Baldur's Gate 3 players on Steam Deck and SteamOS may have noticed recently it appeared like it uninstalled itself, here's what's going on.
Writing on Bluesky, Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais simply said:
A fix has been deployed for the Baldur's Gate 3 install issue. May have to restart Steam Deck for it to pick up the new configuration.
The game from what I understand wasn't actually uninstalled, it just looked like it due to a change on Steam's backend configuration. However, players may not have been able to actually get it to reinstall to pick it up either.
A little background info — currently, Baldur's Gate 3 runs the Windows version through the Proton compatibility layer to make it playable on Linux systems like Steam Deck with SteamOS. However, it seems like the developer Larian Studios are working on a Native Linux version specifically for the Steam Deck, which you can see in the depots on SteamDB with a Native Linux version set for Steam Deck only (if a depot is set for Steam Deck it's not available on Desktop Linux).
What happened is that Valve's automatic Steam Deck Verification ended up picking this up, and setting the Native version as the default (SteamDB). Even though it's not yet public and hasn't been announced, which caused problems with players who have it currently installed. I've seen this issue before with Deck Verified testing and approving a Beta release for a different game, it just seems to be an issue Valve need to solve to separate somehow between public and non-public builds of games.
So Valve have now just put a separate configuration on Baldur's Gate 3 to force it onto Proton, which is likely to be removed if / when Larian release the special Steam Deck Native Linux build if Valve's retesting then shows it to be better to set that as the actual default.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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- Dying Light Native version: unplayable, sent me into a neverending crash loop
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: controller did not work, unplayable on Steam Deck despite rated 'Playable'
- Portal 1: instantly crashes on AMD hardware unless you pretend you're on a Steam Deck or enable DXVK.
- Stardew Valley: display issues.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: either did not launch at all, or couldn't get past launcher, or registered inputs that I didn't make.
- ARK Survival Evolved: missing textures
I don't own the new Silksong game but people also reported controller issues with Native that were solved by going to Proton.
None of these problems ever existed in the Proton(Windows) version of these games. Can someone tell me why I should bother with an inferior, more buggy version of games? Forcing the broken native ports on people (like Steam does for every Linux Native game) is actively making the Linux experience worse. I wished there was a global toggle in Steam to force every game to Proton.
Last edited by Stella on 15 Sep 2025 at 8:52 am UTC
Liam Dawe 2 hours ago
The problem is often that developers simply don't spend enough time on the Linux version, so Proton will naturally run the Windows version better over time with all the resources poured into Proton with the specific purpose to runs games on Linux as best as possible.
I honestly can't comprehend why people keep bothering with 'Native Linux'
Yes, people should definitely stop developing software for Linux!
Liam Dawe 2 hours ago
If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools?For Steam Deck, it already does in a way, with Deck Verified picking what version runs best between Native and Proton. Over time I would expect Valve to allow developers to specifically tag they support Proton, but I guess they're just not there yet. Perhaps when we get a new Steam Machine console we may see a bigger push?
However, it seems like the developer Larian Studios are working on a Native Linux version specifically for the Steam Deck, which you can see in the depots on SteamDB with a Native Linux version set for Steam Deck only (if a depot is set for Steam Deck it's not available on Desktop Linux).It's a shame they've chosen to do that. The desktop Linux market is significantly bigger than the Deck market.
Liam Dawe 2 hours ago
Can someone tell me why I should bother with an inferior, more buggy version of games?
Of course you shouldn't. But equating ports to buggy software is nothing else but FUD.
I could name you some hundred native Linux games working all fine from my library alone. (No, I will not actually test hundreds of games for you, but I would have returned them if they wouldn't have been working.)
We used to have a time when Windows users complained about Linux ports. Nowadays, this job has been taken by Linux users.
Last edited by Eike on 15 Sep 2025 at 10:37 am UTC
If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools? The average person doesn't care about Native Linux vs Proton or about age of games, they just want to play games. And if Linux experience is worse than Windows because of a broken Native port, they'll be quick to blame Linux for this fault
Auto-selecting Proton is a thing on Steam deck - for the games not running fine natively. The other thousands of ports are using the Linux binary instead of the .EXE and a translation layer. Of course.
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