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Valve’s Steam Deck is actually coming out on the 25th of February, bringing with it the entire Steam library with some caveats. As the Steam Deck will be running a fork of Manjaro, called SteamOS, which is a distro of Linux, you can start to piece together why there are some caveats.
Valve has been hellbent on supporting the operating system for the longest time, with a move to UNIX based systems seen back when they finally launched on macOS, which sees familiarity with Linux. However, native Linux support didn’t come until much later with the release of their ‘Steam Machines’, dedicated boxes that manufacturers shipped for a short time to try and consolify the PC market and make it more approachable.
This didn’t stick and it was mainly down to expensive machines, with limited games to run without doing some heavy leaps to get there. Linux might be a system within every single developer, but it is by far and away the least friendly for those that want to game.
What is Proton?
Valve, not one to back down in the name of progress, canned the Steam Machines and began to work on building Proton. This intermediary layer between the Linux OS and Steam game means that there’s little need to ‘port’ the game over natively and allow Valve’s software to handle the heavy lifting. It’s how they’ve managed to get 100 games ‘Verified’ according to both the official Proton website and a custom, a fan-made list that is using Steam DB.
Proton already supports over 18K games and is being constantly updated by the community and developers. We even recommended five games or series to try out based on these Proton results.
Valve is still working on their official compatibility list, but as it has now been scraped via their Steam API and placed on a website, it seems like it is close to nearly 100 games.
Here is the Proton list of Steam Deck Verified games from the ProtonDB, which is curated by the community and also uses Steam’s API:
These games are sourced from the fan list that scraped SteamDB for the information and is split between “Verified” and “Playable”, as well unsupported, but this appears to be dedicated to VR games like Half-Life Alyx.
You might notice some major discrepancies between the Proton list and this second list – set up by Avery and SteamDB– as this is pulled from Steam’s API, rather than the manually selected list:
| Verified | Playable | Confirmed not working |
|---|---|---|
| 8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure | 100% Orange Juice | Arizona Sunshine (Arizona Sunshine®) |
| Aliens: Fireteam Elite | 7 Days to Die | Budget Cuts |
| APE OUT | A Dance of Fire and Ice | Dead by Daylight |
| Automobilista 2 | A Way Out | Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout |
| Baba Is You | Airport CEO | Insurgency: Sandstorm |
| BattleBlock Theater | American Truck Simulator | JUMP FORCE |
| Bayonetta | Among Trees | Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris |
| Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery | Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag | Persona 4 Golden |
| Boomerang X | Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX | The Crew 2 |
| Business Tour – Online Multiplayer Board Game (Business Tour – Board Game with Online Multiplayer) | Barony | |
| Castle Crashers (Castle Crashers®) | Battlefield 1 ™ | |
| Caveblazers | Battlefield 4™ | |
| Celeste | Battlefield™ V (Battlefield V) | |
| Circuit Superstars | BeamNG.drive | |
| Cuphead | Bejeweled 3 (Bejeweled® 3) | |
| Curse of the Dead Gods | Black Book | |
| Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Black Skylands | |
| DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin | BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle | |
| DARK SOULS™ III | BRAVELY DEFAULT II | |
| Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition | Bully: Scholarship Edition | |
| Daymare: 1998 | Cats in Time | |
| Dead Cells | Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! | |
| DEATH STRANDING | Cookie Clicker | |
| Death Trash | Crypt of the NecroDancer | |
| Death’s Door | DAEMON X MACHINA | |
| DEATHLOOP | DARK SOULS: REMASTERED | |
| Desperados III | DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED | |
| Devil May Cry 5 | Darkest Dungeon® | |
| Dishonored | Dead Space 3 | |
| Dishonored: Death of the Outsider | Dead Space™ 3 | |
| DRAGON QUEST XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age – Digital Edition of Light | Deep Rock Galactic | |
| Dying Light | Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition | |
| Eastward | Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition | |
| Edge Of Eternity | Divinity: Original Sin 2 | |
| Fallout Shelter | Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition) | |
| Farm Together | Don’t Starve Together | |
| Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark | Drug Dealer Simulator | |
| FINAL FANTASY | Dyson Sphere Program | |
| FINAL FANTASY II | Empyrion – Galactic Survival | |
| FINAL FANTASY III | F1 2021 (F1® 2021) | |
| FINAL FANTASY IV | Factorio | |
| Firewatch | Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game | |
| Genital Jousting | Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition | |
| Ghostrunner | Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game | |
| God of War | Farming Simulator 19 | |
| Graveyard Keeper | FINAL FANTASY V | |
| GRIME | FINAL FANTASY VII | |
| Guacamelee! 2 | Football Manager 2019 | |
| Gunfire Reborn | Garfield Kart | |
| Hades | Grand Theft Auto V | |
| Happy’s Humble Burger Farm | Grim Dawn | |
| Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice | Hearts of Iron IV | |
| Hellish Quart | HELLDIVERS™ (HELLDIVERS™ Dive Harder Edition) | |
| HITMAN™ | I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger-Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator | |
| Hollow Knight | Inscryption | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | It Takes Two | |
| HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™ | Just Cause 3 | |
| Human: Fall Flat | Just Cause 4 | |
| Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms | Just Cause 4 (Just Cause 4 Reloaded) | |
| Idle Wasteland | Kingdom Two Crowns | |
| INSIDE | Kingsway | |
| Into the Breach | Leaf Blower Revolution – Idle Game | |
| Katamari Damacy REROLL | Legends of Idleon MMO (IdleOn – The Idle MMO) | |
| Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Kingdom Rush Vengeance – Tower Defense) | Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry | |
| LEGO® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga | LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII | |
| Life is Strange 2 | Loop Hero | |
| Life is Strange 2 – Episode 2 | Lost in Random™ | |
| LIMBO | Madden NFL 21 | |
| Mad Max | Madden NFL 22 | |
| Manifold Garden | MADNESS: Project Nexus | |
| Mark of the Ninja: Remastered | Mafia II: Definitive Edition | |
| METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE | Monster Hunter World | |
| Middle-earth: Shadow of War | Monster Hunter: World | |
| NEKOPARA Extra | Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden | |
| NEKOPARA Vol. 0 | Need for Speed™ Heat | |
| Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom | NGU IDLE | |
| Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl | NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… | |
| Noita | NieR: Automata™ | |
| Nuclear Throne | NIMBY Rails | |
| OCTOPATH TRAVELER (OCTOPATH TRAVELER™) | Offworld Trading Company | |
| Okami HD | Path of Exile | |
| Orcs Must Die! 3 | PGA TOUR 2K21 | |
| Ori And The Blind Forest | Planet Coaster | |
| Paint the Town Red | Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year (Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition) | |
| Payday 2 | Psychonauts | |
| Portal 2 | Quantum Break | |
| Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid | RAILROADS Online! | |
| PowerWash Simulator | RimWorld | |
| Prey | Rise of the Tomb Raider (Rise of the Tomb Raider™) | |
| Project CARS 3 | Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders | |
| Psychonauts 2 | Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition) | |
| RAD | Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI) | |
| Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth- | Slay the Spire | |
| Remnant: From the Ashes | Sniper Elite 3 | |
| Resident Evil 2 (Remake) | Sonic Adventure™ 2 (Sonic Adventure 2) | |
| Resident Evil Village | South Park The Fractured But Whole (South Park™: The Fractured But Whole™) | |
| Return of the Obra Dinn | SpeedRunners | |
| RIDE 4 | Sprocket | |
| Risk of Rain 2 | STAR WARS Battlefront II | |
| Rocket League | STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order | |
| Rogue Legacy 2 | STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™ | |
| Roundguard | Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (Classic, 2005) | |
| Sable | STAR WARS: The Old Republic | |
| Sam & Max Save the World | STAR WARS™ Battlefront™ II | |
| Scarlet Nexus | STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ | |
| Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice (Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice – GOTY Edition) | State of Decay: YOSE | |
| Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 | Stellaris | |
| Spelunky 2 | Stormworks: Build and Rescue | |
| Stardew Valley | Subnautica | |
| Super Meat Boy Forever | Swords of Legends Online | |
| Super Mega Baseball 3 | Tales of Zestiria | |
| Super Robot Wars 30 | The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® Game of the Year Edition) | |
| SUPERHOT | The Room Three | |
| SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE | The Surge | |
| Tales of Arise | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | |
| Tetris® Effect: Connected | Titanfall 2 | |
| The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | Titanfall® 2 | |
| The Evil Within | tModLoader | |
| The Jackbox Party Pack 8 | Tomb Raider | |
| The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante | Tomb Raider: Legend | |
| The Messenger | Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation | |
| Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory | Tribes of Midgard | |
| Total War: WARHAMMER II | Two Point Hospital | |
| Travellers Rest | Valheim | |
| Tunche | Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars | |
| Twelve Minutes | War Thunder | |
| UnderMine | Wasteland 3 | |
| Webbed | West of Loathing | |
| West of Dead | World Nations Game | |
| WHAT THE GOLF? | ||
| WORLD OF HORROR | ||
| Wytchwood | ||
| Yakuza 3 Remastered | ||
| Yakuza Kiwami | ||
| Yakuza Kiwami 2 | ||
| Yakuza: Like A Dragon | ||
| Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles | ||
| Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair | ||
| Your Chronicle | ||
| Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links |