The Steam Deck runs a custom version of Linux named SteamOS. Thanks to Proton, the Steam Deck can now play 75% of tested games, in a huge breakthrough for the Linux gaming community.
Mastodon user Boiling Steam reports that 75% of games tested on the Steam Deck are now playable in some form. Considering the long history of Linux users being left in the lurch when it comes to platform compatibility, the news is a massive win, thanks in part to Valve’s Steam Deck.
Unlike the ROG Ally or Ayaneo, the Steam Deck runs SteamOS, a custom version of Linux. Without Windows to back it with its years of drivers, updates, and general software support, games have been at a disadvantage on Linux for years.
Building off of the extensive development of Wine, a translation layer for Windows applications to run on Linux, Valve worked on a tool named Proton. This gaming-focused software is baked into Steam on Linux and allows for the massive library of games available on the store to run almost out of the box.
Valve’s work on Proton has led to a whopping 75% of games being tested being for the “Playable” or “Verified” on the Steam Deck.
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Thousands of games now support the Steam Deck
According to Boiling Steam, this means that 13,306 games have made it through Valve’s verification system.
Some users on the Hacker News forum have questioned why the “Verification” part of the graph dropped. It’s suspected that the ever-increasing amount of new games coming to the platform could be part of the cause. Along with this, a large portion of retro games not designed for the Steam Deck are being listed as unsupported.
Valve has various checks that need to be in place to hit at least “Playable”, including the size of the text on the screen, whether it supports a 16:10 aspect ratio, and how it runs. While a game doesn’t need to hit every check to get Verified, it’s part of why the graph has a huge amount of “Playable” titles in orange.
The Steam Deck’s future is bright, and we can’t wait for Valve to release a new, more powerful version at some point down the line.
