Steam Deck “Verified” Games Won’t Stop Breaking
The Steam Deck was a smash hit when it started shipping in 2022, providing one of the best ways to play PC games in a handheld console form factor. However, the Steam Deck has a problem that is getting worse: games that are verified to work don’t actually work.
Valve’s Steam Deck console runs a custom Linux-based operating system, called “SteamOS.” You can install Windows, but it’s a worse experience and not fully supported. Most PC games still don’t support Linux, which is where Proton comes into the picture. Proton is a customized version of the Wine compatibility layer with a focus on games, allowing many modern Windows games to run unmodified on Linux platforms like SteamOS. The independent ProtonDB database reports over 16,000 games were recommended (at one point or another) by Proton users as fully compatible.
You can run just about any Windows game in the Proton compatibility layer, but whether or not the game will be playable is a whole different story. That’s why Valve has been going through the Steam games catalog and testing games — not just to fix bugs in Proton, but also to give people buying a Steam Deck a general idea of what will work.
The official Steam Deck website explains the “four categories of Deck compatibility,” which range from untested or not compatible to “Verified.” If a game is marked as Steam Deck Verified, it “works great on Steam Deck, right out of the box,” according to Valve. The criteria for a Verified game includes full controller support, no compatibility warnings, a controller-compatible launcher (if there is any launcher), and default settings that run on the Steam Deck.
Valve’s compatibility categories are central to the Steam Deck experience — only games that Valve deems as “great on
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