GTA V, One of the Most Popular Games on Steam Deck, Is Now “Unsupported”

Grand Theft Auto V was one of the top ten most popular games on Valve’s portable Steam Deck last week. It’s been in the top 20 for at least two years now. But as of today, Valve is labeling the game “unsupported” — because developer Rockstar has mysteriously removed its compatibility with Valve’s portable console in online modes.

As you can see in the image above, this is the latest battle around Linux’s anti-cheat system: just like the creators Fortnite AND RobloxRockstar has decided not to support Steam Deck with its new anti-cheat software GTA Online – a game that, as everyone says, badly needed a solution to its cheating problem. (Aside from Steam Deck, better anti-cheat was probably a good move.)

But unlike Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar is taking away the multiplayer portion of the game from people instead of not porting it to Steam Deck at all. It also blames Valve for the issue, claiming that “Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online” and referring all further questions to Valve.

And it doesn’t answer one key question: why wasn’t the supposed switch that allows BattlEye anti-cheat software to run on Steam Deck enabled?

Because it works, last time I checked. Valve enabled BattlEye for Steam Deck years ago, and many games with anti-cheat software have successfully transitioned to the feature. Valve said that enabling a game with BattlEye to work on Steam Deck is literally as easy as sending an email. But Rockstar didn’t respond when I asked about it. I also pinged Pierre-Loup Griffais at Valve to see if anything has changed in the anti-cheat scene since then, but I haven’t heard back yet.

I’ve often heard the suggestion that by letting Linux users play with anti-cheat software we’re encouraging them to find ways to dismantle it, but Epic’s Tim Sweeney suggested last year that there may also be economic reasons at play.

The positive side is that GTA VSingle-player should still work. “You will be able to play GTAV Story Mode, but you will not be able to play GTA Online,” reads Rockstar’s FAQ.