Valve has tested 'thousands' for the Steam Deck, 60 currently Verified

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random. I really can not understand why they don't start with the currently most popular games on Steam, and proceed downwards on that list.

It would look SO much better towards those that's on the fence on this machine if some of their favourite games that they are gaming on nowadays are confirmed working on it.
And obviously, the more popular a game is the higher that chance will be.

EDIT: Or, if that's indeed what they HAVE done, then... Uhm... That doesn't bode well.


Last edited by Beamboom on 30 January 2022 at 6:38 pm UTC

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random.

They've got unpublished test results. The initial batches of published test results were just to test the store interface, with limited numbers in case it didn't work. I expect they wanted a range of ways that the testing failed so that they tested each part of the interface.

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random.

They've got unpublished test results. The initial batches of published test results were just to test the store interface, with limited numbers in case it didn't work. I expect they wanted a range of ways that the testing failed so that they tested each part of the interface.

Ah, that makes sense. Gotta say, I too was first thinking, "Oh, if they've tested thousands that's great! Hang on, if they've only got sixty to show for it, that's really bad!"
But yeah, probably it's not like that. I hope.

I wonder though how long after their first test they could be showing off much more?

December + Valve Time? :D

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random. I really can not understand why they don't start with the currently most popular games on Steam, and proceed downwards on that list.

It would look SO much better towards those that's on the fence on this machine if some of their favourite games that they are gaming on nowadays are confirmed working on it.
And obviously, the more popular a game is the higher that chance will be.

EDIT: Or, if that's indeed what they HAVE done, then... Uhm... That doesn't bode well.

My guess is that the testing is automated, and any game that gets "green lights across the board" in the benchmark is given the "Officially Confirmed to Work on the Steam Deck" stamp of approval. That would explain why things might seem a bit random.

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random. I really can not understand why they don't start with the currently most popular games on Steam, and proceed downwards on that list.

It would look SO much better towards those that's on the fence on this machine if some of their favourite games that they are gaming on nowadays are confirmed working on it.
And obviously, the more popular a game is the higher that chance will be.

EDIT: Or, if that's indeed what they HAVE done, then... Uhm... That doesn't bode well.

I too find it weird, but I'm ecstatic that it shows they're testing smaller games the likes of which I'll be more likely to be playing on the Deck, rather than just popular AAA games that I'm not interested in. And as others have pointed out, they probably are testing those games too, and we'll start seeing a bunch more statuses getting updated in the next few weeks.

My guess is that the testing is automated, and any game that gets "green lights across the board" in the benchmark is given the "Officially Confirmed to Work on the Steam Deck" stamp of approval. That would explain why things might seem a bit random.

Aren't some of the criteria things like "text is at a readable size" and "correct controller glyphs are shown"? Like, programming's my day job so I'm not going to rule out that automated tests could be derived for that, but…programming's my day job, so I also have an idea of just how hideously difficult it would be to write such tests. I suppose if anyone had the motivation and know-how to do it it'd be Valve…

In this case gate-keeping is good as it will eliminate quality control issues. Gamers need to have a good and painless experience. I am curious to see how the list shapes up this coming launch month.

What's really needed is not this half-behinded "we think it'll run fine"-label, but a list of games that have a true commitment to *full* support, either by valve or the devs of the game in question.

This is especially important in the case of the games that are running via proton, since those have the biggest potential of valve and the devs pointing to each other when you need something fixed.


Last edited by emphy on 31 January 2022 at 7:53 am UTC

What's really needed is not this half-behinded "we think it'll run fine"-label, but a list of games that have a true commitment to *full* support, either by valve or the devs of the game in question.

This is especially important in the case of the games that are running via proton, since those have the biggest potential of valve and the devs pointing to each other when you need something fixed.

Yeah, what I wish had happened more often for the Steam Controller roll out was more developers using the actual Steam API for controllers (which does work with all of the controllers Steam supports... which is to say a lot). Then no matter which controller you're using, the game will display the correct buttons.

One of the few I recall that supported this was Magicka. It was quite nice to have all of the buttons stated correctly. Considering the button layouts are different depending on if you're using an xbox/clone controller, Switch or PS3/4/5 one...

My guess is that the testing is automated, and any game that gets "green lights across the board" in the benchmark is given the "Officially Confirmed to Work on the Steam Deck" stamp of approval. That would explain why things might seem a bit random.

Aren't some of the criteria things like "text is at a readable size" and "correct controller glyphs are shown"? Like, programming's my day job so I'm not going to rule out that automated tests could be derived for that, but…programming's my day job, so I also have an idea of just how hideously difficult it would be to write such tests. I suppose if anyone had the motivation and know-how to do it it'd be Valve…

I just can't imagine Valve has a team dedicated to doing nothing but installing games on the Deck and making sure they work properly, especially not when they claim to have tested thousands of games already, which leads me believe that the process has a good deal of automation.

Imagine being a proud owner of an SteamDeck and, after hitting "play" to That game, You only see this:

I just can't imagine Valve has a team dedicated to doing nothing but installing games on the Deck and making sure they work properly, especially not when they claim to have tested thousands of games already, which leads me believe that the process has a good deal of automation.

Didn't they say at some point last year that they were hiring people to do just that? Though yes, there are certainly parts of it that could be automated (like "does it start on SteamOS 3.0 in the first place"); maybe they just need people to check things like the text size and controller glyphs and the like.

Fake edit: found it, from an interview with Greg Coomer and Lawrence Yang in Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

Steam does have a lot of games, and Valve is putting significant effort into this review program. We've hired an additional group of testers specifically for Steam Deck compatibility, and will continue to hire additional staff to support this group. It will take time to review the Steam catalog (in addition to the new titles that are being launched all the time), and we see some version of this process being in place for the foreseeable future.

I find some of those whitelisted as downright *weird* that they've spent time on testing. Looks so ridiculously random.

They've got unpublished test results. The initial batches of published test results were just to test the store interface, with limited numbers in case it didn't work. I expect they wanted a range of ways that the testing failed so that they tested each part of the interface.

Ah, that makes sense. Gotta say, I too was first thinking, "Oh, if they've tested thousands that's great! Hang on, if they've only got sixty to show for it, that's really bad!"
But yeah, probably it's not like that. I hope.

Another thing that plays into this is that in order to get the green checkmark, games need go get Steam Deck certified. One requirement for certification is that one of the two on-screen keyboard APIs of Steam needs to be supported.
The more convenient of those APIs currently cannot be tested without an actual Steam Deck (and not every game studio has access to those yet). The other one was (up to the Steam Deck announcement...) only relevant for Big Picture mode, so there was very little incentive for developers to actually support it.

This means that games that have reached the end of their maintenance phase will very likely never get the green checkbox, only the yellow one.

Imagine being a proud owner of an SteamDeck and, after hitting "play" to That game, You only see this:
*snip*

That wouldn't get Deck Verified though.

Imagine being a proud owner of an SteamDeck and, after hitting "play" to That game, You only see this: *snip*

That wouldn't get Deck Verified though.

This is a placeholder video put there by Valve until their backend finishes transcoding the game's video files to a codec supported by Proton.
I do not know why they decided to transcode all h.264 videos of all games, but my best guess is that it's cheaper than paying for an actual h.264 license for Proton.

For details see the discussion in the Steamworks Developers Group about this.


Last edited by soulsource on 1 February 2022 at 1:58 pm UTC

I'm aware, it still wouldn't be Deck Verified if the videos don't play. If Valve did Deck Verify a game where the videos don't work, then it's silly because it's going against the very idea of it working out of the box.

What I am trying to say is that Proton, the blood in the veins of the SteamDeck, is not ready.

This will be a megafail if SteamDeck can not run properly most of the games in the Steam catalogue.
Remember the Steam Machines fiasco.

Nobody will buy this for just 100 or 200 supported games.

Nobody will buy this for just 100 or 200 supported games.

Yeah, the Nintendo Switch only had 10 games available for it at launch, and we all remember how no one bought that thing!

…oh wait.

What I am trying to say is that Proton, the blood in the veins of the SteamDeck, is not ready.

This will be a megafail if SteamDeck can not run properly most of the games in the Steam catalogue.
Remember the Steam Machines fiasco.

Nobody will buy this for just 100 or 200 supported games.

We can safely say the number by release will be quite long. This is the initial trickle of games coming in, part of Valve testing the procedures work correctly. Over the next two weeks you can be guaranteed it will grow.