😮 Valve has added a new Steam Frame-dedicated games category on Steam
👀 The category is called ‘Great on Frame’ and includes certified games so far, such as Portal 2 and The Lab
👍 It’s predicted this is likely the first category Steam Frame users will see when booting the Steam storefront on the headset
🔜 Valve has quietly been certifying games for the headset, with more expected in the category once it launches
The launch of the Steam Frame could be imminent, judging by Valve adding a brand new game category to Steam.
As spotted by Bradley Lynch on X, Valve has added a new ‘Great on Frame’ category for games that it thinks should pair nicely with its upcoming VR headset.
He also states that this is the category that Steam will likely default to when folks open the Steam storefront on “FrameOS”.
The games listed in this category so far are Portal 2, Into Black, Aperture Hand Lab, and The Lab.
Interestingly, three out of those four are first-party Valve titles, and have already been certified for the Steam Frame as a part of Valve’s extensive backend prep for the headset’s launch.
Portal 2 was the first Steam Frame compatible game that was revealed, which was certified with the caveat that it “doesn’t support Steam Frame’s native display resolution and may experience degraded performance as a result”.
However, a further update to the Steam Frame’s compatibility system revealed that 2D games are no longer tested for the native display resolution requirement meant for VR games, which changed Portal 2’s rating from “Playable” to Verified”.
Aperture Hand Lab and The Lab are Valve’s own VR showcase titles, which also recently got Steam Frame certified in the backend.
In the case of both The Lab and Aperture Hand Lab, the former is “Verified” while Aperture Hand Lab is “Playable”.
For both games, Valve is testing the original x86 builds, rather than specially made Arm-based ones, as per Steam Hardware Updates on X.
As we get closer to the headset’s launch, expect more games to show up on this list, as they have with the Steam Deck and Steam Machine’s own certification programs.
We’re expecting the Steam Frame to launch at virtually any time soon. It may be the case that we see the device launch this week owing to the end of the Steam Summer Sale yesterday, although it’s still a guessing game at this point.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.