Steam Deck Now Supports Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Thanks To Help From Microsoft
Valve's Steam Deck has joined the ever-growing list of devices compatible with some form of Xbox Game Pass, as the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta is now available for owners of Valve's handheld gaming PC.
On Twitter, Xbox Cloud Gaming's head of Product and Strategy, Catherine Gluckstein, said it was a collaborative effort between Valve and Microsoft to get xCloud and Game Pass working on Steam Deck. And, as it turns out, Valve got a lot of help from Microsoft to get the service up and running.
We worked closely with our friends at Valve to support #Xcloud #XboxGamePass through Microsoft Edge for the Steam Deck. https://t.co/NIuHCJtXMR pic.twitter.com/Jr4JPQSbFC
On Steam Deck, players can access Game Pass through Xbox Cloud Gaming within the Microsoft Edge Beta. This means that players will have to install and launch the Steam Deck version of Microsoft's web browser to navigate to the xCloud launcher. The process is similar to how xCloud works on PC, where Game Pass subscribers can access games through Xbox's website.
If you're confused about how it all works, Microsoft has posted a tutorial article for Steam Deck owners looking to access Microsoft Edge and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Last month, Valve president Gabe Newell said he'd be "more than happy to work with [Microsoft]" to get Xbox Game Pass on Steam. Newell doesn't see Valve creating its own Game Pass competitor anytime soon, so it seems like he wants Game Pass to be a bigger part of Valve's future. While the xCloud support on Steam Deck won't be as impactful as a Game Pass app on Steam, it's certainly a big step.
Valve is also working on getting Microsoft's operating system onto the Steam Deck. Right now, the Steam Deck uses a Linux OS, but Valve is slowly rolling out Windows
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