Valve's Steam OS platform may not have had the impact the company wanted and today is a far cry from a Windows competitor when it comes to gaming, but that doesn't mean Valve has given up on its Linux dream just yet. In fact, the Steam developer is looking to get many more of the games on its platform running on the niche operating system.
The as-yet-unannounced "Steam Play" system was spotted by Redditors in Steam's user interface files. It purportedly makes it possible to play games on a multitude of other operating systems even if they weren't designed to work on that platform in the first place. While certain "supported" titles are cited as being the best fit for Steam Play, there will also be the option of gamers testing out other games which may well work with Steam Play, even if they weren't specifically catered to by the feature.
There is a caveat however, that that may break save games or other features of certain games if they weren't designed to work with Steam Play.
As ArsTechncia highlights, such a system holds exciting potential for not only improving Steam OS, but making Linux gaming and indeed, Linux software usage, far easier for the average PC user. It might not make Linux the new Windows overnight, but it would certainly make it more viable by making far more games compatible.
The question remains though, what kind of performance impact such an intermediary software layer might have on the gaming experience? Steam OS already knocks performance down a notch from native Windows builds of games, so another stumbling block may not be too attractive to potential users.
As it stands, Valve appears to want to keep the specifics of Steam Play under wraps, but perhaps we'll learn more in the near future.
