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Valve gathering a list of Deck Verified games that have problems

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On Steam, one of the official Valve-picked moderators of the Steam Deck hub has a new post up they've pinned to gather information on problematic Steam Deck Verified titles.

There's been an increasing amount of reports of titles that are either Verified or Playable, that really shouldn't be. More people get their Steam Deck each week, and so we do expect this problem to continue growing since the amount of games on Steam is massive. Game porter and software developer Ethan Lee even wrote an editorial here on some issues and suggestions for Valve too.

Some of the games being reported in that post (and elsewhere) include:

  • Atelier Ryza 2 - "Verified" but reportedly doesn't save your graphics settings, and the defaults don't perform well.
  • A Way Out - "Playable" but the resolution is cropped to the middle of the screen, and it sometimes doesn't load.
  • Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - "Playable" but gamepad input apparently not working.
  • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - "Verified" but videos don't play.
  • Deathloop - "Verified" but multiple complaints of poor performance, and reportedly some users say suspend makes it crash.
  • DOOM (2016) - "Verified" and yet there's reports of it repeatedly crashing through the game.
  • ELDERBORN - "Verified" but repeatedly freezes.
  • Grand Theft Auto V (my report) - "Playable" but I talked about some of the problems of getting it working in an article, the current version of Proton tagged has major problems with the launcher not working.
  • HITMAN - "Verified" but gamepad input not working. Another said it causes the Deck to reboot.
  • Hoa - "Verified" but some of the movies are broken.
  • Luck be a Landlord - "Verified" but doesn't even have gamepad support at all and mouse / touchscreen input is problematic.
  • Monkey Island 2 Special Edition - "Playable" but a menu keeps popping up making it not really playable.
  • Nuclear Throne (I can confirm this too) - "Verified" but gamepad input doesn't work with the default configuration. After testing this one more myself, having seen the report on the issues, it sort-of detects the Deck with it set to keyboard / mouse input but not properly and it's certainly not playable. It also likes to give you a tiny resolution.
  • Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - "Verified" but does not recognise gamepad input, a message box comes up asking about safe mode that needs touchscreen input and it needs a manual bring-up of the keyboard.
  • RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition - "Playable" but has distorted menu audio and in-game doesn't work as the screen flickers between the game and a test screen.
  • SHENZHEN I/O - "Verified" but doesn't work. It's currently set to use Proton but the Native Linux version works, this one is due for a retest as part of their original problem of not verifying the native build first. But still, how did it get Verified like that when it doesn't work?
  • Sonic Generations - "Verified" but has poor performance, some parts can drop to single digit FPS.
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - "Verified" but one user reports it crashing on launch. Works fine for me however.
  • Vampire Survivors (my report) - "Verified" but performance will go down to single digit FPS at the most important parts of the game at the last 5 minutes of each level. The developer is even fully aware, with a port to a new game engine happening but that's not due until at least the "Summer".

The thing to remember, as with all crowdsourced reports, is that expectations and details on what is and isn't working correctly will vary but I think even this small slice shows how Deck Verified needs improvements. Given there's now 1,699 titles at Verified and Playable, Valve really need to get this right to keep trust in the system.

Have you found issues that aren't noted for Verified and Playable games on Steam Deck? Might be a good idea to add a post and let us know here in the comments too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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16 comments
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toor Mar 25, 2022
Wouldn't it make sense for Valve to have a report game not working button in the steam deck UI to at least have some statistic of which games should be focused.
They could also have a report game working button for games in the unsupported or unknown category.


Last edited by toor on 25 March 2022 at 11:08 am UTC
kit89 Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: toorWouldn't it make sense for Valve to have a report game not working button in the steam deck UI to at least have some statistic of which games should be focused.
They could also have a report game working button for games in the unsupported or unknown category.

They should probably introduce that feature for all games on the Steam platform.
Mohandevir Mar 25, 2022
I can't say for the Steam Deck, but personnally I witnessed some regressions(?) with the latest Proton builds... Proton Experimental or 7.0-1 seem to be generating a lot of in-game crashes (after 15 to 30 mins of play) and performance issues... In my case, I had to run Mad Max and Bioshock Infinte with Proton 6.3-8 to avoid these crashes and It helped someone who had similar crashes with Red Dead Redemption 2 too, on the Steam Deck... Just my personnal experience, but if it's confirmed, defaulting to 7.0-1 on Steam Deck might not be a glorious idea, for the moment.

Maybe it needed a little more time in the Experimental oven?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 25 March 2022 at 1:57 pm UTC
elmapul Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: MohandevirMaybe it needed a little more time in the Experimental oven?

that is why its called experimental to begin with.
its like when i used non LTS ubuntu then complained all the time.
experimental folks test it to make sure its stable enough for people who dont want to be beta testers.


well, i like valve rating system, they market Guilty Gear X2 #Reload as umplayable, and i know the issue with it is the cutscenes missing, if we depend on protonDB it would be rated as "platinum" so despite some errors, i think they are still doing better, hopefully it will be fixed soon for those games with errors, either fixed the rating or the games, i think those games miss labeled should be priority to fix, so consumers who purchased based on those rates wont get disapointed.


BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is marked as unplayable, great, the 2 i'm waiting...
EagleDelta Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: GuestI even had games listed as "Unsupported" which worked just fine with not a single issues for hours on Deck o.O

Somehow I now think they may associated some reports to the wrong game now reading the article.

It is important to note that Valve has said that if they find a problem with a single feature, even if it is rarely used, then the game will be marked as "Unsupported". "Playable" vs "Verified" is generally tied to things not being optimized for Steam Deck resolution, controller, text size, and other things tied specifically to being optimized for the Deck.

I.E. if a game is playable, but the cutscenes don't work due to Media Foundation, then the game is marked as "Unsupported"

Same applies to a game like Halo: Master Chief Collection, where the Single Player works, but Multiplayer doesn't due to EAC. The entire game has to be playable to be marked as "Playable" and the game has to be optimized for Steam Deck screen/controller/etc to be "Verified".


Last edited by EagleDelta on 25 March 2022 at 2:38 pm UTC
Mohandevir Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: MohandevirMaybe it needed a little more time in the Experimental oven?

that is why its called experimental to begin with.
its like when i used non LTS ubuntu then complained all the time.
experimental folks test it to make sure its stable enough for people who dont want to be beta testers.


well, i like valve rating system, they market Guilty Gear X2 #Reload as umplayable, and i know the issue with it is the cutscenes missing, if we depend on protonDB it would be rated as "platinum" so despite some errors, i think they are still doing better, hopefully it will be fixed soon for those games with errors, either fixed the rating or the games, i think those games miss labeled should be priority to fix, so consumers who purchased based on those rates wont get disapointed.


BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is marked as unplayable, great, the 2 i'm waiting...

I know what is Proton Experimental and what to expect. I was talking about 7.0-1 that is supposed to be stable but seems to be causing issues. Maybe it (7.0-1) needed more time in experimental?
fagnerln Mar 25, 2022
Welcome to Linux/Proton issues. I had a lot of titles that I needed to follow a guide written by me and even it didn't work anymore on the same distro.
axelb Mar 25, 2022
Well, for me Witcher 3 is missing on that list. I get major micro stuttering on PC. No matter if Proton experimental or GE-Proton7-10.
Purple Library Guy Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: EagleDelta
Quoting: GuestI even had games listed as "Unsupported" which worked just fine with not a single issues for hours on Deck o.O

Somehow I now think they may associated some reports to the wrong game now reading the article.

It is important to note that Valve has said that if they find a problem with a single feature, even if it is rarely used, then the game will be marked as "Unsupported". "Playable" vs "Verified" is generally tied to things not being optimized for Steam Deck resolution, controller, text size, and other things tied specifically to being optimized for the Deck.

I.E. if a game is playable, but the cutscenes don't work due to Media Foundation, then the game is marked as "Unsupported"

Same applies to a game like Halo: Master Chief Collection, where the Single Player works, but Multiplayer doesn't due to EAC. The entire game has to be playable to be marked as "Playable" and the game has to be optimized for Steam Deck screen/controller/etc to be "Verified".
Nice summary of how the scheme works. I've been thinking that there's a whole lot lumped into "unsupported", from games that lots of people could play with perfect satisfaction to stuff that won't even start. They could maybe use a tiny bit more granularity in the "unsupported" category. Either that or ProtonDB is not going to be as obsolete as one might have imagined.
EagleDelta Mar 25, 2022
Quoting: axelbWell, for me Witcher 3 is missing on that list. I get major micro stuttering on PC. No matter if Proton experimental or GE-Proton7-10.

Remember that the Verified status is specifically for the Steam Deck and it's hardware config. Not for general Linux support.
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