We’re living in a weird world with Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida excited about a Linux handheld

Sometimes it feels like I’ve somehow fallen through the multiverse into a very different and thoroughly weird world. When Valve put Steam on Linux back in 2013 (see our full history), who could have imagined what that would bring us many years later?

At the end of February the Steam Deck should be releasing to the lucky first few who managed to get their reservation in (not me), ushering in a new era of PC gaming on the go. A Linux handheld. Powered by SteamOS 3, Valve’s latest bundling of Steam with open source based on Arch Linux. Excitement levels keep rising every time Valve announce something new, but its the posts from developers we keep seeing with units that really gets us excited.

When you have the likes of Shuhei Yoshida, the Head of Sony PlayStation Indies (and former President of SCE Worldwide Studios), putting up a clearly very excited Twitter post showing off a previously PlayStation exclusive running on a Linux handheld (the Steam Deck), you know something big is brewing that’s about to be unleashed on the world.

Pictured – God of War on a Steam Deck, credit: Shuhei Yoshida

The gaming landscape is ever-changing but the past few years felt bigger than before. Sony are allowing more previously exclusive games to leave their platform, Microsoft are doing the same and now thanks to the likes of Steam Play Proton – we even get to play them on desktop Linux. Seeing an Xbox Studios or PlayStation Studios logo shine brightly on a Linux box is just such a strange feeling. Thanks to Valve again, we shall soon even seen that on the go or on the toilet.

It absolutely is going to be the year of Linux on the de…Steam Deck. Please don’t let the multiverse send me back to whatever boring world I came from, I don’t want to get off this ride.