No, the Steam Deck wont run every game in your library but does that matter?

Date:
Tue, 07 Sep 2021 10:55:02 +0000

Description:
Theres been some confusion about what the Steam Deck can and cant run, and now it seems it wont be quite as capable as some people hoped. But its not
all bad news.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Many of us are getting very excited about the Steam Deck , the upcoming handheld game console from Valve that will allow us to play PC games while on the go, but weve been getting conflicting information about how many games
the Steam Deck will be able to run.

As RockPaperShotGun reports , a recent interview with Valves Pierre-Loup Griffais for IGN appears to have been misinterpreted by some over-eager corners of the internet, with the line All the games we wanted to be playable is, really, the entire Steam library. We haven't really found something we could throw at this device that it couldn't handle, making people think that this means the Steam Deck would be able to play any game in Steams vast library. These are the best Steam games to play on the Steam Deck How about the best free games ? Can't wait? Get the best gaming laptop your budget allows

However, according to James B. Ramey, CodeWeavers president, that quote
doesnt mean that every game on Steam will actually be playable on the Steam Deck at least, initially. Who he?

First of all, while James B. Ramey might not be a name youre familiar with,
he should have a pretty good idea of what can and cant be run on the Steam Deck, as CodeWeaver worked with Vale to co-develop Proton, the software compatibility layer that means the Linux-based Steam Deck can run Windows 10 games which the vast majority of Steam games are.

In a chat on the Boiling Steam podcast, Ramey explains that when Pierre-Loup made his announcement and stated that the Steam Deck can support any and all games I think he was trying to state that the device itself, the hardware specs on this device, can support any game.

So, while the Steam Decks hardware should be powerful enough to run any game on Steam an impressive feat in itself when the device launches there may still be titles that wont run on it, as the Proton compatibility may not be there. Dont worry software can be fixed

This clarification makes a lot of sense. There are a huge amount of games on Steam, so not every title will be tested to run via Proton. If there are issues, then that could mean the game wont be playable on the Steam Deck when it launches.

This news isnt that bad, however. Because its a software issue, not a
hardware one, it means it could be relatively easy to fix with patches along the way. As Ramey explains, there is a lot of effort being poured into Proton to support a broader range of games even that is available then currently today. So youre going to see that when the Steam Deck is released and Proton is put on the Steam Deck that there is going to be a greater number of titles that are supported.

This means that while there may be some games that wont run at first, they could be patched to run later on. If this had been an issue with the
hardware, then that would have been a lot harder to fix.

So, theres a good chance that the Steam Deck will run your favorite games
when it launches. The list of games playable on Linux via Proton is steadily growing, and the Steam Decks launch will likely spur this on. If theres a
game that cant be run, then hopefully Proton compatibility will be added at some point.

Weve also heard from Valve that the Steam Deck will run like a PC, and that means allowing users to install other operating systems. So, if a game wont run on the Steam Decks Steam OS Linux distribution, you could always install Windows 10 on it, which in theory would fix any compatibility issues.

So, this news may not be as bad as it first seems. It certainly hasnt dimmed our excitement for the Steam Deck. These are the best PC games



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/no-the-steam-deck-wont-run-every-game-in-your-l ibrary-but-does-that-matter/


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