In a rather remarkable move, Rockstar has added BattlEye anti-cheat to GTA Online, more than a decade since it was first released, and it’s had a major impact on GTA 5‘s Steam Deck compatibility. The hugely popular game is now classed as ‘Unsupported’ on Valve’s handheld, a move that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
We consider the Steam Deck to be the best handheld gaming PC, but its Linux-based SteamOS sometimes negatively impacts game compatibility. This has now happened with Grand Theft Auto 5, but there’s more to this story than meets the eye, and Rockstar want people to know the game still works on the handheld, technically.
The introduction of GTA 5’s anti-cheat only impacts the online portion of the game. Despite this, the game still moves to an ‘Unsupported’ rating for Steam Deck in line with Valve’s compatibility parameters.
If any portion of a game is inaccessible due to decisions consciously made by the developer, a game cannot earn a Playable or Verified rating. This also happened with Ghost of Tsushima on Steam Deck, and I openly called this decision out as a huge mistake because of how minor the impact was on the overall experience. With GTA 5, however, it feels completely different.
GTA Online is a huge part of GTA 5’s legacy, and arguably the game mode that people are most interested in all these years after release. While the story mode for GTA 5 still works fine on the Steam Deck, the loss of GTA Online is effectively like 50% of the content becoming null and void overnight. BattleEye is also wreaking havoc with mods, and cheaters are already finding ways around it.
Players who purchased GTA 5 for their Steam Deck, and not for use on PC, are now left with half a game and no option to refund it due to the refund policy restrictions.
For now, GTA 5 on Steam Deck is a single-player experience only, and I can only hope that when the GTA 6 release date comes around, players who prefer to game on a Steam Deck are taken into more careful consideration.
If you’re still playing on PC after the implementation of BattlEye, it’s worth checking out the up-to-date GTA system requirements, and our handy guide to all GTA 5 cheats will help you have chaotic fun in the single-player story mode.