The Steam Deck killer app has just launched on the Steam store

The Steam Deck won’t launch until the end of the holiday season, but the Handheld Gaming PC may already have its killer app.

While Nintendo is focused on Metroid Prime and Microsoft will have Halo, Valve will have a third-party program that isn’t even a game called RetroArch. This is a front-end interface for downloading emulators that can play save versions of classic console games like the Nintendo Entertainment System or the original PlayStation.

RetroArch has been available for download for Windows and other platforms for years. But by adding it to Steam, it’s likely that the tool will work on Steam Deck. This should allow anyone to quickly start playing classic games on the device.

Without something like RetroArch, Steam Deck owners probably would have had to resort to downloading apps from the internet. While many gaming fans would jump through these hoops, any sort of friction would leave less savvy users behind.

RetroArch on Steam has emulator cores for Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Neo Geo, and more. And you can download them individually as downloadable content through the Steam store. The Libretro open source development team maintains these libraries and plans to update them over time.

Of course, if you’re an emulation enthusiast, you’ll probably skip RetroArch entirely for the newer and more advanced emulators. But it does ensure that everyone will have a simple option available on Steam Deck or other devices with Steam.