Recently, we had the news that Rockstar updated Grand Theft Auto V to include BattlEye anti-cheat, and they have not enabled the Linux / Proton support that BattlEye offers. With that change, the online mode is now broken for Linux / Steam Deck. This just highlights an ongoing problem with the Steam Deck verification system.
Grand Theft Auto V was rated as Steam Deck Playable by Valve. It would have actually been fully Steam Deck Verified if two issues were solved: the launcher being a nuisance, and setting the correct resolution by default. It even had a special Steam Deck Most Played banner on the Steam store page, because it was constantly in the top most played list every month. In this case, since it’s such a high-profile title, Valve did at least react quite quickly to change the Steam page to note it’s Unsupported a day later.
Pictured - How the Steam page looked until September 18th
Therein lies the problem. Steam Deck Verified is all Valve, it’s nothing to do with the original developers of the games that are being checked.
Developers cannot opt out of it (as far as we’ve been told so far) with the ratings getting automatically published after a while. Some developers, to their credit, are updating their games for Steam Deck support, it’s something we cover here on GamingOnLinux almost every day.
What this means though in reality is that even with a Steam Deck badge of approval, you’re technically buying a game on an unsupported platform, unless the developers themselves are clearly saying it’s supported.
Pictured - Valve's new Steam Deck Unsupported status for GTA V
So with that in mind, even if developers are giving zero support for Linux-based platforms, they’re still going to end up with a verification badge of some sort with people buying them and playing them. That is, unless they specifically block Linux / Steam Deck, like Bungie does with Destiny 2.
The thing is though, when you think about how it's being sold, the "blame" (if we wish to use that word) is on part both on Valve and Rockstar here. Valve for putting up the rating when the developer isn't giving it any support, and Rockstar for not blocking it and just taking the purchases. Rockstar would have been well aware it got given a rating.
GTAV is far from the first example of its kind. Looking back on it we’ve also had issues with:
- Battlefield 1 went from Steam Deck Playable to Unsupported, due to EA anticheat.
- Battlefield V went from Steam Deck Playable to Unsupported, due to EA anticheat.
- Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition went from Steam Deck Playable to Unsupported, due to EA anticheat.
Before people bring them up in the comments: Battlefield 2042 is also broken, but it never worked to begin with, as even when it had Easy Anti-Cheat (that supports Linux platforms) it was never enabled. Now it has EA anticheat too. EA SPORTS WRC is similar, it was rated Unsupported but it did actually work and now it doesn’t due to EA anticheat. So while these two aren’t part of this specific topic right now, they do continue to highlight the ongoing anti-cheat issue.
And while Apex Legends works currently, there’s been repeating issues when the anti-cheat has been broken following updates, and a couple of times where Steam Deck / Linux players got banned and had to wait to be unbanned due to false flags there. Eventually, Apex Legends may even end up swapping from the Linux-supported Easy Anti-Cheat to EA anticheat like other EA published titles and break as well.
Single-player games largely aren’t a problem, although some have poor performance and yet somehow still get a Playable or Verified rating, which Valve do seem to be a bit inconsistent on.
To highlight the above a bit more. There’s a pinned post in the official Steam Deck forum for people to report errors with the Steam Deck Verified program. That post has now accrued 1,060 replies with a big mixture of complaints about Verified games from poor overall performance, to the games completely crashing the Steam Deck system, some have completely broken textures, various videos not playing and the list goes on. It also shows a few posts talking about games that clearly deserve a higher rating than what Valve gave. So it's not just about broken games, but games that people see zero issues with rated incorrectly by Valve too.
All that said, it’s not to say the whole idea of Steam Deck Verified is broken, but in many cases, Valve definitely need to work more closely with developers rather than just sticking up a rating and calling it done. This is especially true for games that have online multiplayer, or if it’s the only mode the game has. I don't have any good solution in mind though, Valve obviously have people a lot smarter than me working on all this, but something should be done to prevent such negative headline-grabbing issues in future for the Steam Deck as a gaming platform. I obviously want to see it succeed probably more than most people.
You may at this point be thinking, but hey I read a fancy article recently that said Microsoft are banning kernel-level anti-cheat, so this will be all solved right? Well, no. GamingOnLinux has an article going over that for you to read. In short: Microsoft have not said they’re doing so, just making a “new” platform for security. And again, developers can and do block Linux regardless of having kernel-level tomfoolery or not (Hi again Roblox).
If Valve do ever plan to launch a Steam Deck 2, they’re going to need to overhaul the rating system anyway right? So, now is the time to get Steam Deck Verified tweaked and improved before more issues come up with a second-generation, and before more titles end up having to go from Playable or Verified to Unsupported because the developer wasn’t supporting it at all to begin with, as Rockstar have made plainly clear with their FAQ entry for GTA V.
Even if you’re not into GTA V or any other title that’s been broken and don’t care: you really should. Each game being broken is a loss for overall support of the platform as a whole. It’s not a good look and it reduces choice for gamers.
I emailed Valve to talk about this issue with the verified program and they have not replied yet.
Before some comments come along to try and wriggle this into a “Native Linux is better” type of argument, that’s just nonsense. We’ve seen numerous games remove their Native Linux builds completely, or drop support for them, heck I wrote about one such case earlier today. Native vs Proton is not the issue, platform support is, regardless of how the games are made to work.
On another note, while we’re on the subject of Steam Deck gaming, Proton and the rating system. Given how far Valve’s Proton has come to where it now runs tens of thousands of Windows games without a fuss, perhaps it’s finally time for Valve to allow developers to officially list their games as supported via Proton for Linux-based platforms (regardless of Desktop Linux or Steam Deck). I did also email Valve to enquire about that back in August, and did not receive a reply.
Over to you in the comments: what are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Single-player games largely aren’t a problem, although some have poor performance and yet somehow still get a Playable or Verified rating, which Valve do seem to be a bit inconsistent on.
Well, yes. The other thing Valve needs to work on is clarity regarding what it actually means to be Verified or Playable. Because the reality of the situation is that to be Verified you just have to meet the not especially strict requirements of a small checklist and not much more; it was never and has never been a guarantee that a rated Verified game will run 100% perfectly at 30/60 FPS consistently on specific settings or what have you. It just means it reaches the bare minimum of what Valve consider to be playable, regardless of how well it runs or not.
Valve failed at their first atempt because the second need.
edit: I find myself frustrated the majority of the time with Linux gaming because windows support by wine and proton are far from perfect. So games often needs extra arguments, have less performance and is very tricky to make mods works. As a company with that amount of money, they should put as many people they can to improve SteamOS and Proton/Wine to cover all the missing links.
Last edited by tamodolo on 20 September 2024 at 6:34 pm UTC
Mohandevir Sep 20
perhaps it’s finally time for Valve to allow developers to officially list their games as supported via Proton for Linux-based platforms
This. Maybe it could be as easy as what they did for cloud gaming and family sharing (an opt-in/opt-out option). Forcing Devs to commit: "Do you support or not Proton and/or the Steam Deck" and create an easy to see filter, in the store pages for the devs that support Proton officially. Free advertising to these devs and make them first class citizens, above and before the Steam Deck verified program.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 September 2024 at 8:27 pm UTC
cameronbosch Sep 20
As for other companies, somebody is obviously bribing other companies to not enable BattleEye or Easy Anti Cheat on Proton. Whether or not it's Microsoft or somebody else remains to be seen.
As for Riot, they've been owned by Chinese CCP company Tecent for over 15 years now. Of course they want control over your entire system, to spy on it and install malware at will. All of those games using Vanguard are banned in my household and any system I work on because it's malware. If you come to me asking for help with a system and it has a game with that on it, it's getting removed as part of the "cleaning process". No program should be running at the OS kernel level apart from the OS itself.
"Oh, BuT wHaT aBoUt ThE cHeAtErS!?"
Did kernel level anti-cheat EVER WORK!? It's a race to the bottom, no doubt about it.
Vortex_Acherontic Sep 20
Single-player games largely aren’t a problem, although some have poor performance and yet somehow still get a Playable or Verified rating, which Valve do seem to be a bit inconsistent on.
Well, yes. The other thing Valve needs to work on is clarity regarding what it actually means to be Verified or Playable. Because the reality of the situation is that to be Verified you just have to meet the not especially strict requirements of a small checklist and not much more; it was never and has never been a guarantee that a rated Verified game will run 100% perfectly at 30/60 FPS consistently on specific settings or what have you. It just means it reaches the bare minimum of what Valve consider to be playable, regardless of how well it runs or not.
I would even get a step further for the verification. A game should pass the playability test in most common configuration. Like hooked up to a tv and with external controllers and in handheld mode.
There are a few games (Halo Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike) which are verified, for a good reason but completely break if you attempt to play them docked with an external controller.
I think, as this is a valid use case for a steam deck they should include things like this as well.
At least with Proton combined with Steam Deck developer gets sort of training wheels. So if were lucky developers inch towards being able to make good native builds or in worst case game just detects Linux as Steam Deck and does very Steam Deck specific things.
1) it's unclear how valve ultimately ends up at 1 of these 3 ratings,
2) Valve only tests a game once, and then usually never again, which is problematic because proton keeps getting better, but also like pointed out, DRM and anti-cheat get added to games. At the very least they should add the proton version this was tested with
3) It's totally unclear what doesn't work when a game is ''unsupported'' because the descriptions just say "valve is still working on adding support for this"
Of all the games I play, only a single one is completely unplayable, and that is Destiny 2. All the other ones either run fine or only have minor issues. And yes, I've played most unsupported titles in my library and they ran just fine even on the Deck.
Conversely, there's games in my library where I wonder why the heck valve gave it a verified rating. Like Horizon Zero Dawn. It's a total stutterfest on the deck, all over the forums people report that it's a consistently bad experience. The successor, Forbidden West, has an 'unsupported' rating exactly because of bad performance. So why is the first one verified then? I can't help but get the impression their standards when testing games are wildly different.
Honestly, I've had more issues with Verified titles than I had with unsupported ones. I don't pay attention to the rating any more. I just use protonDB which is so much more reliable
Plus some sort of thing where the steam deck verificatin freezes the version, meaning it has to be verified again each major version. That would be less popular due to delays and incompatibility for multiplayer, but would guarantee the verification was accurate
perhaps it’s finally time for Valve to allow developers to officially list their games as supported via Proton for Linux-based platforms
This. Maybe it could be as easy as what they did for cloud gaming and family sharing (an opt-in/opt-out option). Forcing Devs to commit: "Do you support or not Proton and/or the Steam Deck" and create an easy to see filter, in the store pages for the devs that support Proton officially. Free advertising to these devs and make them first class citizens, above and before the Steam Deck verified program.
Yeah I think that'd be a great idea, having a checkmark for "supported" steam deck, similar to the other opt-in options. Then if Valve wanted to they could have an not official supported badge for ones that are verified working (but means it could change). Especially for games that never update and the devs may be gone.
Single-player games largely aren’t a problem, although some have poor performance and yet somehow still get a Playable or Verified rating, which Valve do seem to be a bit inconsistent on.
Well, yes. The other thing Valve needs to work on is clarity regarding what it actually means to be Verified or Playable. Because the reality of the situation is that to be Verified you just have to meet the not especially strict requirements of a small checklist and not much more; it was never and has never been a guarantee that a rated Verified game will run 100% perfectly at 30/60 FPS consistently on specific settings or what have you. It just means it reaches the bare minimum of what Valve consider to be playable, regardless of how well it runs or not.
I would even get a step further for the verification. A game should pass the playability test in most common configuration. Like hooked up to a tv and with external controllers and in handheld mode.
There are a few games (Halo Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike) which are verified, for a good reason but completely break if you attempt to play them docked with an external controller.
I think, as this is a valid use case for a steam deck they should include things like this as well.
Spartan Assault at least isn't verified - https://store.steampowered.com/app/277430/Halo_Spartan_Assault/?curator_clanid=4777282
They do have a rating box for cases where external controllers don't work, not sure why they didn't mark it, but guessing whoever tested it didn't try it.
williamjcm Sep 20
If Valve do ever plan to launch a Steam Deck 2, they’re going to need to overhaul the rating system anyway right?
One thing they could also do is have a general Linux/Proton rating. Because I have a few games which work on the Deck but not desktop Linux.
Mountain Man Sep 20
Therein lies the problem. Steam Deck Verified is all Valve, it’s nothing to do with the original developers of the games that are being checked.That's the current state of Linux gaming in a nutshell: it's all on Valve. Other developers haven't jumped on the Linux bandwagon like I had hoped they would after Valve proved it's a viable market.
As always, if you want to support gaming on Linux, support games that support Linux. Don't give your hard earned money to companies that don't give a rats arse about you, then act surprised when they pull the rug out from under you.
Cyba.Cowboy Sep 20
"Oh, but you can't do that, because developers would leave Steam!"
And yet, Steam controls what? 70% of the PC gaming market? Sure, you'd initially lost some developers; but they'd come crawling back when they realize that they won't have the same number of customers / potential customers elsewhere (as has occurred many times in the past).
From a technical point of view, there is no reason on Earth online functionality should be disabled under Linux-based operating systems - the only reason it is is because some of the biggest developers in the industry are anti-Linux; it's high-time Valve Software went on the offense and started pushing back against this ridiculous, discriminative stance.
Then again, EA is a garbage company and has been for some time.
Telling it like it is... I don't buy EA games where ever possible, and haven't for many years.
They're horrible to the gaming community, they're horrible ethically and put profits over everything else, gamers and staff alike.
As for other companies, somebody is obviously bribing other companies to not enable BattleEye or Easy Anti Cheat on Proton. Whether or not it's Microsoft or somebody else remains to be seen.
Absolutely.
As I note above, there is no technical reason why the anti-cheat systems can't be enabled under Linux-based operating systems and again, as I've said before elsewhere, I think it's VERY likely that somebody - most likely Microsoft or another big name like that - are either outright bribing or using "clever" manipulation (e.g. "We'll make your developer fees cheaper if...") to encourage developers to disable online functionality under Linux-based operating systems...
We know the anti-cheat systems work under Linux-based operating systems and we know that there's quite literally no technical reason why they can't be enabled; so the only real question is who has something to gain from these anti-cheat systems being disabled?
Before some comments come along to try and wriggle this into a “Native Linux is better” type of argument, that’s just nonsense. We’ve seen numerous games remove their Native Linux builds completely, or drop support for them, heck I wrote about one such case earlier today. Native vs Proton is not the issue, platform support is, regardless of how the games are made to work.
Native linux is better
That is, however, not relevant to the discussion of proton support. I think you put your finger fairly correctly on the pain spot: there is no label with which devs can indicate that they will support proton.
This is not only confusing for the users, it's also unfair to devs that have committed themselves to supporting it.
Cyba.Cowboy Sep 21
Native linux is better
Only when it's optimized correctly... Otherwise, it's just like saying a broken-down Ferrari is as good as one bought new.
If developers put in the effort to optimize their games - and that's a big "if" in the Linux world - they have the potential to be far better than Proton could ever hope to be, even under "perfect" conditions.
Because with Proton pseudo-support, no publisher ever has to do anything to make the extra sales. They don't have to spend a dime. People will line up around the block to pay for games that aren't supported on their computer. As long as Valve is encouraging Linux users to buy games that won't run on their platform, the publishers can just sit back and rake in the money without any obligation to handle returns or keep the games working. Valve of course takes its cut as the middleman.
Valve cannot support games without the active cooperation of the actual game publisher. It will always require publisher cooperation. Which relies on publishers having an interest. Which relies on Valve not taking that interest away. As long as Valve takes away the publisher's incentive to do better, they will never do better.
Unfortunate as it is, this is why Linux native actually is better. Socially and economically, it is the only reliable way publishers indicate actual support for Linux. They don't just throw out some software and let Valve put a checkmark on it. If they use a wrapper, it is part of their internal build, and doesn't appear to be a "Proton game." And all this was entirely predictable from the beginning. If any Linux user says "I won't pay for games that aren't actually supported on my computer" then other Linux users routinely ridicule them on sites like this.
If Proton is there forever and Valve does nothing to shift publisher behavior then we are all just waiting for Proton and Steam Deck support to inevitably die due to the failure of Valve's subsidy. Then the carriage which brought Steam Deck users to the dance will turn back into a pumpkin and the entire Linux gaming market, now hollowed out by the exodus to Proton, will disappear as the entire Steam audience switches to Windows on some small device suspiciously shaped like a Steam Deck.
Age of Conan has had linux support enabled the moment battleeye added linux support and they never had ANY hacking issues. I know that's an example of one but with all the games that do enable linux support with their anti cheat of choice, we never actually had any significant complaints / evidence of "linux hacking." Apex Legends is really a giant test case for this and so far, zero significant complaints / proof.
What's really ticks me off with EA is the original non kernel level anti cheat that was in Battlefield V actually worked. Hacking only became an issue in that game when EA dropped support for it after 2042 launched because they stopped updating Battlefield V's anti cheat. Non kernel level anti cheat does work. I'll never understand why they want that level of paranoia outside just wanting to be close to a rootkit as possible.
It really sucks the biggest hurdle today for linux gaming is multiplayer games. Not because they can't run, but because of dumb stuff like kernel level anti cheat. I'm waiting for the day game developers really show their true colors and start enabling anti cheat in single player games because its stuff like this that is really starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to game developers.
They made there money from windows users.
Should we get a refund if the game end up not supporting steam deck anymore, then valve needs to track on what system I got the game, they are probably already doing this or have the data to setup something to do that.
Back in the days when steam machines where a thing valve and gaben said something along.
“If they support Linux they get free advertising for short period”.
Maybe it’s something I’v dreamed but that could work for steam deck.
And money talks, Valve could takes a lesser cut from developers that support Linux and steam deck. That would motivate them better to keep the support and have the banner updated. If not, well valve can easily take action against the devs for false advertising.
I do believe, if there is money to be made and lose, that’s a great motivation.
Last edited by Zelox on 21 September 2024 at 5:27 am UTC
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