One of Steam's Most-Played Games Is Now "Unsupported" on Steam Deck

Steam Deck owners have been dealt a major blow.

By Logan Moore

A recent update has resulted in one of the biggest games on Steam now being incompatible with Valve's Steam Deck handheld. For those who own a Steam Deck, it has likely become a familiar process to try to figure out which games work on the platform. While Steam has a library of thousands upon thousands of games, only specific titles are compatible and function properly on the Steam Deck. Unfortunately, due to a new patch that rolled out this week, one of the most notable games in the world is no longer supported on the hardware.  

Within the past day, Rockstar Games pushed out a new update for Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC that notably added BattlEye Anti-Cheat support for GTA Online. This patch's release was a bit of a surprise, especially given how old GTA5 is at this point. As a result of BattlEye Anti-Cheat having been implemented, though, it also happened to make the game now incompatible with the Steam Deck. Rockstar says that the single-player aspect of Grand Theft Auto 5 should still work on Steam Deck after toggling BattlEye off in the options menu, but that hasn't prevented an "Unsupported" label from now appearing on its dedicated Steam page. 

"Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online. You will be able to play GTA5 Story Mode but unable to play GTA Online," said Rockstar's note on the matter. "GTA5 and GTA Online are not officially supported on Steam Deck and all technical support questions should be directed to Valve's Steam Deck support content and community."

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For GTA5 to no longer be supported on Steam Deck is a major deal as it's still one of the platform's highest-played games. In August, Valve shared data that showed it ranked as the 8th most-played game for the month trailing only behind titles like Elden Ring, Hades, Stadew Valley, and Baldur's Gate 3. As a result, this update from Rockstar could prove to be incredibly frustrating to the Steam Deck's massive user base. 

How do you feel about Grand Theft Auto 5 no longer having full compatibility with Steam Deck? And if you haven't purchased the handheld yet, could this move determine your decision to do so in the future? Let me know for yourself over on social media at @MooreMan12. 

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