Valve's Steam Deck makes a brilliant case against walled gardens by running Arch Linux and allowing software from anywhere, unlike every major game console
Jared Newman / Fast Company :
Context & Ripple Effects
The Steam Deck is Valve's second run at living-room-adjacent hardware after the Steam Machines lineup fizzled in 2015 — and this time the pitch is inverted: instead of a standardized PC box competing with consoles on their terms, it is a $400 handheld that runs Arch Linux and installs software from anywhere. The $400 Steam Deck review already flagged that it doubles as a full Linux PC despite rough software at launch.
Jared Newman's argument lands against a backdrop Gabe Newell himself discussed in his interview on consolidation in gaming: as storefronts and platforms consolidate control over what players can buy, Valve is positioning its hardware as the escape hatch rather than another gate.
First-order effects
- Buyers get console ergonomics without console lock-in — any PC software source works on the device, directly contrasting every major console's certified-store-only model.
- Console makers now compete against a handheld whose differentiator is the absence of gatekeeping, putting their exclusive-content and store-cut models side by side with an open alternative.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and developers gain a distribution path with no platform certification layer, weakening the leverage exclusivity deals and store fees depend on.
- Valve's investment in compatibility layers — echoed by Pierre-Loup Griffais describing work funding open-source tech to play Windows games beyond x86 — turns 'runs anything' from a slogan into an engineering moat other handhelds must match.
Third-order effects
- If open handhelds keep selling while closed consoles rely on exclusives, the industry's gatekeeping economics become contestable: hardware margins and services, not store tolls, decide winners.
- A generation of players raised on install-from-anywhere handhelds could normalize PC-style openness as a baseline expectation for dedicated gaming devices, pressuring regulators and rivals alike on platform control.
The trend: Gaming hardware is splitting between closed consoles that monetize gatekeeping and open PC-derived devices like the Steam Deck that make software freedom the selling point.