You could play Steam games on Android thanks to Valve's new project!

What if I told you that one day you could play your Steam games on your Android smartphone? That's the plan just unveiled by a Valve developer in an interview with The Verge. In other words, instead of desperately waiting for publishers to bring their games to mobile, Valve has found the ultimate cheat code, and it's called Lepton. Here's how it works.

Valve launches Lepton to play Steam games on Android

To help you understand how Valve may be revolutionising mobile gaming, let me first explain what Proton is. Basically, Proton is an open-source software package developed by Valve that enables programs originally designed for Windows to be run on the Linux operating system. It is thanks to this solution that Linux users can access the vast majority of the Steam catalogue. It is also thanks to Proton that the Steam Deck offers access to most Steam games without running on Windows.

In fact, Lepton is the Android version of Proton! Lepton will allow games designed for Windows to be launched on Android, and that could well revolutionise the game. And for you nerds out there, Lepton is based on Waydroid, another open-source program that lets you run Android on Linux.

We used to be able to play mobile games on PCs, and in a few years' time the reverse may well be possible!

Steam games accessible on ARM-based devices

And what gave Valve the idea to embark on this project was the Steam Frame, the VR headset that was recently announced at the same time as the Steam Machine. This headset uses an ARM processor (in this case, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3), the same type of processor found in Android smartphones (sorry iPhone owners... of which I am one).

This means that developers could easily port their games to Android, without having to rewrite the code. Between the Steam Machine and Lepton announcements, Valve really isn't disappointing at the moment. Gabe can rest easy, he'll still be able to buy lots of yachts in the future!