We've been wondering what Valve had planned to show off Steam Deck compatibility for games and now they've launched Deck Verified as their answer.
Valve say they are reviewing the entire Steam catalogue on the Steam Deck, with each of them gaining a category that it falls under that will show up across Steam from the store to your own Steam Library. The ratings will be split across Verified, Playable, Unsupported and Unknown. This is good because there's a lot of reasons why games will mix between perfect and unplayable on Steam Deck and the Arch Linux-based SteamOS it ships with.
To be actually Verified the games need to hit these four points:
- Input - The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed.
- Display - The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280x800 or 1280x720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.
- Seamlessness - The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.
- System Support - If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.
When you're playing on a Steam Deck, the first tab in the Steam store will also only highlight games that are "great" on the Steam Deck too.
Check out their video explainer below:
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Direct Link
Direct Link
Want to see what their plan is? You can check it out on Deck Verified.
Valve also put up a Steam Deck Compatibility Review Process guide, which goes over the steps required for developers to take a look at. It gives an interesting insight into exactly what Valve and developers will be doing. Developers however will not be able to remove their game from being listed as Valve say the Deck is "an extension of Steam onto a new portable PC form factor, and so customers both expect and have access to the same store and library that they would on any other PC".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: PublicNuisanceI give this all of a week after launch to find that many games that have a certain rating fail the expectations of that rating.
Quoting: KorsI'm counting on Steam Deck to skyrocket Linux usage, or at least to bring more games to linux based OS
I don't see that happening at all. There is a better chance of customers installing Windows on the Steam Deck than that happening. Proton has shown that it will only lower the amount of native Linux titles being made not increase it.
All Proton has shown is that it's actually easier to port the game with Proton than to make a custom "native" release. Developers will make native ports if the performance is better than Proton and Steam Deck is popular. That's not wishful thinking, that's just plain common sense, from a developer's point of view.
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Quoting: SalvatosDue to "appropriate controller input icons" alone, I feel like a lot of games will fall short of Verified. I rarely see the right icons for my DualShock.
Same with me, but note that they need the game to show the Deck's icons correctly (i.e. xbox icons), not all controllers!
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Quoting: ShabbyXQuoting: SalvatosDue to "appropriate controller input icons" alone, I feel like a lot of games will fall short of Verified. I rarely see the right icons for my DualShock.
Same with me, but note that they need the game to show the Deck's icons correctly (i.e. xbox icons), not all controllers!
The SD has ABXY buttons, but not RB/LT etc. For some reason, Valve decided to take these from Playstation and they’re L1,R2 and so on. Plus, the shape of the d-pad is very different to the one from Xbox 360, which still seems to me as the most popular controller, so the icons will still be wrong if a dev does nothing.
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no_information_here Oct 19, 2021
I have no interest in buying a portable game device. This thing is not for me at all.
However, Valve is doing everything right here. I am very impressed with the Deck and its roll-out. I sure hope it helps improve Linux gaming in general.
However, Valve is doing everything right here. I am very impressed with the Deck and its roll-out. I sure hope it helps improve Linux gaming in general.
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And finally, my friends will stop asking me if it works on Linux for every new coop game.
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That's exaclty what I always complained they should have done... and not just for the deck, but also the link and the big picture experience. So, good initiative by them. It remain to be seen how meticolous are with this initiative (is there an actual check, or is it just the publishers claiming they comply? Is there also a human review passage? What's about patches? Can they ensure there are no regressions? To many companies love launchers and they upgrade them separately from their games. Etc etc)
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Quoting: damarrinQuoting: ShabbyXQuoting: SalvatosDue to "appropriate controller input icons" alone, I feel like a lot of games will fall short of Verified. I rarely see the right icons for my DualShock.
Same with me, but note that they need the game to show the Deck's icons correctly (i.e. xbox icons), not all controllers!
The SD has ABXY buttons, but not RB/LT etc. For some reason, Valve decided to take these from Playstation and they’re L1,R2 and so on. Plus, the shape of the d-pad is very different to the one from Xbox 360, which still seems to me as the most popular controller, so the icons will still be wrong if a dev does nothing.
I personally wish they would use full blown Playstation buttons. Never really used an Xbox controller except at friends places (I did have one for my rpi at some point). They just do not feel right in hand, Dualshock tends to feel way better, and D-Pad was quite mushy on the x360, so not a big loss I would say ? And considering the outcry every time a game dev removes the ps button when they port to PC, I doubt I am the only one who prefers dualshock. I also don't think x360 is all that popular ? Maybe in US, but worldwide I highly doubt it. Maybe it had some extra usage due to being easier to setup at some point, but I don't think it was out of love.
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Quoting: no_information_hereI have no interest in buying a portable game device. This thing is not for me at all.I don't really have any interest in using one either as I basically never leave the house and don't particularly want to play games outside of home. That said, I've reserved a Steam Deck and set aside the money for it - I see it more as a way to support Valve's efforts to make gaming on Linux a viable alternative to Windows and to improve cross-platform development efforts in general.
However, Valve is doing everything right here. I am very impressed with the Deck and its roll-out. I sure hope it helps improve Linux gaming in general.
2 Likes, Who?
So I see two advantages over ProtonDB that should make the whole setup a lot more viable.
First, the Steam Deck being just one thing, one target--same OS, same hardware. It works on it or it doesn't, no worries about what your graphics card is or are you using Arch or Ubuntu or Suse or whatever.
Second, this setup motivates the developers to come to them. With luck and reasonably strong sales (which seem pretty likely), developers will be making sure their game runs on the Steam Deck, and going to Valve to get "verified".
Well, a third: There's something to be said for it being someone's job to get it right. Crowdsourced stuff is great, but quality can be variable.
First, the Steam Deck being just one thing, one target--same OS, same hardware. It works on it or it doesn't, no worries about what your graphics card is or are you using Arch or Ubuntu or Suse or whatever.
Second, this setup motivates the developers to come to them. With luck and reasonably strong sales (which seem pretty likely), developers will be making sure their game runs on the Steam Deck, and going to Valve to get "verified".
Well, a third: There's something to be said for it being someone's job to get it right. Crowdsourced stuff is great, but quality can be variable.
14 Likes, Who?
Quoting: PublicNuisanceThis will be a new situation. What Proton "has shown" so far will not apply to it.Quoting: KorsI'm counting on Steam Deck to skyrocket Linux usage, or at least to bring more games to linux based OS
I don't see that happening at all. There is a better chance of customers installing Windows on the Steam Deck than that happening. Proton has shown that it will only lower the amount of native Linux titles being made not increase it.
More analytically--yes, Proton probably lowers the number of native Linux titles made for any given market share. So if you compare a situation where Linux gaming has 1% on Steam and no Proton vs. Linux gaming has 1% on Steam and there is Proton, it seems reasonable to say the second situation will result in fewer native games.
Same if you compare 5% without Proton vs 5% with.
But that does not tell us that a situation of 1% Linux gaming on Steam without Proton will have fewer games than 5% Linux gaming on Steam with Proton. Proton tends to result in fewer native games, higher market share tends to result in more, and we don't have a track record to tell us which effect would be stronger.
And that 5% isn't a purely random figure. We don't know how much the Steam Deck is going to sell, but I don't get the impression 4 million or so Steam Deck sales in the next year or two is out of bounds. That kind of number would boost the number of Linux gamers on Steam to around 5% from its current ~1%. And that massive increase could not have happened without Proton.
I strongly suspect that if the Steam Deck sells at that level or more, the impact of higher market share pushing for more attention to native Linux will be greater than the Proton effect reducing it. And it will have significantly eroded the chicken/egg growth problem for Linux gaming either way.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 19 October 2021 at 8:00 am UTC
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