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Captain_Yuri said:

Alright, time for a controversial theory!

Steam Deck is a Trojan Horse that if successful, Microsoft will need to be wary of.

See I have been watching a number of videos and going through sites and etc because of my interest in the Steam Deck. And the one thing I have noticed is that it's really hard to get a PC with 16GB of Ram for $399. Like practically impossible let alone all the other things it comes with like RDNA 2. So I think it's pretty clear that Valve is losing money, maybe a lot of money on the base model. But the question is, what is their end game? Sure it brings more people to PC gaming at a lower price point and allows reasonably priced PC handhelds but is that really all there is to it?

So I think their real end game is Linux. At face value, it might seem like Valve is just losing money on hardware but there's more to it than that. They have been working since 2018 on Proton to make Windows games work on Linux. They have also been continuing support for Steam OS. So they aren't just losing money on Steam Deck's hardware but all the R&D costs for Proton and maintaining Steam OS. Well what is the purpose when Linux gaming is such a small % of market share?

Well the purpose is that while it is an open system that you can install Windows on it... Valve is hoping that you don't. And instead you keep using Steam OS and get used to Linux. It's why they have exclusive features launching with Steam OS 3.0 such as suspending games which you can't do on Windows. It is why they said all games on steam will work by the time it launches. They could have just used Windows and Volume Licensing instead as that would cost much less than all this R&D. But if the Steam Deck is a success and people get used to gaming on Linux, then the future will be hella interesting. And if not, well, least they tried something interesting.

In my opinion, you're overthinking.

Valve and MSoft are no longer at odds as they were a while ago, when Valve started working on SteamOS to try to put pressure on MSoft and its monopolistic tactics. But MSoft failed to achieve most of what they wanted to do and has become more open and flexible in the recent years.

Besides that... Valve doesn't really want to get on MSoft's bad side nowadays. Sure, the lack of MSoft games at Steam wasn't a big when Windows 10 came with the Store, but MSoft is much bigger now. Which kind of impact would have on Steam if all the new MSoft games skipped the store and went to EGS (with the assumption that MSoft is pissed at Valve and wants to hurt them)? What would happen when the games from Bethesda land on a competing storefront and not on Steam? How much will that affect Valve's results given how much have games like Skyrim, FallOut, Wolfenstein, etc. sold? Would Valve risk all that money just to push Linux?

I think that, in this case, the easiest answer is more likely, and they're going with Linux/SteamOS to avoid licencing problems with Microsoft and third parties while offering the capabilities of a regular PC and then some like suspending the games and such.