Steam

Another day, another load of bug fixes coming from Valve for all Steam users and an especially nice one for Linux / SteamOS if you have a lot of games.

Something that does come up now and then is that the Steam client on Linux systems (like Steam Deck) can seemingly forget it's able to run Windows games via Proton. There's a few different ways it can happen, with previous bugs already solved by Valve and now they've found another related bug to squash.

Unsurprisingly, Epic Games CEO and frequent X poster Tim Sweeney has thoughts about the $900 million lawsuit against Valve in the UK, which recently got the go-ahead from a competition tribunal. Also unsurprisingly, given his competing store and past criticism of Steam, Sweeney approves of the action, and based on his related legal tussles with Apple and Google, thinks there's something to it.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024, very broadly alleges that Valve unfairly prevents game makers from offering their products at lower prices on other platforms and requires that all add-on content for games purchased on Steam also be purchased through Steam, and that Valve's "excessive commission" has resulted in inflated prices for UK consumers. Valve had argued that the suit should not be allowed to proceed as a collective action—functionally similar to a class action—but a Competition Appeal Tribunal disagreed, ruling earlier this week that the suit can proceed.

Valve have put out a fresh Proton Experimental upgrade for SteamOS / Linux systems, which thankfully includes a fix for the EA app breaking again. Only a few days ago Valve launched the new stable Proton 10.0-4, which Proton Experimental includes plus extra fixes not yet ready for everyone. See more on all the different Proton versions in the GamingOnLinux guide.

There were quite a lot of reports across social media, Reddit, and a few on Valve's official GitHub about various games published by EA (like Mass Effect) no longer launching due to issues with the EA app. This should now be solved with the latest update!

Valve, creator of Steam, now face legal action in the UK as a lawsuit has been given the go-ahead that could result in up to £656 million in damages.

This is not technically some new legal action, it's actually the same one that was started back in 2024 from Vicki Shotbolt, the founder and CEO of Parent Zone - they're noted in the legal documents as Vicki Shotbolt Class Representative Limited ("PCR"), backed by Milberg London LLP. Shotbolt actually set up a private limited company just for this with a steamyouoweus.co.uk website.

As of the latest details from documents submitted January 26th 2026 after a hearing on October 14th 2025, the legal action has now officially been given the go-ahead as a tribunal have now been satisfied that there's enough there to be pursued.

Valve released Proton 10.0-4 today as the latest stable update to the Proton 10 series of this open-source compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components for playing Windows games on Linux.

Proton 10.0-4 adds support for new games, including Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality, Changeling VR, Summoners War: RUSH, Quantum Threshold, REACH, Fellowship, Metal Slug: Awakening, The Obsessive Shadow, Drop Dead: The Cabin, Zero Caliber 2 Remastered, and Lost Memories 3 Side Stories.

Also supported by the new Proton release is Death by Scrolling, Stellar Reach, Girls’ Frontline, Modules, Distant Worlds 2, 懒人修仙传2, Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages, and Chronology. All these games are now playable on Linux, and they previously worked if you had Proton Experimental enabled

https://github.com/tommybee456/OpenSplitDeck

Valve have given their accessibility categories on Steam for discovering games a small overhaul, along with a big new Steam client update for everyone.

Back in June of 2025, Valve released the new accessibility filters which made finding games on Steam a lot easier for all types of players and now they're doing some further improvements to this.

Valve released a new stable update to its Steam Client desktop application for Linux, macOS, and Windows systems with various improvements to Steam Input, especially support for the Razer Raiju V3 Pro controller.

The new Steam Client update adds support for the Razer Raiju V3 Pro wireless PS5/PC controller, re-enables support for the Nintendo Switch 2 wired controller, adds “Response Axis Style” to “Stick Response Curve” options to the Joystick Mode settings, and adds a toggle for the Gyro “Smooth Fine Movements” option in Steam Input.

A few more games are going to be lost to history, as the French indie studio Accidental Queens announced they're closing down.

In a short post on Facebook they mentioned: "Hi everyone, as you may have noticed, we've not been very active online for the past few years. We are officially in the process of closing our studio. We are fine, we just wanted to move on to other things!".

Back in early 2024, Valve put up new rules for game developers on Steam to pull in some information about generative AI, and they now seem to have tweaked it.

As spotted by GameDiscoverCo and posted on Bluesky, the form developers have to fill out has seen a few tweaks in the wording mainly to clarify that it's for content that is actually seen and consumed by players. From marketing materials on the Steam page, to content in the game - but not including AI tool helpers in their game development environment

We already had a list of the first lot of Steam events for the year but now we know everything that's coming, as Valve put up the second half.

The events are a good way to find new games, and lots of discounts. Although for discounts you may want to wait on the major seasonal events if you're watching your wallet closely. Or perhaps saving up for the new Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware.

It seems it will be easier to be Steam Machine Verified when compared with Steam Deck Verified, according to a Valve designer speaking with Game Developer.

They spoke with designer Lawrence Yang who said there will be "fewer constraints" noting that if you're already Steam Deck Verified it will be Steam Machine Verified. That was pretty much obvious though don't you think? Valve already do something similar with SteamOS Compatible ratings, they just stick it straight on for other SteamOS machines if a game is Steam Deck Verified.

My hope is the text sizing will once again come into focus for game developers. It's often a big problem on the Steam Deck's smaller screen and resolution, with so many developers only seemingly testing their games on rather big monitors. In some games, the text is even too small on my own big monitor. Now think about this issue when you're sitting across the living room on your nice sofa, this could be quite the pain point with lots of games having no text scaling options. You're going to need some binoculars at the ready.

Along with an entirely new set of awards you can give out across Steam the changes should stop all the clown farming on reviews, guides, forum posts and more.

You've probably seen guides and forum posts that are just pure silly bait on Steam, as it has become a bit of a problem since people expected to get a bunch of clown awards — and they did, it was everywhere. This should hopefully now be a thing of the past. In the Steam announcement Valve mentioned that Steam Awards no longer transfer points over, and they've retired the old awards in favour of a completely new set.

Now it's purely about showing appreciation, with all the awards costing the same amount of Steam Points too.

Hardest is getting removed from Steam by the developer at the end of the month, as they say "AI is bad" and "AI is evil" - oh my. Never heard of it until it was pointed out on Mastodon to me.

In a Steam announcement the developer mentioned they made the game in a few Summer months using AI "because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free". Now they have "realized the AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment." and that some AI companies "can use this game just existing as a reason the get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people".

After a Kickstarter success back in 2022, the medieval kingdom builder Earth of Oryn is set to enter Early Access on January 19th. It looks promising but it's far from finished.

Exciting news for all Linux enthusiasts betting on ARM64 architecture. Ubuntu has taken a step toward making Steam available on ARM64, opening public testing of a new Steam Snap build for ARM.

The testing initiative focuses on a Snap-packaged version of Steam designed to run on ARM64 systems, including modern ARM laptops, SBCs, and servers increasingly used as desktop replacements. For reference, until now, Steam has officially supported only x86_64 systems on Linux, leaving ARM users dependent on unofficial workarounds or entirely excluded from Valve’s ecosystem.

A once popular Flash game has returned and it's now available on Steam, all thanks to a superfan who didn't want to let it die. That game is Dungeon Rampage, a 1-4 player co-op hack-n-slash dungeon crawler.

Originally playable on Facebook of all places, back in the era of Flash games where Facebook had quite a lot of them (anyone remember FarmVille?). Originally taken offline in 2017, the game's revival was sparked by Angelos Mako, a fan who spent a third of their lifetime tracking down the original developers. At just 17, Mako helped recover the lost source code and secured the game’s rights before partnering with industry veterans at Gamebreaking Studios to bring their childhood favourite back to life. It has a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised a surprising $70,463 from 1,603 back in June 2025

If you're after more funny and frightening co-op games to play with friends, the recently announced Dig, Dig, Die could be a good one for you.

In Dig Dig Die, you and friends take on the role of pirates raiding graveyards from a cursed flying ship, digging up coffins and crypts in search of valuable loot. Armed with shovels, crowbars, and questionable weapons, crews must work together, or betray one another, to escape with their haul before the monsters hear them coming. With support for up to 6 players online it sounds like a good time.

Between raids you also get to do various activities aboard your ship and gear up, with vending machines to grab some useful items and there's a full casino to mess with your friends during some blackjack and roulette.

A nice move by Valve to improve the modding scene - as mods on the Steam Workshop can now support multiple game versions.

There's a little work required by both game developers and modders to get it all to work together, but the system sounds quite nice. Might mean in future, eventually anyway, we'll see less compatibility issues when developers put out big updates to their games. Valve put up two separate blog posts on it across Steamworks and Steam Workshop to cover all the details, and they have a new documentation page to cover it.

Another official SteamOS handheld has been announced, and it's Lenovo again with the Legion Go 2. During CES 2026 they announced the Legion Go 2 with SteamOS should arrive in June, with a price starting at $1,199. So we've still got quite a while to wait on it, even though the Windows version has been available since October 2025.

Valve have released the latest stable update for SteamOS version 3.7.19, bringing a bunch of bug fixes to improve the Linux gaming platform. It rolls up a few fixes from previous Betas, so everyone is good to go on upgrading to it.

What games from the Steam Winter Sale have you gotten?

Might get the, erm, Japanese Stonks simulator on this list LMAO