The Steam Deck launch is imminent, which means anyone lucky enough to have secured a unit will soon be diving into their Steam library on a new device. Games have been receiving their ‘Deck Verified’ status for a while, but as promised months ago, Valve has released a tool to check your library’s compatibility with the Steam Deck in one click, and it’s super easy to use.
All you need to do is hit this link and sign-in, and your library will be sorted into three main categories. The first is Deck Verified games, which are games that are fully functional, and require no fiddling to play. Apart from the obvious candidates like Portal 2, games in my library in this category include both Spelunky games, Dead Cells, Dirt Rally and, surprisingly, Valkyria Chronicles.
Then comes Deck Playable Games, which includes stuff that works fine, though may “require extra effort to interact with or configure.” Some games in my library included here are GTA 5, Cities Skylines, Pillars of Eternity and Civilization VI. In other words, games that either require a third-party launcher or work best with mouse and keyboard.
The third category is unsupported games, which means Valve has confirmed they don’t work with Steam Deck. For me, that includes Surviving Mars, Just Cause 2, Friday the 13th: The Game and Trove. Jody checked too, and found Lost Ark, Outlast, Vermintide 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines among the unsupported games.
Finally there are Untested Deck Games, which makes up the vast majority of the games in my library. This doesn’t mean those games won’t work: it just means Valve hasn’t tested them. There’s every chance they’ll be tested soon though, because Valve is “ramping up” its testing. “We’re testing new titles constantly and are going to continue past launch,” according to an announcement. “The Steam back catalog is huge, and new titles are releasing every day.”
Yes, the Steam back catalogue is huge, but I’m sure they’ll find the time to determine the compatibility rating of (casts line into Steam’s newly released games this week) The Pointless Car Chase: Refueled.
