Valve’s upcoming $400 handheld device, the Steam Deck (not to be confused with Elgato’s Stream Deck), will support games currently protected by anti-cheat software.
One of the biggest concerns prospective Steam Deck owners had with the device was the fact that it runs Windows games on Linux using a compatibility layer.
In the past, games that were protected by anti-cheat software such as BattlEye did not support games running on Linux, however, Valve says that this will not be a problem as it is a solution that’s as easy as sending an email to the company.
For years, players have complained about the lack of BattlEye support for Linux and other non-Windows PC platforms. If it has always been as easy as sending BattlEye or the developers an email, why has no one done it?
“BattlEye on Proton integration has reached a point where all a developer needs to do is reach out BattlEye to enable it for their title. No additional work is required by the developer besides that communication,” wrote Valve in a statement.
The company pointed out that it has already managed to get Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord and Ark Survival Evolved up and running on the Steam Deck.
Despite Valve’s ease of access to gain support for its platform, developers who want to make their games compatible with the Steam Deck’s gamepad and touch screen functionality must work on it on their own to earn Valve’s “verified” checkmark indicating official support for the platform.
According to The Verge, which contacted numerous studios to ask why they did not send emails to BattlEye requesting Linux support for their games, the publishers declined to comment on their failure to support Linux gamers.
In addition to BattlEye, Easy Anti-Cheat also supports Linux with Epic Games announcing that it is “just a few clicks in the EPic Online Services Developer Portal” to use.
The Verge reported:
But for whatever reason, top game developers aren’t eager to voice their support. Only four out of 15 studios we contacted gave us a yes despite the “just a few clicks” promise — and EAC owner Epic Games itself, amusingly, was not among them. Epic would not commit its subsidiary Mediatonic’s Fall Guys (which uses EAC) to the platform, and previously declined to comment on whether Fortnite (which uses BattlEye) would be available on Steam Deck, either.
While Sony hasn’t committed to supporting the Steam Deck with its burgeoning slate of PC titles, PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida did tweet that Horizon: Zero Dawn runs on the Deck. That won’t be a surprise to the ProtonDB community, which currently gives Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition a “Gold” rating.
