The Steam Deck has now put over 1,000 games into the "Verified" status, as per an announcement straight from Valve.
A Steam Deck handheld gaming console, taken on August 26, 2021.
GamesRadar reports that alongside the announcement, Valve also expects many other games to switch from Playable and eleven Unsupported to Verified. However, they also mention that there could still be so-called "false negatives" or games that play fine on the Deck but still haven't received the Verified status.
You can check out the full announcement on Steam if you're curious.
They also mentioned specific situations where a game can remain in the Playable state even if it mostly runs well. The example they gave is when a game shows a different controller icon than what is expected (i.e., "press F" when the Deck only supports Xbox-style controls).
According to Valve, such a situation is enough to classify the game under Playable and not Verified. Another situation that can bring a Playable game down to Unsupported is when almost all of the game's functionality is playable, but an optional minigame makes it crash.
Either way, you can see which games just received the Steam Deck Verified status on the official Steam Deck website. Among the recently verified games include AAA masterpieces like "Elden Ring," "God Of War," and "Hitman III," alongside many others.
You can also check whether the games in your own Steam Library are Verified as well. All you need to do is log on to your Steam account using this special Steam link, and it will show you which games in your library are playable with the Deck right out of the box.
Valve launched the Steam Deck last February 25th to relatively positive reviews. There are still some reviews that say Valve's newest handheld is "not ready," but the consensus is that they finally made good hardware after the infamous Steam Machines debacle of the mid-2010s.
Read also: Discord and Background Music Apps to Run on Steam Deck Handheld 'Nintendo Switch Competitor'
Why Can The Steam Deck Only Play Specific Games?
The Steam Deck's hardware isn't exactly to blame for why it can only run specific games at this point. It's mostly due to the software, specifically the OS.
Valve designed their handheld to run a native version of SteamOS, based on Linux. To make it able to run mostly Windows-exclusive games, Valve uses a compatibility layer called Proton. However, this still didn't fix everything, as some games have mostly remained unplayable despite their implementation.
Among those which only recently became playable (but not Verified) was "Apex Legends." It used to be on the Unsupported column due to its Easy Anti-Cheat software, which doesn't agree with Linux much, even with Proton there. But it is now playable as of this writing, with this video as proof:
As for other games, it remains to be seen whether the specific bugs that keep them from being Steam Deck Verified will be fixed. Check back in for updates.
Related: Best Steam Deck Accessories To Get For Your New Valve Handheld (If You Actually Get It)
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
