power of open source? Let’s wait and see.

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