Apple Vision Pro Steam Link's Arrival, the First Sign of a Gaming Revolution on Apple Headsets

Steam Link on Vision Pro is still limited to 2D display (photo: x @TechInsider)

JAKARTA - The gaming ecosystem on Apple Vision Pro is starting to show serious activity. Valve officially developed a native Steam Link app for visionOS, paving the way for Apple headset users to play PC and Mac games directly through the device.

This information was confirmed through a community post by Valve developer Sam Lantinga, who said the initial version of the app was available through TestFlight - Apple's testing platform.

Steam Link itself is not new. So far, this feature allows gamers to stream games from a PC or Mac to other devices such as an iPhone, Mac, or Apple TV. Now, that ability is expanded to Vision Pro, making this headset a "virtual giant screen" for playing games.

Technically, Steam Link works by sending a real-time view of the game from the main computer to the Vision Pro, while receiving control input from the user. As a result, gamers can play heavy games without having to run them directly on the headset.

Valve says streaming can reach resolutions up to 4K, with a large 2D screen that can be adjusted for curvature in a panorama mode - a feature that is quite immersive, even if it hasn't really entered the realm of full VR.

This is where the twist is: Steam Link on Vision Pro is still limited to 2D display, not virtual reality. This means that VR games from Steam can't be played natively on the Apple headset using Valve's official solution.

Even so, this move is considered a strong signal in a larger direction. Until now, Vision Pro users who want to play VR games have to rely on third-party applications such as ALVR or iVRY.

In fact, Nvidia's support through the CloudXR technology that was introduced last March opens up additional pathways to bring VR content to Vision Pro.

Industrially, the presence of the native Steam Link could be Valve's "gateway" to finally bringing SteamVR to the Apple ecosystem - something that has always felt far away, given their relationship, which tends to be cold in terms of gaming.

But as usual, Valve's timeline is always full of mysteries - to the point that the term "Valve Time" emerged, which describes how relaxed the company is in releasing products.

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