Valve has been quietly investing in emulation technologies for devices powered by Arm chips, laying the groundwork for a possible “STEAM MOBILE“.
The information emerged after official statements from the company about the use of these tools in its new Arm-based device, the Steam Frame headset.
While emulation support may seem natural following the announcement of the Steam Frame, one detail stood out: Valve not only uses the open-source emulator FEX, but was also responsible for starting the project and funding it from the very beginning.
Valve launched FEX and funded its development for seven years
In an interview with The Verge, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais revealed that the company sought out specialists to kick-start the development of FEX, a key tool for running native Windows games on Arm hardware without the need for ports.
“We talked to a few developers we knew would be ideal for this kind of initiative—something long-term that required a very specific set of expertise. We worked to convince them to start the project and have been funding everything ever since,” said Griffais.
The information was reinforced by Ryan Houdek, lead developer of FEX, who thanked Valve for supporting the project “from the start.” Houdek explained that the company gave full freedom to build the emulator as an open and sustainable tool, useful not only for Valve but for the entire community.
According to Griffais, the company began working on the idea of supporting Arm hardware as early as 2016. “We knew it would be almost ten years of work before we had something robust that people could trust to run their libraries.”
It’s all collaborative, but many people forget that Valve and other companies are also helping important Android emulation projects.
We talked about this in a short right after the Steam Frame was announced:
Emulation could bring PC games to phones without ports
Combined with other Valve-backed technologies like Proton, FEX is already being used to power some of the leading PC emulators on Arm-based smartphones. In practice, this opens the door to a future where Windows games can run directly on smartphones and tablets—without the need for mobile versions or dedicated ports.
For the mobile audience, this is especially relevant. The ability to run PC games natively on advanced Android devices could transform the portable gaming landscape and bring titles that previously depended on cloud gaming or simplified versions.
A strategy born from past mistakes
Valve’s bet on emulation stems from lessons learned from the failure of the old Steam Machines, whose main limitation was precisely the lack of compatible games. With solutions like Proton and FEX, the company aims to prevent developers from having to spend time and resources making ports.
“We’d rather developers invest their time making their games better or creating their next projects,” said Griffais. “We believe porting work is essentially wasted work when you think about the value of the library.”
And Valve on mobile?
Despite the progress its technologies have brought to mobile devices, Valve has not confirmed any concrete plans for the sector. For now, the official focus remains on living-room gaming, PCs, and portable devices like the Steam Deck.
Even so, the indirect impact is evident: by funding key technologies like FEX, Valve is paving the way for Windows games to run on phones—and could end up strongly influencing the future of mobile gaming without ever launching a product of its own.
Source: GameSpot
