Is Black Ops 6 Steam Deck compatible? If you were hoping to play the latest Call of Duty game on Valve’s handheld, we have some bad news for you. The Ricochet anti-cheat system it uses isn’t compatible with Linux, which means you’ll need to dual-boot your Steam Deck with Windows in order to play.
While the Steam Deck is the best handheld gaming PC, the limitations of its Linux-based operating system often impact its ability to run competitive multiplayer games where anti-cheat tech is deployed. Not all anti-cheat systems cause issues, but Call of Duty’s proprietary program has yet to consider compatibility outside of Windows.
Is Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Steam Deck compatible?
No, due to issues regarding the Linux compatibility of Ricochet anti-cheat tech, Black Ops 6 will not run on Steam Deck and it won’t receive Verification from Valve.
You can, as I have already mentioned, dual-boot your Steam Deck with SteamOS and Windows 11 to circumvent the incompatibility. As I’ve pointed out in the past, Windows isn’t the preferable operating system for portable gaming devices, and the OS is the biggest drawback for devices like the Asus ROG Ally X.
If you’re willing to go through the effort of dual booting, then Black Ops 6 will run on the Steam Deck, and you’ll get respectable performance when using AMD FSR 3.0. On relatively low graphical settings, with FSR upscaling set to the Performance preset, you can expect a solid 60fps. This drops to around 54fps when FSR is set to Quality.
However, this game also has the bonus of supporting AMD FSR 3.0 frame generation. Turn this setting on, with FSR upscaling set to Performance, and the frame rate goes up to around the 100fps mark.
You also have the option of enabling a software implementation of Intel’s XeSS tech on the Steam Deck in this game. On its Performance setting, enabling XeSS gives you a frame rate of around 52fps on the Steam Deck. This isn’t terrible, but there are also more instances of stuttering during hectic combat moments with XeSS enabled, and you’ll get better performance from enabling FSR 3.0 instead.
There are still some great Steam Deck games that don’t have Valve’s Verified rating, but it’s become the most reliable system for determining whether a game will run well on portable consoles. Check out our guide to the best Steam Deck games to see all our recommendations right now, all of which have been tested so you can be sure they will work properly.