# Steam Machine owners seek platform identity within Steam ecosystem

> **Key takeaway:** A Steam Deck HQ editorial argues Valve should give the Steam Machine distinct recognition in Steam's social features, review filters, and UI rather than treating it as generic PC hardware.

**Published:** 2026-10-21T15:53:16+00:00 
**Source:** Steam Deck HQ (Reviews & Optimizations) 
**Category:** open-gaming 
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/steam-machine-owners-seek-platform-identity-within-steam-eco.html 

## Summary
Steam Deck HQ published an opinion piece by Onat Esendağ calling for Valve to give the Steam Machine its own identity within Steam. The author, who says the device has replaced his RTX 5090 desktop for gaming, points out that Steam currently treats the Steam Machine like any other PC: friends lists show no hardware-specific icon, reviews cannot be filtered by Steam Machine, and SteamOS Gaming Mode is labeled as 'Big Picture Mode.' The piece also notes the lack of a Steam Machine logo in Desktop Mode's KDE Application Launcher, which the author manually replaced.

## What recognition Steam Machine currently lacks
- **Friends list icon**: Steam Deck shows a handheld icon next to player names; Steam Machine has no equivalent hardware identifier
- **Review filtering**: Steam allows filtering reviews by 'Played Primarily on Steam Deck'; no such filter exists for Steam Machine
- **Status display**: SteamOS Gaming Mode on Steam Machine appears as 'In Big Picture Mode' rather than identifying the device
- **Desktop Mode branding**: Steam Deck's KDE Application Launcher uses a Steam Deck logo; Steam Machine uses the generic KDE Plasma icon by default
- **Workaround available**: Users can manually replace the launcher icon via KDE Plasma's Configure Application Launcher settings with a custom PNG