With all the hype surrounding the Steam Deck console, it has been published and somewhat confirmed that Steam Deck now has over 1,000 verified and playable games, adding to its catalog by optimizing numerous games, including the recently released Elden Ring. In a blog post, Valve said that there are currently over 1,000 titles with “Verified” or “Playable” status for portable gaming PC.
Valves’ goal is to make sure that as many Steam games as possible can be played on its console. Valve also demonstrated that by announcing the Aperture Desk Job, it can still create immersive and playable games on its handheld devices.
In other words, the compatibility landscape will constantly evolve, and Valve took the time to remind us of this on their blog, as well as the process they use to mark games as verified. Even with current standards, with the speed at which Valve and partners are making improvements, we expect many games to move from playable or even unsupported to verified in the coming weeks. “Even by today’s standards, based on how quickly we and our partners optimize, we expect many games to move from “playable” or even “unsupported” to “verified” in the coming weeks.”
“Verified” is the gold standard for Steam Deck compatibility, and games that receive this certification from Valve work well with a portable gaming PC right out of the box. As a reminder, games classified as “Valve Verified” or “Steam Deck Playable” are games that Valve has tested for playability. You can also check if the games in your Steam library are verified. Currently, the Steam database indicates that a total of 258 games have been tested, 112 of which have been found to be fully playable. According to Game Rant, this means 559 games are tested and 498 are “playable”, bringing the number of compatible games to 1,057.
GamesRadar reports that in addition to announcements made directly by Valve, Valve expects many other games to move from Playable and Unsupported to Verified. According to Valve, this situation is enough to put the game somewhere between playable and untested.”Verified” means that the game will automatically adapt to Steam decks, while “playable” means that the game will require some player settings to play, such as through game options or a specific controller setting. To better communicate this to gamers, Valve has begun implementing a new compatibility tool that allows developers to directly contact their community about Steam Deck compatibility, as shown in the image below for RimWorld.
Valve has also mentioned specific situations where a game can remain in the Playable state even if it is generally performing well. During testing, some people may experience problems with the game. I figured maybe it was Deck Verified again by choosing Proton first instead of Native Linux build, but even that doesn’t work properly with the wrong resolution, and then it crashes.
The Valves QA team has been furiously going through the massive Steam library to see what the deck can be played with. Despite the exciting progress made by the Valves Deck Verified program, reviewing every single game in Valve’s 50,000 games library is time-consuming and the program still has a long way to go. One fan named Avery managed to put together a Steam database that confirmed that Steam had already reviewed hundreds of games and confirmed that over 1000 titles worked on its first handheld game console.
More games are expected to move to verified status in the coming weeks and months, and Valve’s standards for newly released Steam Deck games will also change as feedback comes in. The console was released in late February, and Valve used the 1,000 verified games mark to talk about exactly what it means for the “present and future” of the Steam deck.
