Valve’s Linux-based entirely mostly Steam Deck has captured the gaming world’s attention and this weekend it got a main boost—from Microsoft, of all companies. The beta model of Microsoft’s Edge browser for Linux now brings Xbox Cloud Gaming enhance to the Steam Deck, mere weeks after Valve released official Home windows drivers for its handheld gaming PC. That sound you hear is Steve Ballmer shrieking into his pillow someplace.
Getting it dilemma up requires jumping by contrivance of some hoops, as detailed in this enhance page and a put up on the official Microsoft Edge Reddit community. Sure, there’s some minor clarify line work fervent, but it’s no longer too no longer easy, particularly since Microsoft illustrated every step of the technique on its enhance page. The tweaks being made let the Steam Deck register button taps on your video show screen as enter coming from a gamepad, a feature rival browsers lack—including Chrome and Firefox, which attain preinstalled on SteamOS.
Once that’s all done, you’ll be ready to stream Xbox Cloud Gaming’s assortment of over 200 Xbox Series X-powered video games straight to Edge on your Steam Deck (assuming you’re an Xbox Game Stagger Final subscriber, that is). That’s to hand in any case, because it provides you rating entry to to hundreds of video games you’re paying monthly for, but it’s particularly to hand on story of several of Microsoft’s preferred video games don’t enhance the Steam Deck natively attributable to anti-cheat compatibility issues. Those would possibly be pleased to trip upright elegant by contrivance of the Xbox Cloud Gaming servers, including Halo Endless, Halo: Master Chief Sequence, Gears 5, and Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Loads of so a lot of Xbox Game Studio video games play successfully on the Steam Deck, though.
The lunge works out for Microsoft, too, which is consuming to elongate the attain of Xbox Game Stagger to a favored contemporary tool that isn’t powered by Home windows, and give Edge a motive to shine even on Linux. It would possibly probably be a harbinger of more Xbox-powered browser ambitions for Microsoft: “Know that here’s upright the initiating of the memoir for gaming on Edge,” community supervisor u/MSFTMissy teased in the Reddit put up.
Even better, Ars Technica parts out that you simply may well presumably pretty tweak the code to trip Google Stadia video games in Edge on Linux, too. Giggity.
Easy anticipating your Steam Deck to rating hand-delivered by Gaben at your doorstep? Take a look at out our explainers on why the Steam Deck runs Linux (spoiler: blame Home windows 8) and every thing you should uncover out about Proton, the Steam Deck’s live-or-die software compatibility expertise.
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