Proton 11.0 ARM64 appears as Steam Linux ARM64 beta is shown on Nintendo Switch
Valve’s ARM64 Steam work is no longer limited to backend changes and documentation. A Bluesky post from aagaming shows the Steam Linux ARM64 beta running on a Nintendo Switch , while SteamDB now lists a separate tool entry for Proton 11.0 (ARM64) .
With the new Proton 11 beta release, the first official Proton release for ARM devices has also been released, and the SteamDB entry confirms Valve has now published a dedicated ARM64 Proton branch on Steam.
Source: Valve
ROCKNIX support
ROCKNIX is a community Linux distribution made for handheld gaming devices, mostly known for retro emulation and a console-style front end. It now also supports Steam on some ARM handhelds, and the current ROCKNIX device pages include models such as the Retroid Pocket 5 and Retroid Pocket Flip2, Ayn Odin 2 and Odin 2 Portal, Ayn Thor, plus AYANEO Pocket ACE, Pocket DMG, Pocket EVO, Pocket DS, and Pocket S2.
Steam on Switch
A modded Switch can boot Linux, so it stops being just a Nintendo console and starts acting more like a tiny ARM PC. That lets people test Steam and Proton on it. Since most PC games were never made for ARM hardware, extra translation tools are needed in the background to make everything work.
Aagaming has demonstrated Steam running on Tegra X1 powered console. No games were presented running yet because the Switch kernel is ‘too old for FEX,’ mentioned the author. FEX is a tool that lets ARM64 Linux run programs made for X86. I guess we will have to wait a bit more for Switch running games unless someone figures this out sooner.
Steam Linux ARM64 beta on Switch
Source: Aagaming , RetroLunch , Brad Lynch
