No. I doubt they can make every game work. Even if they do that would be better described as every game at the moment for a particular hardware setup. There are some games that people have running that fail on my hardware.

Quoting: Guestdestiny 2 is a good example,wont run at all, it is listed as 'borked' on their site.

if they make anti cheat work with proton, then destiny 2 will work

No, not all games. The vast majority? Quite likely. There will always be cases where the games don't work right away for new releases too.

Every anything working all the time is impossible on any platform.

That is to say, using the word 'all' as a qualifier will always result in an answer of 'no'.

I think this may end up being the main falter of the Steam Deck for non Linux gamers. Like many others in the past decade they have over promised to a point that it is unlikely they will be able to deliver. How many times I have seen Linux gamers tell Windows gamers that things are great and nearly all Windows games run on Linux, that performance is equal to Windows, etc. Why can't they just be more honest and just say things are improving and will continue to improve. Just as Valve could have said that many games will run on the Steam Deck but not all. All it will take for them to be called liars and have to back track is for one single game out of 10000+ on Steam to not launch. I want to say they can do it but logic and commons sense make that impossible for me.

Quoting: PublicNuisanceWhy can't they just be more honest and just say things are improving and will continue to improve

I think it's because people don't like complicated, vague answers, even if it's the right one. Maybe's don't sell. To me they sound pessimistic, like the device won't work.
Here's an example using the Steam Deck Page:

"Could possibly be the most gaming power you've ever held!"

"Steam Deck brings the Steam games and features you might like to a powerful and convenient form factor that you can take some places"!

"Part of Your Steam library might work on your Deck"!

"Just power it on and log in if you have signal.
Your games and your friends might be there."!

Or one of my own:

Steam Deck! Maybe play some of your games for a little bit!

More honest? Yeah. Exciting? No. I do agree with you that it appears they are over promising at best.

Come to think of it. I have a question?

Assume Valve "promised" your whole library would work. We but the SD and find out that's not true with game X. Who do we turn to?

Do we go to Valve? Demand thier support "Fix" the SD to get game X to work? A game they have no control over?

Do we go to the Dev? Demand they "Fix" the game for a platform that might not have existed when they made thier game or they never had intention to support (let's assume a legit reason here for the sake of argument).

I fear the devs will bare the burden of support under the fear of review bombing and refunds.

Last edited by denyasis on 14 August 2021 at 10:38 pm UTC

The only way I can see that "all games" will work will be if Valve invest in cloud gaming. Something btw GFN/Stadia/XCloud on their behalf will make that statement true.

I guess that Valve has many factors on their side that will improve things very much:
1. They can "convince" developers to actively support their platform.
2. They can change their system (including the kernel) in any way they like, so special patches etc. are absolutely possible.
3. I guess that they will release some major improvements for Proton etc.
3.a) Especially (as already mentioned) for Copyright-Protection- and Anti-Cheat-Systems

The only real danger that I see is Microsoft, who might be doing something bad in the future to "sabotage" the efforts of making "Windows" Games playable on Linux.
But on the hopeful side there are three arguments against that scenario:
1. Valve could then sue them for violation of fair competition.
2. Every change would mean that all devs (from Game companies etc.) need to apply these changes too (which they won't like).
3. It would always only be a question of time until Proton could support the changes too.

But still it is kind of a risky and "wrong" to "promise" that everything is going to work, when that is maybe not the case.

But ultimately we will see, when it releases.

Quoting: dr_jekyllThe only real danger that I see is Microsoft, who might be doing something bad in the future to "sabotage" the efforts of making "Windows" Games playable on Linux.

I don't think that's the way they'd go, for the reasons you mention. If they were taking their gloves off it would be exactly the scenario that led Valve to invest in Linux in the first place: make the Windows Store the primary means to get games on Windows, and release their own Xbox-branded handheld for those games and Games Pass.