GTA Online is no longer compatible with the Steam Deck thanks to its new anti-cheat software, despite BattlEye having an opt-in system for this sort of thing

GamesActionGrand Theft AutoGTA Online is no longer compatible with the Steam Deck thanks to its new anti-cheat software, despite BattlEye having an opt-in system for this sort of thingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Rockstar North)

Franklin returns to GTA Online.

Grand Theft Auto Online has, in an eyebrow-raising move, been given an anti-cheatsoftware named BattlEyeover a decade after the game came out. As a consequence, it’s now officially no longer compatible with the Steam Deck, per Valve’s own store page for the game and anofficial FAQ from Rockstar.

That’s a pretty dramatic shift, considering GTA 5—and, likely, GTA Online—was formerly one of Valve’s top-played Steam Deck games. It’s even stillon the leaderboardsat the time of writing. Now, it’s got a big ol' “unsupported” sticker.

Rockstar’s FAQ and the1.69 patch updatesconfirm this is intentional, at least for the time being. Both read: “Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online. You will be able to play GTA 5 Story Mode but unable to play GTA Online”.

AsThe Vergepoints out, that’s despite the fact that there are games with BattlEye which are Steam Deck compatible. Proton, a compatibility layer that allows Linux users to play Windows games (the Steam Deck’s SteamOS software is based on Linux), is at the root of the problem: Simply put, games using BattlEye will not run on Steam Deck out of the box, so to speak. However, BattlEye can be enabled as long as the developer reaches out to the anti-cheat vendor.

All this to say, while Rockstar’s claim that the Steam Deck doesn’t support BattlEye for GTA Online istechnicallytrue, the onus appears to be on Rockstar to sort that out unless something has changed. Despite this, both the FAQ and the updates state that “all technical support questions should be directed to Valve’s Steam Deck support content and community.”

As a result, there have been some negative reviews left on Steam over the past couple of days—I’d hesitate to call this a bomb just yet, since there are about 20,876 reviews in the past 30 days, and the current grumblings haven’t made a dent in the overall percentile yet. Still, reviews yesterday tilted towards a coin flip, with 626 positive and 602 negative. There’s murmuring of an uprising, at least.

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If it is indeed the case that Rockstar’s being too stubborn to ask BattlEye if they could flip the ‘works with Steam Deck’ switch on, then that’s a baffling set of choices to me, especially consideringhow much bank GTA Online makesfor Rockstar. I’ve reached out to both Rockstar and BattlEye for comment, and I’ll update this article if I receive a response.

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