{"id":233446,"date":"2026-04-20T13:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/now-you-can-run-steam-games-in-linux-on-some-handhelds-that-ship-with-android\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:15:11","slug":"now-you-can-run-steam-games-in-linux-on-some-handhelds-that-ship-with-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/now-you-can-run-steam-games-in-linux-on-some-handhelds-that-ship-with-android\/","title":{"rendered":"Now you can run Steam games in Linux on some handhelds that ship with Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now you can run Steam games in Linux on some handhelds that ship with Android<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/liliputing.com\/now-you-can-run-steam-games-in-linux-on-some-handhelds-that-ship-with-android\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-04-20 13:19:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: liliputing.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The line between PC and mobile devices is getting blurrier all the time. Apple\u2019s MacBook Neo uses an Arm-based processor made for iPhones\u2026 and still manages to outperform many mid-range Windows laptops with Intel or AMD processors. Qualcomm is making some of the fastest laptop chips available for Windows PCs today. And emulation software allows you to run some x86 apps and games on Arm-based processors, as well as play some Windows games on Linux systems.<\/p>\n

All of which is to say, it probably shouldn\u2019t be surprising that you can now install Steam and play PC games on a number of relatively inexpensive handheld game consoles with Qualcomm chips designed for smartphones. But it\u2019s still pretty cool to see that it\u2019s now possible, even if the software that makes this possible is still in its early phases.<\/p>\n

Retroid Pocket 6 handheld game console running ROCKNIX with Steam (image via: Retro Games Corps)<\/p>\n

Valve has been developing Proton software that allows you to play Windows games on Linux since before the company launched the Steam Deck. And the company has\u00a0also been funding development of FEX, which allows you to run some x86 games on systems with Arm-based chips.<\/p>\n

Last week Valve released Proton 11 beta 1, which brings Proton and FEX together, allowing you to run Windows games designed for x86 architecture on devices with Arm processors that are running Linux. This will eventually make it possible to use Steam on Valve\u2019s upcoming Steam Frame VR headset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. But you don\u2019t have to wait until then to try it out.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Linux-based gaming operating system ROCKNIX has already added support for Steam to its software for handheld game consoles. Once installed on a supported handheld, Steam will show up as just another option in the EmulationStation menu, allowing you to play PC games the same way you can play classic console games.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that not\u00a0all PC games will work. The ROCKNIX Wiki notes that games that require…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now you can run Steam games in Linux on some handhelds that ship with Android…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/liliputing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rp6-rocknix.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-233446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233448,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233446\/revisions\/233448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}