Valve announced yesterday their new handheld device that acts as a PC on the game. Designed to run your Steam library, and considerably more powerful than the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck looks like it is in a good position to change Handheld gaming when its release. As we know now, there is one drawback to this, and that is the devices struggle to run some multiplayer games.
The system will be Linux-based, meaning that the SteamOS present on the device is already limited on what games it SHOULD be able to play, with games that are Windows-based being obviously incompatible. Valve has worked around this with a feature called Proton, which is designed to allow even windows based games to run on the system. This does help expand the library of playable games considerably.
That is, except for games that utilize anti-cheating software in their games. According to ProtonDB nearly half of Steam’s top-10 list is not currently playable on the system because they use some form of the software. These games are Apex Legends, Destiny 2, PUBG, and Rainbow Six: Siege. While these games can be installed on the Steam Deck, and even loaded up, since the Proton will not allow the anti-cheating software to open, players will be stuck in main menu limbo.
The reason I pointed out these cannot run currently is because Valve is aware of this and is working to try “improving Proton’s game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors”. Since again, this is a large part of their top-10 list, it makes sense they would want this rectified as soon as possible.
The Steam Deck is currently slated to launch Holiday of 2021. There will be three versions available at launch, priced at $399, $529, and $649.
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