Update: It looks like Valve have changed their position on this. See this updated article.
Original Article:
In a really surprising move the developers behind Decky Loader plugin Junk Store, which provides the ability to install games from GOG and Epic Games, are bringing the plugin to Steam officially.
This is a special new release just for the Steam Deck, and seems to indicate that Valve are open to having Steam Deck plugins available directly like this. Especially nice for all the people claiming free games (or buying) from the Epic Games Store and GOG.
It will not be free and open source like the Decky Loader plugin though, as confirmed in a Reddit announcement, due to the work involved in re-writing it for a Steam release. A price has not been decided on it yet as they gauge interest. However, the existing plugin will remain. The developers said they plan to keep expanding it and hopefully add support for more stores too.
That is, if Valve do actually give it the true nod of approval once the Junk Store developers are ready to put it live. Valve has at least approved the Steam store page, so it it has at least passed the initial stage but it could still end up catching more attention and end up not being approved - this will be quite a test for Valve too. Just how open is Steam really on what it will allow?
Main features:
- Engineered specifically for Game Mode. Once installed you can download and launch games without needing to go into Desktop Mode.
- Junk Store utilises the Steam-native interface for managing games, allowing Steam to handle most of the process.
- Junk Store leverages Steam's built-in functionality to manage Proton prefixes.
- You can use the QAM to adjust per game Proton settings such as FPS limiting, etc.
- It is extensible! You can write whatever you want for Junk Store integrations if you have the skill. You don't need to wait on anyone else to add features or store front integrations.
- Currently we have integrated support for Epic and Gog Games that ships with Junk Store.
- Epic achievements and EOS overlay are functional for games that support this feature (however, there is no playtime tracking).
Compatibility with other stores is a common complaint with the Steam Deck. You are able to go into Desktop Mode and install whatever you want, but the convenience of having something directly on Steam will be nice.
You can wishlist it on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I'm curious how this works out.
Well I wishlisted and we'll see how it goes.
Quoting: damarrinOoh, that is a huge development. I hope it works well in practice and other stores (hello, Epic) don't roll out their legal guns against it.This is actually a market political interesting question, what does epic hate more Valve or lack of sideloading options.
I don't know the answer.
If they allow software that changes the behavior of Steam (e.g. plugins) on the store itself, it would surely open up a lot of possibilities, but also ripe for abuse.
I would hate to see Steam become this:
Last edited by Linas on 11 October 2024 at 9:04 am UTC
Quoting: LinasWow, this is a big can of worms to open.
If they allow software that changes the behavior of Steam (e.g. plugins) on the store itself, it would surely open up a lot of possibilities, but also ripe for abuse.
I would hate to see Steam become this:
Nobody has gone against Heroic and/or decky loader yet.
Such a move could affect the entire ecosystem.
Also unrelated to your comment.
The option for plugins itself is already huge, because selling FLOSS software through restricted stores is a common way to profit of FLOSS development.
If this is just like, a game that I launch from my library which opens up another store, I can already do this with Heroic and this will not really be worth the money unless it came with itch.io support out of the box, which is something Heroic Games Launcher, as fantastic as it is, does not yet have.
If this is the start of a trend of valve officially allowing plugins to be made without the use of Deckyloader, not just for steam deck, but for steam in general, I am ecstatic about this and would probably just buy it for the "I was there when this thing I've wanted steam to have for a long time started" factor.
I am not at all worried about what Linas brought up because these things get tucked away in extension drawers these days. I have wanted official steam plugins ever since back in the day when themes still worked without CSS Loader Desktop.
Steam is already a web browser under the hood, imagine if we could officially implement Augmented Steam's features into Steam's official client for example.
They’ve also yet to describe what it is that they’re going to offer that makes it worth “pricing as aggressively as possible” over their competitors in Heroic, Lutris, or Non-Steam Launchers.
I’ll absolutely be skipping this.
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