Valve’s highly anticipated palm computer, the Steam Deck, will be available to pre-order customers in a few days. With the start of the device’s deployment process, Valve also published a page where you can control Steam Deck compatible games. However, this also revealed an interesting detail. Although the device has marketed on the promise that there will be no games that it cannot run in your Steam library, some games will not be able to run on the Steam Deck “at this time” according to the newly introduced criteria.
How can we control Steam Deck compatible games?
You can see if the games in your Steam library are compatible with steam deck by logging in to this page.
On the new page, the games are categorized in 4 separate ways. These:
- Deck Approved Games in Your Library (For Now)
According to Valve’s tests, these games in your library are fully functional on the Steam Deck and work seamlessly with deck’s controls and display. - Playable Games on deck in your library (For now)
According to Valve’s tests, these games in your library are functional on the Steam Deck, but additional effort may be required to interact or configure them. - Unsupported Deck Games in Your Library (Currently)
According to Valve’s tests, these games in your library are not functional on the Steam Deck. Valve continues to add support to more games over time. - Untested Deck Games in Your Library (Currently)
Valve’s test team hasn’t tested other games in your Steam library yet, but we continue to test more games every day. Visit this page periodically to see if there are new games in your library with the Approved tag.
Valve’s statements on its page offer hope for unsupported and untested games, but the phrase “for now” next to approved and playable games seems a little alarming. According to this statement, even if the games are compatible with steam deck, it can be taken as a means that they will not be able to work in the future.
What criteria are Steam Deck compatible games determined by?
Valve explained that it makes the compatibility of games based on four main criteria:
- Input: The game must have full controller support, use the correct controller input icons and automatically remove the on-screen keyboard when necessary.
- Screen: The game should support the default resolution of the Steam Deck (1280×800 or 1280×720). The default settings must be smooth and the text it contains should be legible.
- Hassle: The game should not show any incompatibility warnings and if there is a initiator, the initiator should be able to navigate with the controller.
- System Support: If it works through Proton, all the game and all the game’s intermediate software must be powered by Proton. That includes anti-cheating support.
Following the release of the Steam Deck, which will use a new version of Steam OS, various games will be optimized for better performance on the device. The Steam Deck 64GB eMMC will debut with three different models: the 256GB NVMe SSD and the 512GB NVMe SSD. It is not yet clear when the device, which will be distributed in the United States, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom, will meet players in Turkey.
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