CONFIRMED
Steam Frame’s Snapdragon chip is getting real native software. Mixed News reports Valve has ported Half-Life: Alyx to ARM64, and Wube Software confirmed that Factorio 2.1 now runs natively on ARM64 Linux, Steam Frame included. A claim that No Man’s Sky hits 72 FPS in VR on the headset is also circulating, but it remains unverified.
What we know
Half-Life: Alyx is the big one. Mixed News reports that Valve’s September 14, 2026 patch notes say the game was “ported to ARM64/aarch64.” The same update adds foveated rendering and depth reprojection when Alyx runs standalone on Steam Frame.
According to Mixed News, Valve told Automaton that the in-game assets are unchanged. So this is the same Alyx, not a trimmed mobile version. It is a native ARM build rather than an Android APK, and one copy is redeemable per headset.
Factorio is the other confirmed native title. Wube announced Factorio 2.1 as stable on October 23, 2026 in Friday Facts #449, posted on the official Factorio Steam community page. Wube says the game now runs natively on ARM64 Linux and lists Steam Frame, Raspberry Pi headless servers and Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon MacBooks as targets. The ARM64 build was first covered in Friday Facts #446. Wube also says 2.1 is the last major update before the game moves to long-term support.
Mixed News confirmed the stable release and adds an important caveat: native ARM support does not turn Factorio into a VR game. On Frame, you’re playing a flat game on a virtual screen.
Everything else leans on translation. Road to VR reported at the November 2025 announcement that Steam Frame runs SteamOS on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Valve’s Frame-specific Proton layer lets Windows x86 games run on ARM SteamOS, covering both flat and PC VR games. Road to VR noted that VR games may need minor input configuration and that performance is capped by the Snapdragon chip. Valve said it would keep improving Proton and SteamOS and ship dev kits to studios.
When the chip runs out of headroom, there’s streaming. PC Gamer reports Valve says streaming from a PC draws about 5 to 6 W, versus up to about 20 W when rendering locally. PC VR streaming uses a USB wireless adapter on a dedicated 6 GHz link to the host PC.
What is rumored
GameGPU, a long-running PC hardware and benchmark site, ran a headline claiming No Man’s Sky hits 72 FPS in VR on ARM64 Steam Frame hardware. We rate this grade D. It is a single-source, headline-only item, and we could not find the underlying test, so the settings, resolution and whether it ran natively or through translation are all unknown.
The listing also appears to be dated before Steam Frame’s retail launch. That date could be wrong, but either way, treat the figure as stale and unverified. No statement from Hello Games, Valve or a major outlet backs it up.
What we don’t know yet
No Man’s Sky’s native status is open. Its Cosmos update (7.0) in September 2026 added eye-tracked foveated rendering for PC VR. A YouTube video and a social post framed that as Steam Frame preparation, but Hello Games has not confirmed the link in anything we found, and we could not verify any native ARM64 build.
We also can’t vouch for Valve’s “Great on Frame” list, which reportedly passed 40 standalone titles in July 2026. We could not check it against Valve’s page. A broader compatibility rundown from NeoTeo is also unverified on our end, so we’re not repeating its contents.
Finally, nobody has published hard frame-rate data for native Alyx on Frame that we can cite.
What it means
For players, the practical split is simple. Alyx is now a genuine standalone showcase, with Valve adding foveated rendering and depth reprojection specifically for on-headset play. Factorio running natively is great for flat-screen sessions and battery life, but it won’t put you inside your factory.
For the rest of your PC VR library, expect Proton translation with possible input tweaks and Snapdragon-limited performance. If a game struggles locally, Valve’s own numbers make streaming over the 6 GHz link the smarter choice for both visuals and battery. Until a developer or a credible outlet confirms numbers, file claims like No Man’s Sky at 72 FPS under “wait and see.”
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