Back in March, we learned that a bunch of Xbox games would be made available on the Steam Deck, including titles like Psychonauts 2 and Hellblade: Senna’s Sacrifice. The list also notably mentioned that the Halo games would not be available on the Steam Deck due to issues with anti-cheat software.
However, a new wave of Xbox games have been announced as playable on the Steam Deck today, including some titles from the series (although, not the mainline titles).
This morning, an announcement by Xbox Game Studios on Steam divulged the newest Xbox games to be made available on the Steam Deck. The games are categorised as Verified and Playable. For those of you that still aren’t 100% sure what exactly those labels mean, Verified means that every single little part of the game functions as normal on the Steam Deck, as if it were a game native to the console.
On the other hand, Playable is what it says on the can. The game runs well on the console, albeit with a few minor things such as prompting keyboard controls in the game. Steam has mentioned in the past that their standards for Verified are ‘very high’, so one little goof can drop a game from Verified to Playable.
The Steam Deck Verified titles are as follows:
- Fable Anniversary
- Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
- Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
- Killer Instinct
- Kalimba
- Halo: Spartan Strike
- RUSH: A Disney Pixar Adventure
The Steam Deck Playable titles are as follows:
As mentioned in our article last month, Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Halo Infinite were listed as “Unsupported, due to anti-cheat”. While we hope they’ll manage to work on this so that these games are playable (or even verified), it seems like they’re attempting to make up for these snubs with the additions of spin-offs like Halo Wars, Halo: Spartan Strike, and Gears Tactics.
Now, I know. I know. We don’t have access to the Steam Deck in Australia yet. I know, it bums me out too. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled and our ears gaping for whenever they decide to announce it, but so far, there’s no news. In the meantime, we’ll be updating you all on what’s available on the console until the blessed day when they finally decide to drop the console here.
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