Is Your Library Compatible?
The Steam Deck has been one of this generation’s most intriguing console announcements – first revealed back in July of this year, the Steam Deck promises to be a portable way to enjoy your Steam library – however, unfortunately you won’t be able to play all of your games on the system. While this has been known for a while now, Steam have just announced exactly what criteria must be met for a game to be playable on the Steam Deck.
First off, there are four categories of games on the Steam Deck: Verified, Playable, Unsupported and Unknown. Verified games are those that work perfectly on the Deck without any modification, Playable games may need some manual tweaking (the examples given are controller configurations and using the touchscreen to navigate the launcher), Unsupported games are not playable at all on the Deck (For example, VR games), and Unknown games have not yet been tested. As time goes on, expect there to be less and less Unknown games, as Valve have already started the long process of testing Steam’s entire library on the console.
The tests being run are depending on four variables: Input (“The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed.”), Display (“The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280×800 or 1280×720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.“), Seamlessness (“The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.“) and System Support (“If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.”). On the Steam Deck, the compatibility of games will be displayed front and center on the Steam Store.
The Steam Deck has been available to reserve for a while now, with shipping set to begin in December this year.