What you need to know
- Valve developed Proton, a compatibility layer designed for SteamOS to help run Windows games on Steam Deck under the Steam Play codename.
- An experimental branch of Proton has also been updated with extra patches but is not officially supported.
- A collection of titles has been categorized as playable, alongside a list of general bug fixes for others.
Valve has updated Proton, its fork of Unix-based Wine, a compatibility layer designed for SteamOS to run Windows games on Steam Deck. Proton 7.0-3 is the latest stable branch, released alongside an update to Proton Experimental. The latter build includes even more patches but is officially unsupported and should only be installed by experienced users, with Valve's official Proton GitHub repository detailing requirements for installation.
Support for the Windows.Gaming.Input API means even more joypads will be compatible with the console, and steering wheel detection has been enhanced for those enjoying immersive racing sims on Steam Deck. New support for reordering xinput controllers helps reduce errors when connecting multiple peripherals, making this a significant update for anyone who prefers external controllers.
Valve has categorized a list of titles as playable in the stable build, meaning they're comfortable enough to play from beginning to end, but may exhibit some bugs, including:
- Age of Chivalry
- Beneath a Steel Sky
- Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamer Edition
- Cities XXL
- Cladun X2
- Cursed Armor
- Flanarion Tactics
- Gary Grigsby's War in the East
- Gary Grigsby's War in the West
- Iragon: Prologue
- MechWarrior Online
- Small Radios Big Televisions
- Split/Second
- Star Wars Episode I Racer
- Stranger of Sword City Revisited
- Succubus x Saint
- V Rising
- Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
- We Were Here Forever
The Proton Experimental branch includes three more titles upgraded to playable: Karmaflow The Rock Opera Videogame - Act I & Act II, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, and Atelier Meruru.
Many games have enjoyed individual patches, notably fixing common crashing issues with Elden Ring and Deathloop during extended gameplay and system suspends. Video playback patches have improved pre-rendered cutscenes in titles such as Street Fighter V, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and more.
Valve continues to update the Steam Deck library and its SteamOS software with expanded support for some of the best Steam Deck accessories, making it a viable portable PC gaming system with standard peripherals. Check out the full changelog on GitHub for specifics.
