What’s essentially new here is that Microsoft is pushing support to the Steam Deck through the Edge Beta made specifically for Steam Deck. You can go into the Steam Deck’s desktop mode and find the Edge Beta sitting in the Discover app, which is the SteamOS app store for the handheld. From there, you can access the Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming beta through the browser. Technically you could access Xbox cloud gaming without doing all this. But prior to now there was no support for the Steam Deck controls. Today that’s changing. Which means you can log in to the Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming beta through the Edge beta and start playing without any extra hardware. After you set things up of course.

Xbox cloud gaming on the Steam Deck opens new opportunities for Linux gamers

Microsoft is “particularly excited about this update” according to the Microsoft Edge community manager Missy Quarry. Saying that Microsoft worked closely with Valve to get this up and running. She also states that this opens new opportunities for the Linux gaming community. If you’re already familiar with the Steam Deck’s desktop mode, a short list of instructions provides all the steps on how to set this up. The post also holds a link to the full article (with more detailed instructions and images) on the Microsoft Edge support page. If you own a Steam Deck and have a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you might want to give this a try. As it’ll only provide you with more games to play on top of what you have installed. And the best part, is that you won’t have to install the cloud games.