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Proton co-developer warns Steam Deck won't play all games on launch

Proton co-developer warns Steam Deck won't play all games on launch

The co-developer of Proton Codeweavers has said that Valve's upcoming Steam Deck hardware won't play every game from consumers' libraries on launch.

Speaking to the Boiling Steam podcastas spotted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun – the studio's president, James B Ramey said that there are going to be games that don't work on the console's SteamOS software when it comes out in December. In fact, Proton only supports in the region of 16,000 titles at the time of writing.

Codeweavers worked with Valve to create Proton, a programme that allows SteamOS to run Windows games in Linux, which is what the Steam Deck will use.

This follows Valve's Pierre-Loup Graffais telling IGN that the hardware will be able to play all games sold on Steam.

“I think there are two messages that have been kind of mashed together when people focus and talk on this,” Ramey said.

“The first message is when Pierre-Loup made his announcement and stated that the Steam Deck can support any and all games. I think what he was referencing is — and this is my opinion, this is my perception, this is not something I have talked to him about — but I think he was trying to state that the device itself, the hardware specs on this device, can support any game.”

“I don’t necessarily think he was referencing supporting that game in Proton — I think he was referencing that the device has the horsepower, the video graphics, the RAM, the hard drive space to support any game out there."

Steam Deck was revealed back in July and is set for a December release. The firm is also confident that the hardware is future proofed.


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.