Steam Deck changed the way I buy and play games. In the same way that the Nintendo Switch blew me away with how it let me play the latest and greatest Nintendo games on the go and on the TV, the Steam Deck wowed me with how it offers a massive catalog of PC games that I can play on a portable or big screen. And with the Steam Deck’s microSD card slot, I can add a lot more storage just by inserting a small memory card, meaning I can bring even more games with me on the device.
But with its new Steam Machine PC and Steam Frame VR headset, Valve is about to make any microSD card you use with the Steam Deck even more useful. Like the Steam Deck, both of those devices also run Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS operating system, and both also have microSD card slots. So if the microSD card plugged into your Steam deck is formatted for SteamOS, any games you have stored on it will be immediately visible to the Steam Machine and also by Steam Frame.
When the Steam Machine and Steam Frame launch in early 2026, this microSD card support means you’ll be able to take the device out of the box, slot in your microSD card from your deck, and start playing most of your games without having to re-download them. There may be differences in how well games run on the three devices due to different specifications. But many games will probably work well on all of them, meaning you’ll be able to pop your microSD card into whatever device you want to use and just start playing.
Basically, your microSD card will work almost like an old-school game cartridge, but instead of limiting it to one piece of hardware or a single game, you can easily bring as many games as can fit on the card to whatever SteamOS PC you’re using.
However, Valve is only building UHS-I card readers into these devices. is uhs-i slow Compared to state-of-the-art microSD or internal SSD. They may not be able to keep up with every game you play, even if most load fine. Meanwhile, Nintendo has already moved to support the much faster microSD Express format with the Switch 2 (though has arguably taken a step back by introducing a Switch 2 cartridge that’s a “key” and doesn’t actually contain games).
Valve hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayat explained, “SD cards are notorious for low performance, but from our testing and our experience, they actually work pretty well.” The Verge While showing us the Steam Machine at Valve’s headquarters. “In our opinion, for most people, choice matters most.
When asked to clarify the specifics of the microSD reader, Aldehayat said, “What we’re trying to emphasize here again is that we really want the Steam Machine to be a really easy, super convenient device” that you just plug in, sign in, and start playing games.
It’s a key part of what makes Valve’s new hardware feel like part of a cohesive ecosystem, and it could be a significant advantage as it enters the console wars.