Nexus Mods Pledges to Add Native Steam Deck, Steam Machine Support on Linux
Nexus Mods Pledges to Add Native Steam Deck, Steam Machine Support on Linux
Publish Date: 2026-01-26 11:39:00
Source Domain: me.pcmag.com
Nexus Mods, a major hub for hosting and distributing modifications for thousands of games, plans to update its standalone Vortex modding tool to work natively with SteamOS hardware.
That includes the SteamOS Linux distribution as well as native support on Steam Decks and the upcoming Steam Machine, which should make modding games on either system a bit easier.
Nexus Mods has been a keystone of the PC modding community for almost 20 years. It’s one of a few centralized locations where gamers can find the latest mods for their favorite games, from aesthetic tweaks and new weapons and items to entire game overhauls. Along with manual installs, it also offers more automated installs and mod management through its Vortex tool.
In a 2026 roadmap post, Nexus Mod developers confirm that they’re bringing that support to SteamOS. “As we move into 2026, Vortex is shifting back to the center of our development roadmap. While we have spent the last couple of years exploring new territory with the Nexus Mods App, we have decided to consolidate our efforts and bring all that innovation directly into Vortex. Over 1.4 million modders use Vortex every month to mod their games, and we’re committed to improving their modding experience.
“We’re also committing to supporting Vortex on SteamOS,” they add.
An early preview of the redesigned Vortex UI. (Credit: Nexus Mods)
The focus will be on “vanilla Steam hardware,” including the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. That means third-party systems with SteamOS installed will not be officially supported, although they might work just fine. Nexus Mods also says that since Vortex is open source, it will be relatively trivial for developers to expand support to other Linux distributions, which could make Linux gaming more viable for PC gamers, especially those who love to mod their games.
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