Final Fantasy 14 Update Causing Problems on Steam Deck

gamerant.com:

Valve's Steam Deck is now shipping out to early preorderers of the handheld PC device. It's a new idea, a proprietary console made by Valve with a custom Linux-based OS designed specifically for PC games. As with most new ideas, there are still some kinks to work out. Take for example Final Fantasy 14, which was advertised for the Steam Deck by Valve CEO Gabe Newell. A new update for the MMO has rendered Final Fantasy 14 completely unplayable on the Steam Deck, with no fix in sight.

The latest update for Final Fantasy 14 reportedly forces the use of a new launcher through Steam. This launcher, unlike the previous, does not fully support Linux and so does not support the Steam Deck's OS. What happens is the launcher now has a forced login process linking a player's Steam Account with their Square Enix Final Fantasy 14 account. The new launcher isn't able to complete this action on Linux, so the game will freeze upon starting — assumedly because of its inability to log in to both Steam and Square Enix's accounts.

Steam Deck Now Has More Than 1,000 Verified/Playable Games

What makes the situation worse, unfortunately, is that those who purchased Final Fantasy 14 on Steam are locked into that platform. There's no way to transfer Final Fantasy 14 accounts on Steam to Square Enix's own platform. As such, any Final Fantasy 14 players planning on using Steam Deck now have no recourse until an official solution can be made. They're stuck on Steam, but unable to use Steam Deck.

To be clear, as frustrating as this change may be for Steam Deck buyers who play Final Fantasy 14, there was never a promise of support for the platform. Final Fantasy 14 has always been listed as «Unsupported» in Steam's database and Square Enix has made no