One of the most popular games on Steam has hit a snag forSteam Deckplayers.Grand Theft Auto 5andGrand Theft Auto Onlineare no longer supported for Valve’s PC handheld.
Rockstar Games explains in apost for Update 1.69(and spotted byThe Verge), that its game won’t be supported by Steam Deck due to the integration of BattlEye Anti-Cheat forGrand Theft Auto Online. The goal was to put a limit on cheating in its open-world MMO, but that came at the cost of Steam Deck support.
This change from verified to unsupported via the Deck Verified program means Valve considers it not playableat allon Steam Deck. While you can still play theGTA 5single-player campaign, you won’t be able to hop intoGTA Online, andGTA 5is overall not supported.
This will affect a lot of players. Despite being almost a decade old,GTA 5is still one of the most consistently played video games on PC. At the time of this writing, it’sranked 11thon Steam Deck’s top-played list for the past year and has over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, according toSteamDB.
The addition of BattlEye, long-requested by online players due to rampant cheating, was added to the game on Tuesday. It’s comprehensive and widely-used software, capable of identifying IP addresses, hardware, and other information from guilty players. You can also switch it off through the Rockstar Games Launcher, according to theofficial FAQ, since it only needs to be used when playingGTA Online.
It’s unclear what about the anti-cheat system would create such an obstacle. BattlEyeposted on X (formerly Twitter)back in 2021 that it would support Proton, the Steam Deck’s OS layer that allows the Linux-based system to play Windows games. According to The Verge, it also still appears to work, and should be easy to enable.
“BattlEye on Proton integration has reached a point where all a developer needs to do is reach out BattlEye to enable it for their title. No additional work is required by the developer besides that communication,”Valve also notedthat year ahead of the Steam Deck’s release. It’senabled for gameslikeRainbow Six Siege,Destiny 2, andThe Crew 2, among others, on Steam as well. However, other game launchers tend to not work well on the Steam Deck, part of the reason whyDragon Age: The Veilguardlikelywon’t have to use the EA launcherto run on Steam.
According to a Reddit userwho reached out to Steam support, Valve is working with Rockstar on a fix, and the publisher has “heavily discounted the game” in response. Currently, the game’s premium edition is 25% off, while its premium edition and Great White Shark Card bundle is 66% off, down to just $20.
