Steam just needs to move to x64 and work on some way to port/emulate 32-bit for older games.
Honestly this is on Valve imho, moreso than Redhat or Ubuntu or any distro providers.
32-bit is dead and it’s somewhat absurd that Steam is still 32-bit.
I just checked, and while I usually shit on Epic game launcher, theirs is 64-bit by default, they don’t even offer a 32-bit version of the store. This is squarely on Valve.
The Steam client is just a launcher. Why is it Valve’s job to make sure that legacy 32-bit games continue to run? They’re not the vendor of the game, and they’re not the vendor of the OS. They’re just a middleman. If the game vendor doesn’t want to patch it to 64-bit, and the OS vendor doesn’t want to maintain 32-bit compatibility, then there’s simply no more support for that combination of OS and game. Valve isn’t required to step in there.
It may surprise you to learn that Valve already switched the client to 64-bit… for Mac. OSX hasn’t had 32-bit support since 2019, but it still has a Steam client! Valve didn’t do anything for 32-bit-only Mac titles, except drop the “Mac OS compatible” tag once Apple had dropped 32-bit support. That’s all they’re ever going to do for 32-bit-only PC titles, when/if OS vendors completely drop 32-bit support.
32-bit is dead and it’s somewhat absurd that Steam is still 32-bit.
Tell that to anyone who bought a legacy title on Steam and now wants to run it on modern hardware. Leaving the Steam client at 32-bit is simply a low-effort way to ensure that the OS has the 32-bit libraries that will be required by any 32-bit title the user happens to launch.
Why is it Valve’s job to make sure that legacy 32-bit games continue to run? They’re not the vendor of the game, and they’re not the vendor of the OS.
They have a responsibility to ensure that games they sell continue to work. They ship libraries on Linux so there’s a common base, and they should also do so for 32-bit games. GOG does this for older games using things like dosbox or whatever, and Steam should follow suit.
Why would I use a launcher if it doesn’t launch games?
They have a responsibility to ensure that games they sell continue to work.
How do you figure that? Valve sells you a game, and they publish the system requirements for that game. If a game doesn’t work on your system then they’ll give you a refund as long as it’s within the refund window. Beyond that, they owe you nothing. For 32-bit titles, one of the technical requirements is 32-bit OS libraries. Let’s say Windows 12 removes support for 32-bit software. What do you think Valve will do? I say they’ll mass-update the system requirements of 32-bit titles to indicate that they’re not compatible with Windows 12 and higher. Historical precedent is on my side here, because this is effectively what Valve did when Apple dropped 32-bit support from OSX.
They ship libraries on Linux so there’s a common base, and they should also do so for 32-bit games. GOG does this for older games using things like dosbox or whatever, and Steam should follow suit.
The libraries that Valve ships for Linux support are essentially Proton. They’ve invested a lot of effort into Proton because there’s a strong business case for doing so. 95% of Valve’s customers game on a Windows OS (source: Steam hardware survey), which means that Microsoft could present an existential threat to Valve if Microsoft attempts to lock down their platform. Having a functional alternative OS could dissuade Microsoft from making any anti-competitive moves. Plus, of course, without Proton there’s no Steam Deck. I think making money from Steam Deck is only Valve’s short term goal though, which is why they’re opening up Steam OS to other handheld makers. The long-term aim is to shift gaming away from closed-source to open-source platforms so that Valve’s business isn’t reliant on any one OS vendor.
There’s no business case for doing the same with legacy 32-bit titles. There will be no new 32-bit titles going forward, and there’s hardly any market for existing legacy 32-bit titles. Valve would need to compete with GOG, who’s already doing much the same thing, and GOG is barely profitable as it stands. GOG’s 2024 profits were a paltry 1.1M profit on 199M revenue (source). That’s a profit margin of about 0.5%, which is not a healthy indicator in a for-profit business. 5% is generally considered low, 10% or better is a healthy margin. GOG is essentially being propped up by CD Projekt Red’s Witcher/Cyberpunk money (CDPR has 468M profit on 801M revenue in 2024; a profit margin of 58%, which is wildly high-margin). Valve could prop up a money-losing 32-bit compatibility project with all their income from 64-bit software sales, but I doubt they would.
People always underestimate the work that goes into making sure stuff works. These packages need to be built so they add a lot of compile time to the pipeline, these packages have limitations inherent to 32 bits so they also add troubleshooting and bugs. This is time and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
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Steam just needs to move to x64 and work on some way to port/emulate 32-bit for older games.
Honestly this is on Valve imho, moreso than Redhat or Ubuntu or any distro providers.
32-bit is dead and it’s somewhat absurd that Steam is still 32-bit.
I just checked, and while I usually shit on Epic game launcher, theirs is 64-bit by default, they don’t even offer a 32-bit version of the store. This is squarely on Valve.
Bit of a weird comparison between EGL and Steam… Epic Games Launcher has been around for a fraction of the time Steam has.
Steam hosts thousands of legacy titles and it’s great that most of them are still playable. Epic hosts only newer games.
Also, EGL is basically just a glorified web browser that only points to Epic’s website.
Mac OS dropping 32 bit support made me realize just how bad the situation is. And that was over 5 years ago.
The fact that any software being made in 2025 is still 32 bit is ludicrous.
The Steam client is just a launcher. Why is it Valve’s job to make sure that legacy 32-bit games continue to run? They’re not the vendor of the game, and they’re not the vendor of the OS. They’re just a middleman. If the game vendor doesn’t want to patch it to 64-bit, and the OS vendor doesn’t want to maintain 32-bit compatibility, then there’s simply no more support for that combination of OS and game. Valve isn’t required to step in there.
It may surprise you to learn that Valve already switched the client to 64-bit… for Mac. OSX hasn’t had 32-bit support since 2019, but it still has a Steam client! Valve didn’t do anything for 32-bit-only Mac titles, except drop the “Mac OS compatible” tag once Apple had dropped 32-bit support. That’s all they’re ever going to do for 32-bit-only PC titles, when/if OS vendors completely drop 32-bit support.
Tell that to anyone who bought a legacy title on Steam and now wants to run it on modern hardware. Leaving the Steam client at 32-bit is simply a low-effort way to ensure that the OS has the 32-bit libraries that will be required by any 32-bit title the user happens to launch.
They have a responsibility to ensure that games they sell continue to work. They ship libraries on Linux so there’s a common base, and they should also do so for 32-bit games. GOG does this for older games using things like dosbox or whatever, and Steam should follow suit.
Why would I use a launcher if it doesn’t launch games?
How do you figure that? Valve sells you a game, and they publish the system requirements for that game. If a game doesn’t work on your system then they’ll give you a refund as long as it’s within the refund window. Beyond that, they owe you nothing. For 32-bit titles, one of the technical requirements is 32-bit OS libraries. Let’s say Windows 12 removes support for 32-bit software. What do you think Valve will do? I say they’ll mass-update the system requirements of 32-bit titles to indicate that they’re not compatible with Windows 12 and higher. Historical precedent is on my side here, because this is effectively what Valve did when Apple dropped 32-bit support from OSX.
The libraries that Valve ships for Linux support are essentially Proton. They’ve invested a lot of effort into Proton because there’s a strong business case for doing so. 95% of Valve’s customers game on a Windows OS (source: Steam hardware survey), which means that Microsoft could present an existential threat to Valve if Microsoft attempts to lock down their platform. Having a functional alternative OS could dissuade Microsoft from making any anti-competitive moves. Plus, of course, without Proton there’s no Steam Deck. I think making money from Steam Deck is only Valve’s short term goal though, which is why they’re opening up Steam OS to other handheld makers. The long-term aim is to shift gaming away from closed-source to open-source platforms so that Valve’s business isn’t reliant on any one OS vendor.
There’s no business case for doing the same with legacy 32-bit titles. There will be no new 32-bit titles going forward, and there’s hardly any market for existing legacy 32-bit titles. Valve would need to compete with GOG, who’s already doing much the same thing, and GOG is barely profitable as it stands. GOG’s 2024 profits were a paltry 1.1M profit on 199M revenue (source). That’s a profit margin of about 0.5%, which is not a healthy indicator in a for-profit business. 5% is generally considered low, 10% or better is a healthy margin. GOG is essentially being propped up by CD Projekt Red’s Witcher/Cyberpunk money (CDPR has 468M profit on 801M revenue in 2024; a profit margin of 58%, which is wildly high-margin). Valve could prop up a money-losing 32-bit compatibility project with all their income from 64-bit software sales, but I doubt they would.
And 32bit mac games no longer work either.
People always underestimate the work that goes into making sure stuff works. These packages need to be built so they add a lot of compile time to the pipeline, these packages have limitations inherent to 32 bits so they also add troubleshooting and bugs. This is time and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
Not valve’s resources though, so from their point of view its low effort