Valve widened Steam Deck frame support by adding The Lab and Aperture Hand Lab to the Steam Frame's standalone compatibility system. The Lab now sits in Verified, while Aperture Hand Lab remains Playable and still shows warnings.
Matt Swider said Valve certified its standalone VR showcase titles for use on Steam Frame. The update gives the headset three certified games, after Portal 2 became the first title to clear the compatibility list.
Valve's x86 test path
Valve is testing the original x86 builds of these games rather than specially made Arm-based versions. That means the compatibility work is aimed at existing software rather than a separate porting effort.
Portal 2 first appeared with a caveat that it does not support Steam Frame's native display resolution and may experience degraded performance as a result. Valve then moved it from Playable to Verified after a further compatibility update.
The Lab and Aperture Hand Lab
The Lab's compatibility report says that all functionality is accessible when using the default configuration, that it shows Steam Frame controller icons, that it has legible text on Steam Frame, and that the default graphics configuration performs well. Aperture Hand Lab's report says that it runs fine even while the game displays compatibility warnings.
That split matters because it shows Valve is not treating every title the same way, even inside the same showcase set. One game can be fully Verified while another still carries warnings, which gives buyers a cleaner read on what should work without forcing them to guess from a blanket label.
Steam Sale ends at 10am PT
Valve's backend work also includes a first look at the headset's first virtual environment and localization of the Welcome Tour tutorial. The Steam Sale ends at 10am PT today, and the article says Steam Frame may launch this week, so buyers watching the compatibility list now have the strongest hint yet that launch-day software is still being filled in.
The unanswered question is whether Valve will officially launch Steam Frame this week.
