Valve's New Hardware Ecosystem: The Unifying Role of microSD Cards

Valve is significantly expanding its hardware lineup, introducing the Steam Machine and Steam Frame to join the popular Steam Deck. A notable commonality across these diverse Linux-based devices, ranging from handheld to virtual reality, is the strategic integration of a microSD card slot. This design choice facilitates effortless game transfers between platforms, a feature highlighted by Valve engineers as a simple plug-and-play solution, allowing users to move their game libraries seamlessly from one device to another.

All three devices are designed to support microSD cards up to 2TB, providing ample storage capacity. Valve representatives confirm that gaming performance from these compact storage mediums is more than adequate, with game load and boot times remaining efficient. While each device offers built-in storage, the microSD card slot presents the most straightforward and recommended method for storage expansion, especially considering the complexity of upgrading internal SSDs, which would typically require cloning the existing drive.

The financial aspect also favors microSD cards as a storage solution. For instance, the Steam Deck OLED's 1TB version costs a premium over its 512GB counterpart, a price difference often greater than the cost of a comparable 512GB microSD card. This makes external storage a more economical choice for many users, despite a potential marginal difference in load speeds compared to the internal NVMe drives, which, while fast, are not among the absolute quickest gaming SSDs available.

Valve's commitment to a cohesive ecosystem extends beyond shared hardware features. Their proprietary operating system, SteamOS, developed initially for the Steam Deck, provides a consistent user interface across all devices, including Big Picture Mode and SteamVR. This unified experience, coupled with features like fast suspend and resume, underscores a deliberate industrial design philosophy aimed at ensuring all Valve hardware feels like a family of interconnected, seamlessly operating devices. As the Steam Frame, Steam Machine, and a new Steam Controller prepare for release next year, this interoperability and design consistency promise a well-integrated gaming experience, allowing current Steam Deck owners to even preload games onto microSD cards in anticipation of future device launches.