Yeah, they collect certain data to see how you’re using Steam to ensure you’re not using any sort of malicious means. They would most likely scan what OS you’re using to access Steam. If the heavy rumor turns out to be true.

Valve would certainly not do it out of the goodness of their heart lol. They’ve adjusted things based off country’s blocking loot boxes or when Sony enforced PSN requirements in games where Steam operates but PlayStation does not.

Blocking games from specific devices would be a first though lol 

I'll use an analogy for this next question.

Can Nike go into a shoe store and ask the store to not sell their products to a certain group of people?

I'm sorry, like I said I'm ignorant of these things.

So if you have 10 different devices all running windows OS, it knows what all 10 of those different devices are?

edit: Meant to quote the other gents response.

Yes, based on differing Windows keys or MAC addresses. All technological devices have a physical number that’s unique to that device. No 2 MAC addresses are the same. That kind of information is picked up when you’re entering another domain, such as Valve’s.

I’m a network engineer, so this kind of stuff I see everyday lol

Just going out on a limb here, but I would think the only way to keep future PS games off an Xbox device that can run Steam OS is to stop releasing them for PC. I'm not sure what can be done with games that Sony has already released. Maybe they can stop any further sales of those games?

SteamOS? I wonder if you’ll be able to sideload SteamOS like you can on any other PC.

It’s not just Steam though. Sony sells all their games on Epic Games Store. Timmy may not play so nice all in the name of his personal crusade he’s been on lol

Sigh, here’s the thing. If the next Xbox is just a PC with Steam included then those Sony games won’t be in the Xbox ecosystem regardless of if you’re playing them on a PC-Xbox, they’ll be in the Steam ecosystem that will just so happen to be on a PC-Xbox. They aren’t going to start selling Sony games on the Xbox PC store. A PC-Xbox is just that, a glorified set spec PC. One that has every chance of being as unsuccessful as SteamBox was.

Also, the whole idea of future Xbox hardware is just to sell Game Pass and until GP is available on PS/NS then that hardware will continue to exist and (assuming a PC-Xbox is going to include the PC Xbox store) if you think they’re going to allow a competing ecosystem onto the same piece of hardware then I don’t know what to say. You give the Steam userbase the an option of continue spending into their ecosystem vs saving £70 on video games? Well how exactly has that worked out for them in the console space hmm.

It would be also the first time that an xbox device has steam integrated lol and no it wouldn't be out of goodness, it would be business. If the Steam business evolves the terms and conditions with publishers/developers should also evolve.

You have to think about it like they are different stores. Nike sells products in their own stores but also in sports stores. In this case even when the Steam store is basically the same on pc and steam deck Valve knows from where you are buying, store 1 or store 2 (and store 3 if/when xbox integrates steam). So the analogy would be Nike not letting certain stores sell certain products and the answer is yes. In my country you rarely see special edition nikes outside nike stores. The same way Sony has or should have the right to say these are my products I don't want store 3 to sell them and that's basically all. They don't need to stop selling on pc to keep their games outside xbox platforms, they just need for Valve to keep a control of it.

Also just a comment about other comment you made. I don't think xbox is going to use steamOS because steamOS is a legit treat to Windows, it would be counterproductive and even it they do or the next xbox is just a windows pc with a nice price Valve should know that is store 3.