You’ll have observed that Grand Theft Auto V is not verified on Steam Deck. That is seemingly due to the BattlEye new anti-cheat software program for GTA On-line, which rolled out earlier this week.
As Rockstar explains in its official FAQ, BattlEye is a kernel stage anti-cheat supposed to handle a few of the dishonest issues in GTA On-line. A aspect impact of this new software program is that it apparently breaks GTA’s compatibility with Steam Deck, which Rockstar blames on Valve.
“Steam Deck doesn’t assist BattlEye for GTA On-line. It is possible for you to to play GTA V Story Mode however unable to play GTA On-line,” Rockstar writes. “GTA V and GTA On-line will not be formally supported on Steam Deck and all technical assist questions needs to be directed to Valve’s Steam Deck assist content material and group.”
What’s attention-grabbing is that Steam Deck does truly appear to assist BattlEye. As The Verge identified, Valve has beforehand stated that enabling BattlEye assist on Steam Deck is seemingly a matter of reaching out and asking for them to successfully flip a swap.
A technique or one other, it is a loss for each Valve and followers of the Steam Deck, as GTA V has persistently been one of many platform’s hottest video games. We referred to as it one of many 10 greatest video games on the Steam Deck, eclipsed solely by Elden Ring, writing, “In some ways, the sandbox world of violence and crime it presents is effectively fitted to on-the-go gaming. It is simple to lose your self within the many distractions Los Santos presents, and passing time on an actual metropolis bus when you hijack a GTA metropolis bus is a uncommon stage of portable-gaming inception.”
IGN has reached out to Valve and Rockstar for extra remark.
Within the meantime, you will nonetheless be capable of take pleasure in GTA V’s story on Steam Deck, which undoubtedly nonetheless holds up much more than a decade later. You simply will not be capable of pull off moveable heists on-line. Alas.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s Information Director in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Ship her a DM at @the_katbot.