> This system won't run FIFA, GTA Online, Battlefield, Valorant or CoD, it's a nonstarter for many.

That's largely known now but still a bummer. I wonder if anything will ever change in this area and if Valve will be able to pressure game editors or create an anti-cheat so good and for any platform to be able to change something.

Don't see why they'd risk it. They already had to reduce their cut just to attract players like Activision and Take Two onto their platform.

Also, making anti cheat on Linux feels like the most Anti-Linux thing to do. But I don't play many multiplayer games, so I have no skin in the game.

Valve can't even do it for cs2 on windows.

Steam Machine is just a PC. You can dual boot or use a VM or use Wine/Proton .

It can be involved but it's certainly possible

Why not? You can just install windows on it.

"Just", YMMV.

It has a custom motherboard for example, which may or may not be supported by Microsoft.

Windows works in SteamDeck, so I think it seems highly likely that Valve will provide the drivers for this device as well.

*yet