GTA V, one of the most popular Steam Deck games, is now ‘unsupported’
Grand Theft Auto V was one of the top ten most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck handheld this past week. It’s been in the top twenty for at least two years. But as of today, Valve now lists the game as “unsupported” — because developer Rockstar mysteriously broke compatibility with Valve’s handheld for its online modes.
As you can see in the image above, this is the latest fight around Linux anti-cheat: like the developers of Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar has decided not to support the Steam Deck with its new anti-cheat software for GTA Online — a game that, by all accounts, badly needed to deal with cheaters. (Outside the Steam Deck, better anti-cheat was probably a good move.)
But unlike Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar is taking the multiplayer chunk of the game away from people, rather than not bringing it to the Steam Deck in the first place. It’s also blaming Valve for the problem, claiming that “Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online” and directing all further questions to Valve.
And it’s not answering one key question: why didn’t it flip the alleged switch that lets BattlEye anti-cheat work on the Steam Deck?
Because it does work, last I checked. Valve enabled BattlEye for the Steam Deck years ago, and a number of games with the anti-cheat software successfully made the jump. Valve has said that enabling a game with BattlEye to run on Steam Deck is literally as easy as sending an email. But Rockstar didn’t reply when I asked about that. I also pinged Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais to see if anything has changed in the anticheat scene since, but haven’t yet heard back.
I have repeatedly heard it suggested that letting Linux users play around with anti-cheat invites them to figure out ways to dismantle it, but Epic’s Tim Sweeney suggested last year that it might be more about economics.
On the plus side, GTA V’s single player should still work. “You will be able to play GTAV Story Mode but unable to play GTA Online,” reads Rockstar’s FAQ.
Grand Theft Auto V was one of the top ten most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck handheld this past week. It’s been in the top twenty for at least two years. But as of today, Valve now lists the game as “unsupported” — because developer Rockstar mysteriously broke compatibility…
Recent Posts
- Steam Machine and Steam Frame are coming ‘this summer’
- Valve says it’s ready to launch the Steam Machine this summer
- Best Buy slashes up to $400 off Apple tech in a limited-time sale — get AirPods, MacBooks, iPads and Apple Watches from $99.99
- The Instagram Plus subscription has officially launched
- Wired found code for an unreleased facial recognition feature in Meta’s AI app
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023