Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Clearing up what games will and won't run on the Steam Deck

By - | Views: 43,990

There seems to be some confusion brewing on what games will actually run on the Steam Deck, so let this serve as a reminder on keeping expectations in check. Here's a quick refresher of how things are right now.

Some of the confusion seems to appear from an IGN interview, where Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned how "we haven't really found something that we could throw at this device that it couldn't handle" that we covered before. Here's the thing though: even though the Steam Deck will ship by default with the Arch Linux based SteamOS 3, they have also been testing Windows 10 and they've been working with AMD to get it supported on Windows 11 too. So speaking from a hardware standpoint, yes it probably will work with the vast majority of games on a performance level.

For regular readers and regular Linux gamers, knowing that the Steam Deck won't run everything is a given and this won't be news but there's plenty of people out there seemingly expecting a bit too much from it. Part of the problem though is Valve's marketing too, with it repeatedly mentioning your entire Steam library. They obviously want every game to work but that's simply not going to be the reality - at least not for a while.

For people who stick with SteamOS 3 this is where it doesn't quite match up. There's a good number of native Linux games (those actually built for Linux) and for everything else there's Steam Play Proton to run Windows games. A big majority of games work on Linux already between native and Proton but there's caveats.

Currently, Proton does not work with games that have the likes of Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye which is used in some of the most popular online titles. When it comes to EAC and BattlEye, we do know that Valve are working on it as they said in the developer documentation FAQ that they're "working with BattlEye and EAC to get support for Proton ahead of launch".

Another issue is Microsoft Media Foundation for videos, it's something of a nuisance and they don't play in Proton either. Currently Valve appear to be re-encoding the videos into a playable format which downloads with your game when run through Proton. That's a lot of work though too, there's a lot of games on Steam.

Then there's certain DRM too. Valve's older CEG (custom executable-generation) DRM also doesn't work in Proton, and there's no doubt a few other DRM/anti-tamper solutions that also don't work with Proton. Launchers can be a problem too, with some developers using .NET / Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). For launchers Valve recommends that developers use something cross-platform and standalone like Qt or just skip launchers completely, which would be vastly better for gamepad/controller support too.

Compatibility will improve over time though as more developers hopefully look to support it directly and as Proton continues maturing. So even if your favourite or the latest AAA doesn't work right away, it might do later. There's still plenty of time until the Steam Deck releases and Valve has opened up requests for developer kits too. Valve also stated in their Steamworks video how "our goal is for every game to work by the time we ship Steam Deck" and that "there is a lot of work that has been done that doesn't yet affect the public version of Proton" so we are expecting the situation to improve. Until we see this special Proton release though, this article sums up the current situation.

If you're looking to try out Linux gaming and you're confused with Proton, be sure to check out our guide.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
34 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
81 comments
Page: «6/9»
  Go to:

whizse Sep 8, 2021
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: Purple Library GuyA quick google suggests that there are around 50,000 games
That's an interesting tidbit.

There's about 5000 (open and closed) game specific issues on the Proton bug tracker, and around 20 000 game reports on ProtonDB. So half the games on Steam have never been put through the ringer?

On a similar note, I have never seen anything that suggests that Valve themselves are doing any sort of large scale testing. Given that they likely sit on the worlds largest repository of Windows apps they could do regression testing on a VERY large scale. What fun that project would be to work on!
CatKiller Sep 8, 2021
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: andregregorherrmannI wonder why all the news sites jump on...
Because they want the clicks.

The Steam Deck is a hot topic, but there's no actual news till December, when it's in testers' hands. Maybe Valve will release SteamOS 3, or a significant update for Proton, before then, for early testing, but they might not. Maybe a game dev will show their game running on a dev kit, but they'll probably keep that internal. Websites want to say something.

Misleadingly overhyping something, and then tearing it down later through something else misleading gives them controversy and drama, which they can turn into clicks. I'm really not surprised that it was the NME that was one of the first outlets to jump on a not-particularly-groundbreaking interview on a small Steam-enthusiast website: that cycle was NME's Standard Operating Practice back in the day.
Purple Library Guy Sep 8, 2021
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: andregregorherrmannI wonder why all the news sites jump on...
Because they want the clicks.

The Steam Deck is a hot topic, but there's no actual news till December, when it's in testers' hands. Maybe Valve will release SteamOS 3, or a significant update for Proton, before then, for early testing, but they might not. Maybe a game dev will show their game running on a dev kit, but they'll probably keep that internal. Websites want to say something.

Misleadingly overhyping something, and then tearing it down later through something else misleading gives them controversy and drama, which they can turn into clicks. I'm really not surprised that it was the NME that was one of the first outlets to jump on a not-particularly-groundbreaking interview on a small Steam-enthusiast website: that cycle was NME's Standard Operating Practice back in the day.
All of which is probably fine from a Steam Deck marketing perspective. I mean, what do these two article topics have in common?
1. There's a shiny new thing coming that might be great!
2. There's a shiny new thing coming that might have problems!

--> There's a shiny new thing coming!
Win.
Purple Library Guy Sep 8, 2021
Quoting: whizse
Quoting: Purple Library GuyA quick google suggests that there are around 50,000 games
That's an interesting tidbit.
Which, just so we're clear, I do not stand behind in any way.

Quoting: whizseThere's about 5000 (open and closed) game specific issues on the Proton bug tracker, and around 20 000 game reports on ProtonDB. So half the games on Steam have never been put through the ringer?
Well, yeah, but specifically the games nobody cares about.
Grazen Sep 8, 2021
Sharing the link to the source story that is being referred to by most mainstream gaming sites but oddly enough not GOL.

https://boilingsteam.com/steam-deck-the-start-of-a-golden-age-for-linux-gaming/
whizse Sep 8, 2021
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, yeah, but specifically the games nobody cares about.
Or games people are reluctant to admit to playing? No Proton reports for titles like The Seduction of Shaqeera!?
Derheim Sep 9, 2021
I used to be preoccupied with "how are we going make Linux as widely used as windows". But after quite sometime of going full Linux user/gamer I no longer see it as good thing.

First of all I think Linux will never be a mainstream OS, that is if we want Linux to conserve it's current identity (which in my opinion is what pulls people to the current niche market that it has, I'm ignoring server market here).

I think achieving a full "plug & play" Linux is not gonna be enough to make it go full bombastic.

At this point, I think the PC user all it know is, to install Discord they have to go to discord[dot]com and download a binary blob then double click it and install it, for them, "that's it". Doesn't matter that we know that typing "apt/pamac/yum install discord" is many times faster and simpler.

so I think Steam Deck will be a step up but is not gonna be it in terms of the Linux adoption that we are looking for.

And honestly, I'm OK with the current status, I think more than this will have to be achieved with sacrifices that many of us won't like.
Shmerl Sep 9, 2021
With state of the art free codecs, no one should be using Microsoft Media Foundation junk.

Besides, didn't MS back AOM? They should start using free codecs as well.


Last edited by Shmerl on 9 September 2021 at 3:23 am UTC
TheRiddick Sep 9, 2021
I heard VAC doesn't work either via proton, but I don't know which games use that. (counterstrike?)
ElectricPrism Sep 9, 2021
Expectations had to be checked sooner or later.

At this time of writing ProtonDB.com reports Gold++ on

QuoteSingle Player:

Top 10: 90%
Top 100: 89%
Top 1000: 82%

Indie Games:

Top 10: 90%
Top 100: 80%
Top 1000: 76%

Local Multiplayer:

Top 10: 90%
Top 100: 82%
Top 1000: 48%

I suspect the lowest number in Local Multiplayer is 100% due to DRM tech which should be ready around launch time.

To to summarize the numbers, as of September 2021 it's already at 80-90% -- my estimation is that it'll be generally at least 90% or more by launch.

Taking into account Pierre-Loup Griffais' generalized speech, I think his statement is still appropriate as VIRTUALLY all games will work out of box, or at the very least the hardware can do it.

Of course, no one really expects to be playing VR titles like Half Life Alyx, or Beat Saber on their Valve Index Steam Deck -- so if you take what he said with that in context -- it's obvious that it was meant as a generalization or summary of their compatibility & targets. They said themselves that if a game doesn't run, they see it as a "bug" which needs fixing so the future is bright especially considering not even Windows plays 100% of windows games -- many Windows games from the old times don't even run on new Windows.

The only question I have is were we better off grounding ourselves in reality & putting the anchor down now, or popping the bubble later after people had these expectations for a longer period of time.

I think most reasonable and not hype-train people already correctly interpreted reality -- I think we're likely better off since I'd rather have these news articles come out now instead of at launch or post-launch to sour the party punch.

It's sad that we live in a day of clickbait and fearporn to sell news as entertainment, another round of hype videos like the initial ones from VIP before launch could help a lot too.

I think most people's expectations will be met and they will like the device a lot.


Last edited by ElectricPrism on 9 September 2021 at 6:41 pm UTC
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.