Valve Shares Info On How To Check If A Game Can Be Played On Steam Deck

On the website for Steam Deck, information on how to check to see what games can and cannot be played on Steam Deck was shared. The system is designed to make it as easy as possible for Steam Deck owners to see, at a glance, which games in their library can be played on Steam Deck right out of the box.

Other categories include games that can run on Steam Deck but may need a few tweaks, ones that haven’t been checked yet, and ones that can’t run on Steam Deck.

Valve Shares Info On How To Check If A Game Can Be Played On Steam Deck

Valve has four categories for games in regards to whether they can be played on Steam Deck. Information on this system can be found on the official website for Steam Deck, and the information is interesting to say the least. 

Valve is separating games into four categories in regards to Steam Deck: Verified, Playable, Unsupported, and Unknown. 

As you might expect, games that are Verified can be played on Steam Deck right out of the box. Meanwhile, Playable games can run on Steam Deck, but may need a few tweaks in order to perform at their best.

Finally, Unsupported games can’t run on Steam Deck, while Unknown games are ones that have yet to be checked. Introducing the system and ideas behind it, Valve notes:

“With Steam Deck, we’re bringing your Steam Library to a new form factor – a portable gaming PC. While many games run great on Deck out of the box, this shift means there are some games that, while they may be great on a desktop PC, aren’t a great experience on Steam Deck. We want it to be easy for you to find great gaming experiences on Steam Deck, so we’ve designed a system to do just that.” 

The Steam Deck website confirms that Valve is reviewing “the entire Steam catalog on Deck” and that once a game has been reviewed, it will be categorized in the four aforementioned categories.

Essentially, once Valve reviews a  game, Deck owners will be able to know at a glance whether that game can be played in a satisfactory manner on Steam Deck or not.

For developers wondering what criteria they need to meet in order for their game to be Verified for Steam Deck, Valve lists four boxes that need to be checked. 

• 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), should 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. 
• System Support: If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.

Finally, the page offers a glimpse at some popular games that are already Verified on Steam Deck which include Ghostrunner, Death Stranding, and Hades. For more on games that can and can’t be played on Steam Deck and what to expect as a Steam Deck owner, be sure to check out the official Steam Deck website.

After learning that Valve is categorizing games based on whether they can be played on Steam Deck, we’re curious what your thoughts are on the system. Do you like the four categories they’ve established? Are there any elements of the system that are confusing?

Let us know in the comments below, or on our social media channels including Facebook and Twitter!

Related: Valve Shows How to Open the Steam Deck for (Potentially Dangerous) Self-Repair