Steam Deck: Every Major Game That the Handheld Won't Be Able to Play

Valve made waves just a few days ago when it revealed the Steam Deck, which is a new piece of hardware similar to the Nintendo Switch that will allow players to experience their PC games on the go. While the promise of having your entire Steam library on a handheld device is exciting to many, the platform itself won't be able to play every game in existence. In fact, some rather major titles specifically have already been confirmed to not be playable on the Steam Deck when it begins to release later this year.

The reason why some titles won't be compatible with the Steam Deck is because of how the console operates. Specifically, Valve has chosen a Linux-based software to run the Steam Deck's OS. And while Valve has workarounds in place to ensure that titles that are compatible with Windows will also be able to run on Linux, this software isn't perfect by any means.

What this means is that a number of popular multiplayer titles that are regularly played via Steam won't be compatible with Steam Deck. Specifically, these games include the following:

• Destiny 2
• Apex Legends
• Rainbow Six Siege
• PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
• Dead by Daylight
• DayZ
• Smite
• Fall Guys
• Paladins
• Black Desert Online
• Hunt: Showdown

While these are just a select number of games that won't be compatible on the Steam Deck, you can see how big some of these titles are. As mentioned, the throughline commonality between all of these games is that they feature multiplayer components. The reason they won't work on Steam Deck is due to anti-cheat software that each game boasts. As such, they don't work properly with Linux. While you'll be able to turn each title on, you won't be able to actually log in to each game's servers.

Even though this is somewhat of a bummer, there is a chance that Valve finds a way to fix this in the future. The software that the company uses to allow Windows titles to work with Linux is said to constantly be improving. Conversely, owners of the Steam Deck could always look to install Windows natively to their handheld to see if these games will work in that manner. For the most part, the platform is just a PC that you can hold in your hands. As such, once it actually starts to release later this year, fans will likely find some workarounds to get these titles functioning on the platform.

So what do you think about this slate of unplayable games for the Steam Deck? Do any of these titles being unplayable dissuade you from looking to pick up the hardware for yourself? Let me know either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.

[H/T PC Gamer]